Happy Progress

 

This is the last weekend in January (I know! I can't believe it myself!). I started to read The Happiness Project by Gretchin Rubin before the New Year and decided to start my own project for 2010. 

This month was all about Boosting Energy. How was my progress this month? Let me tell you...

I must begin by saying that running a household of 5 children is quite a daunting task. Even with my wonderfully helpful husband walking through the door at the end of the day, like a knight in shining armor, it remains a tough job.  Just the mounds of laundry a day can leave me exhausted.  

Everyday chores while two babies compete for their Mama's attention and my Sophia who wants to play, read and color (all at the same time) and who asks for about a million bubble baths daily (in which she gets only one, if she's lucky) is quite a feat to accomplish. 


I drive the older girls to school and by the time we have to pick them up again, I look around the house bewildered because it seems like I have accomplished nothing. I know things are definitely getting done but not always how I hope or dream them to be.

The recommended tasks from The Happiness Project for this month required: 

• Getting more sleep
• Exercise
• Toss, Restore and Organize
• Tackle a Nagging Task

You can see short videos of the author outlining each of these steps by following the links above.

I have been getting more sleep; committing myself to a midnight or earlier bedtime. I have not been perfect but my project is not about perfection, it is about making changes for the better. On the nights I went to bed earlier than my midnight deadline, I felt better rested with more energy to tackle the next day. To improve, I would like to try to push my bedtime to 11:00 for the upcoming month.

Exercise? Well, no..um, not much exercise. Unless you count the number of times I climb up and down the steps with laundry or hefting two cute babies around the house. I have a gym membership that got used exactly zero times this month so I am considering canceling. Perhaps the extra money for that unnecessity will earn me a little check on my mental Happiness Chart. 

I also have been decluttering and organizing. I went through my bookshelves last week, pulling books that were not-so-loved and donating them to The Purple Heart. Decluttering has more than one advantage. I placed some books that were in excellent condition on Half.com and in the past week earned almost $13. Not much but my home is a little lighter and my purse a bit happier! 

The last task was to focus on a nagging task. My one looming task is to finished binding Lana's quilt that I made for her. It remains waiting patiently in my laundry room pressed and waiting for the sewing machine. Our girl is turning 7 years old in a few weeks and I swear I started this quilt when she was 2. Seriously. I must finish it. 

Unfortunately, that task will not be completed this week. It will be placed on the to-do list for February. 

As Gretchen Rubin writes in her book, The Happiness Project, "By the end of January, I was off to a promising start, but did I feel happier? It was too soon to tell".

Truth be told, I was quite happy before beginning this project. Each day starts anew and every day will not always be the happiest. By keeping in tune with my Happiness Project it makes the cloudier days a bit brighter and the mountain of dishes in the sink a little less overwhelming.

To quote Abraham Lincoln, "Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." 

And, I have made my mind up to be pretty darn happy.