The Happiness Project in 2013...Wanna Join Me?

Yes, 2013.  No, my blog hasn’t been hacked.  I’m actually thinking ahead…TWO MONTHS!

I’ve actually been thinking ahead for much longer than that, ever since I read “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin last spring.  It was such a fantastic read, and now I’m finishing Rubin’s second book on the subject, “Happier at Home”.

I wouldn’t characterize these books as “self-help” exactly.  They really read like a memoir.  Rubin documents how she tackled different initiatives – basically a topic a month – in her pursuit of feeling “happier”.

I’m not an unhappy person, by any means.  I think I’m generally upbeat, more glass-half-full, usually pretty optimistic.  What really spoke to me about these books, though, is that they play to one of the deepest tenets I hold, that we create our own happiness.

I can’t always choose the hand that life deals me, but I have control over how I respond to those situations. 

I am as happy as I want to be.

I wake up (at least most days) and choose happiness.

There are a few points from Rubin that have really stuck with me…

·         Act the way you want to feel.  (Or, in my words, fake it ‘til ya make it.)

·         Identify things that make you happy, and surround yourself with those things.  That sounds like a no-brainer, but I think it’s a really valid exercise to actively identify – in writing – what those things are.  Make a concerted effort to incorporate them into your environment, or your routine.

·         Identify things that make you unhappy, and work to eliminate those things, or work to develop a new / better response to those things.

To that last point, as an example, one thing that really brings me down is when I have some tasks hanging over my head.  One of Rubin’s happiness boosters is, “Tackle a nagging task.”  It may be tedious, but devote 15 minutes, or one hour, whatever…to accomplishing the task, or making progress towards it.

I was beating myself up for being behind on editing photos.  One of the girls woke me up at 4:30 (and hour earlier than I normally get up) one morning, needing a tissue.  Instead of trying to go back to sleep, I got up and devoted a solid hour to photos.  I felt so accomplished!!!  That sense of accomplishment – happiness!  -- boosted my entire day, more than making up for the hour of lost sleep.

I could go on and on…but ultimately the post of this post is to share that my word for 2013 will be HAPPINESS. 

I want to make a concerted effort to identify those things that make me happy, and those things that bring me down.  And then I want to be intentional about addressing them.

And I want to invite you to join me.

Have you read the book?  Whether you’re up for blogging about it or not, I’d love to have some folks to bounce ideas around with, and maybe encourage some accountability.

Want to read the book?  The first volume is available in paperback, and I think it’s a pretty quick read. 

The books have really helped me think about the world in a more intentional way…have helped me be more AWARE (my 2012 word).

Have you started thinking about 2013 yet?  Or do you want to kick me in the shin for glossing over the holidays that are QUICKLY APPROACHING?  HA! 

I’ll only say, don’t mistake my 2013 speak for me having wrapped up all my plans for 2012...far from it…but I’m “acting the way I want to feel”…organized and on top of things.  ;)

***

Here's a LINK to Gretchen Rubin's website, The Happiness Project.

And here's a LINK to her Facebook page. 

(I'm in no way linked to Gretchen Rubin...I just love her books!)

Weekly Awareness: Creating in a Place of My Own

I have always love to craft.  That was easily my favorite part of Girl Scouts, and I always relished art day at school.  My mom was a crafter, too, and I remember many hours spent spread out over the kitchen table, sharing scissors and glue and ribbon and yarn.

As an adult, I've gone through my craftier times...I was on a huge Christmas ornament kick for a few years.  I've done needlework and I've made jewelry.  Over the past 10 or so years, though, I've leaned much more towards the realm of stationery and scrapbooking.

I tend to work in the kitchen...but that largely means I'm working at night, after the girls are in bed and my chores are done.  That's all fine...but the downside is that I have to pull everything out, and then put it all away at the end of the night.  I tend not to get my goodies out very often, unless I have a large chunk of time I can dedicate, as it's not been worth the spread-out and clean-up hassle.

I finally decided this week to act on something I've been thinking about for a long time.

I moved my scrapbooking supplies (which are nicely organized in several flat-bottomed totes [31 brand]) to our upstairs guest room.  We have an antique dresser there that sits low to the floor...about the height of the bed...and I'd been dreaming about spreading out there, working on my knees.

While I have missed having all my paper and punches downstairs a time or two, during crafting with the girls, I've gotten so much scrapbooking done this week!

My goal has been to finish my BFF's scrapbook from the baby shower I hosted for her...almost 2 1/2 years ago...gulp.  I'm so proud to report that it's DONE!

For the first time in my scrapbooking career, I was able to do multiple layouts at once, so that everything would tie together.  Instead of having to pack everything away, though, risking the loss of my groove, I could leave the layouts, ready for final assembly.

