Tag Archives: kids

happiness

An Abominable Evening

It feels colder outside today, and when we got home (in the dark) we were hangry and tired. Hungry is bad enough but the hangry combo of being so hungry you are angry can be quite scary!

I made our supper as quickly as possible. I had started a veggie curry soup in the slow cooker this afternoon, so there were just bits and pieces to add to it – the kids each had a steak because they were having a red meat craving. While we waited for supper to start I reminded Jenna that we had some Christmas shows that we could watch at some point.

With a vote of 3-0 we decided to opt for supper in front of the TV tonight and choose An Abominable Christmas. Apparently the kids had seen it before but it was new to me. It didn’t make my list of favourites, but it was cute.

Part way through supper my parental guilt kicked in and I said “tomorrow we will have to sit properly at the table and have a fancy supper to make up for this one.” To which Jacob responded “mom, you’re lucky I’m wearing pajamas.” So I looked at him closely for the first time and realized that somehow he had managed to sit and eat with  only the pajama bottoms on (sadly this is a reoccurring theme in our house). I appreciate his wit though.

I love these Christmas shows – partly because they’re cute and funny – but mostly because it means that we stop what we are doing, cuddle up on the couch, and spend some time together watching a movie. To tie down a teen and a tween for forced family fun time can sometimes be a challenge and I’m grateful that they also look forward to this time. My happiness moment.

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Pay it forward (West Jet Christmas)

Today we got to prove the fact that it is actually better to give than it is to receive (although it was pretty awesome to receive as well). Jacob and I made our morning run to Tim Horton’s and fell into a delightful and unexpected happiness moment. First of all, a kind gentleman came up and held the door for us to go in (this happens a lot here, the customers have great manners). Then when we went to the till and two ladies came running up, barely able to contain themselves with their giggles, and announced that they were buying our coffee for us.

It’s West Jet’s mini-miracles day and they were doing their part to pay it forward. They jumped around, huge smiles on their faces, as they explained what they were doing and we took a group selfie so they could post it on Instagram.

When Jacob got his coffee and we sat down we could still hear them at their table giggling away and trying to upload the picture with all the right tags. I said to Jacob that even though we had thoroughly appreciated their kindness, it really seemed that they had received a lot more from their gift than we had. He looked over at them with their heads together laughing as they talked about what they had done and agreed with me.

As we were getting ready to go a lady walked into Tim’s and I said to Jacob that he should go buy her coffee. He grabbed my money and ran over to her as she stood at the till. I couldn’t hear them, but I saw him jumping up and down with excitement (just like the ladies before had done with us) and I saw a huge smile come across the lady’s face. Jacob said afterwards that she had said to him that he had made her whole day.

All the way to Jacob’s school he smiled and bounced and talked about how wonderful he felt having done something nice for someone else.

He had both received an act of kindness and given one within a half hour. He was thrilled to have been given the free coffee, it made his soul sing to have given one to someone else.

Both giving and getting are pretty sweet, but the feeling is euphoric when you  surprise someone by doing a small kind act for them. It may sound cliche, but happiness really is contagious and it is easy to spread.

If you can, make someone happy today by performing a small act of kindness. It makes for an awesome happiness moment.

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Mary’s Boy Child

I’m finding this Christmas season a confusing one emotionally. I keep looking around for Dad to do my getting ready for the season things with and then remembering that he’s not here. I miss him so much I am left with a sad tinny like taste in my mouth. How can it be that he’s gone?  Then on the other hand,  I’m so happy that for the first time since 2004 I’m either not coming home for the holidays and pretending to be ok with that, or packing up all our presents and fly home as soon as the kids are done school (lots of work).  We would decorate our house, but not get to fully enjoy it, and by the time we arrived home there would be only a few days before Christmas so we were behind the game there too.

So, I’m so happy that we are here, settled in one place for the holiday season. We have more things to decorate than we have time for. The kids and I can bake cookies and make hot cocoa whenever we want. I found the recipe by the girls who own Crave Cupcakes for their shortbread cookies (the article includes an interesting story on how they became Crave) and we made cookies tonight. They are supposed to be for Jenna’s school tomorrow, but we may have eaten enough of them I’ll have to make another batch. Totally worth it though, they were melt in your mouth delicious. It’s a great recipe!

I have had my Christmas Carol playlist going for about a week now, but somehow I forgot all about Mary’s Boy Child, it’s one of my favourites. It came on the radio today and when I got home I had to pull out all three of my versions: the Anne Murray one (which reminds me of childhood and home and good feelings), the Boney M one (which is the one I always heard on the radio) and one that was on a kid’s mixed cd. We sang the carol over and over and ate too many cookies.

My happiness moment was an evening of cookies, carols, and then a cuddle with my girl while we watched a bit of Home Alone.

