Monday, March 3, 2014

Little Happies -- Our First Link-Up!



After posting my first Little Happies post, lots of encouragement poured in. It was so sweet, ladies! Thank you! 

Two bloggers posted their own Little Happies -- ecce fiat & Grace of Adoption -- which I loved reading! Then, several of you suggested turning it into a link up. I researched the process a bit and it seemed pretty doable. The final push came from Amanda over at True, Good, and Beautiful. She emailed me and really encouraged me to make it happen. 

Amanda's husband, Jonathan, created the beeeeautiful graphic you see above (seriously, round of applause for that one!) and through lots of emails, Amanda helped me sort through the nitty gritty details. 

We've decided Little Happies will be a weekly link up on Mondays! Weeeee!!

Now, I must say, I'm a little nervous to commit myself to this. However, my life is so full of little joys, especially now that I'm really trying to notice and appreciate them. So I have a feeling I'll have enough to post about each week. Plus, I figured, if I have to skip a week here and there, you can always still link up to an older Little Happies post. 

As for the number of Little Happies in each post -- I was thinking of five, just like I had in my original post, but then, the more I thought about it, the more I realized, you can't limit happy! So if you have only one Little Happy to share this week, that's awesome. Have a hundred? Well, that's awesome too! No matter the number, we'll all be happy to share in your little joys with you. 

And as for who's invited to join in -- everyone!! Infertility bloggers, adoption bloggers, mommy bloggers, food bloggers, life bloggers, whatever bloggers! 

The only thing I ask is that you keep your Little Happies truly little. What I mean by that is: while vacations and babies and engagements and new cars and new jobs and new houses are all great and well worth celebrating, they're a little too big for what we're trying to do here. Little Happies were started because I felt I was too focused on those Big Happies in life, just waiting my life away, hoping for the big things to happen. I felt it was time for a change, so I decided to turn to the little things to find my joy. And I hope that's what you'll do too. Plus, it's not like your Big Happies can't be posted about in their own special, separate posts. :) 

Overall, I'd really like to approach these posts as little prayers of thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father. I hardly do this enough, and when it comes to the little things, well, let's just say God is definitely not getting the praise He's due. So for each Little Happy I post or just notice in my every day, God will be getting a big ol' thank you from me from now on, as He should have been getting all along. 

So, here we go! You asked and now you shall receive. One Little Happy link up, coming right up... 

-- one --


How'd you spend your St. Valentine's day? This is the second year in a row my husband was working late for the holiday. So, for the second year in a row, I hosted a Parents' Night Out fundraiser at our church for the youth group (the teens are great babysitters!). Instead of hanging out at home by my lonesome, I got to play with tons of little cuties the whole night long. These two girlies were my favorite. They would randomly just come up to me and hug me over and over and over. I hardly ever spend time with little kids, so I was more than happy to do it that evening and put my mothering skills to good use! Plus, we raised a bunch of money for the youth group, so win win!


--two--


My youth group kids crack me up. We had a game night two weeks ago and this group decided to play Heads Up. I don't think I've laughed that hard in a while! My cheeks hurt from smiling! If you have an iPhone, Heads Up is also an app. I highly recommend downloading and playing with a crowd of friends. You'll definitely giggle lots. 



 -- three --


John wanted to go for a walk after I got off work one afternoon, so we went to our favorite little park and walked laps around this lake, chatting about life and blogging and adoption. Despite the gray skies, we had such a lovely, peaceful time. His cute hat makes me smile too. 


-- four --


I have no idea where it came from, but I've got a serious decorating bug all of a sudden. I just want to buy furniture and posters and wall art and mirrors all the time now. What is this about? I'm not even that good at interior design, so it's not like I have any reason to enjoy it. Weird. But I am digging the fruits of our interior design labor. 

This is one of our recent projects, and I love it. That little stand has turned into board game central; I love that it's so organized now. That mirror was on super sale at Target -- win! The fresh flowers are just gorgeous; I think we have a reason to buy fresh flowers more often now. (Hear that, dear husband?) And that cute framed pic was one of Johnny's St. Valentine's Day presents -- bears hugging each other. Does it get any cuter?

This fancified nook is the first thing we see when we leave our bedroom each morning. That wall used to be completely blank, so it's a lovely treat now and a huge improvement for us. 

Which room shall I tackle next? 


-- five --


I'm serious about this anti-inflammatory diet now, folks. Really. You all must hold me accountable! I really want to go all in for the next two months to see what happens. Can you help me stay on track?

One thing that will be helping me lots is this new pizza joint: Pyro's Fire Fresh Pizza. It's kind of like Chipotle, but with pizzas instead of burritos. You pay one set price and then, with all the toppings laid out in front of you to choose from, the pizza dude behind the counter piles on the toppings you pick out. They pop your creation into a brick pizza oven and a few minutes later, you have this delicious beauty staring at you, ready to be devoured.

How is this going to help my diet? Well, they have a delicious gluten-free crust, you see! I put pesto, mozzarella, andouille sausage, broccoli, bacon, jalapenos, onions, feta, scallions, and bbq sauce on this one. Can't wait to go back and create my next one AND not feel bad about it. Because it's anti-inflammatory-diet friendly! Tummy is happy.


