What's Making Me Happy This Week: Flour

I was making a cake on Saturday, and I had a bowl of sifted flour on the counter. Fluffy, white sifted flour.

My 10-year-old came into the kitchen and was instantly drawn to it. 

"Can I touch the flour?"

Why not? What could it hurt? "Sure," I said. 

A couple of minutes later he was elbow-deep in the flour and I knew it was not going into the cake. 

Almost to himself, he said, "It feels so good."

Another minute later: "Mom, for my birthday next year can I have my mattress filled with this stuff?"

More flour fondling, and again to himself, "It feels like air conditioning."

To me: "Mom, can I put this down my shirt?"

Ten minutes later there was a lot of flour in the kitchen and not much left in the bowl. It was on his face, in his hair, but happily not down his shirt. 

The whole episode had me in stitches. And I have to admit that after Colin went upstairs to clean up, I put my hands in the flour. 

It felt good. 

What's making you happy this week?

And merry Christmas!

Funny Serial Video

If you've listened to the "Serial" podcast, this will crack you up: Christmas Serial video

Thanks for sending this, EP! It made my day.

What's Making Me Happy This Week: Serial

Sometimes I'm not a widow. I'm just a woman reading a paper, or doing a crossword, or wrestling with my kids and nothing else. Or this week, listening to a podcast.

Serial.

It might be one of the most popular podcasts of all time, for good reason. Sarah Koenig tells the true story, one installment at a time, of a man serving a life sentence for his girlfriend's murder, committed when he was 17.

Is he innocent, as he maintains to this day, or is he guilty, as the state prosecutor convinced a jury? Koenig tries to get to the bottom of it with obsessive attention to detail, exhaustive research, extensive interviews, and even attempts to re-create the events of the day the girlfrield went missing.

Nothing is clear except that someone is lying.

It's twisted, and confusing, and fascinating. I was late to the podcast, and only discovered it a week ago. In the last week, it's been on every time I've gotten in the car or taken a walk. I've even cleaned the house just for an excuse to put in earphones and listen.

The final installment was released today, but don't skip to the end. You have to listen to the podcasts in order, and you'll want to.

What's making you happy this week?