In our house

I do enjoy puzzles, and I laugh at today's happiness challenge because finishing this puzzle would be the complete opposite of happiness.  First it would mean my night time busy task I do while cooking supper would be gone, also I would probably just have a jumbled mash of puzzle pieces glued together because THIS IS THE HARDEST PUZZLE EVER!  I should have realized a bunch of red flowers wouldn't make an easy time.  So no, it's not done but that makes me happy

This fell on the perfect day.  Through work I held a seniors bingo game and lunch but threw in a little chair yoga and some chi meditation as well.  I was unsure how receptive they would be but was pleasantly surprised to see them all taking part as much as their bodies allowed and following along with the entire process pretty carefully.  I had invited an instructor and she was wonderful and I found myself breathing along, doing the slow careful movements, feeling stretches in my body and a release of stress.  Seniors chair yoga, who would have thought that would be my happiness today

I'm a huge fan of mindful meditations especially at night.  I've got to learn more to end my days off with winding down, breathing deeply, and clearing my thoughts.  I always feel very relaxed and very calm when I allow myself to give into the process and treat the meditation properly instead of half-assed fighting it while ruminating on something else entirely.  I still enjoy taking the extra time to smudge after meditating and clearing myself and my environment. Meditating makes me very happy

I adore crafting and it's definitely something I love to do.  I love woodworking, I can cross stitch, back in the day I toll painted, lots of different avenues and mediums.  However I will admit that at the start of a busy week, with school closures due to snowstorms (thanks first day of Spring), and my minimalist attitude of not having bits and pieces scattered around the house, I didn't have much hands on things to really get my craft on.  But then at 10 pm when the house was settled I had my almost nightly craving for a peanut butter and jam sandwich on white bread.  So I crafted a Kraft peanut butter sandwich and I can tell you I felt happy lying in bed eating it in the quiet.

Working up a sweat can be difficult when you are still on a lot of restrictions about the physical activity allowed.  Today was beautiful and the oldest kid was having a day where he was struggling with his emotions and asked to go outside and work off his feelings through physical activity.  We walked a normally nice trail but with the melting, slippery snow, it ended up being quite the sweat just to walk (and I fell down which means tonight is a hot shower, icy gel, and robaxacet night).  Still even with the fall it was great outside and the warm temps plus slippery trek contributed to working up a sweat for sure.  That treacherous walk made me be mindful of my steps and that gave me an hour peace while walking and enjoying the day.  Pure happiness

This was an easy challenge for me.  I routinely rely on my list of friends both near and far to end my day off with.  Having the kids alone means it's harder for me to just jump out and have coffee or nights out with friends, so the phone, FaceTime and Skype are all pretty popular for me.  That little bit of catching up with my friends at the end of the night is the perfect way to end the day on a happy note

 Today I garden.  Well there's still 4 feet or more of snow covering my flower beds so that wasn't going to happen, and I wasn't flowing in cash enough to try to find some seeds or soil to do a few seedlings.  So instead I grabbed this $5.99 shamrock from the grocery store and a bundle of spring flowers on sale 50% off.  I arranged them into a vase and placed both plants smack in the middle of the dining room table.  Now as I cook, clean, eat, or sit at the table I can admire the greenery and find happiness in how pretty simple little flowers can be.