Today My Happiness Comes from Mercy

In the book "Christ's Gifts to Women" the authors are discussing the gift of mercy - which is, of course, a gift available to everyone.  They state "To have faith is to trust that the Atonement can repair whatever mistakes we have made by carving new blessings and opportunities out of broken things." I have never thought of mercy in this way and it brought so much happiness to my heart.

Husband and I made a really dumb decision a little while back that ended up costing us financially and emotionally.  And while we have paid for that bad decision in more ways than one (and we still see consequences of that decision), I also feel that slowly but surely we have noticed blessings as well.  I never made the connection of those blessings to MERCY.  But it is great to know that when we are trying hard to follow God and His commandments, when we repent and do our best to move forward, He will allow blessings to come into our life. 

"Joy cometh in the morning to those who have earned the night’s rest of a laborer. One of life’s sweetest returns is the privilege of rendering significant service of worth to others. To be able to do for fellow human beings something they could not do for themselves brings matchless satisfaction. Years of preparation are worth it." - Russell M. Nelson

Happiness Is Being With Family

I am not particularly close to my siblings anymore, although we get along very well when we are together.  I guess it is just that life got so busy for all of us that we have just gone our separate ways and don't see each other very often.  This week my brother who lives in California came for a visit.  I had a very busy and stressful week and was not particularly looking forward to fitting even more things into my full schedule.  After going to a movie with my mom and all of my siblings, we decided to go to lunch.  The conversation began as any normal surface conversation does about the weather, work, children and grandchildren, etc.  However, the longer we talked the more in depth our conversation became and we were soon transported back to our childhood and were remembering together many funny, sad, exciting and nearly forgotten experiences.  It was amazing to me how much closer I felt to my siblings as we reminisced and shared feelings and memories that I hadn't thought about in years. As we talked, I felt a real change in my attitude and my desire to be closer to my siblings as that bond of memories filled my heart.  It made me reflect on how grateful I am for families and the absolute joy and happiness that each unique member brings into our lives. 

Happiness in Harmony

"Happiness and peace are found when we are in harmony with ourselves, with God, and with our fellow man" - Barbara B. Winder

Happiness comes from forgetting ourselves

I wanted to show you more of the gorgeous pictures that Jen took of my flowers, but didn't want to just put them all together in one big post.  Here's the picture of the day with a bonus quote by President Hinckley to go with it.

“Generally speaking, the most miserable people I know are those who are obsessed with themselves; the happiest people I know are those who lose themselves in the service of others...By and large, I have come to see that if we complain about life, it is because we are thinking only of ourselves.” 

Happiness Comes in Mint and Chocolate

I am in love.  

My mouth is watering just looking at this picture, taken by Sally's Baking Addiction.

This is quite possibly the BEST frosting I have ever eaten.  It tastes exactly like mint chocolate chip ice cream (even more creamy when you substitute Greek yogurt for the heavy cream).  Sally's Baking Addiction posted a chocolate cupcake recipe that balances out the frosting perfectly.  If I ever need an reason to smile, I will head to the kitchen and whip up a batch of these little bites of Heaven.

Maybe you just have to have a quirky sense of humor, but a guaranteed way to get our family to laugh is to watch a kid history video.  I am so grateful when people spend their time and effort making great entertainment that I can unabashedly share with my whole family.

Happiness in a craft project gone right!

I am not a crafty person, and despite my best attempts to create the cute kids projects I see online, most of them do not turn out successfully.  I should probably apologize for the section of our city landfill that contains our myriad of projects-gone-wrong.  So I was happily surprised to find a project that not only worked, but that my kids loved!   I found these pom pom shooters here and we decided to give them a try.  They were pretty inexpensive, and they kept the kids entertained for a couple of hours.  Definitely success!