I feel so accomplished at FINALLY having finished her book.  (I'll admit it was a big undertaking...I scrapped all THREE of her showers.)  Just as importantly, I had such a blast CREATING.  It's good for my soul, and -- given my new set-up -- there wasn't an undertone of dread at the process.

This is a good reminder to me...to be AWARE of the things that make me happy...and find ways to make those things happen.

I'm linking up with Marcia today for her CREATE challenge.  Thanks, Marcia, for the crafting inspiration...but even more for the constant inspiration to do things that make us happy.  :)

And of course I want to share a couple of my favorite layouts!

This is the shower I helped host.  The decorations were clothelines, strung with bibs and mittens and booties.  I love the clothesline I made of twine for the bottom pic, strung with miniature baby clothes!

I love the top left page, with the circular "belly" picture...Alison's hands, along with her mom's and sis's.  I also love the "tags" I made on the bottom left page, to note a couple of special foods / drinks.

Another clothesline on the bottom left page, and a nod to sock monkeys -- a special surprise gift -- on the bottom right page.

From Alison's family shower...she got an Alabama plate and cup set.  That inspired the houndstooth corners against the pink gingham.  LOVE!

Can you tell I had fun???

Weekly Awareness: "Me" Time

Along with almost every comment about the girls being in school, the question, “What are you going to do with yourself?” usually follows.

The girls are in school from 9am through noon, Tuesdays and Thursdays.  That’s six hours a week (minus transit time) apart from my babies.  While that sounds like a huge chunk of time, I knew going in that that time would pass by so quickly.

On their first day of school, there was a brunch for the parents after drop-off.  I spent about 45 minutes there, and then I ran by the grocery store.  I came home, dawdled a bit on the computer as I downloaded pictures from the morning…updated the blog and Facebook with their “first day of school” pictures…loaded the dishwasher…made lunch…consoled the cat who didn’t quite understand where her sisters were…and it was time to pick them up again.  Whew!

Maybe I should have felt refreshed with three hours to myself, but I actually felt pretty harried.  I’m sure part of it was due to my first-day jitters, but that experience underscored that I want to be more intentional with that time.

I did a better job on Thursday.  I went to the grocery store again, this time with a list.  I actually got our family shopping taken care of for the balance of the week.  I came home, put away the groceries, and made lunch, but I didn’t allow myself to be sucked into the computer.  I went to Target to cross a few more things off my list.  And then I dropped off my things for the fall consignment sale.  I still had time to enjoy a coffee downtown (it just so happens one of my favorite coffee shops is two blocks from the girls’ school!), and I read my book for a glorious 30 minutes!

This week I didn’t have any errands to accomplish, so on Tuesday I decided to treat myself to a “me” day.  I enjoyed a long-overdue pedicure…I browsed at Hobby Lobby (BROWSED!!!)…and I still had an hour, so I treated myself to lunch at one of my favorite cafes.  I tried to remember…I believe it’s been a full year and a half since I ate lunch by myself.  BLISS!!!

On Thursday, I have a “work” day planned.  I need to clean out the guest bedroom (it tends to suffer when I’m getting ready for a consignment sale), and I need to go through the girls’ closet to pull out the fall / winter things I bought for them at the end of last season.  Both of those tasks are very difficult to do with my “helpers”, so I know that will be time well-spent.

I like that I planned both days this week at the same time.  The “me” time on Tuesday seemed so luxurious, but I don't feel guilty about it, since I intend to accomplish a lot on Thursday.

While my babies are apart from me…having fun, playing with friends, doing messy arts and crafts that don’t require Mommy to take a nerve pill (HA!)…I’m vowing to be AWARE of this time.  That doesn’t mean it will always be productive – in fact, one day I plan to NAP! – but I think as long as I feel like I have something to show for the time, it will feel like a huge “win” for me.

Weekly Awareness: Utility

By no means do we live in a palatial estate, but our house is plenty big for a family of four.  You'd never guess that by looking at our tiny pantry, though.

I have never been able to fathom the design...how in the world is a family supposed to store any amount of food?  Was it built, assuming the "average" family eats out a lot?  Or was the design to encourage the consumption of only fresh fruits and vegetables?

I know I'm reading too much into it...I can't imagine either of those scenarios was considered...but it's maddening, nonetheless.

Until the girls were born, it wasn't such a huge issue.  (I was only cooking for two people, we did eat out more, and it was no big deal to run to the store in the middle of the week.)

But over the past three years, I've really felt frustrated with my storage space.  I've loosely had the idea to call in the storage solution folks, but I hadn't made it a priority.

At the beginning of the summer, I told Hubby that I wanted to invest in the pantry.  He agreed, and I finally made it happen.

