Lets get Happy!!

I began the happiness project this year right alongside my buy nothing year ,mostly because I think they might be directly related to each other, but also just because this is a year I finally feel like changing things that have been bothering me.

My guide is "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin, a woman who spent a year methodically determining what she thought would make her happy and then making efforts each week and month to change it. If you are interested in doing it with me get the book, or visit the website. 
You could also just follow along with me, or even determine what you think would make you happy and just do that, but really resolve to do it!!

January's Resolutions are mostly about getting to a healthier state of mind and physicality in order to kick off the rest of the resolutions. Here they are:

Get more sleep: I have vowed to be in bed by 10:30 every week night
Exercise more: My goal is 3 x week
Toss, restore and organize: I have scheduled 2 thrift store pick ups to inspire me to toss stuff out quicker, and I am going through each room to organize before the end of the month.
Tackle a nagging task: My nagging task is life insurances

Remember whatever your resolutions are, you want to make them something you can measure so that at the end of the month you will be able to determine whether you have achieved your goals or not.

I also purchased (prior to my buy-nothing year) the 5 yr happiness journal, which is a line-a-day journal that you fill out for 5 years. I thought it was such a great way to see your progression of mind, attitude and action through the years. everything is available off the website, or in bookstores.

I would love to know if anyone else is joining me in this endeavor!

Love and luck,
Kerry the Momster

Capsualized:Wrapping up the year

As a fun family project for the end of the year, we created a family time capsule. It was a lot of fun to sit around and rehash the years activities and events, and we all had some input.

Creating the time capsule is quite simple and can be as complex or sparse as you want it to be. We used a box and added items to it. Each year I label a box (shoe box or whatever) with the year and stick it up in our office. As the year progresses I toss ticket stubs, hotel keys, brochures of places we go, random photos, funny quotes my daughter says,plane tickets, artwork and anything else I feel might be good to preserve. It's what I call my "lazy mommy's scrapbooking". So on New Years Eve we all sat around and pulled everything out of the box and talked about all the fun things we did. 

Questions we asked each other and wrote the answers for our time capsule:

• Favorite song right now
• Best item bought/gifted this year
• People we like to hang out with
• Best holiday of the year
• Hobby
• Biggest news headlines of the year
• Proudest accomplishment this year

We added a dollar (money changes over time), a grocery store ad ( its fun to see the price of everyday items years from now) and some more photos. We decided that we will open the capsule in 10 years. Although my daughter enjoyed making it so much, that she wants to make another one and open it tomorrow. (I don't think that she quite grasps the pint of it all yet, hahha)

Remember this is yours, so keep it personal and try to capture a "moment in time".

Love and memories, 

Kerry the Momster

Here are a few more ideas of what to put in them, from ivillage.