A Shiny New Year

I know -- everyone's talking about the new year and resolutions or goals, so yep, I'm jumping in.

But not with resolutions or goals. I saw a note on friend Deb's Facebook page about a happiness jar: you take a glass jar with a lid, and every time something good happens, you make a note on a slip of paper and drop it in. Next New Year's Eve, you open the jar and read the slips.

I really like the idea. When we're having a tough time, it's easy to forget that there have been lots of good times before and hard to believe that they'll come again. But if you keep track of the highlights, the reminders are right there.

I've got tons of canning jars and reams of paper. I'm going to start my own happiness jar. The more time I spend focusing on that, the less I have for noticing the little things that annoy me. Who knows? Maybe I can fill two or three jars.