Early Successes

I'm a celebrate the small successes kinda gal. I get so much joy out of crossing things off my to-do list. In fact, I try on purpose to put small tasks on my to do lists so that I can feel that sense of accomplishment when I cross something off.

This week I muddled through with regular classes, a ton of deliverables for school, a volunteer commitment meeting, and a 3-day intensive breastfeeding support course. I'm feeling extra good because, besides being an amazing experience, the breastfeeding course puts me one step closer to crossing off one of my resolutions for this year - volunteering with young mothers. I have an interview with a support organization on Monday.

In other news, baby N is crawling all over the place and pulling himself to standing. He's definitely on the move now!

Book: The Happiness Project

Photo Source (also a great book review!)

So to start my new year off I picked up a copy of the Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin (yay for reading for pleasure!) I had seen it in Chapters while doing my Christmas shopping and stopped to take a glance. I was tempted to buy the book for myself but in remembering my goals - making smart consumer choices and sticking to the budget - I opted to try the library. This was a serious achievement for me since when I want something, I usually don't want to wait for it. I have found that waiting to see whether I still want something after a week or a month is a good test for me. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long since apparently others seem to be enjoying this book as much as I have and aren't keeping it for the allowed 3 weeks.

A little over halfway through, I am thoroughly enjoying this read and learning a lot about happiness. Gretchen comes at happiness from the point of someone who although isn't unhappy or facing a life crisis, feels that she is taking many things for granted in everyday life, so she focuses for a year on trying to live a happier life. Monthly topics she tackles are: Vitality, Marriage, Work, Parenthood, Leisure, Friendship, Money, Eternity, Passion, Mindfulness, Attitude, and finally Happiness (a culmination of her learnings from all topics).

At one point in the book Gretchen starts a one line journal and a gratitude log. She ultimately gives up the gratitude journal as it starts to become more of a chore for her than a source of happiness. In my goals for 2012 I decided I wanted to be more thankful for the little things in life and therefore decided I would write them down. I also decided that I would keep track of the things I do daily for myself. I have started jotting things down daily in my Moleskine pocket notebook - however, it has been more of a 50 word max highlights of my day journal entry than specifically gratuitous points or things I have done solely for myself. Although when I look back, I can often see one or two things I have done each day for myself (reading for pleasure; actually taking the time to wipe down my kitchen cupboards and baseboards)  and things that made me truly happy (N's giggles; teaching B how to skate) and for all those - and yes they happen to be little for the most part, I am grateful.

I'd love to hear others thoughts on this book!

2012

2011 was pretty eventful:

• We decluttered and got ourselves in a better place financially.
• I wrapped up my first significant contract job in my field and it felt good.
• DH got a job promotion in the Spring and by the end of the year secured himself another for 2012.
• We had our second beautiful baby boy in May.
• Sold our first house that we had completely gutted and renovated over the last 3 years.
• Moved into a newer house where we haven't had to do many renovations (thank goodness).
• I went back to my Masters program, got an awesome field placement for the Fall, and and even better Graduate Assistantship with an environmental organization that does really good work.

In both my professional and academic lives, I have realized that it isn't enough just to have have a plan (or goals). In order to bring that plan to fruition, you need to most importantly set out the actions you will take to achieve your goals.

Alas, for 2012:

• I want to continue to eliminate clutter from our lives and improve our financial security. I will do this through regular purging/donation, being a mindful consumer, and sticking to our household budget which includes budgeting money for emergencies and savings.
• Continue to find meaningful ways to give back to my community. For awhile I have wanted to volunteer doing young mother support. This year I am hoping to make that happen. I have looked into taking a lactation consultant course which will hopefully make me more marketable since I'll have a tangible skill to offer. 
• Immerse myself in my thesis research and give it my all. I want to make my research meaningful to myself and for society. I will not feel pressured into framing my research in such a way as to disregard my own interests in favour of others. Perhaps I will focus on publishing something this year.
• Cherish the little things - Quite often I read this or hear this said. Frankly, it is difficult to do in a society that places the most value on grandiosity (case and point with child birthday parties). I will start taking note of daily "bests" in a journal. This will also help me to be more "present".
• Act on the fact that "life is short". It is so easy to get stuck in routine. I want to try new things often and more importantly, focus on doing things that make me happy. In the same journal, I will also write down one thing I did that was new or out of the ordinary and one thing I did for myself for each day.

