What makes you happy?

I am having a wonderful weekend...I am in my hometown with my family celebrating my brother's birthday, and will also be celebrating my husband's Granny's birthday tomorrow. I feel relaxed and even took a two hour nap with Alex today. I feel so good that I thought I would take some time to write about things that make me happy in no particular order...

• Family: My family loves to indulge in two of my favorite things: laughter and food. Today we are celebrating my brother's birthday and did so with yummy steaks and good conversation speckled with much laughter. Tonight some of us will be taking the fun on the road to celebrate a little more, where I expect more fun will abound!
• Dancing: I absolutely love to dance. I am not saying I am good at it, but boy do I love it. There is nothing like hearing a good song and moving to it...even if those movements are officially dubbed the "white girl dance" and mocked at every chance available. I LOVE IT! My husband, not so much. He will dance with me on a slow dance or two, but he is not about to stay on the floor all night. Thankfully he doesn't mind sharing me with my stand-in dance partners.
• Driving alone: Strange, I know, but sometimes the only time I am by myself is when I have to run an errand or take a day to drive two hours away to have a girls' day with my favorite people. I feel so relaxed when I am driving alone. I listen to whatever I want to, I sing at the top of my lungs, I think about all kinds of random things that usually get pushed aside, and I drink a large Coke or Mountain Dew in peace without my hubby looking at me like, "Really, do you need that?"
• Friends: Now, I am blessed with some amazing friends, but there are two or three in particular that are AMAZING. They have been there through thick and thin, we don't have the silly little dramatic episodes that others have, and we just "get" each other. I don't know what I would do without these people, and you most certainly know who you are. I talk to one of them every single day, and it just doesn't feel right when we - rarely - miss a day. And even with the ones that I don't speak to every day, I know that at the drop of a hat we would be there for each other no matter what. I love, love, love my friends - all of them and am so blessed to have y'all in my life.
• A day/night/hour with just me, my husband, and my son: I love spending time with my two boys. When we make the time to just be together playing, watching a movie, going to a park, or any other fun we decide to have, it is so precious and I am sad when it ends and we get back to the hustle and bustle of life. They are the best, and I am glad they are mine and I am theirs.
• Baking and Cooking: I have always loved to bake and cook, even though I am mediocre at it. There is something about creating something out of all those ingredients that makes me feel good and proud.
• A clean house: OK, I will admit that I do not like the effort that it takes to get to the point of "a clean house", but I sure do love the feeling of everything in its place, spic-n-span.
• Music: A friend of ours told us that he feels that music is universal, understood by everyone, and he is so right. I love the abundance of ways music can make you feel. I love the memories that it can bring back, and the memories it helps to create.

Take some time every day to do at least one thing that makes you happy...it's good for you! I'm just sayin'...