My Happiness Project Update

"There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy."...Robert Louis Stevenson

So here I am on the last day of September, about to embark on my twelve month happiness journey.  This is not a pursuit, as I'm already pretty happy.  I'm considering this a "happy experiment" to determine if my happiness can become amplified to new levels, where I can appreciate it more, where it may rub off to more people, those I see each day, those I live with, those I care about and love.  I'm looking to improve my overall happiness and contentment. 

Over the past month, I've read five books that have given me new insights into happiness and have inspired me to create this project:  Being Happy by Andrew Matthews, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, Positivity by Barbara Fredrickson,  Every Day a Friday by Joel Osteen, Authentic Happiness by Martin E.P. Seligman and of course, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.

I also researched articles over the Internet, mostly ones that listed specific characteristics of happy people.  I was happy to read of many that I've tried to encourage more of in myself and from the readers of this blog through my first fifty-plus posts.  Being grateful comes up most often - so remember - gratitude rocks!!

Finally, I thought about what specifically contributes to my well-being, what brings me joy, engagement, and satisfaction.  In addition, I thought about what specifically takes away my joy, what brings about anger, worry, guilt and boredom.  Then I decided on twelve changes (focus on one per month) that I feel will boost my happiness to new levels.  I also came up with twelve commandments, or guiding principles to follow throughout the entire twelve month period.  Hopefully these principles will help me stay on course.

After all that, one point that I've learned about goal setting is that you have a greater chance for success if you put them in writing somewhere - so (yikes!) here they are:

My Twelve Commandments:
1.  Love, Hope and Believe
2.  Let not my heart be troubled
3.  To err is human, to forgive divine
4.  Be present, mindful, open and more positive
5.  Live every day a Friday
6.  Remember to smile, laugh and be polite
7.  Listen to my body
8.  When possible, do it now
9.  Have an attitude of gratitude
10.  A penny saved is a penny earned
11.  Remember the Law of Sow and Reap
12.  Tomorrow, I'll be perfect

My Twelve Resolutions

1.  Boost Energy (October)
2.  Organization (clear clutter) (November)
3.  Understanding the spiritual season (December)
4.  Money matters (January)
5.  Love is all we need (February)
6.  Stretch my mind (March)
7.  Food for thought (April)
8.  Try something new (paint) (May)
9.  Time for Friends (June)
10.  Practice Patience (July)
11.  Family Time (August)
12.  Give something back (September)

Well there they are, now I don't know what else to write...is it appropriate to wish myself "good luck!"

Here is Gretchen Ruben's video, it's really heart warming and inspiring, called "The Years Are Short".  It was after watching this movie that I made a decision toward living now and becoming happier, today.  Enjoy it - it's beautiful:

I'd love to hear about your own happiness projects if you decide to start one.  I'm looking forward to sharing mine with all of you!

Have a wonderful weekend,
Linda

Tomorrow I'll Be Perfect

"Gently remind yourself that life is okay the way it is, right now.  In the absence of your judgement, everything would be fine.  As you begin to eliminate your need for perfection in all areas of your life, you'll begin to discover the perfection in life itself."...Richard Carlson, author of "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff".

My daughter has reached the age (eleven) where she's realized that her mom's not perfect.  I'm perfectly okay with that.  What I'm not okay with is her recent fault finding with me, mostly because I would not want her to begin fault finding with herself.  So now each time I hear a complaint my response to her is "tomorrow I'll be perfect."  She's heard it a few times now and is starting to get the message that perfectionism is a response to unrealistic judgements we've placed on ourselves, or that others have placed on us.

Today we even joked about it when she said "It's only 7:30 a.m. - you're giving up so soon?" and I replied "Wow, I did pretty good, I had a perfect night's sleep!"

My daughter knows that it's important to set goals, aim higher and do her best.  She's beginning to identify her own areas of strengths and accepts that her strengths may be different than others.  She is becoming a very confident young lady.  It would not shatter her to have some failures, times when things don't go as well as she planned, from time to time.  She's learning to make adjustments and move on.

I don't know exactly what happens to us as we get older, why we feel characterizing ourselves as perfectionists is a good thing.  I think it's okay to have high standards, but not at the sacrifice of our happiness and self-gratification.  For some people, perfectionism is about having "all or nothing", because less than perfect feels like nothing to them.  Are we striving toward our own "perceptions" of perfection for our own satisfaction, desires and passion, or are we striving hard to meet the standards or recognition of others, to impress them or have their approval, or to just simply make them proud of us?  If the reasons are the latter, we're living life by someone else's ideals, not our own and thus, we're driving on the opposite road to happiness and self-fulfillment.  It would be time to change course and enjoy our own journey as well as the destination.

