Every Monday, I start my week by highlighting what made me happy from the previous week and invite you to do the same, because gratitude is the first step to being happy.
I had a fabulous week that flowed into a fabulous weekend.
It’s been very important to me that I make the most of this time between adventures, which means soaking up time with family while we can. With that in mind, we spent the last week in Bettendorf, Iowa visiting my dad and stepmom. It was so worth the gas money! We fished, swam, ate dinner together, and watched 4th of July fireworks over the river after a baseball game.
On Saturday, we grabbed two of our nieces and our own two kids and headed to Grundy Center, where we met my mom and my nephew at the annual town festival. There were bounce houses, shared snow cones, and free train rides, followed by swimming in my mom’s backyard. It was the perfect summer day.
On Sunday, I drove out to a small park where I met 20 strangers from a local yoga studio. We hopped in kayaks and paddled down a river for a while, stopped for a yoga and lunch break on a sand bar, and then paddled some more. It was beautiful, hot, and even cooler than I’d imagined when I’d signed up for the trip on their website a few weeks ago. I’m going to be writing more about this trip soon.
These were the happiness highlights from my week, and seeing the photos again makes me remember and smile. And that’s why I keep doing this weekly gratitude practice.
Now, it’s your turn.
I’d love to hear in the comments what were the happiness highlights from your week. What made you smile or laugh?
Once again, I’ve got a little something to encourage you to share your gratitude with the rest of us. I am so excited about this week’s prize – it’s something I would love to have for myself!
Michelle is a friend from our Facebook page and she reached out recently to tell me about beautiful, personalized jewelry that fills her with joy to make. I hopped over to her website and begged her to let me give one away here. She graciously agreed, and so this week we’re offering one reader who shares their happiness highlights in the comments a personalized version of this beauty:
This engraved silver pendant will be personalized with your choice of initial on the front and up to 4 lines (10 characters per line) of text on the back. I want this. And on the back of mine I would have “This, too, shall pass” engraved.
Want one? Just tell us in the comments what made you happy this week!
(As usual, just one entry per person. But you can feel free to list as few or as many highlights as you wish!)
Updated: The winner of this beautiful pendant is Tracy, who commented via Facebook and whose happiness highlights included “Going from scared of what was making me feel so ill to knowing what it is and being able to fix it.” Congratulations, Tracy – check your FB messages for instructions on claiming your prize!
What made me happy this past week? My Bugaboo had a break from school for ten days (severely disabled, goes year round) and it was his best week ever. Smiles every day, ate well (RARE), slept well (ALSO RARE) and was a joy to be around (SUPER DUPER RARE). I love this little man.
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Last week, I was happy because of it being my 40th birthday & getting to spend it with my friends at roller derby where the “old lady” put all those young whipper snappers to shame!! Hee hee….
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Thankful and grateful I have a friend who was able to replace our broken toilet – all we had to do was pay for the toilet.
Had a GREAT 4th of July taking the kids to a baseball game, collecting autographs, getting home in time for dinner, etc. (obligatory link http://www.postpostmoderndad.com/2012/07/05/july-4-2012/ sorry)
Those two things were the highlights of my week.
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I turned 40 on Saturday and the outpouring of good wishes from my kids, my husband (who passed this milestone years ago), my extended family, my friends, and my Facebook buddies was just amazing. It’s impossible to feel angsty about a major milestone birthday when faced with so much love.
Also, in non-birthday related happiness: Felt appreciated at work and at home, satisfied by the things I accomplished, and not overwhelmed by the stuff that’s still on my to-do list. Win!
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I had Sunday off and got to spend the day swimming at the canyon with my two sons and two of my grandkids
We got electricity back after a few days without it. I got to watch fireworks snuggled up to the man I love on a blanket. We got a tentative yes to our wedding location.
