My Happiness Project

I've been reading Gretchen's Rubin's The Happiness Project. So inspiring and motivating! The Happiness Project acts on the fact that "days are long, but years fly by", therefor encouraging us to live each moment and find as much happiness in life as possible. The author comes up with all sorts of tips, tricks, goals and plans that lead her to personal happiness.

I've felt a bit down in the dumps lately and thanks to blog world and my own inability to shut the computer off and be constructive, I can't seem to really pull myself out of this rut. I've come up with my own little way of creating a happiness project. I figure at the very least, this will give me some direction and goals to work towards. And well, I think everyone could afford to really look at themselves and make some changes.

Basically, I took some random things from the book, some random things I've read elsewhere and my own experiences and self reflections to figure out what I need to work on and in which direction I hope to head. I haven't ironed out everything yet. I'm really in the beginning stages so far, but this has definitely got me thinking and planning ahead a bit. Hopefully, in the next few days or so I will come up with a more solid plan. In the meantime, here's a basic breakdown of 3 of the 12 areas I'm working on. I plan on talking about the others later this week.

1. Marriage - I have a wonderful husband who works his butt off on a daily basis. He's up and out the door by 6am and back in the door anywhere between 6pm and 10pm. I tend to carry out all of our day to day tasks (make lunches, make dinner, clean, tidy up, walk dog, etc,). It's very easy for me to become resentful. I'd like to work on giving him a little down time when he gets home, being more affectionate, running with him in the mornings, turning off the computer/tv and having quiet conversations, more date nights, and doing tiny acts of love throughout the day.

2. Friendships - I've been feeling a little isolated lately. I've never been one to have groups of friends, but I've always had a handful of really great girlfriends separate from each other. Recently, I've had a falling out with one friend and I have the feeling that a relationship with another close friend is becoming more and more distant. Some of these things are my fault, I admit it. Others I've felt are out of my hands. I think it's hard to make new friends at this stage in my life. I mean where do you even start? I'd like to really work on keeping and nurturing the friendships I have. Maybe I need to make a phone call or send a card to try to repair a broken friendship (scary!)? I also plan on putting myself out there a bit more. Even if I don't make new "friends", perhaps I can acquire a few more acquaintances and get to know some more people in my town.

3. Career - I have two great jobs that I love. They both require lots of self motivation and self monitoring. I don't really have anyone to report to on a regular basis and I'm really on my own most days. It's so easy to put things off until tomorrow, do the bare minimum to get through the day, not put in a lot of effort. In order to be happy, successful and confident in my jobs, I need to: keep more accurate and consistent records, stick to my schedule, go out of my way, be creative, work on collaboration and get more involved.

More to come in the next few days! :)

A Good Day

I'm pretty fortunate. I come from a very close knit family and I have a great relationship with my sister. I've been kind of on my own a lot the last several days and was itching for some sisterly fun! Lucky for me my sister, Amy, knows her way around a kitchen and is quite the crafter. What a great person to have around as I attempt to make some progress in the crafting and cooking department!

When I got married a few years back, I registered for and received a bunch of fun small kitchen appliances. My kitchen was quickly filled with all sorts of goodies...food processor, griddler, immersion blender, mandoline slicer, etc, etc. Cool, right?! Ummmm yeah, only if you have a clue how to use any of those things or the patience to read the manuals. Which of course I did not. So yes, these small appliances were all shoved into my corner cabinet and never touched. It was my "I have absolutely no clue how to use those things" cabinet. Instead of figuring out how to use those things, I manually did everything instead. Let me tell you, if something in the kitchen is supposed to take 5 minutes, it takes me triple the time. At least. A normal person would say forget taking the time to do everything by hand and use that time to learn the darn appliances. Have I mentioned that I put everything off and am a HUGE procrastinator?

So anyway, my wonderful and very patient sister came over and decided to break open the cabinet to teach me how to use my food processor. HELLO!!! Who knew that thing did about 100 fancy tricks?! Geeze, if I would have known it chops, purees, shreds, etc, I would have been all over that two years ago (ok, maybe not, but we can pretend). We (she) made some yummy chicken club salads with a creamy avocado dressing (thank you food processor!). Definitely a keeper. Now, let's see how long until I use that darn thing again.

After making lunch, we decided to forgo staying inside to watch the possible tsunami hit (yes, we are strangely and not so embarassignly obsessed with natural disasters)and instead took my nutty dog, Jamie, for a long walk. She had a blast and loved prancing around in the deep snow. She's a cold weather dog so playing in the snow is her version of heaven. Following a brief glance at CNN (the tsunami was not near as bad as anticipated-don't get me wrong, this is a good thing!), Amy busted out her digital scrapbooking materials and got to work craft-ifying me. I made a scrapbook page from my honeymoon in Hawaii and really enjoyed the process and how "simple" it was. I have tons of real scrapbook stuff, but it's such a pain in the butt to drag it all out and make such a mess, only to have to put it all away and start all over the next time. Digital scrapbooking is much easier and less messy! Now that I've invested $100 in photoshop, digital scrapbooking here I come. :)

It's nice to have a sister who's a jack of all trades! Hoping she rubs off on me a bit.

A Little About Me

Hello! My name is Sarah. I'm 28 and live in the south suburbs of Chicago. I've been married to my best friend for almost two years. So crazy how time flies by! I can't believe that two years ago I was planning our wedding and house hunting. Life is good and I'm lucky to be where I'm at and to have people in my life that I love.

I'm a teacher and I love my job. I teach blind and visually impaired kids and babies. I'm one of the lucky few teachers out there who has had the chance to bounce around a bit to test the waters on different teaching jobs. Funny enough, I'm back teaching where I originally started my first job and things are great. The grass isn't always greener on the other side and I'm thankful that I was able to find that out for myself!

My husband and I live in a cute little house in a quaint and quiet part of town. It has that small town atmosphere but is a short drive to the nearest Target. Everyone needs a little Target in their lives! Can't forget to add the other love of my life, my dog Jamie. She's part malamute, part lab and the best little buddy to have around. My husband, Matt, is a teacher and varsity baseball coach. He works incredibly hard and tends to get home later in the evening. Although I prefer to come home to Matt, coming home to my pup is the next best thing. It's a win, win situation either way. I'm guaranteed a kiss hello, no matter which one I come home to! :)

I love setting goals, making plans, writing lists and organizing. Nothing makes me happier than a happy, peaceful and organized house to come home to. I have all of these lofty plans, but follow through isn't exactly my stength! If someone was to ask me what kinds of things I enjoy spending my time doing, I'd list off running, reading, knitting, scrapbooking, taking pictures, working out and doing community service. I'm a bit of a poser. I admit it! I'm what I like to call a dabbler. I dabble in this and I dabble in that. I'm a master of nothing. I know I have it in me. It's just a matter of creating some goals, a plan and finding things that I love and interest me.

Stick around a bit and maybe you'll see me spring into a jack of all trades and a master of many! Orrrrrrrr at least maybe you'll get a good laugh at my attempts.