The Happiness Project Part 2

I am still in the middle of reading the wonderful Happiness Project and have felt that this book more than any other book of this kind has got me asking really important questions of myself. I said in the last blog post that I was going to read the whole book and then re-read it again slowly. I said this because it is one of those books that I love in which the sections are divided into months with an aim for each. It begins in January and January is all about aiming to get the most energy, then each month has a new aim added to the past months aims. This means that little by little things will change.

The book isn’t about a certain path being followed but shows the writers experience as well as asking lots of questions of the reader. I was reading the book in our back garden last night when I started to think about how my own happiness project would go. What things would I want to work on? What would my aims be? This is from the Happiness Project website and shows you how to get started (I’ve written my own answers next to each of the questions):

“Identify your aims
The First Splendid Truth will help you identify areas to tackle in your Happiness Project.
Ask yourself:
▪ What makes you feel good? What gives you joy, energy, fun?
Going for a walk. Reading. Chatting for hours over delicious food. Making others happy.
▪ What makes you feel bad? What brings you anger, guilt, boredom, dread?
Rudeness, unfairness and cruelty in others. Being unmotivated and lazy makes me cross at myself.
▪ What makes you feel right? What values do you want your life to reflect?
I want to be someone who is fair and helpful. I want to be able to look after children in my life. I want to show that education is important and that working hard is how to get what you want from life.
▪ How can you build an atmosphere of growth—where you learn, explore, build, teach, help?”
This is a much more difficult question and the reason that I am trying to read up a lot on this subject.

The author also made up 8 Splendid Truths and wrote little notes beside them:

1. To be happier, you have to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.
2. One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy;
One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.
3. The days are long, but the years are short.
4. You’re not happy unless you think you’re happy.
(Many argue the opposite case. John Stuart Mill, for example, wrote, “Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.” I disagree.)
5. I can build a happy life only on the foundation of my own nature.
6. The only person I can change is myself.
7. Happy people make people happy, but I can’t make someone be happy, and no one else can make me happy.
8. Now is now.
So far all that I know in my own project is that I need to start in the same way. I really want to start generating some energy within myself. I need to do things and eat things that make me more energised so that I can take more on and squeeze as much out of life as I can.

I hope this gives you a little insight into the book or at least gives you some questions you maybe feel you should be able to answer. Now get to the library!

So Happy

I've been reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin recently.  I'm only on February at the moment, but can't wait to get all the way through it in one go and then hopefully go back and re-read it properly with the hope of following through on a lot of what it says.

I love getting new books and have been reading more and more like this.  So although i can't say too much about it at the moment i can defiantly tell you that this is a really good read...so get to your libraries!

Something to live by...

“Matilda said, "Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog. Make sure everything you do is so completely crazy it's unbelievable...”


― Roald Dahl, Matilda

What I've Been Reading

I’ve been trying to get to grips with the times my new library is open. When you move house you all of a sudden have to remember the new bin day or recyle collection day, you have to remember new transport timetables and you have to remember when your library is open and closed. Too many times have I stood outside of the closed library swearing that I had seen somewhere that the place should be open.

When I do actually remember when it’s open I find a beautiful old building with lots of portraits in it. The childrens area looks so lovely and inviting-even though I have no children I always am drawn to this area as it was where I maintained when I worked in a library-lots of little chairs and murals. I find the woman that works there so kind and helpful, and even manage to get a chat on those snowy days hardly anybody ventured outside of the house.

I haven’t been going as regularly and so have been re-reading some of the books I already own. However there are a couple I have been getting through. I’ve been reading Dracula as I have never read it and it seems like one of those books that everyone knows. It’s a bit odd reading something that is in letter/diary/note form, but I do like it. There are the cookbooks I always try to get my hands on like The Unofficial Narnia Cookbook which I got because I can’t afford the other one. It’s over £100 and I don’t think our library would stock it for me! The Unofficial Narnia Cookbook wasn’t quite what I hoped it would be, to tell the truth I hoped it would be a bit closer to Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer, but that’s just my book-hangover!

