The Joy Diet

I have started once again on the Joy Diet. It has nothing to do with food and exercise. As author, Martha Beck, of the book states, (and I paraphrase, but am close enough I will use parentheses so as not to plagiarize) “it isn’t about your physical body, it is for your inner self”. I have found myself needing to “get happy” with living in a new place, especially when Ken is sometimes gone several days at a time. I bought the book, The Joy Diet, many years ago and have come back to it several times. The book is still in a storage unit somewhere in the greater Des Moines area with most of the rest of my stuff. Since I have read the book already, I can get started without the book.

The book gives a 10 step process toward happiness. One step I remember vividly is that every day you should do at least one thing that might otherwise make you uncomfortable. I started doing this yesterday at Carolyn’s soccer practice and again today at Joel’s T-ball practice. Both times I made sure to introduce myself to the parents at the practice and made friendly conversation. It is not atypical for me to make friendly conversation, but it is hard to take that first step and start the ball rolling.

Another thing I did to make myself happy was to do as much work as possible getting the apartment ready for the move. Celebrate with me…..Here is a picture of the girl’s closet, which is stuffed with totes and boxes that are ready for the big day. I have gone also gone through the girl’s clothes, getting items ready for Good Will or to pass down. A lot of the sorting was related to toys (that always are getting mixed up) and paper-work (which comes out of the wood-work when you buy and sell a house and prepare taxes and work from home).

I feel very joyful. Not unrelated to the fact that Ken arrived home tonight! Yeah!

A little comic relief….here is a picture of Anna, who in addition to dumping out boxes of pick-up toys, enjoyed covering her face with Triple Paste diaper ointment while I cleaned. Luckily it is really good stuff and it smoothes right into the skin. Her face was as soft as a baby’s bottom :) Another note….today Anna said, “I potty” and when placed in the right place, got right to business. The idea of easy potty training (which we haven’t started) certainly makes me joyful.