What Happiness Means to Me

Ok so I have banged on about happiness a lot lately. It is honestly just sheer coincidence that I have found happiness since writing this blog – or is it that the writing down of feelings and discussion of issues has helped me focus and find my happiness. Who knows! However, I am conscious that when I wasn’t so happy what I wanted more than anything was some advice on how to be happy rather than listen to someone else bat on about how happy they are. So with that in mind, here is my guide to being happy…….

 

• Take some time each day to think about what you are thankful for. Today I am thankful for not being alone. I had been due to have my 1st child free weekend in 3 months but my ex is stuck out of the country. I am thankful that means I get extra time with my girls and we have so far had a fantastic weekend.
• Think about what you have achieved recently. I don’t just mean the big things like the fact I have started work in the last month, but the little achievements. I sorted out my food cupboard today, threw out the out of date stuff that I will never use and actually was very happy with myself when I had done.
• What have you done to make someone else smile? B smiled lots today, when I let her help make tea, painted her nails and play with bubbles outside. H smiled when I videoed her talking about Peppa Pig and when I told her to get back in bed for the fourth time tonight!!
• What has improved in your life recently? For me this is financial ease. The fact I can take the girls on holiday this year, run a car and not worry about my debts. But on the whole I try not to focus on money because to me it’s not the be all and end all.
• Do something that makes you happy every day – this is something I had to really think about in the beginning. I found it hard to give myself the time to dry and straighten my hair every day rather than tie it back wet. I completely stopped wearing make up other than for going out and I can’t remember the last time I had a hair cut or manicure. But now I make time, I do my hair and make up every day, I make myself a cup of tea every morning, and allow myself time to drink it. It’s the hardest thing to get used to doing but even if some days it is only 5 minutes, make sure you fit it in because it will really make a difference.
• Always find the positive. I used to always let the bad things really get me down. Now no matter what I look for the positive. Like the volcano cloud meaning I can have extra time with my girls rather than dwelling on the fact I still haven’t had a lie in!!!! As a parent, I just have to look at my girls to know the true meaning of happiness. I am a firm believer of “Happy Mum, Happy Child” and I do have my days where I doubt myself as a single mum, but when I look at the smiling faces on my girls I know I can’t be going far wrong. They are my world and ultimately they are my happiness, so when you look at your kids, no matter how many times they wake in the night, or refuse to eat your cooking or do something just to wind you up, smile and know that happiness is what YOU make it. There is no magic formula and the above is what I do, it may not work for you. If you found something else that helps with your happiness I’d love to hear about it!

A “Cot Free” home!!!

Wow, it brings a tear to my eye but that’s it, my baby days are over, never again will my home have a cot. I don’t know why, but it’s a big thing for me this time round. I guess it’s because H is number 2, and I am 99.9% certain I won’t have any more kids, so not only i it a mark of her getting olderbut it’s a mark of me getting older too.

I had been thinking about the cot to bed transition at Christmas. I decided against it then mainly because of so much other stuff going on at the time, but she is now 19 months and thats slightly older than when B moved from her cot. So thats it, no going back. I was secretly dreading bedtime. She had already climbed in and out a couple of times, so she knew what was waiting for her at bedtime, but I was expecting her to think it a new game, being able to get out of bed. I think I covered my anxiety well though and bedtime was the same as usual. I got her ready for bed, she had a drink of milk and then off we went. So far I have had to go in to her once and that was because she had dropped Igglepiggle on the floor and didn’t even think to get out of her bed to get him! That was an hour ago.  While B is still singing to herself – loudly – there is no noise coming from H. I don’t want to count my chickens though, we can’t say we have cracked it until she has slept the night through, and even then I won’t be celebrating until she has had at least a week!

On a slightly different line though, I feel like it’s kind of pushed me forward a little. I have been single now for coming up 2 years and as much as would love to be in a relationship for my own personal reasons, the fact H is so young has stopped me. It’s strange though, now the cot has gone I don’t feel like I have a baby in the house any more, so in a strange way I feel like I can move on completely now!

1 down, 100 to go!

Ok so I am starting easy as this one was stolen from another person, and was nice and quick to do – point 101 to stop junk mail – DONE!

How???

Well if you want to do the saem, go to http://www.junkbuster.org.uk/ and yu can register to opt ot of leaflets that are delivered by royal mail, also you can opt out of telepone directories being delivered to you. It doesn’t say how long till it kicks in, but in theory it shouldn’t take long.

As for unsolicited telephone calls, register your phone number at http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/ and your details will not be passed on to companies to cold call you unless ou have given the details for use by that company yourself.You can also register yur mobile number. I have just gone on there and both my landine and mobile are already registered so from now on I will be taking callers details and repoting them – they can recieve a hefty fine andfrom experience when you say you are registered with TPS they generally hang up before you can get any details from them!

Hopefully that info ill help someone out there!