Teaching Happiness While Wearing Green

The art of making Irish Soda Bread all year round.

Hello friends to another week of some zen happiness with some quirkiness.

Sometimes some bright colors in a wacky pattern can make great art.

Did hear about the library letting their patrons pay late book fines with cat pictures? From The Mary Sue:

(Skitz, my twelve-year-old kitty would save me from late fees)

“As part of the Worcester Public Library’s “March Meow-ness” initiative, patrons with fees for lost or damaged items can get their records cleared this month by bringing in an image of a cat. No, this is not a joke. Libraries really are this awesome.

According to the library website, patrons with items that have been lost or damaged for at least two months can bring in “a picture of your cat, a famous cat, a picture you drew of a cat, a shelter cat – any cat,” and the library will forgive any fees on their account. There’s some fine print, of course—for instance, you can’t intentionally damage a diverse title and then get that fee waved—but it’s a pretty generous policy.”

Can happiness be taught? Iowa State thinks so, and I’d love to take this class.

“Amie Zarling, associate professor in human development and family studies at Iowa State University, wants to change this. She points to studies that suggest about 40-50% of our happiness is based on genetics while 10% is related to circumstances like income, appearance and where we live. That means the rest is something we can manage with practice.

“Happiness is really something you need to work for, and it’s based on small habits that you integrate into your life over time. It’s not a quick fix,” says Zarling.

With this in mind, she developed The Science and Practice of Happiness, a new course at Iowa State. Over 80 students from different majors across campus signed up for the inaugural semester. Zarling says she wanted to create something that would help students apply principles, strategies and research to their own lives, while at Iowa State and beyond.”

It’s St Patrick’s Day today. Get your green on! If you’ve been wondering why St. Patrick’s Day is so popular with celebrating, the AP has the facts. Maybe it’s just the perfect excuse to dress up our pets in cute Patty day gear especially cute kittens, like this itty bitty fellow:

St. Patrick’s Day is the perfect excuse to eat Irish Soda Bread. If you’re in the mood to make your own Irish Soda Bread, head over to Alexanda’s Kitchen for an easy recipe that takes only 5 minutes (but you may want to make your own whipped butter for some extra nom nom).

For some reason, knowing there’s confetti flavored oatmeal, makes me smile.

This weeks book recommendation is from 2019-  Nightchaser by Amanda Bouchet.

Captain Tess Bailey and her crew of Robin Hood-like thieves are desperate and on the run. Pursued by a vicious military general who wants them dead or alive, Tess has to decide if she can trust Shade Ganavan, a tall, dark and arrogant stranger with ambiguous motivations.

Shade Ganavan had oodles of arrogance, oodles of charm, and oodles of something that made me want to kick him in the nuts.

What Tess and Shade don't know about each other might get them killed... unless they can set aside their differences and learn to trust each other - while ignoring their off-the-charts chemistry.

Why I’m recommending this book- Amanda Bouchet's Nightchaser is a great addition to the sic-fi romance genre. Her writing and characters, specifically her heroine Tess reminds me of the great Linnea Sinclair who made sci fi romance her own. If you're a fan of Sinclair, you must read this first book in what I assume will be a series. The story building and imagination from Amanda to create this universe and the characters involved is deep and intense, and oh so realistic when it comes to space travel.

Be sure to radiate your wonderful energy this week…