Happiness Week 4

Still dizzy (from ear issues) but staying focused on the good in my life with my Happiness Photo Project .

What Made Me Happy - Week 4

01/23 Refrigerator Light

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This is one of the small things in life that you really take for granted until you don't have it. A light in your refrigerator. I was SO happy when Steve fixed the refrigerator light after it not working for 10 months. But alas after a couple days it's now not turning on 25% of the time, but that's still an improvement, right?

01/24 Iron Bird

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I love it when I find things I've been looking for....like a bird for my iron bird cage that has been empty for a year and a half. X Check, off the list. Yay!

01/25 A Healthy (and Delicious) Salad

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My focus for January has been health, but since I've been dizzy and we had a mountain of snow at our house I've been sucking at meeting my goals.  One is eating regular meals (I tend to skip breakfast but since a friend told me that the first way Sumo wrestlers try to gain wait is skipping breakfast I am trying not to but I still find it hard).  I'm often alone for lunch and just grab whatever is easy which isn't always that enjoyable. I happen to love salads. Today I made a salad with mixed greens, lemon pepper chicken, apples and walnuts and a lemon tarragon dressing. Yum! It made me happy to eat it and I felt like I was doing something toward my health goals.

 01/26 Little Bear After School

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Ainsley loves school, she comes home in such a good mood! It's funny though, almost as soon as she sees me she asks for a DVD (using sign language). She was able to open the very heavy block drawer and get to her blocks and needed just a little help to get into her hammock. The sight of her doing such a normal thing as watching a DVD, playing and swinging in her comfy seat after a day at school makes me very happy and proud of her progress. Also since Little Bear was my favorite show for the older kids I love that she likes it too.

01/27 A Day Out With My Father

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The day was beautiful, there was a thick fog in the valley with glints of sun peaking through as I drove to my destination with the music cranked up. It was the perfect start to my day, though I wish I'd had time to park and photograph the view. Pre-kids I used to go out with my birth father for breakfast many Saturdays, after which we would go visit an art museum (he's an artist) or see a movie. It was our special thing, but when the kids came along it became difficult to do. He's a great guy and I enjoy spending time with him and miss our outings so I decided to invite him to breakfast to celebrate his birthday. We always seem to have so much to talk about that we linger, but you can only drink so much coffee. Afterward we toured a local gallery and saw some great pieces. And then we met up with my sister and her husband to see his new business enterprise, a photography studio a couple blocks away. I got to use his "Penn Wall" to take this picture of my dad posing all fierce. I love it! We got a private tour of the Edmonds Masonic lodge, it's in a 100 year old opera house, and tried to photograph ghosts. It was an adventure and it's hard to pick just one photo but this would have to be it.

01/28 Basketball and Fatherly Encouragement

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I am very happy that my son is learning the lessons that team sports teach. Such as: it's how you play the game that counts, attitude is everything, how to work as a team (even when your team mates aren't), how to lose gracefully, the benefit of practicing anything you want to be good at. He was having a bit of a hard time and feeling rather down (he doesn't have much of a poker face) so Steve sat down on the bench to give him some fatherly encouragement. It was sweet. Our life can be exhausting and in years past we just couldn't make the time commitment that sports require. I am grateful that things have improved enough that we can do this for Adrian.   

01/29 Bags of Leaves

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Steve was SO busy at work from October through December that our yard has suffered. Then just after the Holidays it snowed. We still hadn't raked our leaves and it needed to be done so we decided to work as a family. I had the kids picking leaves out of the bushes (yes they complained but it's character building) while Steve and I raked. Ainsley came out in her walker. After several hours (and more by Steve) it looks much better but we didn't get the side or the back. This picture was taken before Steve bagged up the last of the leaves, 8 bags in all. We are very lucky to have this beautiful yard, but it is an awful lot of work. Since we live in a neighborhood with covenants and our neighbors yards are quite tidy, our lack of upkeep was quite noticeable so it's quite a relief to have it at least half done.

Have a great week! To view a slideshow of the entire Happiness Photo Project click here. For more about what this is all about click here.