Happiness...the finish line, but just beginning...

So today's the day...last day of my happiness challenge. I guess over the last week or so I've been reflecting on this challenge and what it meant to me, what I hoped to achieve and everything that has happened in between.

I remember the first day I decided to do this challenge, the thought of changing my lens on how I view the world was really appealing. I didn't know if it was going to work but nothing ventured, nothing gained right? It's really interesting to read my first post and how hopeful I was and am so gratified that I decided to do it, and pushed through the hard days.

Today has been a little difficult as we are home sick again today - E woke up worse if anything, so I really have my fingers crossed that these antibiotics kick in sooner rather than later. He alternates between warm and sweaty and cold and clammy and the tummy pains have been coming rather than going...not good. I've been dosing him up with lots of vitamins so here's hoping his immune system decides to give a roundhouse kick to all these yukky germs he's got going on.

So it's been pretty non-eventful which isn't exactly the way I wanted to end the challenge - I kind of wanted to go out with a bang. So I might take a different tack today and look overall at my challenge and what I'm grateful for.

Gratitudes:

• Overall, for the past 21 days life has been a roller coaster. When looking back, I can hardly believe that we are now in the situation that we are in, with an imminent move and a complete change to our whole lives. Three weeks ago my Toowoomba Project was in the pipeline, but definitely more in the 'I wish we could' category. Now just a few short weeks later, I now have a fabulous new job, resigned my existing one and gotten a wonderful (I hope) new place to live. Wow. If you'd told me this on Day 1 of the challenge, I probably wouldn't have believed you!
• I am really grateful for the meditation part of the challenge. I have slept better and been calmer than I thought possible during all of this change. It definitely helps keep any anxiety at bay. In fact, before my job interview I was so ridiculously nervous! You have to understand it's been such a long time since I had an interview and I was so rusty, so much was riding on it, I sat in the carpark there in Toowoomba absolutely freaking out. But I took a few deep breaths and spent five minutes clearing my mind and convincing myself that 'you got this'. And I did!
• One thing about being at home again today is that I actually made some real headway into my list. Removalists? Done! Electricity disconnect/reconnect? Done! Phone and internet? Done! I've also advised E's school of his imminent departure, paid the deposit on my new place and of course spent some time fart-assing about transcribing my list onto my Ipad. As you do. I even cracked a few boxes and quickly filled three or four before the momentum stalled. I've also taken some paint off a wall that I need to have repaired and thankfully my extremely handy builder friend has volunteered to fix this over the weekend. Handy friends are good to have and I'm pleased that my singular friend in Toowoomba has a very handy husband who I might have to borrow from time to time. Hey, remember I come from a family of women, who were generally in property management who had handy friends in high places on speed dial. And the less we say about my father's so-called 'handyman' skills, the better. Don't get me started on the time he cleaned the fish tank filter - let's just say it took 5 minutes to dismantle and 2 weeks to re-mantle (if that's a word). Enough said

Journal:
What a crazy couple of weeks, huh? I'm really looking forward to settling into our new place and letting life return to some sense of normalcy. I do feel so much better knowing that most of the important things are now under control - the only critical things left are to organise carpet cleaning and enrol E in his new school. Did I mention we google earth-ed our place and completely accidentally have managed to get a house 2 blocks from the nearest primary school? So awesome - E is used to having to get up so early to bus it to school and now he'll be able to roll out of bed and rock up in 5 minutes. So good.

Dad just rang and they are in Toowoomba tonight and he drove past our new place and has given the thumbs up. Apparently it's a beautiful street full of trees and lovely homes although he did say that the basketball hoop is missing (sadface). Will need to remedy that stat.

So now I look forward to all of the things I want to do in Tooowoomba, there's so many I'll have to make another list! First item on the agenda is to organise regular walking excursions with Willow and E and we're also going to take up yoga. I've been hearing so much lately about the benefits of hot yoga and really want to check it out - this sad old body could definitely make good use of sweating out some toxins. And as promised to my future self I need to start taking better care of me.

Other items high on the agenda is of course setting up our new place and maybe I'll even get an outdoor setting! I have an enormous balcony here but due to my champagne tastes/beer budget I have spent the last three years with this huge space filled with a BBQ and three plastic chairs. I have a covered outdoor area at my new place, according to the ad, however as it's at the back of the house and there's people still living there, dad wasn't able to report back on what it was like (no photos available on the ad unfortunately). With winter coming up I guess we'll be huddled inside for a few months so it will give me time to look around and save up for what I really want.

