Author Topic: Happiness challenge  (Read 165532 times)

deborah

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Happiness challenge
« on: January 13, 2021, 02:29:04 AM »
There are a lot of things around at the moment that make us miserable. The media, and even the forum is full of things that we can read about to make us more unhappy.

I think we could all do with a little more happiness in our lives. I think that there’s at least one thing that makes me happy each day. So I’m challenging myself and you to write about something different each day that made you happy.


Today a friend told me about a frog in her garden - a spotted marsh frog. She showed me a picture of it. It’s rather small but it makes a lot of noise. We used to have a pond and striped marsh frogs would call at night. It was a lovely sound - a clonk noise, just like a Japanese deer stalker. I loved the sound, and I was really happy that my friend reminded me of it.

Playing with Fire UK

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2021, 04:15:52 AM »
Oooo, yes please. I've been working on reducing annoyances to improve happiness which is having some benefit but needs to be coupled with more positivity.

Yesterday I have a great conversation with a colleague that I didn't know that well. It is delightful to elevate someone from neutral colleague to friendly colleague status.

Morning Glory

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2021, 04:30:06 AM »
Thank you for this challenge!!!! I would love to be happier, who wouldn't?

Yesterday I had  a good day:
I taught my first in-person lab of the semester it went well; I felt like I had really accomplished something afterward.
 I received a welcome gift and a thoughtful note from the program director.
I figured out how to make my hair look nice without washing it.

Adventine

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2021, 04:36:11 AM »
I love this idea!

Here's one thing that made me happy today: a deep, thoughtful conversation with a loved one about our plans for 2021. We hope the plans push through, but even if they don't, it was worthwhile just to have the conversation.


cool7hand

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2021, 05:15:34 AM »
Every night, I mentally review my day and list in my mind 3 things that I appreciate about myself and 3 things I'm grateful for. Almost as simple as it is powerful.

I picked this up from something called the Hoffman Process. Give it a Google it you like.

nessness

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2021, 02:17:14 PM »
Great challenge!

Today I am happy about nice weather - 64 and mostly sunny, with a gentle breeze. Today for homeschool "PE" I just let my kids run and around in the backyard while I cleaned the chicken coop and then relaxed on the deck, and it was fantastic.

CodingHare

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2021, 02:58:39 PM »
Love this challenge!

We had a friend drop by (socially distanced) to exchange Christmas presents after over a year of not seeing each other.  It's so good to be remembered and look forward to a nice BBQ when it's safe!

lazycow

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2021, 03:31:36 PM »
Lovely thread.
I posted this on the decluttering thread too: I am allowed to help my daughter declutter her books. Getting rid of unwanted stuff makes me so so happy.
« Last Edit: January 13, 2021, 07:09:14 PM by lazycow »

Ladychips

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #8 on: January 13, 2021, 03:53:23 PM »
Hmm, I can't decide between 2 things...I hope it's ok if I share both.

1. A group on campus was mistreating one of my employees today - out of carelessness and ignorance...but still a mistreatment.  I called that group's boss and put a stop to it.  Made me very happy (and my employee was happy too).

2. My little cousin came by today selling blue and gold for his FFA group.  I didn't need any but bought some anyway (inspired by the 'how are you giving' thread).  We had a lovely chat on the front porch.

What a great thread this is @deborah !!

Metta

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #9 on: January 13, 2021, 04:01:59 PM »
In the midst of this difficult day I managed to cull about half my clothing, getting rid of things I didn't like, weren't in good shape, or didn't fit. It made me happy because it brings me one step closer to moving to New Mexico.

Thanks for this Deborah!

Serendip

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #10 on: January 13, 2021, 06:51:53 PM »
Got blown around by wind on top of an icy mountain but on skis, with the sun peaking through clouds and shining upon the whirling snow and felt lucky to be able to ski in the midst of this crazy winter.

Trifle

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #11 on: January 14, 2021, 03:57:02 AM »
Love this challenge, thank you @deborah !

Since it's wee hours of the morning now I'll share what happened yesterday.  Background -- We live on a farm and one of our chickens was attacked by a hawk a few days ago and very badly injured.  My kids and I have been nursing her, and it's been touch and go.  Yesterday she ate some food and drank some water.  We did high fives all the way around -- seems like she may be turning the corner and has a good chance to make it.  :)  We were all on cloud nine yesterday afternoon. 