My daughter's school introduced me to the SMART model for goal setting, an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Based.  I like the "realistic" part because it does not mean it's too challenging or not challenging enough.  A goal that is too easy is not motivating nor is a goal that is so difficult that it seems impossible.  It should be difficult enough that will stretch the goal-setter, but still be achievable in the time frame.  I think we should always be able to visualize achieving the goal for it to remain realistic.

I'm not surprised to read that perfectionists set very high goals that may be unrealistic.  I'm glad that my daughter is learning from a young age to be realistic while still building her confidence and challenging herself to go higher and reach her highest potential.  It's so important for teachers and of course parents to encourage their children by helping them identify what they do well, what excites them and what their strengths are.

It's important to know these things in ourselves too, for it's never too late to change course and set new goals based on new dreams, needs and passions.

"Tomorrow, I'll be Perfect", is the title of Toronto's all-star pitcher Dave Stieb's autobiography written in 1985.  It's a reference to his unyielding desire to pitch a "perfect" game, the one thing that alluded his career, inspite of leading the league in every other statistic.  Five years after his book was published, he finally pitched a "no-hitter" and twenty years later, in 2010 at Rogers Stadium, (now I really feel old because I was a huge fan of his in high school!!) was honoured for his career achievements in a special ceremony.  He never did pitch a "perfect" game, but I'm really happy to say that Dave Stieb eventually didn't care about perfection.  He had a great career, did himself, his team, our country and this fan proud, and had plenty of reasons to celebrate.

Here is the video of the Jays honouring Dave Stieb's career, Enjoy:

Tomorrow, I'll be Perfect will be another of my twelve commandments in My Happiness Project.

Cheers!
Linda

Bloom right here, right now

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet."...James Oppenheim

I have been reading an awful lot about "happiness" lately, and one recurring point that authors drive home again and again is that happiness is a "current state of being", it's not something you wait for, or plan to arrive at "later on", when circumstances change.  Happiness is a choice.  Happiness is a response.  And we can change our perspectives to be happy every day.

All we have is "now".  Regardless of what happened yesterday and what might happen tomorrow, now is where we are.  From this point of view, the key to happiness and contentment must be in focusing our minds on the present moment.

Focusing our minds on the present moment is a step toward choosing to be happy today.  Of course this does not mean that we should never remember our past or plan for our future.  My goals include thinking of the past with gratitude and contentment and looking to the future with hope and optimism.  Choosing to focus on these positive emotions helps us live in the present with greater happiness.

In the present moment, what I'm learning is that God may surround us with weeds from time to time, but expects us to bloom just the same.  He is more interested in changing us than he is in changing our circumstances.  As long as we're sour because we're not getting our own way, because we're choosing to see too many "weeds", that attitude will keep us right where we are. 

If we want to see change, the key is to bloom right where we're planted.

Wear a smile.  Be good to people, even those we do not think deserve our kindness.  Be grateful for what we have and where we live, even if it's currently not the way we'd like it to be.  When we change our attitudes, and bloom where we're planted, we're sowing a seed for God to do something new.  And we are to keep the faith that "where we are is where we're supposed to be." and "we are here for a reason".  When we understand that, our mood won't go dramatically up and down depending on our circumstances.

We cannot fight our way to get to happiness, or develop a notion that sometime in the future everything will be much better than it is now, for example reach somewhere else to be happy - a bigger house, a better job, a fancy car, or meeting new friends.  That sort of thinking will hold us back or postpone our pleasures and our happiness.  The better approach is to say to ourselves "this is where I've been placed right now, and until I'm moved, I'll be happy where I am."

Start telling yourself, "I have the power to enjoy this job. I'll have a great day.  I'll enjoy the people I see.  I'll be productive.  I'll bloom right here today, where I've been planted."  This approach takes away our excuses and puts the responsibility to be happy on us.

When we choose to be happy today, we enjoy whatever we are doing for its own sake, and not just for the end result.  Life is too short, let's not waste a single day waiting to be happy, when it's possible for all of us to be happy, right here, right now.

Cheers and be happy!

