100 Days of Happiness Day 39

This strapping little fella came to our doorstep today asking for Quincy. John happened to answer the door.
"Oh, are you Quincy's Dad?" he asked...
Quincy ran to the door and blushed. And asked if she could go out and play.
Peyton wanted to know, "Who is this, Quin?"
Brooklyn was curious, too. "Quincy. Who is this??"
Even Henry came over and wanted to know.
The little boy, whose name it turns out is Alex, is a friend from school. He wanted to ride bikes with Quincy, he said.
Everybody was checking him out. It's hard to be a boy and want to play with a Hutchie girl, I guess.
The crowd at the door peeled away, and Quinny and her new friend got their helmets and bikes and rode around the neighborhood. 
When Quin came back in later in the afternoon she said she had fun. Then added, "Oh. Alex has a major crush on me."
You don't say, Quin. Ha.
What makes me happy is that there is an entire family looking out for you, little girl... So hilarious.

100 Days of Happiness Day 38

Our baby boy was dedicated at church today. This is different than being baptized because it is more of a commitment from us, and clearly less of a decision from Owen. When he is older he will be able to choose baptism for himself, but until then John and I have committed to raising him with God in the forefront. It was a simple ceremony, but profound nonetheless... We took Owen, along with a few other babies, to the front of the church where our pastor prayed for them and asked everybody else to pray for us as parents and the babies as well. It was powerful and beautiful.
I was sort-of secretly hoping God would help Owen with his extension cord fixation. Because it's both dangerous and quite frankly, irritating. But when the ceremony was over and I put Owen down in the parent's viewing room, it took him all of 1 second to locate the wall of cords and speed crawl toward it. We'll continue to work on it.
In the meantime, I'm very happy to have such a special church to belong to, and I'm very proud and happy to have Owen dedicated.

100 Days of Happiness Day 37

It's a good feeling when at the end of the day it is difficult to pick just one happy moment. The day was filled with them. It was the girls' annual Taekwondo championship, which they both competed in. Both girlies have come so far in the years they've been doing martial arts. This was Peyton's fifth year, and Quincy's third. The first year Quinny participated I practically had to peel her out of the backseat of the car. She was red-faced and terrified. And truth be told, I may have felt the same way in her shoes. Both girls competed well, and while Quin didn't place this year, she still rocked it. Peyton picked up first place for sparring. Which I must admit, both amuses me and fills me with wonder -- and of course, makes me super happy.
Well, Peyton didn't end her day there. It was also the final night for the performance of the musical she has been rehearsing like crazy for. She rushed home, changed out of her Taekwondo clothing and into her make-up for Shrek. She is an amazingly hardworking kid. I feel like I need a nap just from taking her to the places she needs to be for practices/rehearsals. But she seems to thrive on the activity. It was a fun and happy day with my girls. 

100 Days of Happiness Day 36

I asked Quinny how her day was yesterday when I picked her up from school. "Okay," she told me, as she often does. She then went into a detailed account of the game of tag she played at recess, and also how her lip felt very dry. Then, as an after thought, she told me she got called on stage at lunch to sit with the principal. "What!?" I asked. "Yeah, an award..." Quin said casually as she tried to find my chapstick in the car, as this was clearly the more important matter at hand. Sure enough, she whips out this award from her backpack this morning. Again, no big deal to her. I, on the other hand, am pretty impressed. And forgive me for gushing over my Quinny-Girl... I am so proud of her, and couldn't be happier that she was recognized for things I see in her all the time. She is thoughtful and conscientious, and a very good decision maker. I know I cannot take full responsibility for the great person she is and continues to become... She was born that way and we just have the great pleasure of watching her grow. But she does make me very very happy, though.

100 Days of Happiness Day 35

I'm sure there will be plenty of happy things that happen today, so I feel I'm jumping the gun by posting this so early... but we ran. And it was fun and great. And a bit slow... But we ran. Yay!!

100 Days of Happiness Day 34

This week hasn’t been my favorite in the whole wide world. With the injured tail bone debacle, or as it’s being referred to around here: “my broken butt,” I haven’t been able to run, which starts to bum me out after the second or third day. I tried to do a little yoga, but when a simple cat/cow caused me to drop the f bomb due to pain, it just seemed to defeat the purpose.

And I knew, as I sat there in the Urgent Care waiting room, that part II of all this would be me battling the plague that was sitting shoulder to shoulder in that waiting room with me. There was a little grandma to my left. The kind of lady you could imagine saying, “oh honey, have a little spot of tea with your cookie.” That delicate lady had the hacking cough of a 280 lb man who fishes crab off the coast of the Bering Sea. The sweet child to my right had a similar sounding cough. As I sat there on my one butt cheek, I sighed… I would get sick on top of all this. Sure enough, I’m fighting a cold. I can feel it in my chest and in my sinuses. It wants me. But I’m chugging emergen-c, elderberry syrup, kombucha tea, apple cider vinegar, zinc, and oranges. I don’t go down easy.

Feeling under the weather and not being able to exercise is a challenge for me mentally. I am not saying this is the proper route to feeling better, but I must admit, at 2pm I eyed this bottle sitting on the counter and thought – it’s you and me baby when 5-o-clock rolls around. Sometimes a glass of vino is just the thing to make a lady happy. Especially when it's called Handsome Devil.

