The Short Life of Fred the Snowman

After waiting patiently for the snow to finally stop falling last week, the winds to die down to a slight breeze and the colds to run their courses through the home; the children and I finally ventured on outside to enjoy some of the snow magic.

With perfect snowball making snow, my children were determined to have a snowman they could call their own.  Since my snowman skills are less than impressive, while I went to work on our new friend, the boys enjoyed their time sleigh riding, building forts and throwing snow at one another.

Even with the amount of snow that we received, we decided that a doll-sized friend made out of all items we could find outside would be the perfect companion. The boys collected stones for the eyes and nose, found twigs from our mum bush that we planted last year for the arms; and after much rolling, shaping, breaking and remolding, our new friend was born.

We named our new friend, Fred and we all gathered around to add our own little touches to him.  A little bit of snow here, a twist of an arm there.  He was perfect.  The magic of the season was glowing in my children's eyes.

But with all things, Fred came with a valuable lesson.  Like many things in life, Fred was fragile and needed a gentle touch.  Unfortunately we learned the hard way that without that soft touch, things that we work hard on will and can break.

Although Fred's time with us was short-lived, he brought the boys together, with a lesson in patience, creativity and delicacy filled with compassion, amusement, laughter and pure enjoyment.  Thank you Fred, you will forever live on in our hearts.

The Short Life of Fred the Snowman

The Key To Happiness

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet." ~James Openheim

Happiness. Is it a state of mind or a destination? Is it something that we can reach or that lives inside of us?

Bumps in the road of life are to be expected, so why do we allow them to control our happiness? Happiness lives inside of us. If we spend less time worrying about what the future holds or the current issue at hand, we won't lose sight of the moment. Satisfaction can only come from within when we truly accept ourselves, our lives, and our circumstances. Only then can we can truly enjoy what life has to offer.

Those simple pleasures that we don't take advantage of daily. The songs the bird sings outside your window. The smell of the flowers in the garden. The taste of snow on our tongues. The feel of the grass between your toes. Small talk with someone on line at Starbucks. These things that we normally don't put much thought into and just take them for face value.

Why not put more stock into them? These little things that bring us satisfaction. Make us happy and put a smile on our face. This is what life is all about. We only live in this one moment. If not just for today, lets not consume ourselves with our troubles and enjoy these moments and put most of our energy into being happy.

The Key To Happiness