It's exciting to be moving somewhere I've never lived into a house I've never actually seen - the ad showed pics of a lounge room, great kitchen (with dishwasher - total necessity) and garage only. So the bedrooms, bathroom and outside are all going to be a surprise - hopefully a nice one. I'd like to think that with such a fantastic kitchen the rest of the house will match up too - however if not we can always move again although obviously this is something I'd like to avoid.

So happiness challenge - done. I really do think it has been so incredibly beneficial and I would highly recommend it to anyone in need of a bit of happiness in their lives. There were a few tough days thrown in the mix but ultimately I managed to find three gratitudes every single day, even if some of them were fairly lame! Every day got easier though, so I guess this tiny mind has programmed itself to look for the upside, which is what I wanted to achieve out of this all along. I have also learned to enjoy the now instead of 'being happy when'. Even despite sickness, anxiety and some major changes, life has been pretty damned good.

Random act of kindness:
Due to our housebound status, this is again really lame and consists of E getting a treat today consisting of his first taste of the new type of Rice Bubble bars - strawberry flavoured. Apparently it was delicious. I feel a bit let down as I kind of wanted to do something spectacular but I guess it's the consistency of taking the time to do something nice for someone every day that is the point.

Meditation:
Overall I may have fallen asleep in the middle of my poor attempts more times than I can count, but as I mentioned before, I've slept better and managed stress better than I have in ages so I really think this is something I'll try to incorporate into daily life from here-on out.

I hope this finds you at the end of your own challenge, if you did do it (or something similar) I'd love to hear how you went with it. Is there anything you do on a daily or regular basis that makes you happy? I feel like my future is wide-open and I'm really keen to try some new things so any suggestions would be welcome!

I leave you now with some photos that always make me smile...of course they're all of E!

xx

Things my mum said.

I have started to really notice that the older I get, the more I catch myself turning into my mother.

Every now and again I will say something to E that I realise MY mum said to me. It's a weird experience and one that cracks me up as I realise just how much influence my mother's words had on me, and ergo what influence I'm likely exuding over my son and his future actions.

Crap.

It made me wonder if any of my friends were experiencing the same thing and I decided to ask them for things they remember that their mums said. The results are pretty damned funny. And I strongly suspect a few of our mums must have colluded or else gone to the same school of motherhood back in the day.

My mum

My mum's fashion advice to my sister and I was to always let your boobs be bigger than your waist. Luckily she also gifted us with her genetically oversized mammary glands so even at my largest, it hasn't been a problem adhering to this mantra. Even when hugely pregnant my stomach barely exceeded the 'ladies'. In fact it's been said that my boobs enter the room about 5 minutes before I do. So there you go mum, advice taken.

Cathy

I spent a lot of time with Cathy's family growing up and can tell you that they're a cast of characters due at least one or more blog posts all of their own (in fact, there's already a few about - see here and here). Cathy's mum is awesome and regularly came out with some absolute pearlers. I've listed them below but won't steal Cathy's thunder in case she wants to write about them herself (hint hint).

Keep yourself nice - said every time you walked out the door
You look like the wreck of the Hespress
You are not a sausage - referring to how she described our school as the sausage factory

Brilliant stuff.

Sharee

Don't put it down, put it away

(mind you my stepmother has been saying that for 25 years and it hasn't yet sunk in).

Indi

Look in the mirror and then take something off. Less is more
Start trends, don't follow them
Can you stop dating dirty old rockers who our our age

Larissa

Do you think I came down in the last shower?

Julie

Stop walking around with a face like ditch water!
Stop being so melodramatic!

and my favourite...

Mum, have you seen my [insert item] here? 'Yes Julie it's swinging off my bottom lip shouting Tarzan'

Marie

If you sit on cold concrete you will get piles
No, that's not a laxette, that's chocolate for being a good girl this week
If the wind changes, your face will stay that way
One day you will have a daughter and see for yourself how hard it is to raise a child like you

Marie's mum also gets the award for most creative for this one:

In response to yelling at her brother 'why don't you frigging be nice' (thinking 'frigging' was a nice word for the bad F word) her mother informed her that 'frigging' was something that prostitutes do!