Linda 

Unforgettable

"A sound head, an honest heart and a humble spirit are the three best guides through time and to eternity."...Sir Walter Scott

Although I recall my Dad once telling me the Peony was his favourite flower, I mostly associate him with Morning Glories, the magical vines of colourful blooms that happen to appear only when facing the rays of morning sunlight.  My dad used to carefully string them along our front veranda and as a kindergartner, I remember waving goodbye to them in the morning and then later told to "shhh be quiet because they were sleeping", by the time I came home for lunch.

My dad passed away on this day nine years ago.  He was eighty-eight.  Though I recently posted that my goal is to live to a ripe old age of ninety-nine, I'm fairly certain that his longevity surprised even him.  He outlived his entire family by far even though he often did not treat his body well, for instance, he smoked cigarettes from the age of twelve (with the exception of soccer season when he temporarily would quit to remain on the team and avoid summer school!), and then as a teen took up the pipe which remained with him right until the end.  Dad was always either puffing on his pipe, or cleaning it out.  I still remember his wooden humidor and his pipe collection, which by the way really simplified the Christmas and birthday shopping - either a new pipe or some sweet smelling tobacco would consistently please him.

I think my dad's secret to a long life can be attributed to a variety of reasons; he had a spring to his step, maintained his own hobbies and interests and kept his mind sharp.  How did he stay active?  Well, for starters he was still having children at age fifty-two!  That's when I arrived!  I guess raising kids helped him feel young at heart.  Though he had one "bad leg", I still remember him impressing us with his soccer kicking skills whenever we'd visit our grandmother, who had a yard the size of a soccer field.  Other than that, soccer was a sport he loved passionately as a spectator, he followed the old English soccer league and looked forward to European and World Cup season.  He never let me forget that the last time England won the world cup was just after I was born in 1966 (against Germany) and how I slept through the whole game!  Those two teams remained his favourites, though mostly he just appreciated a well played game.

As for hobbies, he did enjoy his wee garden.  He grew tomatoes, carrots and rhubarb and planted loads of perennials and wild flowers.  He made the most of the tiny space we had, and though as a kid I'm sure I didn't appreciate it nearly enough, gardening was something he took pleasure in and was a source of pride.  He also loved listening to music, Hank Williams, Tex Ritter, Nat King Cole, The Kingston Trio, The Irish Rovers, Eddie Arnold, Glen Miller, and the old Scottish singer Harry Lauder are the ones I most remember him enjoying.  He also regularly tuned into his radio programs on CFRB, the ones in particular he really loved were English broadcaster, Ray Sonin's "down memory lane" and "calling all Britons".  Now that was a man who had the most beautiful speaking voice, very well suited for a radio show.  When I was about to turn nine, my Dad encouraged me to write to Mr. Sonin and request a special song for my birthday.  I couldn't believe my ears when I heard my name on the radio!  I wish I could remember the name of the song he selected, but I'm pretty sure it was about a girl "named Linda". 

Dad also collected stamps from a young age and continued throughout his entire life.  He even helped me start a collection of my own in the seventies, and I have a clear memory of the first stamp he helped me hinge into my book (and I found it on the Internet - 6 cents!)

To keep his mind sharp, he was a fairly avid reader, whether it be the novels of Sir Walter Scott or faithfully reading the newspaper each day, and could give his opinions on a variety of subjects.  He knew his history as well as current events.  I was also impressed with how well he kept up with the latest technology.  I think that's where it was handy having young kids around as he aged!  It's hard to believe, but he was seventy when I graduated high school!  The computer was not yet in every home, but he sure loved the VCR.  When you think about it, what a cool new invention that was to be able to record a show and then watch it at a time more convenient!  And you could fast-forward the commercials!  I think his only regret there was that his favourite show, Pig & Whistle (a popular Canadian country music program) was already off the air.  Now, I definitely believe he would have become hooked on "you tube" because I was able to find an old clip from the Pig N Whistle show there:

Even as he was getting up in age, he remained curious about the latest inventions asking us "what's all this www.stuff?" He never did try out the computer, but at least expressed interest.  That's important as you grow old..keeping an interest in the world around you.  I bet he'd get a kick out of knowing that I'm using a computer to write about him today and publish it out for the whole www world to read!  I've immensely enjoyed writing this post and sharing my memories of him this way.

This post is my fiftieth, a milestone, and I'm delighted that it just happened to occur on this special day of remembrance.  I'll sign off with one of his favourite songs, Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable", because Dad, that's what you are.