I also got my mitts on Miranda Harts book, Is It Just Me? I think Miranda divides a lot of people, but I find her good fun and very funny. I think I can relate to some of the sillyness too, so the book was just perfect for someone who loves the TV show. She does a really funny chapter on how upon leaving school you really should be an office junior or some other person low down in the pecking order as its all a bit like school anyway. When leaving University I most certainly thought this. Out in the world where there aren’t any groups demanding you be in the club. No ‘friends around every corner’, no sitting on the grass making daisy chains in the middle of the day-just because it is sunny, no spur of the moment flour and water fights. I think it’s best to be the one that can muddle through low paid jobs too, it gives you time to grow up. It is said much funnier in the book-but if you like the show then it certainly is a pick me up!

I’ve also been re-reading Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, this is one of my favourite books ever and reads so beautifully. I adore everything about this book, made even better when you think this man invented Narnia too! Well that’s what I’ve been up to on rainy weekends and snowy days. Me, on the rocking chair in the study, pot of tea on the desk and a book in my lap…good thing such pleasure is free!

Book Buying

This is exactly what I need right now!

Love Searching....

So pleased with myself...look what i found in the thrift shop...

Where the Books will take you

“The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She travelled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village.”


― Roald Dahl, Matilda

Sometimes all you need are these words

“I understand what you're saying, and your comments are valuable, but I'm gonna ignore your advice.”


― Roald Dahl, Fantastic Mr. Fox

The Magic

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”

― Roald Dahl

Move Away From Them

“If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it.


A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

― Roald Dahl, The Twits

This is Winter

“The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world all to themselves.”

― Roald Dahl, The BFG

Paradise would be...

"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library." Jorge Luis Borges

The walk to the bus stop is short but the wait for the bus is long. It has been held up again. The fences have been blown away and there is sheep on the road. The bus trundles into the village, fighting against storms that hurl rage and wind unparalleled in strength. I begin to wonder if I should just let nature win. If I have lost this battle and should return home where it safe and warm and familiar, I do not know what this weather will turn into. My hair is whipped around my face, but through it I see the bus. It is dark and I hold my torch onto the road in front of me. There are no street lights near me and I don’t want the bus to splash me as it passes by.
On board I squeeze down the aisle fattened like a Christmas bird, but with layers of jumpers, jackets and scarves. I'm undressing as I descend through layers of red weather beaten faces, I want to reach the back, I want two seats together to place my things. Seated at the back, wet throughout I rummage in my bag to find something that will make it better. I find my book. I'm not in the bus anymore. I'm on an island or reading about an amazing person. I am finding criminals or moving from poor house to big house. I am not on the bus, I am with my book, and that, quite frankly, is my kind of paradise.

 

Finding the Reading Corner

I have spent an awful lot of time recently reading cosily snuggled up burrowed into my bed. I’ve had a stinking cold which has built up steadily until it burst forth in a spate of coughing and sneezing, refusing to be held back any longer by lemsip. The cold has taken hold, and the only way to deal with it now is time.

I’ve got through a good many books that I have already read and love dearly. I have read for the first time a couple of books as well. None are highbrow; all are very easy and sentimental in prose. However I have to say that these are the best medicine. Not only the books in themselves, but the time taken to read them. The plans made to curl up to fit under a blanket. To push cushions all around me and settle down within them. The plans already made to make time, to put a slow roast in the oven, to light the candles and lamps, to take the phone off the hook…

I always seem to get a cold at this time of year, but I think a great many of us do seeing that we persevere with the light and summery clothes in a determined bid to make the most of any light or warmth. I have personally been pushed into the garden by seeing the mess left behind after gales that rip, tear and wreck anything in their path. The dying blooms hang dull and limp. The once beautiful harvest of cutting flowers swing from being dry and ready to pop their tiny seeds into the soil or damp and slimy deeply in need of being cut down and dug in.

None of the garden is fully under control, but that is for another post. There is time for that later, and in any case it simply must be done at a later date. I can not do it now and that is something the garden will just have to understand.

