30 Days of Happiness :: Day 1

Fellow bloggers and friends, Caren at Bottomland and Kelcey at SweetMess have chosen to notice and record happiness in their daily lives for thirty days.

While enjoying their efforts, I thought, quite grimly, that I could never do this; thinking I could not find daily "happiness" for thirty straight days.

This is a terrible thought, truthful, but terrible and not the person I want to be!

Surely, surely, I am not so un- happy that I can't find one bit of joy to share daily? Reflecting on recent day's events, I searched for the happy moment that I would share if I took this challenge... and lo and behold! I am unhappy!

I would not say that I am depressed or that my life is so terrible in anyway. Neither would I say that it is filled to overflowing with happy, joyous moments. Lately, I guess I do feel stymied and stifled; discontented and frustrated most of the time.

As I said, this is not the person that I want to be nor, indeed, as follower of Christ, should be. I would like to change my perspective, quit staring down the mountains of worries and turn back towards the goodness that permeates my life by way of simply being alive, clothed, fed and sheltered. Isn't that enough to be happy about?

(Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. ~ 1 tim. 6:6-8)

It is because I could use a bit of eye-opening about the happiness that my daily life contains, that I am going to participate in 30 Days of Happiness, too.

Day One: Starting small and obvious....

Grocery Shopping Complete!

This DOES make me happy!
The work of shopping with little ones is done,
the fridge is full,
and meals for my family are assured,
for at least another week.

Craggy Gardens

Late Summer brings another reason to step out into the beautiful mountains that surround us here in Western North Carolina and explore. A delicious reason: wild blueberries are in season! Who can resist their siren call?

Today we traveled up to Craggy Gardens: one of many, many places to pick the juicy beauties along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Craggy is a very popular spot in season, a bit too popular for our taste, but we choose Craggy because of the relative ease of the hiking.

The hike to the summit of Craggy Pinnacle and back is about 1.5 miles with a plethora of blueberry bushes just off the trail. Not to mention the stunning panoramic views at the summit. We wanted Elijah to have the satisfaction of making it to the top and back all on his own two feet and he did!

The temperature is about 10 degrees cooler up there and since it was a partially cloudy day we had the lovely experience of seeing and feeling the clouds, literally, surround us on the summit. So refreshing!

With the constant renovations, sometimes we forget to take time to step away from the work and enjoy God's Creation together as a family. I am so glad that we did just that today.

A little vent.

I would love to regale you with some witty or charming story concerning our ever-so fabulous and blog-able lives.

I wish I could display an intricate and compelling bit of art or craft for your viewing pleasure. Oh, and pass it off with an, "Aww, shucks! I just whipped that up in my spare time because I live my life that way: all effortlessly creative and productive every darn moment of the day. What, don't you?".

I wish I had some perfectly un-posed pictures shot from an uncanny angle to demonstrate just how naturally cool and unconventional we are here at Blessed Lessons, in real life.

Alas, my blogging spirit has run dry of late.

I've been trolling the internet too much lately, looking for inspiration for E.'s 3rd birthday party. And I'm stuffed uncomfortably-full with the overly present, wonder-mom bloggers: the amazingly inventive, always positive, organic and wholesome, creative moms who seem to rule the blogosphere; whose efforts to portray an effortlessly, fabulous life leave me with a saccharin taste and my mouth and the feeling that all I do... isn't enough.

Because, truth be told, these wonder-mom types have become to my mothering self-esteem what the fashion magazines are stereotyped for doing to our collective body images... putting up a false front that no one can really sustain day in and out. Ick. Enough, okay?

I try to take these blogs with a grain of salt and remind myself that they are meant to showcase the best of the best. Not the wet beds, the whining and rudeness, the teething, the exhaustion, the late bills, the blow ups and melt downs that mar one's bloggy image. Because one cannot be expected to compete with such mom-errific perfection... I tried, I can't.

I need a bottle of brain bleach and a major dose of self-love for all of my feeble attempts to craft a lovely life, a "in real life", life. I need to forget what all these other moms are doing and be proud of what I'm doing. Yep!

At any rate, I just wanted to pop in and say "hi" to my five faithful readers. Sorry for the rant; don't hold it against me, okay?

Adah's first word

For some time now, we've tried to determine if Adah was saying "Dada" referring to Gabe, her Daddy. She babbles "dadada" quite a lot and sometimes it really seems that she is referring to Gabe. Still, I am only 75% sure that she is referring to him and that she knows him as Dada.

However, last week she responded, out of the blue, to one of my many "Hi Adahs", with a perfectly breathy and sweet little "Hiiiiii". Of course, I initially thought it was a funny coincidence. But now, after more than a week of hearing her say "Hiiiii" to each of us when she wakes up in the morning (over and over again), and when Gabe gets home from work and to strangers in the store; I am sure that she is really saying "Hi". She says it at all the appropriate times and even sometimes adds a little wave, which you can see in the following video. I consider this to be Adah's first official word:



By the way, it is just so completely fitting that her first word is "hi". Not to be too stereotypical of gender roles, but she is such a social and interactive little girl who loves to smile and talk to anyone who will smile and talk back. Elijah's first words came simultaneously, "dog" and "ball", and that totally fits his all-boy personality.