Happiness Comes from Being Grateful

I'm on the tail end of a challenging week.  Big Sisters and Dad were out of town, which left me home alone with Little Sister and Baby Brother.  I had grand plans to get a bunch of things done that I've wanted and needed to do for a while before Big Sisters come home next week.  Instead, I've been trapped at home taking care of Baby Brother who picked up a nasty stomach bug and has had major and frequent bouts of vomiting and diarrhea.  Yuck! I was feeling frustrated and disappointed when I read a General Conference talk by President Uchtdorf called "Grateful in Any Circumstances."  I don't feel that being grateful is a strength for me.  It's definitely something I need to work on, and I thought he had some really interesting things to say on the subject.  He said,

"Why does God command us to be grateful?

"All of His commandments are given to make blessings available to us. Commandments are opportunities to exercise our agency and to receive blessings. Our loving Heavenly Father knows that choosing to develop a spirit of gratitude will bring us true joy and great happiness.

"Being grateful in our circumstances is an act of faith in God. It requires that we trust God and hope for things we may not see but which are true."

So, I decided to give having an attitude of gratitude a try, even though my current challenges are not that serious or gut-wrenching. I started looking for things to be thankful for, and it definitely made my week better. Baby Brother wanted to be cuddled because he didn't feel well, and I decided to be grateful that I had a good reason to snuggle with him and play with him. I'm usually so busy cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, running kids around, etc. that I don't spend much one-on-one time with Baby Brother or Little Sister. I did a lot of both this week. We sang songs, read books, watched Dora (Little Sister's favorite show), played in the tub. It was really fun and in retrospect, time well spent. I had a much happier week because I chose to be grateful in my circumstances.

Happiness Comes From Giving What We Have

I can't begin to express what my heart felt and the lessons I learned from the sight of these Silly Bandz.

Little Miss had a birthday and was showered with gifts from her grandparents, and cake and ice cream and activities with Mom, Dad, and Little Man. The doorbell rang as we were all getting cleaned up from an outing to the splash park.  A little girl from down the street had come to see if Kids could play.  We told her that it was Little Miss' birthday and that we couldn't play at the moment. This girl is babysat by her grandmother (our neighbor) quite often and Kids have enjoyed having a friend to play with in our otherwise childless neighborhood. 

A few minutes later our doorbell rang and when I opened the door, I saw a pile of Silly Bandz sitting on the porch.  The neighbor girl had left them to celebrate Little Miss.  My eyes filled with tears when I thought about what this girl sacrificed.  She doesn't have hardly anything - her mother is barely making ends meet - yet she wanted to give. I had an image of her scouring her simple, few toys in hopes of finding the perfect treasure for Little Miss.

It was a great reminder that happiness doesn't come from having everything.  Happiness comes when we make others happy.  Happiness comes when we sacrifice our own wants and needs for others.  Happiness comes when we forget about ourselves. Happiness comes when we give - no matter how much or how little. 

I was reminded of the scriptures in Mark Chapter 12 ~

 42: And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

 43: And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:

 44: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

What a wonderful world . . .

My amazingly talented sister-in-law recently came to my house to take pictures of my flowers.  As someone who is seriously lacking in the artistic department, I am so grateful that other people are able to capture this beautiful world we live in.  More pictures to come!

Summertime Yum!

This is the first year we've gotten strawberries out of our garden.  Delicious!

Happy Birthday Happiness

My two oldest girls are only 17 months apart in age which definitely has some challenges, but which also means that they spend much of the time being the best of friends.  We had all been at a store together recently when the younger of the two fell in love with a sweet little owl charm necklace that opened to reveal a tiny clock inside.  She spent much time when we returned home agonizing over whether she would give up other things she wanted to buy with some anticipated birthday money in order to purchase it.  Her 11th birthday was only a few days later, and my older daughter decided she wanted to use her own money to buy the necklace for her, even though it was pricier than what she would normally spend for a birthday.  When the big day arrived, we saved this surprise for last.  Younger daughter opened the gift, jumped up, and threw her arms around her sister, probably as touched by her thoughtfulness as she was by the gift.  Watching my two girlies sharing in the joy of giving and receiving brought a moment of Mom happiness into my day!

