In a Nutshell: Flowers, Aunt Natalie, HAPPINESS

Hubby surprised me with flowers this week. In fact, he made a special stop at Costco which is not close to us and he was on a time crunch. Sigh...lovely, right?

Flowers the week before Valentine's Day?

Well that is what happens when you have a super thoughtful Hubby who recognizes that you had a miserable pregnancy week.

I am about five weeks away, and last week was rough. We laugh that for being a surprise this pregnancy really has been the most difficult physically and emotionally. However, I am still pretty blessed and I try to remember that while I am frustrated with my physical limitations.

I am grateful for a loving Hubby who brought me flowers in a hard week.

You know what else I am grateful for...how much easier my life is right now because of my sister Natalie. My sister just recently moved to town and has a little bit of extra time right now. Guess where she chooses to spend it? Yup, my house. Guess what she chooses to do? Yup, help this giant pregnant woman entertain her Little Men.

Temporarily it is kind of like having my own free Nanny. A Nanny that my kids love and that loves my kids.

I mean, it totally says love that she would bring over her own arsenal of make-up and then let them go to town on her face.

They did a great job, right??? Hahaha!

During the week when Hubby is at work, it has been blessing to have her around. I wouldn't get nearly as much done or have what little energy I do have right now without her.

Thanks to her we were able to spend a little individual time with Littlest this weekend.

Individual time makes me HAPPY. I know it makes our Little Men HAPPY.

Earlier this week Hubby got to take the oldest two to a basketball game and I know they treasured that time. They came home so HAPPY. Going to to a store and lunch with Littlest this weekend was such a treat for Hubby, me, and Littlest. Yeah individual time is awesome.

My goal in the time between now and when Bean comes is to try and schedule more individual time with our boys. I know it is good for us and them as well.

HAPPINESS this month is a family goal. Spend more Individual time together.

In a Nutshell: Forts, Supers, Villains and HAPPINESS

This is a little how our house looked during the day this week. There was lots of fort building, lots of creating, and lots of Little Men running around. I am still in the middle of my sewing/organizing/re-doing madness, so the Little Men found lots of ways to have fun while I sewed and painted.

As you will notice by the following picture, there were also several days where jammies were worn half, if not the whole day. No one was complaining though.

There were also two days were I couldn't get Middle and Littlest out of their Halloween Supers costumes. I kept meaning to get a picture, but never did. Shoot dang it all. Believe me though it was cute.

My boys LOVE anything Super. In fact this week while Middle was dressed up as Superman I asked him to help me with something. His reply...

"Of course Mom, 'cause Superman is helpful."


Yes, Supers are pretty important in this house...even the aunts got in on the fun this week during a little trip to Target...aka the best store in the universe...aka the store I could drop buckets of money in.

Now as most of us know, where there are Supers there must be Villains. I mean what purpose would the good guy have if there was no bad guy to fight.

Well occasionally the bad guy shows up in our house. This week the bad guy was this villain...

Ooooh. Scary, right?

It was a pretty fun week.

Having boys in the house is never dull or quiet. If I am honest with myself, I wouldn't have it any other way. I just about love all the fort building, Supers vs. Villain fighting, furniture jumping, and dart gun shooting.

They make me happy even when they are making me crazy.

Segway into my HAPPINESS moment.

My kiddos did have several moments of driving me crazy this week. I blame it mostly on my advanced stage of human incubatoritis. By this time of pregnancy I have not been traditionally a chipper person. This pregnancy is no different...in fact it may be worse.

I am older.
I have three crazy kids.
This is my fourth.
My body is tired.
I swear this baby is a giant.
Did I mention I am older?
Well I am older.

This doesn't sound like HAPPINESS yet does it?

Well no, not really.

There were plenty of moments this week when I did not feel happiness and most of it centered on my late stage of pregnancy. However, when I stop though and really think about this pregnancy, I realize I am happy about many things in this pregnancy. If I stop and reflect with gratitude on the blessings I do have in this pregnancy, I can't help but feel peace which does lead to happiness.

