Hello bloggy friends! This week I feel like concentrating on how grateful I am for cooler temperatures and lovely weather. I am content here at home in Bethlehem despite what is going on in in our weary country. The new normal isn't normal at all, is it? I read today that according to the CDC, the majority of new virus cases is among young people. I worry about my two granddaughters on college campuses. We are all worried about something. Praying about something that is on our minds or hardships we are experiencing. Happiness and contentment are relative to what we are going through right now. Or is it? Is it possible to feel that despite our losses we are winners? Yes, I do believe that.

MY EXPERIENCES

But to get back to finding contentment and happiness in everyday living. Someone said happiness isn't a destination, it's a habit. We have to work at it. Having said that, here is a little illustration.

Yesterday was just one of many really awesome weather days we have been blessed with lately. Day temps hovered around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Sunny, a slight breeze. No bugs. Absolutely my kind of weather.

So, the dogs and I with my new iPhone did a ramble around the property so I could try to learn the ins and outs of using the photo and video apps. My old Amazon Fire phone is becoming obsolete in a few months so while Roger is working with my son I thought that now rather than later would be a good time for an upgrade. I have always wanted an iPhone. My grandson, Logan, has one and the picture quality convinced me that I needed one! Plus I like to watch vlogs and would love to make one myself someday. Roger agreed so I quickly sent off for a renewed iPhone 11 Pro, 256GB. I have only had it for a few days and haven't changed over from old to new phone service yet.

Dolly being playful.

Wrong house Dolly!

Anyway, we had a lovely time and I took lots of pictures and footage of video of both dogs. Of course, getting them from the phone to my Chrome tablet is the next hurdle. I am waiting for a book to come that I ordered the same time as the phone, Learning iPhone for Seniors.

Well, when I got back to the house, the walkway door was locked! Does this ring a bell?? (A few weeks ago I locked myself out of my car.) Roger's jeep was in the drive so I rang the doorbell. No answer. I thought maybe he had gone up to bed for a nap. He often does that after a hard days work with my son. So, I went to the front door. It has a louder doorbell that can be heard all over the house. Waited. No answer. I had Dolly in my arms since I didn't want her wandering off. As you probably all know by this time that she is blind. I hurried around to the back of the house to try the sliding screen door but I just knew that I had locked it when I opened it that morning. But, wait! we have a spare key hidden for just such emergencies. So, I went over to the garage and looked under the lawn decoration that is supposed to have a spare key. Nope, no key. By this time I am hot and bothered. So, I go back to the front door and start to bang on it and holler to Roger. We have no close neighbors so there was little chance of me looking and sounding like a lunatic. All of a sudden Roger comes tearing around the corner of the house and says 'where have you been?? I have been looking everywhere for you! You scared the living daylights out of me!' I said, 'why did you lock me out of the house??' He said, 'I didn't, it was locked when I came home.' I said, 'no, it wasn't! I wouldn't have locked myself out.'(huh?) He said, 'your car was in the garage but you weren't here.' And the senseless argument continued into the house. The poor dogs didn't know what was going on!

The point of this story is that even though we choose to be happy there will always be times when our patience is tested. Stuff happens! In our case, we decided to shut up and calm down. We went our separate ways in the house. Later we laughed about it. Abraham Lincoln said "Folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

A fellow blogger wrote that we should "exercise our brains for happiness and over time you'll train it for happiness and long-term success." Is this old news to you? I confess that I didn't think much about it until lately. Life happenings have matured me. I have always known that I was blessed in so many ways but I didn't always let it show on my face or change some of my attitudes. My younger brother once described me to one of his friends as having a 'hangdog' expression on my face whether I was happy or not. Well! that hurt I can tell you. So I started to really look! at my face in the mirror every day to see if I looked happy when I was feeling happy. Lol. That was some years ago and now I don't care so much now about looking happy as I look like a kind person. A kind person needs to look kind in the eyes and a smile on the mouth with no sarcasm on the lips. Believe me, you have to have a lot of patience to tolerate some people so it's safe to say I am a work in progress.