Cheers!
Linda

Every Day A Friday

"The principles of happiness is all about everyday life, not just doctrine but how do we live, how do we forgive, how do we keep a good attitude when the economy is down."...pastor and bestselling author Joel Osteen

I saw Joel Osteen on television last evening promoting his new book "Every Day A Friday", and was so impressed by his encouraging words and gentle inspiration.  I know this sounds crazy, but I can't help but feel like this book is specifically intended for me to go out and buy right now and start reading..today!

I could never tire of listening to someone like Joel Osteen, a pastor who seems to wear a permanent smile on his face.  During his interview, he delivered a simple yet positive message of living happily each day of the week.  He remarked that it's not intended that we're to ever suffer through any day just to arrive at happiness on one particular day of the week.  "If we see each day as a gift, and have the right attitude and are grateful, we can enjoy every day."

Putting it simply, Osteen believes "your life follows your thoughts", you can wake up in the morning and think "oh I don't want to go to work, I've got so many problems, and it's so bad" and you will draw in negative things.  But, if you wake up and think "wow, I'm alive today, I've got a good family and some things are going right", then that attitude will draw in good things. 

When asked if he ever gets angry he said "he likes to use his energy to try to fix things" and agreed that anger is the most destructive emotion there is, and is the antithesis of forgiveness.  He acknowledged that there are a lot of angry people out there who he feels "have never been trained on how to release their anger or how to see things from a different perspective".  He said what you have to do is believe that "god is in control of your life and you have to take it one step at a time, you may not do it every time but if someone offends you, you've got to think "I'm just going to let it go, I'm going to choose to ignore." He finds that "there are a lot of distractions in life that we give our emotional energy to that we don't need to, just let it go and move forward because it's only a distraction -  it's not between you and your destiny."

This is one book that I think many today need to read, be encouraged by, and apply to their lives in order to break free from the negative attitudes that permeate our society.

I for one cannot wait to read this book and share more thoughts with you throughout the upcoming months.  "Live Every Day A Friday" sounds like another good choice for one of my twelve commandments of my Happiness Project!

Here is Joel Osteen introducing his new book on you tube:

Cheers!

Linda

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

"Happy people are grateful.  Ungrateful people cannot be happy.  We tend to think that being unhappy leads people to complain, but it is complaining that leads people to becoming unhappy."...Dennis Prager

Oh my goodness, take a look at this woman's face while she's complaining on the phone.  Doesn't it speak a thousand words?  I get stressed just looking at her and can only imagine how she feels inside..sick, bitter, anxious, worried, fearful, panicked...the list goes on and on.  I get exhausted just thinking about the heavy burden of negative thoughts and emotions that the people who chronically complain continuously carry around.  This waste of time and energy cannot bring about anything positive, can distort our vision of reality by making things look worse than they really are, and will create so much tension in the body and mind that will eventually damage our health.

So how can we break the habit of complaining?  I guess like any habit, the first step would be to realize how addicted we are to grumbling and griping and then create a plan to quit.  When I say to quit complaining, I am not advocating passive acceptance of all unpleasantness in our lives.  If something is disturbing us and we have the means to take action and change this, then by all means let's go for it.  But we must realize that the complaining can never make taking "effective action" easier.  It will only make it harder for us to focus on what needs to be done.

To help break the habit, I've read that using a physical reminder of our "no-griping" promise, such as placing a stone in our pocket and then transferring it to another pocket when we catch ourselves engaging in complaining.  The idea of this is that is that "in time, our body will retrain our mind".  I'm going to try this out, and I think I'll use one of my new stones I purchased on my recent vacation:

In addition to above strategy, I'm going to practice the Law of Karma and witness the choices I make in every moment.  The best way to prepare for any moment in the future is to be fully conscious of the present.  I will ask myself "what are the consequences of this choice?" and "will this choice bring happiness to me and to those who are affected by this choice?".  Lastly, I will ask my heart for guidance, and be guided by its message of comfort or discomfort.  I will pay close attention to how it feels, and if the choice feels uncomfortable, then I will not make that choice.

There are always things to complain about if that's our choice.  Instead of noticing the beauty of the flowers, we can complain about having to water them.  The more we complain, the more unhappy we will feel.  It is not a person, the past, a situation, an event, or anything else that is causing our unhappiness - it is the choice to complain about it instead of discovering what is wonderful about it and being grateful for it.

"Let not my heart be troubled", will be one of my twelve commandments of my Happiness Project.