Peeping in

The Wind in the Willows is a classic of children's literature by Kenneth Grahame and one of my favourite books ever.  I don't care how old i get, i will read this book forever.  I wanted to share this little snippet with you, because i think it sums up the season perfectly.  I'm awful, i constantly look in windows.  i dont mean to, and its not that im a terrible person and utterly nosey, but i do like to peep in quickly when the curtains are slightly open and the light from inside shines out into their gardens or paths as i walk past with Daisy.  The happy little houses remind me of dolls houses.  They twinkle of an evening and they all look so inviting.  So i can only offer an apology, albeit tongue in cheek, becuase i will also offer you this knowledge....other peole also do it: 

"The rapid nightfall of mid-December had quite beset the little village as they approached it on soft feet over a first thin fall of powdery snow. Little was visible but squares of a dusky orange-red on either side of the street, where the firelight or lamplight of each cottage overflowed through the casements into the dark world without. Most of the low latticed windows were innocent of blinds, and to the lookers-in from outside, the inmates, gathered round the tea-table, absorbed in handiwork, or talking with laughter and gesture, had each that happy grace which is the last thing the skilled actor shall capture— the natural grace which goes with perfect unconsciousness of observation. Moving at will from one theatre to another, the two spectators, so far from home themselves, had something of wistfulness in their eyes as they watched a cat being stroked, a sleepy child picked up and huddled off to bed, or a tired man stretch and knock out his pipe on the end of a smouldering log."

I am reading..

I am reading The Fry Chronicles right now, and loving every second of them.  I do have a dictionary by my side, as without it i have to admit I'd be a little lost from page to page.  However, i do love Stephen Fry and i do love biographies.

Stephen Fry is one of my hero's, please don't think i love everything he has ever done, or find him without blame-but i do love that he is utterly bashfully British and intelligent.  QI is one of my favourite shows, and i am pretty sure to tune into anything that has him in it. 
I'm not going to write a review for this book-oh goodness, that would be a little too difficult, but i will say that it is such a lovely read, and i am so happy that i have picked up a copy of this brilliant book, its now the putting it down that's the difficult bit.....

Everything Alice

I got this book a little while ago, probably one of those amazon emails came through the inbox telling me that it was similar to some other things I adore and I caved. Either that or those crafty elves did it a bit too close to payday for me to think it over and decide I could probably get it from the library.


Read the blurb and it definitely whets your appetite:
Enter the magical world of Everything Alice, where nothing is quite as it seems! The tales of Alice in Wonderland provide the inspiration for a charming and original collection of 50 makes, ranging from a hand-sewn rabbit toy and pompom-decorated slippers to a paper craft party invitation tea set and cut-out-and-keep dress-up dolls. Who wouldn't be seduced by a red polka dot frilly apron to wear while baking cupcakes fit for a king or a heart-shaped pin board to house precious keepsakes, all designed and made by Christine Leech and Hannah Read-Baldrey. This book is the creative must-have for any Alice lover, whatever their age.

I am mostly interested by the felt slippers; they are amazing and remind me of little Elvin shoes. The red velvet cake look lovely and I cant wait to get baking, as red velvet cake is something I’d heard of loads, but didn’t have a clue what it was!
There truly are some great ideas, and every person that has either peeked at my bookshelf and enquired what this was, or has looked over my shoulder at it has fallen in love and I'm happy to be the envy of all with 'my' new ideas!
The book is just gorgeous to sit and stare at and utterly adorable. Although I shouldn’t be spending money right now as I need to be buying Christmas presents, it has given me plenty of little ideas. I love books like this in general and I am very happy to add it to my collection.

Reading by the fire

Darker evenings, warm fires, cool clear nights and hot chocolate.  The chair by the mantle is never empty; the nook by the lamp is even more cramped than normal, overflowing with books.  Books that are planning ahead for Christmas, books with ideas for one pot meals, books about warmth and comfort, all looked out and very well thumbed.  Books to shelter within and let me dream. 

What’s the first book you loved?

When I was very little, oh my goodness did I hate visits to the library. I did not want to be taken into town to visit that branch. I did not wish to be dragged along to the mobile trundling down the road. I did not like sitting quietly or getting into a story. I, for some reason or other, did not want to hear more about whatever I wanted. The most magical places created on paper did not mean a jot. I wanted to play, I ran around outside until I was tired and then I fell asleep.


My poor Mother would read to me, drag me to these places, take me on trips, and it went clean over my head! How awful, I bet I have a child exactly the same and it will teach me!