So yes, I don't enjoy the last little bit of pregnancy, but I can be happy in recognizing my blessings.

I am healthy.
I can still be active.
I am not on bed rest.
Newest Little Man is active, so I know he is there.
He is healthy.
I have a helpful husband.
I have three healthy boys.
I am a Momma to boys.
Good boys.

I may have to remind myself of this while crying as I struggle to get into a pair of pants...but I am a big believer that being happy is an active state of being. I am learning that in sadness if I try hard to put things into perspective and focus on the good then happiness can evolve.

Then the peace comes.

Perspective follows that.

Then the smile soon follows.

Have a great Sunday everyone. Thanks for letting me share my HAPPINESS journey with you.

In a Nutshell: Science, Nesting, House of Order

Around here this week there were only three things really occurring.


First-half of the family has been sick. No, sorry no photographic evidence of that. Believe you me, a really pregnant, sleep deprived, unable-to-take meds, stuffy-nosed, hacking person (ps that is me if you guys were wondering) should NOT, I repeat NOT be seen or photographed.

Second-there was some science that went on in our house. I posted about some of our experiments yesterday. Those were from my Pinterest boards. We also got a science experiment book for Christmas. The boys have been really excited (oh by the way boys includes my Hubby too).

The first experiment was more of an EGGsperiment...hahaha...sorry couldn't help myself.

Whew...

Basically it was an experiment using an egg.

Raw egg peeler, huh? Well we were intrigued.

You basically take a raw egg and put it in a glass cup.

Then you cover it with white vinegar.

You let it take a relaxing vinegar bath for 4-6 days. That is right, 4-6 days. Then it will look a little something like this--

Upon closer inspection (yes we just scooped the egg right out of the glass), the shell seems to have disappeared.

However, that is not the really cool part. The really cool part is that the egg is now soft and slightly squishy!

Say what?!? Believe it!.

This was an easy experiment, setting aside the fact that you also have to teach a lesson in patience to your little ones. My boys loved watching the changes that took place over the week. They especially loved feeling the squishy egg at the end.

Okay, remember we are still counting down the only three things I got done this week. That long novel above was the second thing I got done this week. On to the last.

Third-a whole lot of nesting was done at our house this week. Of course it was done in between feeling well and feeling sick, but Hubby and I still managed to get a lot done.

We hung up some stuff. Stuff that should have been hung up before living here 4 and a half months...but who is counting.

Boys' room is oh-so-close to being done!

Our dining room, one of the first rooms you see when you come into our house, is almost pretty. YEAH!

I am hoping my nesting can carry me through finishing boys' room, hanging the rest of our pictures, finishing Oldest's room, redoing Baby's room, and getting a guest bedroom ready for our many, many guest that will be coming once baby comes.

I know all this seems like craziness, but I have learned something this week.

Remember my Happiness goal for this year? As I made the time to accomplish some of these tasks around the house, I realized I enjoy and feel peaceful when I have a house of order. Now, with that said my Happiness Moment was being honest with myself that my joy in a house of order does not mean that I have to have the most up-to-date, fashion forward, dream decorated house.

More simply I am happy with a organized, clean, well-taken care of home...sometimes I fool myself into thinking I need all the extras (perfectly decorated rooms, matching fixtures, dream kitchen, and so on) in order to achieve the more simple house of order. However, when I am honest with myself I realize those things really are just extras. I am happiest when there is a good spirit in my home. A happy, peaceful spirit that makes our house a home is ultimately what I am striving for.

SO I guess what I am saying is I am happiest when we are living in a HOME of order not a pinterest-approved decorated house...you know what I am talking about!

Happiness is Home. 

In a Nutshell: Instagrams, Glasses, Happiness Moment

I do not have a fancy phone...so this whole Instagram phenomenon has not been apart of my life. UH...why did it take me so long to realize Hubby had the app on his phone?? While I still love my traditional photography more...I love the look of this and the ease of just shooting a cool pic with a phone...

I think I might be hooked.

As you can also see...somebody got new glasses...pun intended.

