grumpies be gone

I have been taking myself waaaaay too seriously lately.  Which makes me irritable and grumpy and sleepy.  Which makes normally no-big-things make me feel like life is all going to shit. Shut down your bank accounts and sandbag your houses, the universe will implode in the next hour.  Maybe two.

I blame this insanely horrible winter, even though I've been hyggy-ing my hiney off.

Its just sooooooo  blaaaaahhhhh everrrrrrrywherrrrrre, Mommmmmmmmmmmmm.  Ugh.

My kids are whining it inside their little hearts and outside in their swinging fists.  And so am I, which leaves me very much wondering when the grown-ups are going to show up and take us to the pool or give us a licorice rope to make everything better.

There's legitimate little hiccups in life to blame, like getting strep throat and realizing I'm now geriatric enough that it takes seven times as long to get over things.  Similar to the way a snicker's candybar - a single stinking candybar! - affects my hips now that I'm in my fourth decade. 

But really its all truly no-big-things.  Which, in light of the fact that laughter is carbonated holiness (says Lammott), if I were in a better frame of mind, they could be just that - hiccups.

So...I'm doing little happy things like this:

 

And this:

And this:

Thank God for this little lady, who seems to sense the desperate need for laughter within these four walls and is pulling antics like this...

To be totally honest, I'm just plain saying Fuck It when Serious knocks at the door.  You know what I mean, don't you?  Its a mindset.

I have this condition inherited from my dad where I can't fake anything no matter how hard I try because my facial expressions betray me.  What I think is, for better or for worse, written on my face.  So here's what I want to look like...

"I plan to arrive at the end of this roller coaster with a firecracker in one hand and your hand in the other, head thrown back, yelling

'Whooo-hoooo that was one hell of a ride!'"

True Love

Speaking of hygge...

Its been warm enough the last few days for this...

And this...

And words can't express what it's done for my soul.

But the weight of winter is still so there.  The windows are shut and I'm still every day summoning my reserves to keep grouchy gills from overtaking this home.

If true love can thaw a frozen heart, then these two tea mixes are True Love.  

Here you go...put on the kettle, drink, and be merry...

Chai Tea Mix:
3 c. dry milk powder
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. unsweetened instant tea
3/4 c. vanilla powdered creamer
2 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves

Orange Spice Tea Mix:
2 c. sugar
2 c. Tang
1/2 c. unsweetened instant tea
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves

Store them in an airtight container.  Use a few hearty scoops in a mug of warm water for each.

Best with leg warmers and in the company of a good fat cat.

It is cold

And everything is chapped.  Chaps my hide.

I read this thing recently about "hygge" that people in Denmark do to maintain their status as the happiest people on earth despite the absolutely unbearable cold.  The word doesn't translate concisely.  It basically means:

It is effing cold, and you have two options:
1. allow your shoulders to tense up to your ears and your teeth to chatter out of your skull and your stone-cold heart to lead the way.  Or
2.  bundle up, settle in, slow down, breathe deep, build a fire, and wrap up in those you love.

So if you hygge, you pick #2.

The snow icecream lasted for one day.  Then it melted and the temp dropped to THREE DEGREES and guess what?  The cold does bother me anyway.

So I'm hygging...

Lighting fires.  Lowering the lights.  Roasting food.  Spreading the love.  Snuggling my great people.

Join me!  Hygge helps!!