My video today is once again "Silouhettes", from America's Got Talent.  They performed last night in the finals and were simply fabulous!  I won't spoil it and say the place they finished, but will say that I'm so grateful for being witness to their beautiful expressions over the past few weeks.  I will miss them.  But in the words of Dr. Seuss, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.".  Here is their final performance from last night; a beautiful duet with Leann Rimes, enjoy!

Cheers!

Linda

When I'm Sixty-Four

"To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world"...Heather Cortez

Oh is this picture ever a reminder of how time flies!  My son and I both look quite different today!  This was taken in the Bahamas twelve years ago, but it remains one of my favourite pictures of us.  He's still my baby, though now nearly as tall as I am, and he still makes me feel special on  Valentine's Day...

Though it's a challenging journey we are living together, my son and I don't let autism get in the way of enjoying a good time together, at least when the setting is right.  Yesterday while my husband had to work and my daughter had a birthday party to attend, we were on our own to have a great afternoon.  And we did.  Though it was simply a long walk to the swimming pool, an hour of sliding and splashing about, and sharing a slush puppy, my son helps me remember what life is all about..making someone happy. I know those simple moments yesterday touched his life just as much as it did mine.  He allows me the opportunity to see life from a completely different and often humorous perspective.  I need that in life.  I never thought I could ever be so blessed as to have a child so uniquely wonderful as he is.

That's not to say that my life is without worry about his future.  Everything is fine "right now", but a concern I share with many autism families is "what will happen to his future as I age?"  To be honest, it's something a little painful for me to even think about.  Sometimes I wonder why my special child ended up paired with me as his mom...what do I have to give that's extra special?  I thought about this yesterday as I climbed up to the waterslides a total of eight hundred and forty stairs in thirty minutes...maybe what I have special is endurance! LOL!  Maybe I'll be like Roberta McCain (US 2008 presidential candidate's mother), who's still going strong at 99!  In fact, I hopefully inherited some of my grandparent's genes from my mother's side, as they both lived well in their nineties too!

As my son shared a piece of candy with me yesterday while we walked home, a cute little song got stuck in my head (as I've written about previously, this frequently happens to me), a song by the Beatles, written in my birth year 1966,  "When I'm Sixty Four". How does it go again?.."will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty four?"  It's a cute song.  When I'm sixty-four, I will be twice my son's age - he'll be thirty-two.  When he's sixty-four, I'll be ninety-six.  Well, perhaps if I keep up the exercise, remember my sense of humour and promise to let not my heart be troubled - I may just make it!

Here is the song "When I'm Sixty-Four".  It's technically a couple's love song, but I've heard about it being popular as a mother/son dance at weddings..who cares - it's a cute song to enjoy on a Monday, so here it is:

Cheers and have a great week,

Linda

My Happiness Project

"Work harder to appreciate your ordinary day."...Gretchen Rubin.

Work harder to appreciate your ordinary day.  I liked that quote so much I just decided to take a couple of pictures of one piece of my rather ordinary Friday afternoon this September 9th.  I have lots to appreciate about today, we have beautiful weather, my children are both healthy and happy at school, my husband and I are still in love and yesterday celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary, we live in a beautiful lakeside community where I can enjoy some peace and solitude, or like I just did, grab my mp3 player and my dog and really get moving!  It is an ordinary day, but that shouldn't stop me from appreciating what I have right now.

In my last blog I announced I would be starting my own "Happiness Project", as inspired following my reading of Gretchen Rubin's book of the same name.  In her book and on her website:  visit her website here, Gretchen describes a "happiness project" as an approach to changing your life.  Everyone's happiness project is unique.  The first step is the preparation stage, when you identify what brings you joy, satisfaction and engagement, and also what brings you guilt, anger, boredom and remorse.  Next comes the heart of the happiness project and that's the making of a list of resolutions, which embody the changes you want to make in your life. This list identifies the concrete actions that will boost your happiness.  Then comes the interesting part - keeping your resolutions!

I plan to follow Gretchen's approach and come up with twelve resolutions and focus on one each month.  Yes, this will be a one year project!  I am also going to follow something else she did and that was to create her own twelve overarching principles, aka The Twelve Commandments, which will serve as guidance and help during the struggles to keep my resolutions.

So this is the project in a nutshell.  I'm still in the preparation stage but believe it's reasonable to expect my specific commandments and resolutions to be shared well before the end of this month, with the official start date for resolution number one to be October 1st.  I'm very excited about the whole process!  I'm not doing this because I'm unhappy, I actually feel pretty happy already, but I could be happier as could everybody.  Of course, I will keep you posted on my progress often throughout the next twelve months.

