It goes like this

A concept that I teach a lot of my clients is what I call "filling your bucket".  Which means doing things that are rejuvenating for you, that fill you with joy, that make you deep down happy- so that they will serve as a sort of emotional reserve to get you through tough times. 

A few things lately that have filled my bucket:

Moving a piano with my dad and siblings. As a family we did a lot of things together growing up-delivering newspapers, helping my mom close down the pizza hut at night, bagging groceries for everyone in front of us in line, plus a million more things. Doing things with my siblings with my dad barking out orders brings me back to a happy place from my childhood. All that was missing today was Eri:(

Then later, Danielle and I played Heart and Soul on the piano. It was so fun and it made us hope that Elly and Katy will be doing the same kind of thing 30 years from now. 

Watching Elly play soccer. She scored 3 goals today! You can see how happy it makes her and that makes me so happy. Sitting on the side of that field, with my nieces and nephews, on a chilly Pennsylvania fall day is pretty close to my idea of heaven.

one of my favorite fall pictures from last year

I had a 'bucket list' lunch with some of my coworkers this past week. I brought subway and we all met for an hour and talked about our life goals. It was me, our medical secretary, our office manager, a nurse practitioner and the psychiatrists kept popping in and out. It makes me happy to work in a place where I feel supported and where I can support others.

Dave and I took the kids to see "Free birds" last night at this weird little cheap theater in the town next to us. Kind of a boring movie (for me) but seeing the kids squabbling over seats and trading candy and laughing through the movie made me deep down happy. 

Working out. I still dread it, I'm not going to lie. But leaving the gym, feeling my muscles burning, knowing that I'm going to be sore the next day- it's rejuvenating and makes me feel like I can do anything in the world.

Tomorrow I am going to make the whole family Sunday dinner and do my visiting teaching and go walking and go to church and I think it will fill my bucket enough to get me through the long week ahead:) 

Anyway, I hope you; dear readers, are doing things that fill your bucket. 

Lori Ann