2013

It is January 2013!  January is the coldest month in South Dakota - this year it has been remarkably warmer than usual!  Not just because of the hot chocolate we have been having, or the family movie nights with a fire in the fireplace, but I guess also because of global warming.  Watch out world South Dakota might just get tropical. 

I have had a harder time keeping up with the blog, because we are busy living life to the fullest.  In many ways this blog was started to help me adjust to a very new lifestyle.  I found out my oldest daughter had Celiac Disease and not long after moved to the Midwest.  The blog helped keep me busy, keep me positive, and keep me cooking for my daughter.  This blog changed my life, it was a way to learn and report on new happiness strategies, a place to learn and report on new recipes, as well as, a safe place to cope with the bullying we encountered at the tail end of 2011.

In the New Year I have found myself looking for resolutions.  This year is the first in which I feel at a loss for resolutions, in part because I hit my previous ones with such passion.

One goal I can make is to blog at least 100 words per day.  I might be stealing this idea from a friend, but it should keep giving back to a blog that gave so much to me.

Happiness should always be the goal for the New Year.  I want to share the strategies with the most impact from my happiness readings over the last couple years:

1.  Gratitude -  Hands down the best strategy I implemented for my family.  We still go around our kitchen table and proclaim what we are grateful for each night.  If I forget for a couple nights, the kids jump in and take over.  One night I was in a bad mood, it had just been a really long day, and Beezus could tell I needed a pick me up, she took charge and said, "let's all say what we are grateful for" - that night I was very grateful for her.  My kids know they are lucky and so do my man and I.  This is practice is pervasive, it changes your mind set a little at a time.  I highly recommend it.

2.  I tell my man I love him everyday, sometimes way more than once.  This  advice is all over the place, in books, in articles - along with sage advice like never go to sleep angry.  I make sure my man knows I love him and that I appreciate him.  It calms him and it calms me.  I look for things to thank him for and make sure he knows I notice the effort he puts in.  This strategy worked in a couple ways I did not expect, I notice what he does more, but also, he actually does more! 

3.  Finding opportunities and taking advantage of them.  I admit, I get completely tired out and do not take advantage of all the opportunities in life, but I am constantly upping my game and never becoming complacent.  I took on a volunteering opportunity this year where I mentor a family in need, and although I wish I was better at it, this experience has been soul improving.  Other opportunities are less large, I make a point of pushing myself more on weekends, when I would rather veg out/sleep in, I grab the kids and we ice skate (winter), go to the park (spring), go to the museum, the zoo, and the community pool (summer).  Of course my family has a thirst now for seeing new places, thanks to our move to the Midwest, and we are traveling whenever the fates allow.  I am essentially filling up my journal with adventures, as a family we relive these adventures through photos and stories we tell each other.

For 2013 I will be staying hungry for life, pursuing my passions and committing to love intensely.

Happy New Year!

Me, overdue, in 100 degree heat at the airshow!  July 2012