My "happy" weekend

This past weekend, Andrew went hunting in Alabama, so I decided to pack up the car and head to my parent's house in Napoleonville; "the country" as we've all started calling it. It came about when my "city slicker" nephews from Baton Rouge wanted to go to Deedee and Papa's house in the country. It stuck.

So John Henry and I went down to the country to visit and get some R&R.

It was filled with wonderful Cajun things that I would have never noticed years ago when I lived at home. Since I've moved to South Carolina twice and now live in Baton Rouge for a third time, I notice the Cajun subtleties like an outsider would.

I can't tell you how many times I heard "sha bebe" when people saw John Henry. It makes me laugh because one of my friends asked me why strangers would say that to her daughter when she would run errands.

I told her it was a good thing, and they thought her daughter was precious. John Henry was complimented often with "Sha bebe...look at 'dem cheeks."

So Momma and I ate crawfish stew plate lunches with a side of fried catfish and potato salad all for a whopping $7.50 each. It was delicious. We made stock and deboned chicken for my chicken stew that I am to make for my next meal at bible study in a few weeks. Momma's got the Magnalite roaster that I needed. I ran errands in Houma and Thibodaux and heard Mardi Gras music at the grocery. It made me smile. And I smiled even bigger when I saw the King Cakes and tarte a la bouille pies. I picked up one of those pies. But damn it, I forgot it in the country!

Momma called and told me I forgot it. I asked her to freeze it. We wouldn't want to waste.

We crocheted this weekend, and Momma got me started on my first blanket. After doing several dish cloths, we thought I was ready for a bigger project.

100% organic cotton baby blanket. Pattern found here

It was a rainy weekend in the country, but it was welcomed. We drank lots of coffee, visited with friends, looked up patterns, and John Henry was even entertained by the youngest nephew of mine. 

He's such a happy little baby.

Happy. 

Who doesn't want to be happy?

Last week, Andrew and I were scrolling through our Netflix when I came across a documentary called "Happy." {I have a "thing" for documentaries.} The title intrigued me, but what really interested me was the subtitle: "From the swamps of Louisiana to the slums of Kolkata in search of what really makes people happy."

They got me at "swamps of Louisiana."

I have my own assessments of the Cajun people as a whole. For several years now I've talked to my Momma about what I've noticed. And I was especially aware of the ways of the French while we were in France this past spring. Our French friends sent their 15 year old girl to stay with us this summer, and I was again aware of how she was. Let's just say her contentment and maturity far surpassed mine...

Late last spring, Momma and I went to the back of Pierre Part to get cleaned crawfish heads from a sweet old lady that lives out there. We use the crawfish heads to make crawfish bisque. She was a typical Cajun lady. Sweet, sweet, sweet. She invited us in to her very modest and impeccably clean home. She asked us how we were doing with "Comme ca va?"

So what I've noticed about these Cajun French and French people is that they are hard workers, fun-loving, calm, and very, very content.

When we got back in the car with our crawfish heads, I was strangely overwhelmed with joy. I, too, wanted to speak French, live in a modest home across from a bayou, and clean out crawfish heads! Apparently it's all I needed in life.

I asked my Momma if she was just as impressed, and she said it's a contentment that comes from the French; the "joie de vivre" or the joy of living.

When Andrew and I began watching "Happy", I had some of this prior knowledge about Cajuns in me. When they interviewed the Cajuns, it was a typical looking day for a family living around the swamps of Louisiana. It was filled with the cypress landscape, quiet animal harmonies along the bayou, obviously lots of food, and most importantly, family. A simple life filled with, seemingly, such happiness.

It was an interesting documentary with lots of interviews and psychological research provided.

One thing that wasn't proposed was faith in Jesus Christ. But as Andrew and I discussed, it still pointed to the Gospel. The secular research, the secular documentary, and this secular world still points to the Gospel of Jesus Christ if we let it and think through what is being said, countered with what we know to be true as Christians.

To me, The Gospel does not ensure my happiness on a daily, minute by minute basis. That is not a popular thing to preach in 2013. God prunes those He loves to make us more like Him, and that can be very uncomfortable and cause me to be unhappy. He is not concerned with Whitney's 24/7 happiness scale.

What The Gospel does ensure is joy. Joy in the Lord; joy in all circumstances; joy because I have been rescued; joy because this world is not for me; joy because He has gone and prepared a place for me.

Psalm 118:24 says, "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

So the French have it just about right: "Joie de vivre" sounds a lot like Psalm 118:24 if you ask me.

My hope and prayer is that this little guy keeps his "joie de vivre." 

Have a happy day.