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Yoga Bliss

I wrote the other day about how doing yoga has made me a better person, albeit not a more flexible one. Since then I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what it was that really drew me to the practice of yoga in the first place. Mostly it was the way it calmed me and made my soul happy. When I would really get into it I wasn’t as bothered by the fact that that I don’t bend as well as I want to because my spirit would just feel so good.

I was really good and faithful about my practice before I fell into my dark night of the soul years. I’ve struggled as I’m finding myself again to really develop a solid routine that makes me feel good.

I realized that maybe I’m doing the wrong kind of yoga these days. Now, I’m doing my Healing Light Yoga Therapy, which is a completely different kind of practice. One that is so important to my emotional and spiritual well being. But, it’s not something I do on a daily basis. It’s something I need to do in addition to some kind of regular yoga practice.

I had to sit down quietly and think about what it is that I want from yoga. What I came up with was that I needed to go to Kripalu. Lovely, but not really possible at this moment in time. So, I had to think what is it about Kripalu that makes me feel so good?  (ummmm everything) and what can I do here to replicate that feeling.

Lightbulb went off.

On several of my visits to Kripalu I have been fortunate enough to have attended a class led by Rudy Peirce. The way he leads a class made me fall in love with yoga in the first place. Yoga based on compassion and love. Every time I have done one of his classes I feel so much better about everything.

He has some CDs that he sells and I had bought a couple of them on a visit to the Berkshires years ago. I loaded a class on my phone (they’re audio) and spent some time this morning reconnecting with my spiritual practice of yoga.

I felt so much better when I was done. This morning I had felt really anxious and ungrounded and when I was finished my yoga I felt more like myself again. There is something about his voice and the way he so calmly and patiently guides one through the poses that calms me down. I knew it was working because Ella the Yoga Cat showed up on my mat and purred her way though most of the class. She only does that when she’s really feeling the bliss.

My happiness moment was the wonderful feeling I had after my class this morning. I need to keep attracting all that love and bliss into my soul so that I have more of it to shine back out into the world.

As a bonus happiness moment, Jenna spent the entire ride into school this morning looking out the window of the car at the moon shining brightly with Venus underneath it . I love how being in this space is getting us more and more in tune with nature.

   

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Life off the leash 

Years ago I put myself on a leash. I tried so hard to be the person that I thought other people wanted me to be, I  stifled a lot of the things that made me me.  Interestingly enough, the people I was trying to impress with by being someone other than myself either didn’t notice or weren’t impressed. Of course now I know that trying to be someone other than who I really am is an exercise in futility, but it took me a little while to get there.

The unfortunate byproduct of all of this sadly though was that over time of not being true to my self, I lost touch with who I really am. Thus years of anxiety, unhappiness, and tears.

One of the great things about this happiness journey that I am on is that I have started finding myself again. Not all of the stuff I’m finding is fantastic, but it’s all really me. And I’m happy about that.

It’s a beautiful day in Southern Alberta today. Apparently we are in a heat wave – experiencing above average temperatures. It isn’t beach weather, but it’s about +5C which for this time of year is pretty warm. I took the boy and the dog out on the ridge for a walk (I made it both times past where we scattered Dad’s ashes without breaking down in tears…. progress!). I listened to Jacob go on and on about the new Star Wars movie and I watched the dog run and jump in the snow.

Dottie looks like I feel. Poor Dottie had to live life on a leash for 8 years until we moved here where she has the freedom to run. She is an entirely different dog with all the freedom she has. As I’m letting go of the idea that I need to be anyone besides who I am (my leash), I’m feeling more and more like she looks.

Happy.

Freedom

My happiness moment today was walking with my kid and my dog along a ridge where my footprints have been hundreds of times before. I used to ride here, walk with Dad here, toboggan on the hill below here, and I know we have lots of new memories to make along the ridge. Off the leash.

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Because I do yoga 

I love almost everything about yoga. I love how it makes me feel, I love how it stretches my body, I love the spiritual connection it brings me. About the only thing I don’t love about yoga is the fact that I’m really bad at it. Which is also one of the things I kind of like about it (but not all the time, a lot of the time I just wish I was super bendy and twisty and that the asanas came easily to me).

I grew up doing competitive sports, and usually I was pretty good at them. Competition is fierce in our family – family game night is not for the faint of heart. While I like to win, part of me enjoys the mellowness of yoga and just being in my body and compassionately allowing it to be how it is for the day. Well, except for when I get pissed off that after all this time I still can’t do the poses the way that I want to.

This evening I was walking from the parking lot towards a store with Jacob and I missed the fact that there was a curb up to the sidewalk. I tripped on it and as Jacob said flailed around like a dying goose about to hit the ground. I had arms going every which way and my head almost hit the ground not once, but twice. I felt a little bit like this guy, but without being quite as cool:

 

 

And of course because it was a Friday night in December the parking lot was full,  so lots of people got to see me in all my glory.