Priceless!

And then of course there's the old pearls of wisdom (over)used by every mum, everywhere:

Back in my day...[insert overly dramatic event here such as walking barefoot to school through the wind/rain/snow/cyclone etc etc]

Because I said so!

and...Wait until your father gets home!

The father one was especially effective for me, which was kind of weird seeing as my mum was the disciplinarian and dad was always kinda laid back and cool, but it struck fear into my heart every. single. time.

What did your mum tell you? Do you catch yourself saying the same things to your kids or are you guilty of an entirely new set of word crimes? I'd love to hear from you, feel free to comment or do your own blog post and link back to the comments.

Don't forget to follow me by hitting on 'subscribe' below.

xx

Happiness. Date Night. The Hunger Games and more Ninjago...Day 16

So day 16 of my challenge is upon me and I am happy that it's crazy!

I just got home from date night with my son after what has been the most excellent of days and a brilliant beginning to a long weekend.

So let the gratitudes begin!

Gratitudes:

• I am so grateful to be finally making some headway on my Toowoomba Project. We visited the police station today to lock up my son submit my police certificate request so that is now out of the way. I've been also making lots of lists of things that I still need to do so whilst there's heaps there I'm feeling much better organised and like I have some direction. Small blessings. I get my boxes from dad on Monday so packing and sorting will begin in earnest then.
• I say this a lot but Elijah is quite simply the light of my life. He has the craziest sense of humour and is forever running into me to tell me this nutty story or that...he has me in stitches daily and is turning into a right little character. Me being me completely encourage him to embrace his nuttiness individuality and made him go and change out of his boring blue shirt into his fangs one. His enthusiasm for our move is making me even more excited. I think if he was really against moving I would seriously reconsider as he's quite a wise little soul underneath that crazy persona.
• Lastly I am grateful just simply for the most perfect day. We woke up reasonably early and went and had breakfast, haircuts, did a bit of shopping and then came home for a lovely relaxing afternoon followed by date night. Everything was just perfect.

Journal:
So I surprised E tonight with tickets to see The Hunger Games. We saw it a few weeks ago and loved it, but I was so focused on matching the movie to the book and trying to remember what came next, and REALLY REALLY hoping it wouldn't suck to watch it in detail. I felt kind of like a third party observer rather than getting absorbed in it. So I really wanted to see it again to just really sink into it and WATCH.

And it was even better the second time around. Going in knowing it was going to be good allowed me to really get into it and appreciate the nuances of which the movie is full of. I know all the critics have said this, but Jennifer Lawrence is quite simply brilliant. She has captured the spirit of Katniss and played her with depth and feeling, I really don't think any other actress could have topped her performance. She WAS Katniss. I'm a big fan of a fabulous strong female character (see previous Scarlett O'Hara admiration post), and no-one who's read the books can doubt this woman is one. However, I was really afraid whoever won the role would just play her as a straight out badass without really capturing the emotional backstory that brought her there in the first place. Watching her quite literally shaking in her boots just as she was entering the games was worth the price of admission.

I cannot recommend this movie or the book highly enough. If you haven't read or seen it yet, then what are you waiting for? I've asked E to write his own review on the movie and I will post this as a comparison to mine (I'm sure his will contain an overuse of the word 'RAD' - just saying).

Check out the link to Amazon at the bottom of the page if you want to get your hands on a copy - I promise you'll be just as hooked as I am. Just a hint, the second book is even better than the first and you CANNOT imagine how much I'm anticipating that movie!

Random act of kindness:
There's been a few today and all centre around E. I just love to surprise and delight him because he gets so excited and it's just infectious. We went browsing through Toyworld and of course Ninjago was the hot topic of the day (for the uninitiated, see my post I don't speak boy). Some of the spinners, whatever they are, were on sale for half price so I let E get one. We had to toss a coin as he couldn't decide between two, and don't ask me what they were due to the language difficulties experienced when speaking Ninjago (all I hear is blah blah blah). Crazy how a $9 item can make you feel like the best mum in the world. I followed this up with his favourite breakfast and then The Hunger Games tonight, so all in all, my son has gone to sleep with the biggest smile on his face and his parting words of 'this was the best day ever'. Job done.

