Making Me Happy

So I'm going to be honest with you -- I've had a tough few days. I don't know how many of you know the book "Sacred Marriage" by Gary Thomas but its tagline is something like "What if marriage wasn't supposed to make you happy, but it was supposed to make you holy?" Well, if you substitute "marriage" for "parenting" that gives you an idea of what I've been dealing with lately. We have been going through a lot of refining fire over here these past few days and it looks a lot like meltdowns, crying, hysterical screaming, dumping out the garbage and pulling out all the Kleenexes in three full boxes. And my response to this refining fire has been a calm and mature "this too will pass" attitude crying, screaming, slamming doors and weeping on the phone to Dave. Yeah, did I mention it's been tough??? :)

However, every night at supper we go around the table and say what we're thankful for from the day. Even on the worst days, there is at least one thing we can be thankful for, even if it's that the day is almost over! (Tonight I was thankful I was working out instead of eating supper with my family. Ha!) So with that in mind I am going to share a few things which have made me really happy lately. They are pretty superficial things but they bring a smile to my face.

1) My roses, which I bought last week. They are looking a little sad right now because I am not a flower arranger, but they still make me smile when I see them.

2) My Fiestaware. I've been using it for afternoon snacks and I have to say, it makes food look prettier. See?

 

3) Monkeynastix. (Warning: Don't click on that link if bad grammar (and an obvious lack of proofreading) offends you.) Since the swimming lesson times for the summer sucked (seriously, who starts a swim class for four year olds at 7:30pm???), I found this program. The timing works much better for Sam and Rachel, they can each go on their own (Rachel's first independent program!!!), and I think it's going to be hysterically funny, although I'm not sure exactly why I think that. It's gotta be the name.

4) My supper tonight. After I work out in the evening I always crave a salad for supper. Enter iceberg salad in a bag on steroids. The "steroids" being the veggies I add to it to make it a million times better -- avocado, feta cheese (technically not a vegetable, I guess), red pepper and cucumber. Also I am drinking homemade iced tea mixed with President's Choice Lemonade. Oh yum.

5) Speaking of President's Choice, a store brand here in Canada, (and no, I'm not getting compensation for this post, although if anyone from PC is reading this I would totally accept it! Ha ha ha!), guess what I found in my grocery store run this evening??? These!!!

 

PC Portobello Mushroom Swiss Vegetarian Burgers are the absolute best veggie burgers I've ever had. But it's really random which stores carry them and when. So I bought two packages and was tempted to get more. You guys in The States can keep your Trader Joe's and your Rotel -- we've got these! (Although if you want to send TJ our way, we probably wouldn't complain.)

6) My gurgle pot. Say what?!!? Yeah, I hadn't heard about them either until last Thursday. Not to be confused with a neti pot, my gurgle pot is awesome. Janice found them last week and took me to the store. She was originally going to add to my Fiestaware collection for my birthday present, but she gave me a choice. Since the gurgle pot is 1) hysterical, 2) interesting and 3) will fit in well with my Fiestaware, I asked for one of them. Here they are all lined up at the store:

Don't they look like they were made to go with Fiestaware??? And since, just looking at them doesn't do them justice, here is a short(ish) video demonstration, done by yours truly. And yes, I'd just gotten home from working out and I'm not looking super-happy. But trust me, I am!

And that is the list of what is making me happy today. How about you? What's lifting your spirits these days?

 

Hours of sleep lately: 6.75, 8

Nights without snacking: Last night was a nachos and TV on DVD night so Dave and I both snacked. (I should clarify that when I made my original "no snacking after supper" rule back in January, my and Dave's at home date nights were an exception to the rule. And, according to Dave, they still are. Last night was such a desperate attempt to cheer me up that Dave even watched two episodes of Gilmore Girls with me. Which was another thing which made me happy.)

Gym visits this week: 1 (A Sh'Bam class with my favourite instructor which also makes me happy.)

 

See, happiness just abounds if only I look for it :)