I have gotten more blind in my old age. Reading was fuzzy. Sewing was blurry. Night driving was almost unsafe. So I went and I got myself some new glasses.

When Hubby was explaining to Oldest that I didn't have to wear them all the time, but I probably would be wearing them the majority of the time he matter-of-factly replied, "You mean I won't get to see her pretty face anymore?"


Middle for the first two days just kept looking at me and saying, "You look like a lady scientist now."


I do look pretty S-M-A-R-T if I do say so myself.

Okay, so now it is time for my happiness moment. If you remember from this post, Happiness if my word for 2012. This year is going to be about setting priorities and spending time on those things that add to my long term happiness.

My first goal was to make a list of what truly gave me happiness.

My hope is that with list in hand and eventually in memory I will be able to cut the unimportant stuff and focus more on the things that matter most.

On this day there was a lot of just sitting and playing with our Littlest. I often don't realize how much of my time Oldest got when he was this age and how little Littlest gets. On this day though the older two were off playing with friends and the house was fairly clean, and hubby and I seemed to silently decide we could just sit there and spend the afternoon with our youngest and not worry about anything else we had to do...like paint one of the many bedrooms still waiting to get done. 

We read.

We played with puppets and stuffed animals.

We listened to him laugh.

We read some more.

There was a game of hide and seek.

There were hugs.

AND

There were LOTS and LOTS of kisses.

So my Happiness Moment is more time with my Little Men and less time doing my to-do list. My to-do list could be miles long if I let it. So long in fact that it steals the time in my day. Checking off items on my to-do list is getting-chocolate-kind of happiness. Spending time with my Little Men is pure contentment.

Pure contentment is the happiness I am aiming for.

What makes you truly, peacefully, and contentedly happy?

Happiness in 2012

source

I have never done the "word of the year" post. I am also not a big "setting resolutions" girl...at least not on January 1st. I am more of a set it as-I-see-it-necessary kind of girl. My life is a series of resolutions...some accomplished, some revised, and some...well a complete swing and a miss.

The beginning of the year has always seemed too predictable a time to try an improve something. Then you add to the predictability my tendency to snowball resolutions. Do you know what I mean? The snowball occurs when you take a look at what you want to improve or change and the list goes from 2-3 to 5-6 to 10-12 to 20 to 50...and before I know it I have way too many things I want to change/improve. Then I feel overwhelmed and cry face enters the picture.

So what is the difference this year? I honestly don't know. I don't know if I am feeling the desire to get back to basics. Or maybe with the upcoming birth of baby number 4 I am realizing I need to have some simplified priorities. Who knows? For some reason assigning a word to this year seemed like a dandy idea.

The word (theme) I am assigning to 2012, which you might have guessed by the picture above is HAPPINESS.

In order to ensure more happiness in my life I decided I needed to reflect on the basic things that make me happy and truly joyful. The long term happiness. The happiness that is peaceful.

Not necessarily the chocolate kind of happy or the new shoes kind of happy (not that that happiness isn't delightful at times too).

Each month I want to focus on one of my basic areas of happiness and try to improve that part of my life.

This month I am simply identifying those basics and writing them down. Along with identifying these basics, I am going to take a good long look at the areas that I spend too much time in that don't offer the long term happiness I seek. I think this is going to be the hardest thing. It is kind of like admitting to oneself that you need to lose weight and then painfully stepping on the scale to see just how bad it is.

If I truly want happiness then I have to do what I can to omit the actions that contribute to unhappiness or take away from the happiness I seek. Ugh...self reflection can be painful!

Even though I am a little scared, I am mostly thrilled to take this chance to have such a positive focus. What could be better than striving for true, joyful, peaceful happiness?

This month as I identify my happiness basics I am going to focus on priorities. I would love for anyone who feels the desire to join me.

So this month, is priorities. Make a list. Be honest with yourself...I think it is going to require some selflessness...but isn't that the epitome of what happiness is? I think so.

Each Sunday with my In a Nutshell post I will also share a Happiness moment. I look forward to sharing my progress on this goal with all of you.

Have a great and happy year!