Morning Glory

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #12 on: January 14, 2021, 05:00:05 AM »
I had a "friend date" yesterday with the girlfriend of my husband's best friend. I had never met her in person before, and we talked a lot and really connected.

I woke up early and did some yoga this morning, felt really good afterward.

John Galt incarnate!

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #13 on: January 14, 2021, 06:29:03 AM »
Great challenge!

Today I am happy about nice weather - 64 and mostly sunny, with a gentle breeze.

I like warm weather and winters where I live are pretty mild.

This winter has been warmer than normal so I'm happy about it.

Today will be a perfect winter day, sunny and warm.

I expect a peak temperature of ~70 degrees F.

John Galt incarnate!

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #14 on: January 14, 2021, 06:33:20 AM »
We were all on cloud nine yesterday afternoon.

I too like it up there.

Ladychips

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #15 on: January 14, 2021, 08:30:22 AM »
I got mine early today. I have a small group who text one another (3 cousins from 2 sides of family, a friend from high school and a recently retired friend from work).  We live in 4 different but all VERY conservative states.  The 6 of us are all VERY liberal.  We share the funniest texts.  They make me truly laugh out loud. We've been on a bit of a rampage this morning and I've laughed and laughed and laughed. 

I love all of these people very much and it makes me happy to connect with them this way!

nessness

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #16 on: January 14, 2021, 08:46:41 AM »
Love this challenge, thank you @deborah !

Since it's wee hours of the morning now I'll share what happened yesterday.  Background -- We live on a farm and one of our chickens was attacked by a hawk a few days ago and very badly injured.  My kids and I have been nursing her, and it's been touch and go.  Yesterday she ate some food and drank some water.  We did high fives all the way around -- seems like she may be turning the corner and has a good chance to make it.  :)  We were all on cloud nine yesterday afternoon.
Woohoo! That's a great feeling. Chickens are surprisingly resilient. One of mine was attacked by a dog a few months ago, and lost most of the skin on her neck, exposing a lot of muscle and even some bone. She was healed up and back in the coop within a month.

Playing with Fire UK

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #17 on: January 14, 2021, 09:44:55 AM »
We had the most delightful snow flurry: big clumpy flakes. It didn't stick around, but for an hour it looked like we were in a snow globe.

Stubblestache

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #18 on: January 14, 2021, 10:35:39 AM »
Got blown around by wind on top of an icy mountain but on skis, with the sun peaking through clouds and shining upon the whirling snow and felt lucky to be able to ski in the midst of this crazy winter.

So happy for you that you're skiing! Such a wonderful, soul nourishing thing to do.
« Last Edit: January 14, 2021, 10:41:57 AM by Stubblestache »

Linea_Norway

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #19 on: January 14, 2021, 10:52:05 AM »
As a FIREd person I can now go cc skiing on a weekday in daylight hours. I did so today and it was much nicer than last Sunday when almost everyone was there at the same time. The weather was not fully sunny, but very light with only thin clouds. I had a nice trip.

FrugalWIP

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #20 on: January 14, 2021, 07:41:49 PM »
We tried out a new recipe and it turned out really well. It was fun to try something new and break out of the comfort zone.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #21 on: January 14, 2021, 07:51:22 PM »
One thing that helped me survive 2020 was a journal. Each day I write down three things that I'm grateful for. It was incredibly useful to focus on those positives. 2021 is teaching me that I still need it!

-A gorgeous day today (70ish) & I got to get out for a walk
-My baby is going to high school & we are starting to begin the registration process. I can't believe this. It's making me so happy to see him progress as a young man, & can't believe it's going so quickly.
-I made delicious baked oatmeal & it's been my breakfast all week. Quick, easy & yum.

nessness

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #22 on: January 14, 2021, 10:04:38 PM »
My 6-year-old is doing awesome at reading. It's amazing to me how quickly she's progressed - a year ago she was sounding out words like "cat", and now she's reading chapter books on her own.

deborah

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #23 on: January 15, 2021, 01:25:15 AM »
I picked my greengages today, and decided to make three jars of jam. I stewed some of the fruit, measured out 750ml, added sugar and made the jam. It exactly filled my three jars - not too much or too light . I’ve never managed this before, and I’m so happy about making exactly the right amount!

lazycow

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #24 on: January 15, 2021, 01:30:24 AM »
I picked my greengages today, and decided to make three jars of jam. I stewed some of the fruit, measured out 750ml, added sugar and made the jam. It exactly filled my three jars - not too much or too light . I’ve never managed this before, and I’m so happy about making exactly the right amount!
Yum! My first crop of greengages are not quite ripe yet.