This was most certainly the case until about primary four. We moved three times in that one year, and with it I moved school. I was quite obviously in a low reading group and was given The Dragon in Class Four to read at home. Like normal it was thrown in my bag and only retrieved when my Mother asked if I had homework-I replied no-and very untrustingly delved into my bag to recover homework.

Like always I was sat on my Mothers lap and she listen as I read out from the book. Something really quite magical happened, my Mother had read the note accompanying the book stating that I was to read to chapter one. When I turned the page to get to the end of said chapter I kept going. This was a massive moment. Whilst moving schools I was given this book a couple of times to read and I read and read.

It took one very special little book to get me to love reading. I wanted similar books and so read Through The Dragons Eye as it seemed like it could be similar, it really wasn’t, but when I was found reading that by my teacher she handed me The Chronicles of Narnia…and so from there I kept going.

Isn’t it lovely how some books just change everything? They mark out a specific time or moment. My shelves are packed with books and pictures. But really they do the same job. I know where I got every single item; I know what it meant and what I was into at the time.

I really started thinking about this the other day. Whilst tidying a small section of children’s books the other day I came across The Dragon in Class Four. I just held the copy for a moment and opened it up to read a few lines. I think I'm going to have to get a copy from somewhere, not to read now, but to have in case someone visits the house. My two nephews are getting bigger by the day, and I want to give them everything I can.

Can you remember the first book you loved? I bet because I learned to love reading so late its very easy for me, I’d love to know what you fell in love with.

The worth of books?

I guess if you’ve followed or read this blog for any length of time you’d know either that I'm a librarian or that I love books. The book thing is pretty self evident, only if you’ve known me for mere moments, you’d catch on pretty quickly.

Before heading to work the other day I caught a little bit of the news-I always keep either Chris Evans or BBC 1 on in the morning so I can see the time as I run about trying to iron things or find accessories. Anyway, I will get back to the point! I heard a little segment all about reading and so thought I would give myself five minutes to actually SIT and listen. I was so upset to hear that one in three children come from a home with less than ten books. Now I don’t know if that was only in England and Wales-because it was about the curriculum which is different in those countries, or if it was the UK, or in fact GB, but the fact remains the same.

In no way at all do I mean that I was thinking of children from homes where parents don’t collect all the ‘stuff’ that I do here, and I certainly wasn’t upset to think of little ones that have so many visits to various libraries that they just don’t bother buying books. I instantly thought of little ones not encouraged. Not the ones that it’s hard to pin down, just the ones left to their own devices, flailed about, failed and didn’t try again.

I feel lucky that I work in an environment where the children are already brought in, either because they do have encouraging parents or the children do want to read or learn. We, at that point, haven’t fought the battle. We have these little sponges eager to learn, they are placed right in front of us, and we give them whatever they want. I am so lucky that we aren’t fighting a loosing battle once I attend work. It’s the meetings and what not that we have to prove our worth, but once we’re in the building we are instantly thought highly of by little ones. We give them all the time in the world to find exactly what they want-no matter how odd sounding the request is. We’re the ones that give their grown-ups the stories that get read to them at night time.

I know I don’t have any little ones, and boy is it easy to make promises when carrying them through isn’t going to happen any time soon. But I certainly pray that I will always have the energy to give a child attention when it comes to books. I think the world of any people that trudge down to their local library in the pouring rain. The grown ups that escort their little ones down in the snow, tugging them in little red sledges, piled up with books to return and replace. YOU are heroes to me! Not only do you keep me in a job-thanks for that too-you actually make me think the world can be an ok place for the children brought into it!

Hang whitewash

"The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing."  - Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Its done!! Its all been done.  I'm sure the very best of you...or indeed, the most diligent, were finished their spring cleaning many moons ago.  I, however, have only just finished, and i am still very proud.
 
I had a bit of a Mole moment and got to the point where i knew it just had to BE DONE.  It was done, but i also knew i had to just put the wet cloths away after a powerful wash and say that's that for now.
 
The sun has come, and is currently hiding, the windows have been thrown open so that it is pleasantly cool and every cushion and rug has been bashed to bits, all of the ornaments that get quick dusts at all other occasions got a good proper wash and at one point everything was in the middle of each and every room.  It is done.  It is time to let the sunshine in.  It is time for the adventures of Summer.