100 Days of Happiness Day 33

Each day when I pick Brookie up from kindergarten she runs toward me as if she hasn't seen me in years. "Mommy! Mommy!" She always says, her hair and backpack flying behind her. And then she tells me 27 things about her day. Usually she has notes in her backpack for me, too. They are various scenes with the two of us holding hands or standing next to rainbows or unicorns. I am always wearing brightly colored dresses and crowns and special shoes. I never get tired of seeing her special notes that proclaim me the "best mommy ever"and I never get tired of that little face running toward me at the end of the day. She makes me happy.  

100 Days of Happiness Day 32

Yes, I’m the nut taking pictures in the produce section. I couldn’t help myself – isn’t it pretty?

Sometimes I’ll slice into a purple onion and I can’t believe how neat it looks. That's how you know you've crossed over into dorky adult-land. Ask a kid to take a look at an onion and appreciate its beauty and you'll get the look. You know the one -- the one that says, "um what? that's an onion." 

The truth is, I love food. I used to think this made me gluttonous. Growing up in Southern California can be hard on a young girl’s self image, and unfortunately, I was not spared. Despite my mom’s best efforts – always cooking healthy meals and encouraging me to aim towards health and strength, somewhere in there I began to buy into the notion that girls should be thin and not eat much. Problem was, I had a great appetite. I remember holding my stomach in starting in fourth grade. I remember not eating foods that were healthy because I thought I would gain weight. Then in my 20’s I consistently ate processed food that had zero fat grams, but lots of chemicals and refined carbs. My skin looked awful, I got my first cavities, and my energy level was in the toilet for being so young. It makes me sad to remember that… 

Somewhere in my later twenties I realized that when I ate almonds and oatmeal and avocado and olive oil and steak (yes, steak) I felt better – I could run farther and faster, and I didn’t gain weight. My body was so much happier. Food is beautiful and I love it. I love cooking it and I will eat anything… I’ve never been a picky eater. Someday I will grow a huge and awesome garden. While I prefer to eat healthy organic food 99% of the time, there is a time and a place for a greasy double bacon cheeseburger and chocolate cake. Like so many things in life, it is a balance… One thing is for sure, good food makes me happy.

100 Days of Happiness Day 31

Life is unpredictable. One second you’re pulling off what could be the sweetest dance move ever on the hardwood floor… The next, you’re lying in a crumpled pile holding your broken ass.

Things change just like that. Without warning, and sometimes without reason. Learning how to accept these things, and flow with them – make the best of them even, is a constant challenge.

But there is some continuity. The sun always sets, and it always comes up in the morning. We never have to wonder, “will the sun come up today?” It just does. And the seasons come and go – there are no ifs ands or buts. Right on schedule Spring is coming. This is not a surprise, but it is welcome. It’s the first year in this house, so it *is* a surprise to see what comes up. This tree, for instance, burst into flower to my great happiness… All along this tree in the front yard was keeping these flowers until now – holding on to them like a secret… And now here they are – blooming bright and beautiful, revealing themselves against the early Spring blue sky. It makes me happy.

100 Days of Happiness Day 30

Once upon a time, there was a two year old little girl named Peyton who believed she was a princess. She very much wanted to go to the fancy ball with her Daddy. So she dressed up in her favorite fancy dress… her Daddy put on his suit, and he took his little princess to the ball where she danced, ate cookies and had the time of her life. That was 10 years ago. Since that day, 2 other little princesses have joined the fun. Each year the girls dress up in their finery (even Quincy, who has gone on record with her position on dresses)… They dine on the most delectable food (Red Robin) and go dancing with their best Daddy in the world. The Father Daughter Ball – or “FDB” makes everybody very happy. Even those of us with broken buns.

100 Days of Happiness Day 29

Sometimes I’m not in the mood to write a “happy” post.

There, I said it.

Sometimes I find myself taking inventory of the less positive goings on in my life. A couple times I’ve told myself this happy project is lame. And I’ve almost stopped doing it a few times. Because it’s easy to find the negative things on certain days. It’s not always easy to see beauty and joy in ordinary life. But I want to be the type of person who does find happiness everywhere… And so I work on it – all the time. And that’s why I really enjoy this project… If you’re so inclined, I encourage you to join in. It really does shift the focus from dwelling on the negative, to always looking out and being aware of the positive. And truly, positivity attracts more positivity. So please consider doing it:

http://100happydays.com/ 

 

With that said, my happy moment today was helping a friend and her son get 500 sandwiches ready for local homeless folks. We signed up to make 100 sandwiches. Peyton and one of her friends took the first shift. John and I covered the second. Of course John turned it in to a major competition. Did I not know he was the best sandwich maker on the planet? His peanut butter spreading technique is recognized across nations for being superior. His jelly to peanut butter ratio is but perfection… I managed to eek out some (sub-par) pb&j’s myself, all the while smack talking with my husband…

Does it not put life in perspective when you think that perhaps a pb&j may be the best meal you receive all day? No matter how difficult a situation I may struggle with, I know that I am fed and that my kids will never be hungry. Sometimes looking at life though another person’s eyes who is struggling in a way most of us cannot comprehend, makes me realize just how fortunate I am. Helping somebody else, no matter how big or small makes me happy.