I invited a friend over for a board game afternoon. We talked, drank tea and played Rummikub and Sequence and had a fabulous time, I have made a promise to myself to do this often this year.

KathrinS

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #25 on: January 15, 2021, 02:26:17 AM »
Yesterday, I was in the last 5 minutes of teaching my last student of the day (after 9 lessons) and ready to just wind down, when she asked me a tricky question. Since this aspect of the German language is a very difficult concept for English-speakers to understand, I have developed a unique method of explaining it. Within these 5 minutes, she was able to understand a concept that had been confusing her for 3 years. It was so nice to see the lightbulb moment!

Now let's just hope she'll remember it next week.

Morning Glory

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #26 on: January 15, 2021, 06:35:07 AM »
I slept all night and woke up to a beautiful snowy landscape. My son is cuddled up asleep on the couch right now and I'm enjoying a nice cup of coffee while I get ready to start my day.

Serendip

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #27 on: January 15, 2021, 12:07:34 PM »
Got blown around by wind on top of an icy mountain but on skis, with the sun peaking through clouds and shining upon the whirling snow and felt lucky to be able to ski in the midst of this crazy winter.

So happy for you that you're skiing! Such a wonderful, soul nourishing thing to do.

It is! The valley is grey and cloudy today and we went up the mountain this morning and it was all blue skies and sunshine up there. You'd never know if you just looked out the window. A little Vitamin D is my happy thing today :)

nessness

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #28 on: January 15, 2021, 01:13:20 PM »
I found a bug in some code I'm writing near the end of the work day yesterday, and was struggling to work it out. This morning, looking at it with fresh eyes, I immediately found the problem and fixed it in 5 minutes. I'm not a great coder, so things rarely go as smoothly as that. :)

Trifle

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #29 on: January 15, 2021, 01:25:35 PM »
My happy thing for today was a lovely run on the trails with my 14 year old son.  It was wonderful to spend the time with him outside. 

Linea_Norway

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #30 on: January 16, 2021, 04:13:58 AM »
Today we went cc skiing at -12C and a lot of wind. Because of that it wasn't so crowded in the trails. The trails were freshly prepared and in perfect condition. So, despite for the weather, the circumstances were pleasant and we could see the sun. When I came home cold and walked through the house on bare my feet, the heated floor felt lovely warm on my cold feet.

Morning Glory

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #31 on: January 16, 2021, 07:50:43 AM »
My first big zoom lecture went well yesterday and I got a really good sleep again last night. Today it's fairly warm out so I'm going to take my kids to see an alpaca farm.

spaghetti1awk

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #32 on: January 16, 2021, 12:16:11 PM »
I love this challenge!

My daughter (5) isn't a big cuddler, but last night we watched Mulan (original) with my arm around her almost the whole time and my heart felt so content.

Ladychips

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #33 on: January 16, 2021, 12:37:59 PM »
I recently started following PhilB's and Deborah's journals.  They both live in different countries from me (and each other).  I find them endlessly fascinating, but yesterday I learned 2 new things (fell down the Google hole for quite a while).  Greengages (a kind of plum) and bubble and squeak (a dish made with leftover vegetables).  So much fun learning about other countries from real people.

KathrinS

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #34 on: January 16, 2021, 12:56:57 PM »
My phone has been breaking for about half a year and it got much worse this week. Today, I was able to get it sorted by getting a friend's parent's old phone and just replacing the battery. Frugal (£70 for a 'like new' iphone), good for the planet as she would've just kept it in her drawer, and I really love having a functional phone again! Touch screens are just amazing, when they actually work!

Freedomin5

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #35 on: January 16, 2021, 01:57:19 PM »
I like this challenge. My personal challenge this year is to build joy in my life.

We bought a used digital piano, and I’ve been brushing up on my skills. It makes me happy to find out that I don’t suck as much as I thought I did. It also makes me happy how much joy DD finds in learning the piano — I just started teaching her two weeks ago.