Here are the "before" pictures...

The shelves were 16" deep, so I had two "layers" of most things.  I cleaned out the pantry once a month...otherwise I'd forget what was "hidden".

The bottom of the pantry had a lot of wasted space.  The cooler bags toppled over frequently, "hiding" my potatoes and onions and garlic.

We added this door organizer as soon as we moved into the house, having had it in a previous house.  It's a great space-saver, but it was jammed with too many things.

And here are the "after" pictures...

I had the shelves reduced to a 12" depth, which allowed for an L-shaped "return" on one side.  I have more usable space and fewer things "layered".  We added another really high shelf for things I don't use very often.  Between everything, I have two almost-empty shelves!!!

This is my very favorite feature...I LOVE this basket system!  Not only does it help me organize many smaller things, but it really takes advantage of the large space at the bottom of the pantry.

A close-up on one of the drawers...look at all my teas!  I have one deeper drawer for all my baking supplies (chips and nuts and chocolates).  And the bottom drawer holds my potatoes, onions, and garlic.

No change to the inside of the door, other than I was able to reorganize and neaten it up a bit.

I bought a few new storage containers for sugar, flours, and such.  (The ones I had dated back to the mid-90's...ack!)  I just need to buy a basket of some sort to hold open bags of pasta and rice.

We've had our new shelving system in place for almost a month, and I couldn't be happier.  It's really one of those things that I now wish I'd done a long time ago.

I'm filing this under my AWARENESS challenge for 2012.  This experience is a reminder to me to invest in the utility of things that can really make my life a little easier...things I use every single day, multiple times.  It's worth it!!!

Weekly Awareness: Nice Things

We have a full set of beautiful crystal, most of it from our wedding, that lives in my grandmother’s china cabinet.  I make a point of always drinking wine and cocktails from my good stuff, but that’s not something we do very often these days.

The kitchen cabinet that houses our daily drinking glasses is far from beautiful, though.  It’s brimming with mostly mismatched coffee cups and a huge array of glassware.

Our water glasses date back to my college days.  I received a set of eight green-tinted glasses as a graduation gift…in 1998, 14 years ago.  We’ve had a couple of casualties along the way, but we still boasted five from the set.

Our juice glasses were even older, a relic from Hubby’s bachelor days…which puts them probably close to 20 years old.  Yikes!

We’d been loosely talking about getting new glasses for years, but Hubby and I haven’t been in the same china shop – one of us always home with our bulls, if you will – in a long, long time.

On Thursday afternoon, Miss Jenny was at the house with the girls.  After enjoying a very early dinner together, Hubby and I still had a little time left, and we decided to browse Pier 1.

On a side note, it was a little bit surreal walking in there.  We used to drop by and browse together quite often, maybe once a month.  There’s always something interesting to see, right?  I’m pretty sure it’s been over a year since I was there, and I don’t think Hubby and I have walked through those doors together in a good four years.

After checking out all the patio stuff, smelling some candles, and touching most of the pillows, it dawned on me: we should get new glasses!

We quickly decided on our favorites, a classic clear cylinder with just a touch of interest at the bottom.  We bought six water glasses and six juice glasses.  They weren’t expensive…$2.50 each…for a total spent of $30…but I sorta feel like I spent a thousand bucks (in a good way).

I came home and cleaned out the crazy array from our cabinet.

How great it feels to have invested – not just monetarily, but thought-wise – in something that is so integral to our routine, every single day of the world.

Weekly Awareness: Fine Things

A couple of weeks ago, Aunt Shanda had a birthday.  We were so honored to be able to kick off her day by having her over for breakfast before she headed out of town.

I planned on making her favorite muffins and coffee with extra vanilla creamer…and then I started to think about how I could jazz things up a bit.  My mind was soon spinning with thoughts of cupcake toppers, fresh fruit skewers, and meats and cheeses. 

I quickly settled on a black-white-and-silver theme, with pops of bright pink, Shanda’s favorite.

I had so much fun planning our little tablescape.  I brought out my mom’s silver-rimmed china, my silver chargers, some silver and crystal serving pieces, and I tied a black and white polka-dotted ribbon to the stems of our champagne glasses (for mimosas…minus the champagne, anyway).  [Shanda was traveling that day, and I had two wee ones to attend to.]

The girls were so excited when they saw all the pretties that morning…  

“What’s this, Mommy?” 

“What’s that, Mommy?” 

“Is china from China?”

…and it dawned on me that my girlies have never been seen any of my china, at least not outside the china cabinet.

I have three full sets…one from each grandmother, and one from my mom…and they’ve basically never laid eyes on it.

