Fun weekend with the family

This weekend was a lot of fun and filled to the brim with getting out of the house!

We went to a Harvest Festival at the little ones school.  It was perfect for her age! It wasn't too big, had a bouncy castle for big kids and one for little kids,  Pony Rides and small petting zoo with a pig, bunny, ducks, goat, and sheep.   It also had a little "activity" center where you could decorate pumpkins and cupcakes, get your face painted or have a balloon animal made!  Then there was the music circle with hay seats (the kids LOVED this) and an ongoing soccer game in the middle of it all! 

We had a great lunch and no one was really ready to go
home!  Autumn in our hometown is so much fun - and I look forward to more activities like this in the future!

We had "naptime" after the festival, and then we just played around the house and outside until DATE NIGHT - Woo hoo!

Oliver and I did the Groupon/Google Offers date night.  We had a great sushi dinner with Groupon vouchers and then saw a movie with Fandango vouchers from Google Offers. It is always fun to have a date night, but I love getting a good deal - and it just made it feel that much better!

The down side is the move was HORRIBLE - don't go see "The Big Year"..that is all I have to say!

Today was a normal, but fun family day - we went to the playground, went out for lunch, naptime, and then we took our dog to the beach and came back to eat dinner and have an after dinner "dance party"with the little one (we all love that!).

I am not ready to go back to work tomorrow - I just love weekends like this!

Different Perspective on Family - My true happiness

I came across this article, "For parents, sacrifice is living the dream" today while the babe was napping.   It is about how living day-to-day family life really is many peoples ultimate dream - but it gets overlooked.  It really made me think about "sacrifices" and "family" from a different perspective.  I seem to focus a lot on the negative: I don't get sleep, I don't have time to myself, I get frustrated, I miss my husband and I having alone time, etc.

I have been trying recently to focus on the positive.  Focus on a new thing that makes me happy.  But does it have to be something new?

In the book, "The Happiness Project", she suggests in order to find what makes you happy, you should look back to what made you happy when you were 10 years old.  Funny enough the article I read today, and the book's theme actually tie very closely together for me.

What did I LOVE when I was 10?  I loved being around my best friend, acting like I had a grown-up job, being a mommy of my "babies" (dolls), being creative, building things and being loved by/doing stuff with my family (game night, family dinners, etc).  I didn't have any great hobby that gave me an "a-ha!" moment.    I wasn't a stamp collector or love reading mystery novels - or anything that I could apply to a new hobby.  In reality, I realized I am living my 10 year old dream.  My day-to-day life is and should be my biggest source of happiness.

I do laugh a lot with my daughter and husband, I get to be creative (our newest game is pretending a moose is chasing us and hiding under a blanket), we build things (hello? legos!), my husband is my best friend (and how lucky am I to say that?), I take care of my baby every day and we have family moments all the time!

This made me think, just because I am a mom, it doesn't mean I am giving up a piece of me.  I am indulging myself in my biggest dream and accomplishing my ultimate goal.  It isn't easy all the time - but what "thing" in life is rewarding without being challenging?

I feel like I have a new way to look at things. A way that makes me feel like my day-to-day life is actually making me very happy - not breaking down a piece of me....  Let's see if I can incorporate this perspective more actively and continue to see things in this positive way...

Babymoon

Oliver and I were lucky enough to take a "Babymoon" weekend last weekend.  We went to Old Saybrook, stayed in a beautiful hotel overlooking a lighthouse and marina, and enjoyed an AMAZING weekend. We got to get back to just us.

The weather was true to an indian summer - 80s, sunny, with a light breeze!  We actually got to read, enjoy a coffee, and relax by the pool (in our bathing suits!!).  We had two nice dinners, went to the movies, went shopping, got massages and just talked.  We talked a lot about this blog and what I want to do as hobbies - and it gave me time to just think. Nice!

Oliver really wants me to give sailing a try next summer. He wants me to be able to sail on my own and be able to handle a boat if anything happens to him.  His dream is to have a family vacation on sailboat in the Caribbean - and I also want to do this, but I have been hesitant to because if anything happens to him, I am not competent enough to sail on my own.  I did love sailing in pre-baby years - we used to sail in Germany and London almost every weekend.  I found it relaxing and a good mix of socialization with actually doing something.  Now, when I think about sailing I focus on how much time I am away from family or, if we bring the kid(s) I have fears of them falling overboard.

Maybe I should look past those fears.  Learn to sail on my own and gain more confidence and add sailing to my list.  It is a new challenge, I love being on the water and eventually I can even add family to the mix and do both at the same time!  Who knows..maybe I will fall in love with it :)

Steve Jobs: ‎"If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?"

Be warned, this is not a "make you feel happy" post, but it is still about finding happiness..

As most of you know, yesterday Steve Jobs passed away.  I know he was an amazing visionary, changed the world, etc.   He definitely put work first - but that is what made him happy - to each their own, but family will always come first for me.

As the flurry of posts on facebook came in - there was one video that kept popping up - a commencement speech at Stanford University that Steve Jobs gave

He goes into what he thinks is the key to happiness and one of the things he said was ‎"If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?"  If the answer is "No" to many days in a row, then you need to change.

I have to say my answer would be "Yes" on most days.  Like most people, I would like to work less and spend time with my family more, but I do love my family and my job and feel like I have a good balance with both of those.  I do think I need to focus a little bit on me..but that is the whole point of this blog!  Either way - the video is an interesting watch and that is an good tactic to gauge your happiness level on a daily basis..

There was another story that came out in the flurry of posts about a kind of sad end-of-life scenario.  Basically Steve Jobs put so much time to work, that he wasn't always there for his family.  Here is a quote from the writer, Isaacson, about his last meeting with Jobs for the book, just weeks ago:

As a writer, I was used to being detached, but I was hit by a wave of sadness as I tried to say goodbye. In order to mask my emotion, I asked the one question that was still puzzling me: Why had he been so eager, during close to 50 interviews and conversations over the course of two years, to open up so much for a book when he was usually so private? “I wanted my kids to know me,” he said. “I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.” (http://parislemon.com/post/11101071134/speaking-of-the-steve-jobs-biography-its-author)

That makes me think (and know)that one of the things that makes me the most happy is my husband and kids.  I will not put anything above them and nothing will ever be more important.  So - in this whole process of finding my happiness, I cannot lose sight of that either...

Feels good to write Thank you cards!

Earlier this week I had a fun project with my daughter - We decorated the Thank you cards for her 2nd birthday (basically put stickers all over thank-you cards!).  She enjoyed it and I started introducing her to why we send "Thank-you".

I finished writing them tonight - and not only does it feel nice to be done, it is also nice taking the time to think about why me/my daughter is thankful.  It made me think of how my daughter has incorporated her presents into her life, how much she enjoys playing with them and seeing how these new additions really make her happy.    I know it is cheesy, but writing thank you cards really makes me feel good :)

So, now I can head to bed feeling accomplished and happy!