Yesterday, it was very nice and balmy. I went to the playground with DD and enjoyed the sunshine.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2021, 01:59:45 PM by Freedomin5 »

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #36 on: January 16, 2021, 02:25:37 PM »
It's a gorgeous day today. I was able to go for a short run, took my son to a masked up exercise option (where he could also see friends, despite staying socially distant) & now my two kids are, miraculously, getting along & playing tennis together. It's been a while since that's happened.

Metalcat

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #37 on: January 16, 2021, 04:13:00 PM »
I am very happy to be back in Canada today.

nessness

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #38 on: January 16, 2021, 10:32:39 PM »
I tried a new vegan recipe today (mushroom and broccoli stir fry noodles) and it turned out really good - even the kids liked it (minus the mushrooms).

Freedomin5

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #39 on: January 16, 2021, 10:57:27 PM »
Today, the sun is shining brilliantly and the air quality is not terrible. It’s cold but not very cold — a good day for a walk in the park.

Dicey

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #40 on: January 17, 2021, 12:19:40 AM »
Today DH and I went for a random ramble. We followed a private drive and discovered a trailhead at the end of the street, which eventually led to a small trail that followed a hidden creek, which surprisingly led us right back to the trail where we'd started. Our ramble ended up being six miles long. It was sunny and in the mid-seventies. Ah, California winters.

I decided to make pizza for dinner. I started the dough and then a neighbor called. We took something over to to her house and ended up chatting for quite a while, so the dough had extra time to proof. I then divided it and let it rest, which I never seem to have time to do. OMG, it was so much easier to work and the pizza was amazing. Both DH and bonus kid said it was the best ever, which makes me happy. I use The Frugal Girl's pizza dough recipe.

A lot of happy today.

Playing with Fire UK

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #41 on: January 17, 2021, 01:08:15 AM »
My local council sent out care packages for the members of our Covid volunteering group. It was such a lovely surprise and great to have a (distanced) chat with the delivery team that I got to know through the group. The best bit was a thoughtful personalised letter highlighting what we've achieved. So very kind.

Morning Glory

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #42 on: January 17, 2021, 07:43:54 AM »
The alpaca farm was a big hit yesterday!!! My oldest son is still talking about it!!! I bought some yarn for my sister in law ($$ but it felt good to support a local business).  After that I went for a 7.5 mile run outside, had dinner with my husband and kids, made rice pudding for dessert, and had a video call with a friend.

Prairie Gal

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #43 on: January 17, 2021, 10:06:53 AM »
Great idea, deborah!

Yesterday I cleaned my house and de-cluttered a bunch of random things, so this morning I got to wake up to a nice, clean house. Plus, the sun is shining!

mspym

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #44 on: January 17, 2021, 02:19:00 PM »
Running this morning as the sun rose, gangs of cockatoos and crows swirling around in the sky.

Freedomin5

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #45 on: January 17, 2021, 09:08:03 PM »
We have a loaf of fresh bread, my ginger carrot soup was a success and tastes exactly like a local restaurant's recipe (but so much cheaper than buying it from the local restaurant where a bowl of soup costs $7), and we have two overly ripe bananas that will be turned into banana bread tonight.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #46 on: January 18, 2021, 07:31:33 AM »
Early in December I ordered some kaffir lime seeds, which were sent from China. I wasn't even sure whether they would go through the toll. But today, about 5 weeks later and after I had mentally given up, they were in my mail box. We love to eat the leaves in Asian style food, but I haven't been able to buy new (frozen) leaves. Now I can finally start growing my own plant.

Prairie Gal

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #47 on: January 18, 2021, 03:05:52 PM »
Today was one of the happiest in my life. Today my twin grandbabies were born. Over the moon.

LaineyAZ

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #48 on: January 18, 2021, 03:21:51 PM »
Today was one of the happiest in my life. Today my twin grandbabies were born. Over the moon.

Wow, that's a major one - congratulations!

Mine is a minor one, but I started coming down with a cold on Saturday.  First thoughts of course are, Is this serious or maybe even Covid?  But as of this afternoon I'm almost back to normal.  So it was just a quick minor bout of sniffles.
Health = happiness.

lazycow

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Re: Happiness challenge
« Reply #49 on: January 18, 2021, 04:00:13 PM »
In about an hour's time I will have the house to myself for a couple of hours. With 4 adults living here that is a rarity. I will revel in the blissful quiet. The anticipation is almost better than the reality.