Happy List: #287

Why, hello! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I’m glad you’re here.

This week I shared a story about a ladder. It wasn’t a story about climbing a ladder because I’m risk-averse when it comes to ladders and falling, but about beautifying a ladder. Someone’s got to do it.

I also wrote about something that everyone’s clamoring to have these days, a wood sewing machine cover. I’m kidding. No one wants one, but if they read that blog post they just might see how cool they are!

As always, I like connecting with you! Truly. Please feel free to leave a comment or share this site with your friends. You can also connect with us on Instagram or Facebook. Thank you in advance.

Here’s the Happy List!

MADE ME SMILE

Suddenly, I need my car to match my front door. This whole scene made me happy looking at it.

(image: Roger and Chris via The Nordroom)

FOOTBALL-SHAPED HAND PIES

If any of you would like to make football-shaped savory hand pies for a certain upcoming football game that I hear is a big deal, then please feel free to invite me over to eat them.

Just know that I only care about the food, not the game.

Get the recipe over at Hungry Happenings.

(image: Hungry Happenings)

P.S. Hungry Happenings is a great website name. 73% of the things that occur around here are definitely related to hungry happenings.

I’D LIKE TO TRY THIS

Can you guess what Michele from Vintage Home used to make these place cards?

I’ll give you a hint. One of the things she used is something for which I have been trying to find other uses for YEARS. The other thing she used I’ve never used.

Those were terrible hints, weren’t they? Ha!

Go check out her blog post here to get all the details. I think these would make cool Christmas ornaments.

(image: Vintage Home)

ENCOURAGING NEWS

The Carter Center, founded by President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter, announced that only 13 cases of Guinea worm disease were reported worldwide in 2022. Guinea worm disease is on the cusp of being the second human disease in history to be eradicated.

This has all been done without treatment or a vaccine. Through the work of The Carter Center, Guinea worm disease is being eradicated through human intervention by preventing water from getting contaminated, filtering water, and educating the public about safe water practices.

If you don’t know what Guinea word disease does to humans, I caution you to be careful with your Google searches. It’s not pleasant and you’ll think twice about walking around barefoot after learning about it.

If you are ever in the Atlanta area, I encourage you to visit The Carter Center. It is Carter’s Presidential Library. We went when my son was in kindergarten. Some of his classmates even got to meet Jimmy Carter! (I know, so cool.) To this day, my son can still tell you about how Jimmy Carter is helping people get clean water so they don’t get sick.

You never know what’s going to stick with kids. I’m so thankful to President Carter and Mrs. Carter for setting an example of how to do good in this world with the resources you have.

HOW TO CLEAN A LAMPSHADE

Sooo. Would now be a good time to confess that I’ve never cleaned a lampshade in the thorough way this article in My Domaine suggests?

Perhaps it’s a good thing that I don’t have any fabric shades right now.

P.S. Yes, one time almost 10 years ago I did fill a lamp base with yarn pom poms. I still stand by that decision. Hahahaha!

THE BEST GIFT

Do you need a gift for a kid or a teen? Do you need a fun party activity? I’ve got the best thing.

The one thing my kids received for Christmas and are still actively using over a month later is this shaved ice machine. It works surprisingly well and they can use it all on their own without my help. We use the big ice cubes that our refrigerator makes and the shaved iced machine pulverizes them with no trouble.

Make your life easier and earn some cool mom points or grandparent points and get the snow cone syrups to go with it. I can personally vouch for the fact that the rootbeer-flavored syrup is DELICIOUS. Rootbeer and blue raspberry flavors are the family favorites.

My kids do want to order the Icee brand syrup next (“Those are the best, mom!”) but we have a lot of other syrup to get through first.

HERE’S WHAT I’M WONDERING

I could be doing important things with my brain power and here I am wondering why U.S. appliance manufacturers aren’t making pretty ranges like this one by Ilve.

I mainly ask because this one costs $10,000 and I know my food is not going to taste better coming out of a $10,000 range.

I’m pretty sure Whirlpool would have a slam dunk on their hands if they could make their ranges look a little more European.

ANGEL’S GLOW

I read something fascinating this week from the site All That’s Interesting. It has been reported that the wounds soldiers received during the Battle of Shiloh in 1862 glowed in the dark. Not only that, but the soldiers whose wounds glowed in the dark seemed to fare better than the soldiers whose wounds did not glow. The soldier’s called this phenomenon Angel’s Glow.

A school science project by two 17-year-olds, supervised by a microbiologist mom, in 2001 discovered what could have caused this glow – parasitic worms. The worms carry a bacteria called Photorhabdus luminescens that does produce a faint green glow. But wouldn’t that make the wounds worse?

As it turns out, this bacteria eats other bacteria, so maybe it helped keep the soldiers alive long enough to get medical treatment. Keep in mind, the soldiers’ body temperatures would have had to drop to hypothermic levels in order for the bacteria to survive to do their work. So, nothing pleasant was happening here.

Read more about it here.

(image: Battle of Shiloh, Wikimedia, Copyright Adam Cuerden)

POETRY MOMENT

Excerpt from “To Begin With, The Sweet Grass” by Mary Oliver

The witchery of living
is my whole conversation
with you, my darlings.
All I can tell you is what I know.

Look, and look again.
This world is not just a little thrill for the eyes.

It’s more than bones.
It’s more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.
It’s more than the beating of the single heart.
It’s praising.
It’s giving until the giving feels like receiving.
You have a life—just imagine that!
You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe
still another.

Thank you for reading today’s Happy List!

Be good to yourself and others this weekend.

I’ll see you back here on Monday!

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