Happiness Archives - Page 10 of 70

2015 : Love

January 12, 2015/1 Comment/in Happiness /by Megan

A few weeks ago we closed the book on 2014, and it got me thinking about everything I learned this year. It’s overwhelming. I’ve gained so much knowledge about this person I’m becoming and about the universe that surrounds me.

The biggest thing? Probably the knowledge that I am not one thing, and I don’t have to be. I can be strong AND smart. Beautiful AND ugly. Silly AND serious. Creative overachiever AND a fan of “good enough.” I can believe in the power of words AND the power of silence. I can be pro gay marriage AND pro God (of my understanding). I can be adamant that #blacklivesmatter AND be grateful to police officers and their families. I can find Lana Del Rey totally obnoxious AND sing along to Lana Del Rey. Ditto Taylor Swift. I can be a super fan of Britney Spears AND Doctor Who. I can be a person who doesn’t drink alcohol anymore AND a someone who’s super awesome at Cards Against Humanity. A mother AND a girl who needs mothering. I can be a planner with a million to do lists AND a spontaneous free spirit.

While I love the idea of “resolutions,” I find it much more effective for me to choose a word each year, and then try my best to live each day with that word behind everything I say and do. My 2015 word of the year is LOVE. Because I believe as long as you’re living your life with love at the forefront, you can do/be anything. You can be the yin and the yang all by yourself. I think we all are. We just have to remember to love all of ourselves, and do our best to extend that love to the people around us.

I know the world can be scary. Bad things happen every day, in every town and city in the world. But truly, when I look at the world around me through a frame of love and tolerance, it can be a beautiful place. So for this year, I’m choosing love, beauty and joy. Bring it on.

Peace, Love and Holiday Cards

January 8, 2015/3 Comments/in Happiness /by Megan

I love holiday cards. LOVE THEM. Even though I see everyone’s photos and accomplishments through the year via social media, there is something special about opening up the mailbox and getting a card full of joy. Throughout the rest of the year, the most exciting mail I get is from my bank, so getting something fun in the mail is such a treat! I apparently need a pen pal, because I turn into a giddy five-year-old when I get a card in the mail.

Disclaimer: Yes, I’m aware that holiday cards are expensive and can be overwhelming for some…I get that. Trust me, if the thought of creating and sending out cards makes your stomach crawl, DON’T DO IT! Surely it could be just another unneeded stress during the busy holiday season. Have some hot cocoa and watch a Hallmark Christmas movie instead. Maybe the one about the Christmas Town or the one with Candace Cameron as a doctor. Either way, you win!

But then the tree comes down, the holidays are swept up, and I’m left with a stack of lovingly made holiday cards. Now what? I feel like a dolt just throwing them in the trash! So every year they sit in a box with my decorations until the next year, when I unpack them and wonder why the heck I saved them all.

This year I’m trying something different. I am a huge fan of Pastor Adam Hamilton, and the other day he mentioned an idea for leftover holiday cards on his Facebook page. He takes all the cards and puts them in a basket or box, and then each day he takes out one card and makes a point to pray for that family. I’m still working on learning how to pray…but for me, it basically means I think loving thoughts and send good energy toward people I love. It may not be perfect, but it works for me. Yesterday, I gathered up all of my cards and I’m starting this process today. I feel like it’s an awesome way to move on from the holidays, but still be thoughtful toward all those people who made my mailbox trips so joyful these past few weeks.

The 2014 Holiday Season

January 5, 2015/0 Comments/in Family, Fun, Happiness, Photos /by Megan

The holidays were a whirlwind this year, I am a bit amazed they are already over! But at the same time, it feels like we’ve been celebrating forever. We were packed to the brim with activities and family until about December 29th, and since then I’ve been cocooned in my PJs refusing to leave my house except for food and to wear out the kids at the gym. Though I tried to keep the holiday as low key as I could, you could say it ended up a little hectic. I’m learning our whole family doesn’t operate as well under prolonged excitement, and maybe resistance is futile during the holidays, but I think next year I’m going to try and dial it down even more.

