To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends. — Samuel Johnson, the Rambler, No, 68.
That’s the very first quote in Gretchen Rubin’s brand new book, Happier at Home (affiliate link) which — like its predecessor The Happiness Project — is sure to be a blockbuster. The Samuel Johnson quote immediately hit home for me, because golly, isn’t this blog about finding happiness in our sweet little midcentury homes… about loving the house you’re in, instead of pining after what it may lack… and about giving our houses our tender loving care — so that they can give theirs back?
Crikes, sorry to get all mushy there. But in case you haven’t guessed, I am hugely enormously, gigantically, sentimental about happiness in house and home. It is kind of… all that I think about. I also just read Gretchen Rubin’s first book The Happiness Project (affiliate link) in July. I thought that the book was hugely enormously gigantically brilliant. It was a #1 New York Times best-seller for good reason. The book is NOT self-help FLUFF. This woman is a take-no-prisoners serious, avid researcher. She wrote lauded history books about Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy before she turned to the more prosaic, yet elusive, topic of Happiness. In a nut, with The Happiness Project, she synthesized amazing amounts of research on the topic… and then… and this was the especially brilliant part: She put her findings to work in her own life, small-step-by-small-step, over a 12-month period, and chronicled her experience. The book is super easy to read, super encouraging — but at the same time, it’s deeeeeep. How often can you say that.
Now, Gretchen (I don’t think she will mind my familiarity) has followed up her first best-selling happiness book with a second one that focuses even more specifically on cultivating happiness within your home and with the creatures who may live there with you. UPDATE: Happier at Home has just hit #2 on the New York Times best-seller list, in just its FIRST week on sale. THIS BOOK IS A MUST-HAVE!
One more happy thing: Gretchen once gave a shout out to Retro Renovation on her blog — and send several hundred new visitors our way. She like the retro. Can ya believe it. I can: Retro is Happy!
Mia says
“Count me in”
Jayne says
I’m happy when I’ve cooked something that tastes amazing for my family, knowing that I made it from a collection of ingredients that are nothing by themselves, but wonderfully delicious when blended together. Working hard to find tasty recipes for my family is one way that I show my love for them.
Rusty Burlew says
I am happiest at home when I see bugs. It reminds me that nature endures, even in light of the billions of pounds of pesticides sprayed every year in every corner of the earth.
Judy says
I’m happier when I am surrounded at the dinner table by my grandchildren, my mom, my daughter and her husband and my husband, not particularly in that order, eating food that came from the garden and from the water around us.
ess says
I am happy when my kitchen counter is clean, evenly dry, dishes put away, sink empty–”clear the decks” as my grandmother used to say. It makes me even happier when it’s time to start my dinner creations.
Martha says
I’m happier at home with no schedules to meet and I can do whatever takes my fancy: quilting, gardening, reading, cooking.
BlueSwimmer says
I’m happiest when I have a dog on my lap and a book in my hand!
Mary Kay says
I am happier at home when I empty the wastebaskets!
Kae Arrington says
I’m happiest at home when I’m gardening, cooking or reading a good book.
M-E Henley says
—–so happy when I’m making pesto with all of the basil in my garden and roasting my San Marzano tomatoes because I know in the cold of winter we’ll be savoring every bite!!!