Music to My Ears

My dad use to hold me upside down
to "dance on the ceiling."

You know when you're running on the treadmill and your favorite song comes across your shuffle and you want to jam along but people might stare?!  Or when you're driving home and you crank up the music when you hear that song you haven't heard in forever, or atleast since yesterday?!  Or when that dreaded alarm goes off and you're still exhausted, but somehow that one song pulls you from that tiredness to dance around in your bed and sing loudly at 5:45 AM?!  (Yeah, that's never happened to me either!) ;) 



The favorite for today are those songs that make you escape reality and take you to another place: your childhood, the college night when you and your friends had a dance party in your dorm room, or the first dance at your wedding reception.  Music always seems to fit the mood that you're in and I love that about it.  It seems to know what's needed at exactly the right moment.


So the next time you hear your favorite song or the song that transports you back in time, turn it up, pretend that no one is looking, and sing along loudly (and out of tune if you're me)!!  Because that's exactly what I did today and why I continue to love those 4 1/2 minutes of joy throughout my day.  

College dance night selection of choice!

Our first dance as husband and wife

The Beginning of a Beautiful Thing

“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of my favorite things."   If you don't recognize these wonderful song lyrics, they're from the song in The Sound of Music called "My Favorite Things."  If you've never seen this movie, rent it!  This is one of my favorite movies, that my grandma showed me when I was young, and I've seen it more than 20 times.   Whether I was laying in my grandma's living room, nestled on her lap, or in my own home introducing it to my husband, it's become one of my favorite movie.

In February, that grandma, the best grandma in the world, claimed her spot in Heaven.  Although we were all sad, we knew she was much happier in her paradise where she could see and enjoy all of Heaven's beauty.  If you didn't know her, she was the most remarkable single mother of 8 children, grandmother of 19, devoted Catholic, teacher, and counselor, and the most ideal person to tell people to think positively and live in the present.  She truly appreciate all the little things in life:  the smell of lavender, a good blizzard from Dairy Queen, hearing children's laughter, poetry, a moving prayer, making those around her happy, drives in the country, and so much more.  She was a simple person, yet had such intelligence and faith, you had to believe everything she said because she seemed to know it all.  She has taught our family and me so much about keeping the right attitude during life's ups and downs and how every morning you have the choice to make it a good or bad day.  Even in her last stages with Parkinson's disease, it was evident that she was taking in all the little things she could, interlacing hands, holding the rosary, or enjoying a Wendy's frosty that we'd sneak into the nursing home for her. 

While I try my best to carry out her lessons daily, sometimes busy schedules and the negativity of life can catch up with me.  I've decided to take her lessons and do what she would always tell us, look for and enjoy the little things.

So that's that; my new project.  I'm going to pick one beautiful thing on a crummy day  or a pretty thing on a amazing day, and share it with you.  Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Happiness isn't a goal; it's a by-product."  I think these wise women, Eleanor Roosevelt and my grandma, knew just what they were talking about!

I hope you journey along with me and look for all the little things that bring joy and happiness to our normal everydays!