For the past month I have been participating in "The Happiness Project" over at the lovely "Seven Cherubs". It was a wonderful idea and one the filled me with optimism.
It was a simple enough brief, keep a diary for a month and record daily events that made me happy. Easy Peasy, or so I thought. I consider myself to be a perpetually happy person but for a couple of days there I was stumped (and I have to admit I occasionally forgot and had to write in the next day - Oops!)Mostly though, nice things happened and keeping this diary was a joy.
Here it is in it's month long entirety;
10/4 - Was woken by a cuddle and sloppy kiss from Little Miss and a cup of tea (albeit cold) from Mr 10. A lovely way to start my day.
11/4 - At the doctors, but really pleased that they slotted me in straight away. Prognosis: tonsillitis, go home to tea & sympathy from Hubby (nice!)
12/4 - Slowly feeling better. Hubby goes into work later so he can drop the kids at school for me (Yay!) and then finishes early to pick them up (double Yay!)
Miss 8 brings me home a gorgeous "Get Well" card from school. I put it on the fridge with all my other special kiddie artwork.
13/4- Mr 4 had his first ever Easter Hat parade today, it was just adorable and I was so proud of my little man. 15/4- A beautiful quiet day. Went for morning tea with friends, had muffins and tea. Lovely, just lovely.
16/4- Spent the day in the kitchen cooking up a storm with Miss 8, had a great time together. It is one of our favourite Mother/Daughter activities. Took photos of our creation to enter a competition.
17/4- Sunday. My favourite day of the week. The whole family was at home and I loved spending the day pottering around the garden and in my kitchen.
18/4- We won! The competition my daughter and I entered was drawn today and we won! A beautiful, brand new Scan pan set....Woo Hoo!
19/4- Rain, rain and more rain and that means one thing...hot chocolate and movies...Yaaay!
20/4- The sun is shining thank goodness as we are off to the park for a birthday party. Have a brilliant time, so much fun for adults and kids.
21/4- This is what me happy today.......
Enough said.
22/4- My Sister's birthday today, so the whole family is together for Easter and her birthday celebrations. She was stoked with her pasta machine. I love it when I buy a gift that someone loves! Now, I hope she makes me some awesome pasta with it!
23/4- Easter Saturday, we have a beautiful Easter lunch and we all sit around chatting and enjoying ourselves while the kids find eggs hidden in my parent's garden.
24/4- Woke at 3am this morning to hear an excited little voice call out "The Easter Bunny was here!" very cute. Luckily the little early bird went back to sleep and we were all up together at 6am to stuff our faces with chocolate and then run around in a chocolate induced high all day.
25/4- I love public holidays, especially when Hubby gets a day off. Although we did work around the house it was a lovely day.
26/4- Illness has swept through the house and we are all suffering from the gastro bug. We have all taken turns in being sick over the past 24hours. Has completely skipped Mr 4 thank goodness. So that is what is making me happy today - Mr 4 is well although the rest of us are not.
27/4- Recovery mode. But all snuggled together on the couch and watched movies so that was lovely.
28/4- Back to school for Mr 4 and Mr 10 as they are both OK. Another day off for Miss 8 who is still feeling poorly. I'm feeling better and oh, so hungry. Chicken Pot Pies are on the menu and taste brilliant after two days of being sick.
29/4- Back to the school run. The kids are so happy to see their friends and I love being back at school helping the preps with their reading. They are all just so adorable.
30/4- Outside, watching the kids run and play. The sunshine warms my face and I feel great.
1/5- May! How quick is this year flying! My beautiful friend celebrates her 30th today and we have a BBQ in the park to celebrate.
2/5- Cold clear mornings are my one of my favourite things, so beautiful. So peaceful.
3/5- Coffee with friends, we chat, the kids play. I love having the freedom to do this sort of thing.
4/5- Today I make a cake for my daughter's 2nd birthday. It turns out beautifully and I am so pleased. I know she'll love it.
5/5- Georgie's birthday morning tea. We have a joyous morning. My little darling has a wonderful day.
6/5- Mother's day morning tea at the school. Mr 4 and his class put on a gorgeous show and then serve us morning tea. It brings a tear to my eye and makes me wish that I could capture this moment forever.
7/5- Miss 8 plays her first ever hockey game and does so well. I am so proud I could just burst with it.
8/5- Mother's day. The kids are so excited about giving me their carefully chosen gifts from the Mother's day stall. I bask in their love and affection.
9/5- Today, I write. This simple act of expressing myself brings me happiness.
10/5- My daughter has her first ever Naplan test. She is sooo nervous. I tell her to just do her best and I will be proud of her. She hugs me and says "I know you will Mum' and off she goes. At that moment my heart is full of love for her.
A huge thank you to Naomi from Seven Cherubs for her inspirational idea. It was quite a challenging month and a whole lot of fun! xx
Hey, we both had a birthday party in the park on the 20th!!! Wooooo Spooky - wonder if it was the same park????
ReplyDeleteIn addition to enjoying being a part of this project, promoting happiness I am also finding it interesting to note how in one single month, so many of us experience such similar things. Sickness, doctors trips, birthday parties, coffee with friends, the list goes on. Just goes to show why we all get along so well ;)
That is strange! Don't suppose you were hanging out on the Gold Coast that day? I find it is always the simple, every day things that make me feel the happiest. Those are the things that make life special and we need to appreciate them! This project has been so wonderful for that. xx
ReplyDeleteI would be so thrilled with the Scanpan win! Fantastic! Glad to hear you're feeling better too. Being sick and looking after kids is never much fun.
ReplyDeleteOne of my fave things to do is cooking with my daughter too. So lovely to see that pic of your little one cooking up a storm! :)
Thanks Kellie, we were over the moon with the Scanpan set. My daughter in particular. It arrived in the mail the other day and she was the first person to cook with them! xx
ReplyDeleteWhat a great list! There are a few things there that would have put me down in the dumps (everyone being sick) but you managed to find something good out of it.
ReplyDeleteWell done on winning the Scanpan set!
I loved reading about your month! Brought a tear to my eye what you said to miss 8 before her NAPLAN test. It's so stressful for them. Glad to hear you're feeling better after tonsilitis and gastro and congrats on the scanpan win - nice work xxx
ReplyDelete@ Alicia - It's very hard to think of something uplifting on days when you're sick. I have to admit I really struggled on those days to be positive...but I managed! xx
ReplyDelete@ CRAP Mamma - It was a really hard slog for Miss 8 last week, she pulled through with flying colours thank goodness! It's so stressful for such little people to go through such a testing process, but she's off to Seaworld tomorrow as a reward from the school so she's happy about that!
Great list...I love that so many of our journals rely on family, friends and food.....and thats all we need to keep us happy!
ReplyDeleteOh my! how cute are your kids!!! So love this list and it was lovely to see that even though you were not well at the start that things improved and that a lot of your happiness was related to family.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I have really enjoyed is reading about how everyone felt and enjoyed mothers day, the timing was great and it is wonderful that you had a few extra birthdays and celebrations in there to bring you happiness.
Thanks so much for taking part in the project. Naomi x