Veggie Tales and Finding Happiness

I have a confession to make: I am obsessed with Veggie Tales. It's been over ten years since a friend attempted to explain the bizarre cartoon to me as follows:

"It's a bunch of vegetables that sing and tell Bible stories," she'd said.

Okaaaay, I'd thought. We're not going to be watching that. But she insisted on loaning me an episode, so we walked away from our morning play date with Rack, Shack and Benny on VHS. (Yes, VHS). Later that week, Energy and I curled up on the couch together to see what all the fuss was about. Really, I was planning on taking a little nap. I certainly didn't expect the quick-witted veggies and random silly songs to leave me doubling over in laughter. After that first video I became a dedicated veggie tales fan, buying several episodes for Energy and watching them with him when I should have been folding laundry.

Before I get to the real point of this blog post (which is Happiness) I have to share my all-time favorite silly song with you as evidence of how awesome Veggie Tales truly is. This song is a spoof on boy bands where a group of veggies known as 'Boyz in the Sink' confess a lurid secret to one of their girlfriends through a song titled 'Belly Button'. Go ahead and watch it. I dare you not to laugh.

Okay, so now that you've been indoctrinated, I'll move on. One of my favorite episodes of Veggie Tales is Madame Blueberry. It's the story of a horribly depressed Blueberry (get it? A blue berry?) who spends all her time pining for the nice things that her friends have. One day, salvation arrives at her door in the form of three salesmen promoting a new store (The Stuff Mart!) that has just moved in down the street from her. They promise happiness in the form of a store carrying everything she could ever want and more. They sing her a classically hilarious song introducing her to the Stuff Mart and enticing her to come with them to check it out. The final line in their song is, "Happiness waits at the stuff mart. All you need is lots....more....stuff!" (Sung in an appropriately melodramatic and ridiculous manner). Here is a recording of the song if you're interested, though it cuts off before the happiness line I referred to and I'm not savvy enough to upload my own version.

My kids typically watch Veggie Tales on Sundays (since it's one of the few shows we let them watch before church) and last Sunday the selection was Madame Blueberry. Consequently, the line "Happiness waits at the stuff mart" has been running through my mind all week (complete with background music, I might add.) I've been singing it while doing dishes, folding laundry, pushing my kids on the swings and, well, really any time my voice has been otherwise unoccupied.

However, since the idea that happiness waits at the Stuff Mart in the form of lots more stuff is obviously flawed, I felt it was appropriate to compose a list of what happiness is to me.

Happiness is:

Children's laughter

There is truly no better sound on earth

A warm chocolate chip cookie, fresh from the oven 

I'm sorry, but as much as I try to tell myself that this isn't an acceptable form of happiness, I can't deny that it makes me sublimely happy every time I eat one. Or ten.

The smell of rain 

Clean. Fresh. A new start.

Sleeping in

These days I would even take being allowed to wake up naturally at 7:00 am when my body says it's ready, as opposed to once every half hour starting at 5:00 am to accommodate various childish requests. For example, last Saturday Energy started doing his chores--the vacuuming, to be precise--at 6:30 am because he was awake and knows he's not allowed to turn on any screens until 7:00. While I admire his initiative and his desire to make good use of his time, I was not happy to hear vacuuming right outside my bedroom door (and the doors to the three youngest children in the house) so early on a Saturday morning. 

Watching my kids play together. Happily, of course.

This is especially sublime when they don't know I'm watching or listening.

 A properly functioning toilet that never has to be plunged or snaked

Did I mention I have five kids in a house with a septic tank and not enough bathrooms?

Eavesdropping outside my kids' bedroom doors after tucking them in at night

An invasion of privacy, you say? I hope they wouldn't see it this way. Anyway, so far I've only heard things that warm my heart. There is nothing quite like witnessing your children realize over time that they can rely on and confide in each other as siblings.

A good rainstorm without basement flooding or crazy-loud/scary thunder and lightening

Ever since I was a little girl, one of my favorite things was listening to rain fall while snuggling up with a good book and a blanket on the living room couch. But that was before I had to worry about grown-up things like flooded basements, ginormous trees in my backyard that bend unnaturally anytime the wind blows, and lightening that shakes my bones as it crashes so close I swear it's hit my house.

Mario Kart for Wii

I have four brothers, but despite their best efforts and to their great disappointment, I do not enjoy video games. They just feel like a pointless waste of time to me. But the one exception is Mario Kart. I loved it in the 80's when it came out for Nintendo, and I love playing it now on our Wii. Even though I still cannot make it through Rainbow Road (I couldn't in the original version and I can't now) without falling off a gazillion times, I still love this game. And I love playing it with my kids.

Lying on the trampoline with my family

Cloud-watching or gazing at the stars as they begin to emerge at the end of a summer day

Date night!!!

We've always made room in our budget for babysitting because my husband and I need those moments together to regroup, talk and remember why we fell in love.

Having a child that's old enough to babysit 

Oh, yeah! This. Though Energy is just barely twelve, he's been practicing changing diapers and putting his younger siblings to bed while I'm around. We have high hopes that our babysitting budget might soon be allocated elsewhere. (Or at least reduced, as I feel bad making him do it completely for free all the time.)

The smell of spring 

It smells like hope, making me instantly happy every year right as winter threatens to crush me for good. 

Having a creative outlet

There are several activities that I float between, but no matter what, I always have to allow myself a creative outlet. I believe humans were wired to create beauty and that we aren't whole without the opportunity to do so.

So in summary, happiness does not come from the stuff mart (ground-breaking revelation, right?). Nor does it come from the Success Mart, the Food Mart, or the Twitter Follower Mart (yes, those do exist). It doesn't even come from having a spotless house, exercising every day, always being on time, or the host of other things it's possible to fail at within the course of a week. Happiness is found in the simple, small moments of life. Our tiny successes (like getting five semi-presentable kids to church, even if they're grumpy about it and you were a half hour late). Our ability to love and be loved. Our freedom to try new things, even if we fail at them.

I have to link to another video here, (sorry for all the links today), because this video conveys what I'm trying to say so much better than I can. And the background music doesn't hurt either. If you only click on one link from this post, it should be this one.

That video makes me cry every time I see it! Now that you've seen it, do you have anything to add to my list? What is happiness to you? Leave it in the comments section below, and happy happiness seeking!