Jacob stood there and laughed and laughed at me. He laughed so hard that the mom who was ahead of us with her teenage son turned around to make sure I was ok and to give him a little bit of a mom glare. He looked at her, and then looked at me, and said Oh come on mom, if that had been me you would have laughed just as hard. And of course he was right, I would have. Actually even just thinking about how funny he would have looked is enough to make me laugh. So, fair enough…

As we were walking into the store he looked at me and said I honestly can’t believe you didn’t face plant right into the sidewalk mom. I have no idea how you managed to get back up. To which I responded (without thinking about it) it’s because I do yoga. And I was totally right. The fact that I do practice yoga almost daily is the reason why I was able to regain my balance. I may not be good or flexible, but yoga brings a lot of balance into my life. Balance that I can see, and balance that is invisible, but that I can feel. Like the fact that I’m not filled with anxiety, or that I feel like I’m getting grounded again, and that I’m deepening my spiritual relationship.

That was a funny moment and a happiness moment all wrapped up in one.

I had a beautiful happiness moment this morning with the kids as we were heading out the door for school. It was pretty dark, but very clear this morning. We stood for a few minutes and admired the barn silhouetted by the dawn light. I love it here, it’s good for my heart to be in a place that brings me joy and contentment.

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Happiness mishmash 

I had several small happiness moments mixed all through the day today. I went into our Save On this morning to get something for supper and got bumped ahead in line because I only had a couple of items. When I thanked both the man who let me go and the clerk who suggested it, they said it was one of the perks of living in Cochrane – small town kindness.

Jenna went in to see the head seamstress in the family today to get some help (but also to eat cookies … mmmmm shortbread…. and visit). It warmed me to hear them, heads together, busily planning out her sewing project. There’s a special relationship between grandparents and grandkids and I’m so grateful that she is getting to strengthen that bond.

 

I have put a hard limit on internet at home and the kids have responded by actually playing together and having family time. We watched Charlie Brown’s Christmas, and then Jacob found his track set his aunt gave him a couple of years ago. They spent an hour racing their cars around the track.

About 30 seconds after I took this picture a huge tickle fight broke out with the dog jumping on top of both kid licking faces furiously. That was funny because it wasn’t happening to me…..

I love big happiness moments, but life really happens in these little moments. The ones that don’t cost anything, that aren’t planned out, that just happen because we are alive and we are living in the moment.

 

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Simple things 

Today my happiness was  found doing simple things. It was another beautiful day, I love these bright sunny days that have no wind. I went out for a walk along the ridge – so no wind was essential for an enjoyable time. This was where Dad would go for his walks whenever he could, and where we scattered some of his ashes. I can see why he loved it so much, it’s beautiful. I used to love riding along the creek below, so it had an extra boost of happiness as I remembered the freedom I felt spending hours wandering around with Pirate.

I stood at the spot where we scattered his ashes and cried for a while. I’m not really sure why. So much emotion has been stored up inside. Sadness over Dad, sadness over a lot of things I’ve had stuck inside of me for a long time that I’m finally learning to let go of. I’m starting to realize that I need to feel those feelings and acknowledge them in order to let them leave.  Then I had to giggle a little bit when I thought of how lucky I was that it was warm out. If it had been cold and windy all those tears would have stuck to my face, then I really would have had something to cry about.

I came back in the yard and went over to the hill where the girls were sledding. That brought lots of laughter back into my heart. There’s something about being around people who are really enjoying life that makes me feel the same way. The happiness overpowers the sad all the time.

As an added happiness moment, Jenna is still healthy and happy after her long cough. Saturday night she slept 15 hours and last night 14 hours. I am so grateful she had the time to slow down and spend time healing her body – and then time to get outside and enjoy life!

 

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Sun sledding 

Today was one of those perfect Alberta winter days. The temperature was above freezing (not by much, but enough to be warm – or hot when we were running around in snow gear), the sky was blue, our yard still had snow, and there were kids waiting to go outside and play.

Jenna has been waiting all year to get to play in the snow. She spent the entire month of November inside coughing and looking longingly outside at the snow falling.

The “little” cousins were down visiting for the weekend, and one “big” cousin was able to come over and play – along with some happy dogs. It was wonderful to see the yard fill up with happy footprints, snow angels, and snow drawings.

And, of course… the sledding. Sledding is kind of a big deal for us. Or better yet, going out on the toboggan… but that will come later in the winter. Today was about sledding down the small hills.

We had some visitors watching us while we went down the hill by the barn.

The girls did this hill over and over, laughing and giggling. I joined in one time and laughed the whole way down. I may have broken my bum (I don’t bounce like I used to…. and I did bounce a lot! I’ll be sore tomorrow), but it was worth it.

It was an afternoon full of happiness moments. Listening to children’s laughter, sledding, visiting, being outside enjoying the nice weather. We are so blessed to live where we do, back home with our tribe around us.

 

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