Spikes of happiness can go a long way toward increasing your overall sense of well-being. Even if your average is lower than you would like or expect, like maybe your average is like 6 or 7 and you think it should be 8 or 9; but sometimes certain moments happen (for me it usually has to do with the girls; little ineffable, irretrievable, spontaneous, perfect moments) that just blip so high off the chart that you can almost coast until you get close to the next one. They are unpredictable, but you can increase the chances of their recurrence by certain habits and behaviors and structures and practices. (They are not the same as drug spikes, but there is a lot of sensory similarity—hence, addiction.) Tonight it was lounging with the littles, doing the bedtime routine (incl. “3 things that were good about today”), warm and cuddly and giggly, finally trying to get them to settle down, and as I’m on my way out the door Libby says, “If I was a kind of potato, I’d be a sweet potato!” and I said, “Yeah, you’re going to be a mashed potato if you don’t go to sleep!” It was just one of those things, I don’t know how to explain it. (2016)