Happiness is Focusing on the Things that Matter

Happiness in Nature

One of the things that makes me the happiest is looking at all of the beautiful things that God created. Today I was outside and I found a family of quail with a Mom, a Dad, and 10 little baby chicks. It makes me happy to see all of the things in nature. I watched them as they scurried around the yard. Whenever I got too close, the Mama would shoo them all back behind her. The Dad would stand watch over the family, and kept a close eye on us! I loved watching them as they explored our yard.

Happiness in Integrity

Our trusty minivan only has 35000 miles on it, so we were shocked when a reputable dealership told us the clunk we thought was a minor issue was actually a bad transmission, citing plenty of evidence they had "found", and that they would be happy to replace it for about $5000.  Hoping we could find a cheaper price on a rebuilt transmission, and realizing the pieces just didn't quite seem to add up, my husband called a small transmission shop in the area to get a second opinion.  We drove our van over to the second shop (with instructions from the dealership to drive it "very gently") and immediately felt at ease with the man we talked to there.  He promised to look it over and call us the next morning.  How grateful we were to get the call the next day saying that our problem was a simple loose bolt, the conclusion my husband had come to before we'd taken it in the first place,  As a bonus to that great news, the small shop didn't charge us anything to locate and fix the problem.  We took in donuts as a small token of thanks, but that did not even begin to cover our gratitude for a mechanic who chooses to live with integrity.

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Finding happiness in the small and simple things of life

In today's word it seems like we are programmed to think that we can only find happiness when we are doing something that is unique, expensive or popular by what is currently trending.  This week I was taught a lesson by my 6 year old granddaughter about finding true joy in a simple, yet mind expanding homemade creation. I saw in her the excitement that came through the imaginative process and the end result of making something yourself, even if it was just built from discarded cardboard boxes, a plastic milk carton and some pipe cleaners.  It all started with her desire to make a rocket ship.  Seeing an empty milk container sitting on the counter the creative juices started flowing in her brain.  As I cut out a door in the container, she began listing all of the things that a rocket ship required - a steering wheel, a circuit board, levers, a remote control, etc. As she would mention each new requirement, she would use her imagination to find and build each item using cardboard, buttons, small toys or anything else she could find around the house.  She pulled the perfect sized boxes out of the recycle bin and covered them with construction paper and seemed to know exactly how everything should look and function.  As the project neared completion, she said over and over, "This is the best day ever" and could hardly wait for the official launch.  When the rocket was done she enthusiastically exclaimed that "this is the best rocket ship ever."  She placed the rocket on the launch pad and attached  the pipe cleaners, which were used to hold the rocket in place before liftoff and began the countdown.  When she finally reached zero she pushed the "button" on her cardboard remote control with the pipe cleaner antenna, yelled "blast off" and then grabbed the milk carton handle and flew the rocket ship throughout the living room saying over and over again, "This is the best day ever."  Most kids nowadays don't even know how to play with anything that does not contain a battery or a remote, but this sweet little girl found true happiness in her own imagination.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf talk entitled, "Happiness, Your Heritage"

Learning to Find Happiness in the Journey

A few weeks ago our family went to a town festival.  We had been to several events in the town and loved them all, leading us to believe this would be equally as entertaining as the others.  Well about 15 disappointing minutes of walking around caused me to be in a "this is not entertaining, there is nothing for the kids, and it is 6:15 and we should have eaten dinner at 6 and I am starving so we'd better leave this very instance to go to a fast food restaurant because there is no way I am going to pay $10.00 for the slop that comes out of those vendor trucks" kind of mood.

Noticing Husband's silence and downward glances at our fast food meal made me reflect on my bad behavior.  I sheepishly asked him what he would have done if Lame-o Mom hadn't been there to demand a departure, to which he replied that he would have stayed and enjoyed a relaxing night out with the kids.  "After all," he added, "we could go to Chick-Fil-A any day."

