Happy

Just finished watching a documentary on Netflix called "Happy".  Very interesting insight into how people achieve happiness.  Wish everyone could see this...might make a lot of lives better!

Watched another good Netflix movie called "Craigslist Joe".  It was about this guy who decided to leave home for 30 days and get by solely on Craigslist.  It was quite interesting although not something I would attempt.

This past week, we enjoyed spending a few days with our long-time friends, Kevin and Heidi Conrad while they were visiting Estes Park, Colorado.  We spent two days early in the week with them at Estes Park where I experienced my first time snowshoeing!  (It was Mark and Heidi's first time, too!)  We went to Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park and it was absolutely beautiful out!  

We were quite surprised and lucky when we returned to the cabin one afternoon to find two bull elk munching on grass right outside our door!  Got some amazingly close pictures, too!  We were very cautious and didn't make any obtuse moves. Kevin got the door open to the cabin and we kept it open as we took pictures of the elk.  One was quite curious and slowly moved towards us.  He came within a few feet of us.  I don't think I'll ever see that happen again in my lifetime!

Later in the week, Heidi and Kevin came to our band concert and spent two nights with us here at our house.  We showed them around Fort Collins a bit, and, more luck...they were treated with a bit of snow during their visit which was quite pretty!  

So, they are back in Atlanta, GA now readying their house to put on the market in the spring.  They hope to sell and move out to Colorado within the next several months.  (Hope the stars are all aligned just right so it will happen for them!)

Happy New Year!

How many of us make New Year's resolutions?  Chances are the majority of us do...either by stating our new found motivations to friends and family or we inwardly think about the things we want to change this year.  

After years of vowing to lose weight and get healthier as part of a recurring resolution, I've managed to reach my goal and keep the weight off.  So, it's time for me to challenge myself with even more meaningful things.  To help me identify things that I want to improve on and lift my spirits, I downloaded an app on my IPhone that my daughter, Holly recently recommended.  And it's appropriately called "Lift".

Lift is a task tracker that is set up with different categories such as: learn something new, read, spend time outdoors, write in a journal, stop and enjoy life, exercise, be grateful for something, practice musical instrument and many other things that a person can improve upon.  There are many, many items and if something isn't there you can add new ones.  

By tracking daily the things you've identified as meaningful to you, you'll become more aware of them and hopefully, this will lead to them becoming a habit.  The outcome of creating good habits would be an improvement in your mood and bring a lift to your life!

I just started using this application today so I'll be able to report more on the effects of using this at a later date.  But, I must admit, it sounds quite interesting and is worth trying.  You can go to:  www.lift.do to learn more about it.