And it later struck me, as Shanda and I were sipping over-creamered coffee from delicate little teacups…in 36 years I don’t think I’ve ever drunk from these teacups.

Why do I have this stuff if I’m not going to use it???

Granted, we’re still very much in a “plastic” phase at our house…and I don’t put my china or crystal in the dishwasher, which raises some logistical challenges in terms of resource allocation…but I’m going to make a concerted effort to use my “good stuff” more often.

I want the girls to see us enjoying “the fine things”…and soon to enjoy “the fine things” themselves.  I want to live this life and celebrate all the fine little points in it…not just reserving “the fine things” for the rare special occasion.

AWARE in 2012.

Weekend Awareness: Organization

A few weeks ago, dollimama posted a question, “Be honest, how clean is your house?”  She talked about organization…”a place for everything, and everything in its place.”

Reading her post really made me think.  Deep down, I think I’m a very organized person…but at least half of my house feels very disorganized…why is that?  What spaces are consistently organized?  And how do they differ from my problem areas?

The two areas of our house that are consistently organized are the girls’ closet, and the girls’ toys.

[I’m not talking about their toys being organized on an hourly basis, but at least every other day we have everything in its assigned spot…even if it takes OCD Turbo Mommy cleaning up again after the girls are in bed.]

So what is it that makes those areas feel so different from – say – my kitchen pantry?  My closet?  My craft supplies?

The answer I’ve been able to arrive at is that I started both those areas from scratch.  I put thought into a system that would work for us.  And I revisit that system on a regular basis.   

At least twice a year, I go through everything, clean out what we no longer need, and reorganize as necessary.  Along the way I’ve invested in some new shelves / bins / boxes.  I have the space and the supplies to organize our things, and I devote the time to keeping it organized.

I think this realization has a lot of validity to it.  So, in theory, what I need to do with the spaces that aren’t currently organized, is back up and think about a clean slate. 

What’s happened with my closet, for example, is that I’m living a different life now than I did four or five years ago, but I haven’t changed my organizational system to reflect that.  The majority of the clothes I wear are weekend casual (and lots of t-shirts and yoga pants, if I’m being honest).  While I’m hanging on to my business attire, I should rearrange my closet so that my slacks and suits take a backseat to my khakis and soccer shorts.

The area I’ve been focusing on for the past couple of weeks is my filing / mail system.  I have a secretary cabinet that belonged to my grandmother.  While the desk and one drawer have technically been used for filing for several years, I’d let that system get out of date.

I’ve gone through my files and shredded a lot of things I no longer need, things I now know I can find online if I need to.  I’ve dedicated cubbies in the desk to Bills, To Do (like schedule dentist appointments and bank transactions), Coupons (for restaurants and services), and Correspondence (cards I need to send).

I’m proud to say that – with the exception of my calendar – my counters are free of papers and mail.

I’ve committed that it’s a daily chore -- to go through what we receive in the mail and put it in its proper place.  And weekly, I need to sort through my cubbies to make sure everything is handled on time.  So far, the new system is working.

My guess is that it’s pretty rare to truly have a “clean slate”…but to at least evaluate areas from that view point I think will help me get some new systems in place that will work better for who we are, right now.

Weekend Awareness: Entertaining and Time with Friends

This week I hosted a small group of friends for an UsborneChildren’s Books party.  My friend Jenny is a new consultant, and I wanted to help her get up and running.  (I also happen to be a big fan of the book line, and it was a great excuse for me to add to our library!)

I set the date with Jenny, and invited some friends…and then, frankly, I started to dread it a little bit.

When would I have time to clean the house?

When would I have time to prepare the munchies?

What if no one could come?

I did my best to set aside those reservations, and I started to plan.

I decided to work around a theme…”Dive into a Good Book”.  My mind began to spin (in a good way) with visions of beach-y décor and a flight of sweet and savory dips.   

[Get it?  Dive into a book…dive into dips?  Perhaps it was a bit of a stretch, but it made me chuckle.]

While it was a bit of a feat to do some cleaning and straightening downstairs (especially since our girlies came down with a virus early in the week), and I had a couple of late nights getting everything prepped and ready…

…I had so much fun!

There’s definitely something really energizing about seeing things come together…the yummy dips, the fish-shaped bowls, and the beach towel and sand bucket spread on my kitchen island…

…and of course, time spent with friends – especially propped around my countertops, the heart of my home – makes my heart sing.

This week, I’m reminding myself – challenging myself to remain AWARE – of how much I enjoy some casual entertaining. 

Yes, it’s work.  But, it doesn’t have to be perfect.  (I didn’t catch a single person on Thursday night checking the bottoms of my chairs for lint!) 

And it’s so much fun to break from the norm…challenge some creative juices…and appreciate time with friends.