Surprising to no one, my favorite moments were definitely the quiet ones with my little family. Of course I loved spending time with our good friends and extended family, seeing their smiling faces is always a highlight, but the times that stick out to me are the simple ones. Watching movies on our couch pull out bed on New Years Eve, opening gifts on Christmas morning, sleeping in with no alarm to wake us, making dinner for my family and laying around reading all the books we received. Those are the moments I cherish and hold on to as we head in to this New Year.

Tomorrow (and the next day) my kids go back to school, and it will be much needed return to routine. While everyone has enjoyed our break, we are ready for schedules and predictable daily expectations. The kids have missed their friends and their activities, and while I sometimes complain about our busy, little life, I know we all thrive on it. We like our lives to be full to the brim, sometimes overflowing, just as much as we like taking two-week breaks from it all. I suppose that’s how it works. The breaks wouldn’t feel like breaks without something to take a break from. And, I have to say, it’s pretty wonderful to be excited for what awaits in the real world when your break is through. That’s how I know, for now, we’re doing it right.

Love Is Everything

December 24, 2014/0 Comments/in Family, Happiness /by Megan

From my family to yours, we hope you have a holiday season full of love, naps and repeated airings of While You Were Sleeping.

(Photo by Soul Studios)

Joy to the World (or something)

December 9, 2014/0 Comments/in Grumples, Happiness /by Megan

Anyone else feeling burnt out by the holidays? I’m sure it’s just me, wandering the house at 2 a.m. mumbling incoherently about broken packaging tape dispensers and running out of ribbon. Where is all the ribbon, y’all?! It didn’t just disappear. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, I bet the dog ate it all. He has an odd look about him.

Last year, I white-knuckled through the holidays with a forced grin on my face. It was a weird, strange, difficult year, and acting my normal holly, jolly self seemed wrong. Like that pair of jeans that was just a little too tight. I wanted to button them up, but that pinched look of pain on my face was obvious even with that silly smile I was wearing. This year is so different. Different and wonderful and joyous and lively and did I mention wonderful? I feel like myself again, only better or more childlike or something. I am that annoying mom who is super excited to make our Elf on the Shelf take a bath in marshmallows. I know, I know. I can’t stand myself either.

But along with this giddy glee of the holidays, my perfectionism is rearing it’s ugly head. I often refer to myself as a recovering perfectionist (amongst other things), and it’s times like this when I lose a little control. I am so in love with this season, I want to do every single thing I can to squeeze every last bit of fun out of it, even if all that squeezing isn’t actually that fun to begin with!

For example, I love putting up Christmas decorations. I just adore getting all those twinkle lights out and hanging them all over my house. If it were up to me, we’d have twinkle lights all year ’round. So I pulled out all the decorations, starting with the beast, our giant, pre-lit, fake Christmas tree. Now, I know, real trees are the better smelling option, but our dog eats ribbon and I’m sure he’d destroy a real tree. Plus, if you’d seen my houseplants, you wouldn’t want me to be in charge of an indoor tree. Our pre-lit tree is about six years old and not one light works. Not one. Last year I swore when I took down the tree in January I’d remove all those broken lights, but then January came and I was tired, so the lights stayed put.

A week ago I cursed my January 2014-self, and decided once and for all, I was removing those dang broken lights. I had an hour to kill while the kids were busy, so I set to it….and five hours later (!!!) with cuts all up and down my arms from fake tree branches, I was done. I probably was legally insane by this point, but I was on a roll, so I kept going. Why not, I couldn’t get crazier, right?

Ahem.

An hour later, as I cursed and yelled at a bulb-lit sign that said “joy,” which wouldn’t stay put on the mantle, Lucy mentioned, over the strumming of the Vince Gauraldi Trio, it was a little bit funny how I was screaming and cussing at a “joy” sign. Point taken, kiddo.

Since that fateful day, I’ve been trying to keep it as simple as possible. And when I get too overwhelmed, I’ve been stopping. I stop, I sit, I watch Love Actually. Because, friends, it turns out, love actually is all around. As long as all the bulbs on my tree stay lit, that is.

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