I spent the next half hour in good conversation with him.  I owned up to the fact that I am more of a destination person.  I want to get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible, which makes me forget sometimes about all the things between those points.  I also tend to look quickly at the big picture and if it isn't what I expect or want, I tend to bolt or have a bad attitude instead of enjoying whatever is there.  I told him I would try to be better and asked him to remind me about that promise the next time we were in a similar situation.

A week later I would get a chance to redeem myself.

Kids and I visited Aunt Kelli and were on our way home from a fun and busy few days.  Around hour two we hit a bad traffic jam that eventually caused us to stop on the freeway.  After idling for 10 minutes we realized we were in for the long haul and I finally shut off the engine.

That very minute I made a choice.  I was going to keep a good attitude no matter what happened. 

Even though I wasn't going to get from Point A to Point B in the desired time frame, it would be ok because I had the kids to keep my company.  Even though I looked around at the big picture and didn't like the never-ending sight of stalled bumpers, I would make the best of what we had.

It didn't take long to notice all the blessings in our situation.  We had a small bag of pretzels to munch on and Aunt Kelli sent us home with cut up watermelon to enjoy.  We had books, music, toys, and movies in the car to keep us entertained.  Little Miss has to go to the bathroom?  No problem thanks to spare diapers in the back.  The best part of all was the clouds covering the sun, and the slight breeze blowing cool air into the car so we didn't overheat.  We spent some time stretching our legs and had a nice visit with the family behind us.  The kids never complained or got cranky.  All in all it was the very best of circumstances in an otherwise annoying situation.

Our three hour trip took almost six but we made it home safe and sound.  That night when I put the kids to bed I used our road trip as a teaching moment.  That we can decide how we're going to react, whether good or bad, to less-than-ideal circumstances.

The late Elder Wirthlin gave a talk a few years ago that expresses this lesson so beautifully.  A message to "Come What May and Love It."

So today my happiness is for lessons learned, for safety in travels, for blessings, and for finding joy in the journey.

Happiness is Tooth Fairy Anticipation

Today's happiness came from watching a giddy first grader with a gaping hole of four missing front teeth spending an entire afternoon crafting a letter and a homemade envelope for the tooth fairy.  The anticipation was so great that cute daughter came out of bed about every 10  minutes to inform me that the tooth fairy hadn't come quite yet.  Thank goodness she did make an appearance sometime during the night!

Happiness is true compassion

The other day I attended one of my 8 year old grandson's baseball games.  He has played baseball for a few years and enjoys the game, but this year he is on a team where his coaches seem to have the "win at all costs" mentality instead of the desire to build baseball and life skills with these young boys.  They seem to think that harsh words and loud voices will bring out the best in their struggling prodigies instead of providing sound instruction and building confidence.  During one particular play when my grandson's team was in the outfield, a ball was hit which took a mean bounce and hit one of my grandson's teammates in the leg and he immediately fell to the ground writhing in pain.  Meanwhile, the errant ball rolled over to where my grandson was standing and he picked it up while walking towards his wounded teammate.  Despite the commotion in the outfield, the two base runners continued to progress towards home plate as my grandson's coaches screamed at him to throw the ball to get the players out.  I can't express the overwhelming feeling of pride that came over me as I watched this young boy not even waiver as his whole focus was no longer on the game, but on his friend who was lying on the field.  I know that the sports mentality of the day is on competing and winning no matter what, but I was so grateful that this sweet little 8 year old taught me a greater life lesson on caring, compassion and priorities.