My best friend moved from VA to CT abotu 2 weeks ago. I spent the weekend with her at her new home. We went to the beach, conquered fears of the ocean together, got some sun, bonded, had lots of laughs and catching up. It’s wonderful to know she’ll be returning the trip in a couple weeks to come up to Manassas to celebrate Lughnasadh (pronounced “loo-na-seh” – a Pagan Holiday) and that the next 3 years will be filled with much more time together than the previous 3! That was my happiness highlight!
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I’ve been stuck in bed for the last 8 days but my happiness highlight is the fact that my Mum lives close enough to be able to come in and see me everyday, make sure I have food and drink, pick up my prescriptions and generally be a complete star – I love her to bits and never tell her often enough!
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I have always wanted to go kayaking and never have. Maybe I will for my upcoming birthday.
We had a really fun 4th: we cooked out with my family, ate delicious food, and my best friend came out and swam with us.
Thursday was my mom’s birthday, and also the first anniversary of my Dad’s death. I chose to concentrate on the first occasion, and acknowledge and then let go the latter. I booked a spa afternoon, and mom and I went and had the most divine hot stone massages. It was a lovely afternoon even though I can’t convince her to embrace my love of the sauna
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My kids let me sleep in till 9am..two days in a row this week. HEAVEN.
how beautiful- love the pendant!
My happiness is that hubby made dinner AND did the dishes last night = WIN!
It has been unusually cool for July in Southeast Texas. Today we came out of a store into 92 degrees, had a storm blow through and the temperature dropped 14 degrees! Seriously? 78 in July? Thank You!
My main source of happiness last week was celebrating the six month mark of meeting the man I am marrying in September. It has unflappably been the best six months of my life, after a long and sometimes emotionally treacherous road to get here, and I express my gratitude, both verbally and emotionally, on a daily if not hourly basis these days.
This sense of peace and belonging in the world is both newfound and completely familiar to me, like something I’ve been harboring all along, and just recently blossomed in the most perfect conditions. My 10 year old goddaughter even remarked to me on the 4th of July, “This is the happiest I’ve ever seen you!”
She’s right. This is the happiest I’ve ever been, and I love that the world can see it.
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Highlights from this week: first swim meet, the little girl that came up to my son at the local wading pool and asked to play with him, wading in the pool on a sunny afternoon, finally getting summer(PNW is finally heating up), ice cream cone on a sunny day, sitting on the front porch first thing in the morning and last thing at night enjoying the moments waiting for the dog to do his business.
What made me happy this week? Watching my 17 year old daughter really start turning into an adult. I’m not sure when this actually happened. But I had the opportunity to listen to her and some friends talk. When the subject became a girl that nobody liked and they all started saying horrible things about her, my daughter put a stop to it. I was so proud in that moment.
Feel silly commenting on your blog for the first time when there’s a givaway. But I would have answered anyway because I’ve been thinking it since the weekend. My bike makes me happy! I got it out a month or so ago after not riding for more than a year and I’m wondering why! I love the feeling of riding, of expanding my territory, riding fast on an empty trail. I was away on holiday last week and I was happy to come home to my bike!
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I am happy that this week we are going from our little 2 1/2 bdr casita to a 4 bdr house where we won’t be bumping into each other and where we will have a big yard where my girls can run around to their hearts content. For less rent! All good!
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My happiness highlight was going to the cottage and seeing my mother in law. She is just such a super wonderfully loving person. She lights up when she see you and is so thankful that we came to see her. We do not get to see her very much so it was very fun!
What made me happy last week is the same every week .
Just waking up every morning with a great sense of thankfulness for God’s grace .
Fishing with cousins, visiting a beautiful alpine lake, and sitting and listening to my husband. Really listening. My pendant would be engraved with ‘fly free with me’ ( from magyk by Angie sage).
Tuesday’s spur of the moment movie date, to beat the heat, was the happy highlight. The Boy and I share popcorn and eye rolls while watching Spidey.
My dad has been in the hospital with heart issues since Sunday, when I was pretty in response in my cube at work for 2 days 4 of my coworkers came up with my soda of choice a cupcake and a group hug to try and help me out a bit.
Sharing a meal with BOTH of my brothers & their families in attendance…that was cool