Here is one of Gretchen's Ruben's videos about The Happiness Project, enjoy!

Have a happy and joyful weekend everyone!

Be well,
Linda 

New Beginnings

"Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start."...Nido Quebein

I have just finished reading "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin.  First off, it's a fantastic book and I would highly recommend it to any of you considering making some positive life changes.  It has inspired me to launch my very own happiness project and my next blog will fill you in on all the details of what it is exactly and how it will be carried out....

Yesterday was back to school day, the day when I have far more butterflies in my stomach than my kids do!  My daughter started "middle school" and she was quite excited, and came home very happy with her new class which she thankfully shares with some new and old friends.  My son returned to his same middle school, same classroom and teacher, same locker, and four of his old friends.  The only difference was four new students were added to his class, and a new bus route to get used to.  I was expecting this year to be his smoothest transition ever.  Still you never know what can happen, so yesterday I turned the music up loud, danced while cleaning and doing laundry, thought positive thoughts all day, and guess what...he had an amazing first day of school.  Thank goodness!

It is also that time of year to start thinking of the new fall television shows to hopefully get hooked on, especially after a long summer of nearly nothing!  I have selected three new shows to try out:  Terra Nova (airing Mondays on Fox, beginning September 26),  The X-Factor (airing Wednesdays at 8:00 EST, beginning Sept.21), and the one I'm most excited about - Person of Interest (airing Thursdays at 9:00 EST on CBS, beginning September 22).

I'm really looking forward to Person of Interest because it's starring Michael Emerson (aka Ben Linus, Lost), and I've missed seeing this talented actor each week.  If you enjoy commenting on blogs following each episode, and plan to watch this show, I would recommend Nikki Stafford's blog  Nik at Nite .  She did an excellent job with Lost and I'm sure she will with this as well.  I plan on posting comments there regularly and I can't wait to get started!

Sadly, it's also that time of year to say goodbye to some favourite shows - for me, that show will be America's Got Talent which will end next week.  Did any of you see last night's semi-finals?  There was one act that particularly moved me, in fact, they have all season - "Silhouettes".  Here is a clip from last night, and as Sharon Osbourne put it, following a standing ovation,  it was simply "exquisite":


I also loved what Piers Morgan said about the performance "what a story you told..when America's going through a pretty tough time, feeling down in dumps, a lot of people out of work and economic strife..you tell a story that lifts the heart and makes people proud to be American, and that's what this show is all about".  Very nice, Piers.

Tonight will be the results show and I can confidently predict that this talented and inspiring group will make it to the final four.  They also have a great chance at winning the million.  Our house will be tuned in next week, that's for sure.

Cheers!
Linda

First Sunday In September

"Dad, you're someone to look up to no matter how tall I've grown."...author unknown.

Ever since I was a young girl, I only ever thought of the first Sunday in September as being the day before Labour Day, the first Monday in September, and that being the last long weekend of the summer, also known as the last weekend before the start of school.  The busy period where we try to cram every last bit of first day preparation in, while at the same time, enjoying our last moments of summer.

Now I have come to realize that the first Sunday in September has a special meaning to two other countries in the world.  I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers (and mates!) from Australia and New Zealand a very Happy Father's Day!

I sure hope you have better weather where you are than what is being forecast for here in Ontario, Canada on Sunday - rain/thunder showers.  Oh well, we certainly cannot complain of the rain this summer, we had it sunny and hot here most days.  A little too hot at times, but overall we were blessed with a perfect summer.

I hope everyone enjoys their last weekend with their families.  Next week will be back to normal, new beginnings and for me, I will have more time to devote to special projects and my blog.  Looking forward to it...

My video for today features the song "Waltzing Matilda", a traditional song in honour of our friends from Down Under.  In keeping with my nostalgia theme, I dug out an old episode from my favourite soap opera "General Hospital", from 1990.  One of my favourite actors from that show during the 80's and 90's was Tristan Rogers, an australian actor who played the character Robert Scorpio.  In this scene, there was a "fake" funeral for Robert going on and his fiance and friend sang "Waltzing Matilda", and did so beautifully.  Yes, that really is Jack Wagner singing!  Hope you enjoy it!

Have a great and safe long weekend, everyone.  I hope you make many joyful memories with your family and friends that you will cherish a lifetime.  

Cheers!
Linda