-- six --


After I had a particularly rough morning, Johnny decided to spend the afternoon at work with me. I told my coworkers it was "Bring Your Husband To Work Day." They knew I was kidding, but my work is so flexible about have him there with me, so long as I'm productive, they don't mind him being around. 

He drew me a little diddy on my Buddha Board and told me it was how his brain felt about reading about adoption. He was a little stressed by the adoption profile and some paperwork we still have to do and all the adoption books he's trying to read now. So an exploding brain surrounded by exclamation points summed up his feelings well. Ha! He makes me smile. 


-- seven --


This one's kind of a bonus Little Happy for ya. With Ash Wednesday coming up this week, I figured it was perfectly appropriate. A friend shared it with me and it made me chuckle. 


PS - I know I mentioned that this is going to be a Monday thing, but if you'd like to join in and can't write a LH post today, don't sweat it. :) The link up will be open for two weeks, so you have pleeennnnty of time to write your LH post and still participate in the link up. Today, tomorrow, Friday, whenevs. I just look forward to reading along!  



19 comments:

  1. Awesome! I love the graphic too! This will be great:-)

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    1. Thank you!! Aren't those little flags on the graphic just so darn cute? :)

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  2. Love the first official post! :) And that pizza....we have a place similar to what you described that just opened here in Denver...I could eat there daily! Anti-inflammatory is hard to stick to but when you find delicious places like that it gets easier! Have you read the Dr. Weil books or are you following his pyramid?

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    1. Glad you like it! You're my best cheerleader in all this. Thanks for being so awesome!

      I haven't read Dr. Weil's book, but I read through his website and seem to get the general idea of it. Though I'm admittedly no expert. It's more the "gluten free" approach than anything else. I cut out peanut butter too. But I have a lot of trouble with cutting out dairy. I've tried to cut back a bit, but cheese is my big weakness. Anyway, are you following his diet too? My NaPro teacher was having a lot of trouble conceiving and what finally made it happen was the anti-inflamm diet, so I'm pretty sold. :) Just need to keep finding motivation to stick to it!

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  3. Love this, Stephanie! I'm in. :-)

    P.S. Such a cute graphic, too!

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    1. Thank you!! I'm so happy you love it. And even happier to have you joining in! :D

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  4. Great link up! I am looking forward to joining in and glad I have a few days to get on it. ;) Although, I'm starting to get inspired, so who knows? I may even have one up before bed tonight.

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  5. Love all of these! But most especially the youth group playing HeadsUp AND the pizza. Yum yum!!

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    1. Oh ya, forgot to mention that you gave us Heads Up! You're so cool. <3 Trend setter. Pretty face. Salsa lover, but only if it's good salsa. Mmmmmm, pizza. Have you been to Pyro's yet? Let's go!

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  6. Love the graphic, love the colors, love the pictures, love everything about this post. But seriously, it is after 10pm tonight and that pizza looks AMAZING and my stomach is growling. I clicked on the link to the restaurant thinking maybe there might be one here in the Twin Cities that even if I couldn't go tonight, I could go sometime in the near (and I mean NEAR) future. Ugh...Memphis...guess not. I should have figured you didn't live anywhere nearby when your DH is walking outside in just a sweater. Just a sweater...people actually leave the house without multiple layers upon layers of clothing in March? Wow, knock me over with a feather! :) (Actually, I wear more layers than that inside my own house because it is so cold!) LOL!

    All around great post, would love to participate...hopefully soon.

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    1. You are so sweet! Thank you for your kind words about the graphic, the colors, the pictures, everything! Too sweet!

      I'm so sorry about the pizza, though. If I could ship it to you, I totally would. Want to come visit Memphis some time? It's true, you can walk around in March in just a sweater... some days. We had 60 degree weather a few days ago. Today was a big change for us though -- we actually had snow! The first snow fall that actually accumulated this winter. Brrrrr! So sorry you have to deal with cold weather like this too often. And in your own home. Boo to winter! At least it's nearing its end?

      Would love to have you participate in LH sometime. The more, the happier! :D

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  7. I just added mine!! Sorry it's late! Suuuuuuch a great idea, Stephanie! It makes me happy just thinking about it =) Thanks for putting this together. And I love your list of happies! The pizza looks amazing, and your youth group sounds so fun! I love the walk by the lake too. We just did that last weekend and it was glorious. Oh, and we saw a beaver! I should have mentioned that in my little happies! =)

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    1. Don't apologize for being late! I'm so happy you participated again! :) You'll have to save the beaver story for next week. :D

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  8. what a great idea! love your new decorations, I'm getting the decorating bug too.

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    1. Thanks for the support. :) Glad you like the LH idea! And thanks for being one of the first to join in!! I'd love to hear some of your decorating tips. I honestly have no idea what I'm doing. I just play around with things 'til they look good. I can only imagine how nice our apt would look if I actually knew what I was doing.

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  9. I'm super behind in blogging as spanish is completely consuming our time...

    LOVE the post and idea! We are in!

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  10. Gosh, you're just learning a whole new language in a foreign country. What could *possibly* be hard about that? ;) Seriously, though, you guys are rockstars. Look forward to having you join us with the LH in the future!!

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