Let happiness come from you before you seek others to make you happy.

I love this quote by Abraham Hicks. Happiness is just a string of happy moments. But most people aren't aware of the happy moments, because they're too busy trying to have a happy life.

Children's existence is a string of happy moments. My 3 year-old great grandson came over to our house with his mother, the other day and almost the entire time he was here he was happy. We adults did any distracting him away from his happy play, mostly to minimize messes and keep him safe. Children have a natural desire to have fun and as we grow up, we douse our happiness with being adults. 

What's exciting to me is, we can be adults and follow all the adult rules, but that child in us can help us be aware of the happy moments that bombard us every day. June is filled with potential happy moments just waiting to be had, but if we get too busy, too adult, the happy gifts of June will be gone and then there'll be July to miss. 

I met Nelly in 2002. She’s my inner child and constant companion, I discovered that keeping in touch with Nelly helps me catch lots of those happy moments, and when a few hours go by and I haven’t heard from her, I do as any mother would do; I check up on her. 

I might ask myself, “Is something bothering you little girl? You don’t seem very happy right now.” If I’m still and listen, I’ll get an answer that would've remained unexpressed had I not questioned myself.

When children are ignored, whether they are real or within, they want attention and they will get it.

"Hey, the Internet's Down!"

I had to go to Target to buy a router. (Earlier that day I’d purchased one at Walmart, and it was the wrong kind so had to return it.) I used the verb “had to” because buying a router is not on my list of exciting things to buy. (And returning things is right up there with having a pelvic exam.)

All I knew was the router we had quit letting us watch television on the internet and we needed a new one. Finding the right one when you don’t know the difference between routers and alternators was like going to a plumbing supply store to pick out the sump pump of your dreams. I wasn’t in the greatest mood driving to Target from Walmart.

The kid who helped me had a "techy" look, but he seemed to be in training and kept asking me questions I had no answers for. I ended up with a box about the size of a toaster with a picture of a router that looked nothing like the one we had that died, or the one I bought at Walmart, but he promised it would do everything it needed to do for us.

"Don't be afraid of the storm."

We dedicated “Sidetracked Home Executives: from pigpen to paradise” to Fred. It was a secret who Fred was (I’ll tell you why in a minute) and we didn’t tell anyone but family. Our mom and dad were tickled when they found out who he was. So were our grandparents.

When we wrote “Sidetracked Home Executives,” we prayed together every day to be guided to use our humor in writing on a subject that’s not funny…getting organized. God has the most exquisite sense of humor and our co-writing sessions were filled with laughter mingled with His. We took turns writing longhand in a notebook, which was then given to our assistant to type up for the manuscript, we had no clue what to do with when it was finished.