Bests of the Holiday

The Christmas holidays have come and gone. Around here we're winding down and getting ready for the New Year, new semester for me, and back to work for DH. The tree is down and decorations are nearly all put away. For us, usually this doesn't happen until well into January - however, I heard on the radio awhile back someone talking about how they take everything down by December 31st so as to start the new year with a clean slate. It made sense.

Highlights of this holiday have been:

• Brendan participating in the Christmas Play at my mom's Church. He was a horse. It was very cute.
• Hosting our first Christmas dinner for extended family. It was a success and surprisingly low stress.
• Seeing Brendan so excited realizing that Santa had came and brought him the "big boy scooter" he had requested (the only thing he asked Santa for). 
• Flying a new kite - thanks to Nana and Papa - on a rather warm Christmas morning
• Getting together with old friends. We were lucky to have multiple visits from one of my very best childhood friend's who came home from Edmonton for the holidays. One of these visits involved a foam sword fight..between her and I. I haven't laughed so hard in such a long time. I was also able to get out for dinner with 3 friends from high school and despite not seeing each other in years it was just like old times. 
• Taking B skating for the first time. I was so proud of him. Skating is hard and he was such a good sport. We only caught the last 30 minutes of a family skate session but by the end he was balancing well standing in one spot and getting better at getting up from the ice on his own.

Tonight is shaping up to be another low key New Years Eve and that's A-okay with me.

Giving back for the holidays with young children

As I mentioned awhile back. We want to start instilling the idea of Christmas as a time of giving to those who are less fortunate with our boys. Now that classes are out and exams and final papers have been written, I have a little bit more time to dedicate to finalizing more ambitious Christmas gifts and to deciding and executing our plan for giving this year.

Having young children, certain ways of giving seem less practical for us, mainly those that involve volunteering time. Some opportunities are inappropriate for small children – like working in a soup kitchen. Consequently, we have been trying to find ways that will have meaning for us, are appropriate given our finances and family dynamic, and most importantly, that B will understand (i.e. visible actions such as gift giving as opposed to monetary donations or monetary contributions that involve tangible gifts like food hampers). We’re also trying to pick opportunities that offer a teaching opportunity such as to explain poverty, homelessness, or illness. Food and toy donations are simple enough – he understands that we are giving to people who don’t have food or toys.

Some ideas for giving back at Christmas time for those with very young kids:

• Donate non-perishable food or personal hygiene items to a local food drive. **We try to avoid giving sugar-laden, highly processed, or junk foods. Also, if you’re cleaning out your cupboards pay attention to best before dates and when in doubt toss it out. Alternately, if you have more money to spend, you could buy a food hamper.

• Donate warm winter clothing – many places will take both used and new items and are looking especially for children’s items.

• Donate toys to a local toy drive. Although many toy drives request new toys, there are also some places that will accept decent quality used toys. **We are asking B to select a few toys he no longer plays with/has duplicates of to donate since he is fortunate enough to be receiving new toys this Christmas.

• Give a less fortunate family the gift of “Christmas” – gifts, food, decor

• Make Christmas crafts and cards with your children and drop them off to a local nursing home for seniors who do not receive visitors over the holidays. The same can be done with flower arrangements (or poinsettias received as gifts if you’re concerned about small children or pets).

• Donate to the local animal shelter - kids love animals.

• Purchase products where the proceeds go to important causes ex. a local initiative is selling very cute calendars with the proceeds going toward the construction of a new, affordable facility in the Region.

• Donate gifts to Sick Kids. DH spent some time there as a child for eye surgeries. They have a really neat site for giving get well gifts like crafts/baking supplies, books, etc. 

Any other ideas?

Santa Babies

One very excited boy and one not so sure baby.

Hello December!

Yesterday was the first snowfall in these parts. I assured a rather anxious B he would be able to go tobogganing soon. The hot chocolate has already been flowing here and a pot of soup (ends of veggies thrown together in attempts to clean out the fridge before grocery day) is simmering away on the stove for dinner tonight. The snow serves as a reminder that I need to get moving on finishing my Christmas shopping.

I've been enjoying our newly painted house. Having the walls look fresh makes the other not so fresh things stick out - I totally need to find some new throw pillows. We used Benjamin Moore's Collingwood for most of our house and totally love it. Our living room (pictured) is done in Grey Mist the BM match for Restoration Hardware's Silver Sage.

Newest development? N's first tooth came through and this kid loves "real" food way more than baby mush.