Meditation:
I am either getting better or worse at this, I always fall asleep during the process but am sleeping so well lately that I'm clearly very relaxed. And despite the millions of things running through my head of all the things I have to do (two weeks...eek!) and the copious quantities of caffeine I consume right before bed, it doesn't seem to stop me from dozing off really quickly. So despite the niggling feeling that I'm doing it all wrong, I'm pretty cool with it all.

Please let me know what you thought of The Hunger Games! I am pretty damn obsessed with this series and despite having read the trilogy three times now am already itching for a fourth go-around. I can't decide if I'm on Team Peeta or Team Gale. Obviously Gale is Thor's bro, and seriously hot, but then again he's dating Miley Cyrus so there's your downside right there. Peeta on the other hand is kinda dorky but so sweet without being sickly that he's kinda winning me over too. Torn.

Twilight who?

Would love to hear your thoughts on the books, how they compare to the movie, did you love, hate or meh?

xx

Date Night - The Hunger Games

Strange addictions

Update: comments in response to my post: "you'll be hearing from my lawyers" and "he's acquired more cars and now I'm the proud owner of a Cuisinart brushed stainless steel stick blender". My response to the threatening lawsuit is simple: if you can get blood out of this stone, then you're a cleverer person than I. That is all.

A real friend is one that loves you not despite your quirks, but because of them. I shudder to think how many eccentricities I must have as the large majority of my friends have their own little strange addictions that are, whilst amusing and often endearing, ultimately perplexing.

Take a male friend of mine. He has his stash hidden all around his house. His partner often finds bags of the stuff in obscure places. She's taken to shaming him on Facebook to try to get him to stop. She's threatened an intervention. He says he can stop anytime. Completely in denial.

No it's not drugs, it isn't porn, its....

MATCHBOX CARS.

Yes, matchbox cars. Loads of the things. He could open a shop.

He claims they're for his son, but this doesn't explain why they're hidden around the house in places Billy couldn't hope to reach, and that a surprisingly large amount are still in their packaging.

To keep the peace and to divert attention, my friend feeds his partner's addiction instead. Her's? Well she is obsessed with KITCHEN PORN. Her obsession being so great that in response to her partner's purchase of a juicer, she was quoted as saying "It's better than any diamond ring! It's so shiny and beautiful (sniff)".

Ooookaaay.

At least her addiction is less shameful and understandable, and ultimately useful. Having been lucky enough to sample the wares from her pride and joy, the Kitchenaid, I can agree that whilst I'm relatively undomesticated and completely uninterested in making my own pasta, I can covet an ice cream maker with the best of them and spend time in the stores drooling with glazed eyes over the selection of incredible, shiny appliances that promise to deliver a dish worthy of any Masterchef contestant without any effort on my part.

So her addiction is somewhat relatable.

He on the other hand...Matchbox Anonymous....STAT.

What are your addictions?

"The Stash"

Apparently writing gratitude lists makes you a better person

So I keep hearing about gratitude journals and apparently listing the things that you are grateful for make you...er...well, grateful.

And here I've lived all these years just BEING grateful and just now find out I've been doing it wrong. So in the spirit of doing things by the book, here goes:

Bec's Gratitude List

 My amazing son Elijah who is the light of my life. And because you make double choc brownies that kick ass. And you'd kill me if I left you off the list.

My dear friend just let me know her entire family except her has it coming out both ends and she is the designated cleanup girl. So I'm really, REALLY grateful not to be her right now. 

I realised the other day that most of my closest friends have known me since I was 15. We've gone through tears, tantrums, angst, drama and really bad hair together...and that was just last Saturday night. Yet we have loved each other through thick and thin (and these days unfortunately more thick than thin). You make me laugh, you listen to my crap and we can spend hours talking about nothing in particular. No girl could have better friends...and I'm not just saying that because you're holding all my embarrassing secrets to ransom.

 My sanity. Oh wait...

My Kindle. Now people think I'm really intellectual and can't tell that I'm really reading trashy chick lit. Win/win.

Apple. A life without my iPhone, iPad et al is no life at all. Now I never have to look out a window or indeed have to talk to a stranger as everyone knows its rude to interrupt people when they're pretending to be engrossed in their phone. Bless you Steve Jobs. As god is my witness, I'll never be bored again. You made an app for that and I'm totally grateful.

My ability to laugh at myself. Thank God.

There. Now I feel much more grateful. And like a much better person.  Totally.