Me, looking for my latest to-do list Image courtesy Ivana Tomášková from Pixabay

Hurricane Milton recovery has slowed our progress in prepping our house to sell, but we’re still lumbering along. I’ve had very little time for writing, and any thinking time I have fills up with to-do lists and more to-do lists. But I am still capturing simple pleasures where I can, still reading, still surfing the internet. I’m sooooo looking forward to having a “normal” to-do list rather than a “sell my house and move” to-do list. (And I will strangle my husband if he asks me what I did today one more time.)

I may be living in chaos right now, but here are a few islands of calm and positivity I’ve found online recently. Enjoy!

I’m immersed in home-related decisions so I loved the info in “What Makes a Home Feel Good?”  

I am ABSOLUTELY going to try “Living Inside a Movie…” What a fun way to find and enjoy simple pleasures! (I’m currently living in The Money Pit, but someday I hope to be living in Something’s Gotta Give. What movie are you living in?) 

Click here for a dose of animal cuteness. 

I love stories of ordinary people making life better, like this one. 

Have you heard of a “dopamine menu”? “A dopamine menu is a curated list of pleasurable, healthy habits and activities that naturally elevate your dopamine levels, boosting happiness, motivation, and focus,” according to this article. Jessica McCabe, the creator of the YouTube channel “How To ADHD” and author of How to ADHD: An Insider’s Guide to Working With Your Brain (Not Against It) originated the concept. A dopamine menu, like a restaurant menu, can be divided into sections including appetizers (quick ways to boost good feelings), entrees (longer duration activities that might take some planning), and sides (pleasurable activities done along with tasks that are necessary but not enjoyable). Sounds a lot like a more detailed categorization of simple pleasures and everyday adventures! 

Poor sleep definitely affects my mood, and over the past few years I’ve struggled to get a solid night’s rest. I had fallen into some of these “8 Sneaky Habits that Are Destroying Your Sleep.” After making some changes, I’m sleeping better. 

I loved the tips in “How to Start Assuming the Best in People,” from Steven Collis, a law professor at the University of Texas and author of Habits of a Peacemaker: 10 Habits to Change Our Potentially Toxic Conversations into Healthy Dialogues. We’re often too quick to judge people and situations as all good or all bad without allowing for nuance. 

Florida doesn’t have changing leaves in the fall, so I went here for my fall leaf fix. Sigh. 

Have a great weekend!

Image courtesy of Pixabay

My lists have lists.

My house looks like an indoor tornado spun through.

A giant mound of storm debris is stacked by the curb in front of our house…the one I’d like to sell (there’s a pile of storm debris in front of my new house, too, but I don’t mind that as much since curb appeal isn’t currently an issue for that house.) And we’re not through cleaning up our yard.

My brain hurts from all the calculations of time, logistics, and money it’s been forced into making over the past few weeks. One day I was supposed to be in three places at once—until Hurricane Milton cancelled everything.

And how are you?

All this to say, I’m going to take a couple weeks off from posting on Catching Happiness, though  I’m still going to send out the Happy Little Things newsletter next week as planned (subscribe here). 

In the meantime, check out these posts from the past you might enjoy (do you sense a theme here?):

One Less Thing 

Dog Paddling in the Ocean 

Just (Don’t) Do It 

My front yard/driveway

My family and I are safe after Hurricane Milton passed through our area. Our current home wasn’t damaged, though we lost several trees including one that blocked our driveway when it fell (see photo above). As of this writing, we have no power or internet, and cell service is spotty. I’m able to post this because our new home didn’t lose power and I was able to drive over and connect to the internet there.

There were two huge trees down near our new house, too, one uprooted in the backyard and one snapped off at the end of our cul-de-sac. In just a 10-minute drive between the properties, I saw multiple downed trees, a river overflowing its banks, and streets and yards underwater. And we aren’t even in the hardest hit area, nor did we have a tornado touch down.

As uncomfortable, worried, and tired as we are (hurricane prep and aftermath is exhausting), we are safe. We’re sooo grateful the tree didn’t come down on our house, and that the pile of rubble by the road is only debris from the storm and not all our water-logged belongings. My father-in-law’s mobile home, by some miracle, sustained only minor damage.

As I’ve been telling people who’ve checked in on me, now it’s just problem solving.

Hope you had a much more uneventful week than I have!

If you want to help those who’ve been impacted by Hurricane Milton, click here. 

Photo by Master Filmmaker on Unsplash

I was already working on this post when Hurricane Helene swept through, and it feels a bit self-indulgent to talk about a “fun list” when so many have lost everything. I live far enough inland in central Florida that we were not hurt by Hurricane Helene’s pass. However, many areas in Tampa Bay and other parts of Florida, as well as Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, have been devastated. Businesses, homes, and entire towns have been wiped out. If you want to help hurricane survivors in the Tampa Bay area, visit Community Foundation Tampa Bay.  A quick Google search will give you a list of organizations helping survivors in other states.

Fall is usually my favorite time of year…mainly because it’s when we finally have our first cold front after months of oppressive heat and humidity and it becomes enjoyable to leave the house again. But this year, not only are we still waiting for the first hint of cooler weather, my life is currently consumed by home repairs and moving projects (Paint! Carpet! Oh, there’s structural damage, that will be $500 more dollars, please!). I’m not sure I have the time, energy (or money, see above-mentioned $500) to embrace a Fall Fun List. However, I’m stubbornly clinging to the belief that even if the weather doesn’t cooperate, and even if I feel overwhelmed, I will mark the season of fall in some way that is different than the (eternal) season of summer.  (This is an accurate description of Florida’s seasons and it cracked me up.)

I’m Fall-ing, even though central Florida is still Summer-ing. (I’m sorry. I’m really tired.)

So if you, like me, feel overwhelmed right now and unable to make the most of a Fall Fun List, here’s my scaled down Fall Fun List for the Overwhelmed. I’d like to do these, but if I don’t get around to them, I’m not going to stress about it.

Kathy’s Fall Fun List for the Overwhelmed

• Light a fall scented candle. Even the grocery store sells scented candles, so if you don’t have any already, it’s easy to buy one.
• Bake something fall-ish—I want to bake persimmon cookies. My mom used to make a version of these when I was a kid and they were delicious. I’m going to try this recipe. I like baking, so this isn’t a burden—if you don’t bake, there are plenty of bakeries where you can pick up a fall treat.
• Slurp at least one pumpkin spice latte or other fall-flavored beverage.
• Try pumpkin spice baked oatmeal. (Hmmm, I see a theme here…)
• Eat a few pomegranates.
• Attend the first productions of the 2024-2025 Straz Broadway Series. My friends and I have our tickets, so we just need to show up. 
• Choose and order a planner for 2025. I love the hoopla around planner season, and I have three months to made a decision.
• Seek out Fall-ish books and movies (any suggestions?).
• Add a few Fall decorating touches to my current home, and to the new home if we wind up moving before I would normally put up Christmas decorations (the beginning of December).

What’s on your Fall Fun List?

Click here to see last year’s Fall Fun List, here to see fellow Floridian Sarah Hart-Unger’s list, and here to see Laura’s Vanderkam’s much more Fall-ish Fun List.