I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier.

There are some lessons that I just keep learning over and over as I make the same mistake

over and over.

And this is a mistake I've made many times.

Now for instance, when my daughters were small, the fact that we had to keep a stroller

by the front door made me crazy.

There is no way in an apartment to store a stroller neatly out of sight and it just drove

me crazy to see it there.

And more recently when my daughter was in high school, I was annoyed by all the products.

She kept in the bathroom that she shared with my husband, Jamie and me.

I kept trying to organize the shelves or just straighten things up and it just wouldn't

stay organized.

And these days it's nail polish, colored pencils, stuffed animals.

They all drive me slightly crazy.

And I was thinking about this as I was collecting Barnaby's dog toys off the floor.

Now my dog when I was growing up, Patty Wack, she didn't really like toys but Barnaby

really loved toys so his toys are everywhere.

And I was thinking, gosh, all these dog toys, this is so tiresome.

And this is the lesson that I have to keep learning.

The situation that's driving me crazy right now is the situation that I will look back

on with great affection and longing.

Those days when we had a stroller by the front door and oh those days when our medicine cabinet

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