Happiness in a preschooler's mite

Our neighborhood has a great system for collecting wedding money for newlyweds from our little corner of the city.  A very kind and efficient coordinator pools money from anyone who wants to contribute and is able to purchase a larger and more useful gift than we could purchase individually.  This morning I realized the deadline was approaching for a couple of weddings, and I mentioned to my three year old son that we needed to take some money over to this neighbor and then we would be headed to the grocery store.  A minute later he emerged from his room holding a box with his treasure, a Chuck-E-Cheese token, a dollar coin gifted from a St. Patrick's day leprechaun, and a few pennies found in the street.  I assumed he wanted to buy himself a treat at the grocery store.  But as we walked to the neighbor's house and I handed her a check, my sweet little boy held out his offering as well.  I quickly tried to correct the mistake and told him that he didn't need to hand over his money, but his chin started to quiver and he innocently looked up at me and said, "But you told me she needed money."  My wise neighbor quickly took the offering, thanked him for his kindness, and handed it back to me when he wasn't watching.  My little boy stepped off that porch with a happy spring in his step as I followed, grateful for the lesson learned from a preschooler's mite.

My happiness bloomed

Yesterday morning I was standing on my front porch, taking a momentary break from my yard work and long Saturday to-do list to look out at the neighborhood.  As is the case on every beautiful Saturday morning in May, the street was bustling with a flurry of lawn mowing, weed pulling, tree trimming, kid playing and errand running.  I glanced across the way and noticed my sweet older neighbor situating herself on the sidewalk in front of her house, just beginning the task of planting her front flowerbed.  I could tell she was uncomfortable on the hard cement as the rhythm of dig, shift, dig, shift continued during the minute I watched her.  I almost let the moment slide, intent on finishing my own set of chores, when I felt the prick of my conscience tell me to cross the street with a trowel in my hand.  I approached her and told her I had a set of hands to add to hers, and side by side, together, we had that flowerbed planted in no time.  Yesterday my happiness bloomed in a flower garden.

My neighbor's house from my front porch

Happy Pictures

When I moved out East, I thought the spring season was going to be magical in bloom with color and aroma.  Much to my dismay, not one house had spring flowers or flower-blooming trees in the area that I lived.  Knowing how disappointed I was, Husband bought me tulip bulbs for my anniversary gift last year and I worked on digging and planting for the first time in my life.  I could hardly wait for the weather to warm.  Once we saw one green leaf peeking out, Kids and I checked every single day on the plants' progress until they all decided to open their petals.

Needless to say, this is my happy.

Happy MUSIC

The majority of my favorite music or songs could fit into two categories: 1) Acoustic (think Ingrid Michaelson) and 2) Happy Cheesy Pop.  Yes, Happy Cheesy Pop is my kind of genre.  I love having music that makes me want to roll down the car window to feel the cool breeze, to jump out of bed to start a new day, or to start an impromptu dance party with the kids.

Be Okay by Oh Honey (attached is the Glee version) made me do just that.  I can't help but feel happy when I listen to it.

Today my happiness is PERSEVERANCE

Husband is having some problems with his job that have been slightly discouraging.  I have had thoughts like, "He has worked so hard, why is this happening?" and "This just isn't fair."  But I read a thought from an article today that changed my attitude about it.

"To persevere means to maintain the ability to endure, to carry on, to continue in the same state without weakening or perishing.  It is being able to go on in the face of pain, oppression, discouragement or suffering without being defeated."

I didn't even know that what I needed was perseverance until I read it.  But it had so much truth behind it that it filled me up and made me feel peace about his job for the first time in months.  We are always going to have times of fear, failure, frustration, and discouragement because life isn't always fair or easy.  It doesn't matter how hard we work or how good we try to be - those things will still happen.  But it's how we handle them and "carry on" despite the difficulties that define us.  I like to feel strong, and I decided after I read that statement that I didn't want Husband or myself to be defeated.  I still could feel like things weren't ideal, but I didn't have to let that bleed into other aspects of my/our life, nor did that mean that Husband would be stopped from reaching his full potential in his career.

The knowledge that I could stay strong and carry on through discouragements helped me feel happy.