What is Happiness to you? Can you find it every day?

I read another blog: http://affaircare.blogspot.com/2010/08/add-happiness-every-day-of-month.html about Happiness and August being happiness month, so on and so forth. So, it got me to thinking.... how happy am I every day, what about my husband and my children, are they truly happy? How can I make them & myself happier? Would love some comments/feedback on this....

What truly makes you happy? Do you have a "happy" moment every single day? How can we be happier people?

For me I believe it changes with the stages of my life.... for example, when I was single, had no kids, I was happy to buy something new & get overtime at work, so I could buy more stuff! (seems rather silly now - a lot of the stuff I bought I mean) I was also happy to go out w/my friends and dance & drink & meet guys. Then I met my husband, and I was happy to be w/someone like him, someone handsome & intelligent & a good man, very happy to spend time alone w/him, or even w/our friends. Then we got married & I was happy to be a part of a married couple, happy when we got weekends alone sleeping late in bed & going to breakfast together; taking vacations together. Then we had 1 son & now 2 sons & I'm happy to have a conversation w/my husband after the kids go to bed, I'm happy when my children make new friends, I'm extatic when my children laugh & they are happy, I'm happy to stay home & raise them & I'm happy to meet other moms, both like me & very different from me.

I'm not happy about having hardly any money, barely enough to pay our bills, because I do stay home & when I have work from home (which I always try to do) I am very happy to contribute financially & make our family more comfortable. In those moments when I'm feeling sad about cancelling plans for a "mom's night out" w/some girlfriends, because I literally couldn't afford to do something so "selfish" I sit & write & then look for more legitimate work from home.... I also concentrate on how smart my children are, how healthy they are and how hard I work and struggle to give them everything, gymnastics class, organic, farm fresh, local food & how good of a cook I am to prepare delicious meals for us.

I have a passion for being a mom & a wife (& a bit of a "greenie") & this, yes this after 11 years as a "corporate" person is definitely what makes me happy!! I was interupted about 50 time while writing this by my son & we cracked up laughing every single time!!

http://www.honesttea.com/coupons/

http://www.honesttea.com/coupons/

Honestly - Honest Tea! Delicious....

So, this past week one of our local markets had this brand of organic ice teas on sale, 5 for $5, so I figured we'd buy the 5 & give it a try for something different to drink in the house. (We pretty much stick to water - lots of water & milk) We're not soda, or juice drinkers, so this was a nice alternative.
I get to the "Market" & the flavor choices are outstanding....mango-acai; white tea, black forest, pomegranite; red tea, and so on.
They are so tasty & most of the flavors you can get caffeine free, not bad on carbs, or sugar, and the ones that are caffeinated are only 1/4 the amount in coffee, so not bad.
I was very, very impressed. I added a link/post with a link to their site for coupons - give 'em a try.
*coupon in separate post*

Five Ways You Can Join Us at the Table to Save America’s Farms

Please, please if you believe in sustainable living & America's Farms, read this article & help if you possibly can! I found out about this through America's Farmland Trust.

Five Ways You Can Join Us at the Table to Save America’s Farms

In love with this lunchbox!! Kids, or Adults, check it out!

So, I heard about this from a post on Nature's Path Organic and decided to check it out for myself. My son is starting Pre-School in a couple weeks, while he doesn't yet need a lunchbox, because he only goes for 2 1/2 hours, 2 days a week to start, I still wanted to be prepared. So, I tried this out, the GoodByn: http://www.goodbyn.com/goodbyn/buy.aspx .

First of all it's adorable! Secondly it's eco-friendly & thirdly when your children are old enough to not be soooo "cute" - you can get them w/out ears!! LOL Love it!

You can get them slightly less expensive here: http://www.buycheapr.com/us/result.jsp?q=goodbyn+lunchbox

Some good honest reviews here: http://justbento.com/bento-box-spotlight-goodbyn-lunchbox

Enjoy!! Need some recipes for your lunchbox, message, or just follow me, I will have some posted very soon.

Thanks!

My Trash Guys

It's called EZ-Cycle!! This is the best idea I have heard of in a LONG time. We signed up with "My Trash Guys", because they do the recycling for you, plus I believe in as a community you use & promote local companies. You put out the trash & they pick it up & sort it out. If you pre sort, you get a discount. You can't beat the convenience of this for a busy family. Check them out: http://www.mytrashguys.com/my_trash_guys_trash_refferal_offer.html

If you sign up, please tell them the Bell Family of Plymouth referred you!!

Eco-Eco .... tip on food shopping

This is an example on how to save $$ while food shopping on an item that you know you will use & can be frozen in the meantime. So, this example stems from the Deli at a store near us called "The Market" on sale this week, (yes, I scour all the sales flyers when they come in on Thu., circle what we would use & then go do the main food shopping where they have the most stuff on sale that we'll need), But I will go to another store if they have something on super sale that we will definitely use.

This is just such a time: http://themarketpinehills.com/style/images/circular/market-1-lrg.jpg Land o' Lakes American cheese on sale for $3.88 per pound!! Now, if any of you buy cheese/cold cuts regularly you know they are fairly expensive, so this is a great deal. One that cannot go to waste. So, I will buy a minimum of 2lbs. (I'll probably buy 3). One lb. will be for the next couple weeks & the other will go into the freezer for later. (making this an eco-eco tip)

Economically friendly on the budget (for more than 1 week) and Ecologically friendly because there's no waste, by putting what we can't use now in the freezer and saving it safely for later, that is friendly on the earth, less waste, more use out of something!

I hope you enjoy this tip & more to come. This is my real life, we try to live green on a budget and I enjoy sharing our tips with others!! Please follow me if you enjoy getting useful every day tips from a homemaker, not an expert.