Day 9: Summer

Posted in belovers, connection, family, Gratitude, happily ever after, Happiness, intention, Love, love and light, motherhood, one love, parenting, positive living, simple living by adrianahartley

Caravan 2016 – Mexico

Our high schoolers left first thing this morning with their caravan, heading to Mexico for the next week, on a mission trip to serve others and to work side by side with their peers and advisors. I am scared, excited, happy, proud, anxious, grateful, in awe, and mostly thankful.

I am thankful that our church believes in our youth and provides opportunities for them to practice our values in a loving environment. I am thankful for the plethora of advisors and volunteers who are dedicated to loving and supporting our youth and who give up their time graciously to be an active part of their lives. This trip takes a lot of work and preparation and dedication on so many levels. It truly is amazing to feel the synergy and I am proud of my kids for choosing to participate and am thankful to be part of this community.

Please send your good thoughts and prayers to keep them safe.

Our future is bright, BeLoveRs.

Happy Father’s Day.

xoxo

12Jan2016

The Application Of Happiness Theories

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They work. Seriously, I’m telling you and I’m not even trying to sell you something.

I’m practicing and using some of the theories and I want to keep practicing and getting better at adapting and staying on the path of happily ever after.

Yesterday I wasn’t feeling it, as happiness can be an elusive thing. It’s here and it’s gone and it’s back again. I was just feeling kinda blah in the moment and wanted to snap out of it, especially since I was giving a presentation on happiness tonight. I looked at my notes with the list of 5 things you can do in 21 days to feel happier, and I did the first thing on the list, which was to write down three things I was grateful for that day, kind of as a test.

As I started to write, I started to smile. I felt joy as I sat for a few focused minutes to think about what made me happy yesterday, and started seeing my joys on my screen. Writing down one thing lead to another and another until I had 8 things in less than 5 minutes. And to think that 5 minutes before that, I was feeling dread, with not even a blog topic in my head. I looked at my list and felt happiness, instantly. A handful of you even took the time to “Like” my post, which made me thankful too. This gratitude practice is a miracle thing that we all can practice. It’s free and doesn’t take much time and puts us on the right path.

Tonight I’m thankful that my Happiness program was well received and I loved the interactive dialogue and sharing and connections that we made. Their big A-HA moment was seeing that no one listed material things on their happiness list. I loved this! We learned that most of us experience happiness through shared experiences with family, friends, and being of service to others which makes sense! The number one predictor of happiness is having good relationships. We talked a lot about being aware of our expectations and how to focus on our gifts instead of the gaps. We talked about adapting and accepting whatever life gives us and redefining ourselves as we go through life. I learned a lot tonight and was thankful to be invited to share the Gift of Happiness.

In closing, I’ll share a quote from Lincoln that was shared by one of the ladies tonight, who always heard this from her smart and positive-living mama as she was growing up:

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”

So true. Let’s be mindful and choose happiness. Go ahead. You can start right now. 😉

nAMaste

2Feb2015

Happy Hours

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Have you heard that helping others can increase your happiness?

The magic number seems to be 100 hours per year, which amounts to about 2 hours per week. Who knew that helping others could enrich our own lives?

Are you volunteering or helping someone other than your immediate family? If so, how much time do you spend being of service?

This has been a question I’ve been noodling on for awhile and am using as a guide as I’m always trying to maximize the Happy Hours in my days.

When I felt like everything was ok in my life and still felt like I was missing something, it was Susanne who asked me how I was being of service and how much time I was dedicating to this part of life. She loves to help youth and seniors and spends a fair part of each week helping others and she told me how helping others really made her happy. Her face would light up when she’d share stories with me. She inspired me to think about how I was spending my time.

I belong to a Christian’s women’s group that runs a thrift shop. All proceeds from sales goes into an endowment fund, from which scholarships are given to women pursuing higher education goals. I love being part of this volunteer organization and believe in the mission. I started volunteering one day per week for an hour or two, helping out with donations. I love going to the shop and seeing the ladies who work there regularly, and feeling appreciated for my little Happy Hour of service.

Recently I joined the board of directors, who make decisions about running the store. I have been working on a strategic change project that has been taking a lot more than 2 hours per week. I love being involved and using my business background and interest in change management to help lead the change and “working” with a team. As I share my time, I feel helpful and happy to be making a difference. I think this is an example of how helping others can actually make you happy. I feel thankful for the relationships I am building and for the difference I am making. Happy Hours well spent.

Life is good.

19Jan2015

Wanderlust – California Coast

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I wanted to see the ocean today and step my feet in the sand. I didn’t really have a plan except to be there, wherever there might be.

We all got up early to work on a service project at our church in honor of Martin Luther King day today. We bought and brought supplies to support our local homeless shelters and our town’s local community services center that provides clothing, school supplies, food, toiletries, towels, gloves and socks to provide warmth and comfort. We were going to help sort and bag the donations but by the time we arrived, 30 minutes after the event began, the work was mostly done. We were able to still write letters to soldiers and veterans which was humbling.

We finished earlier than expected which allowed us to drive over the hill to Santa Cruz. We went on yelp to find a new place to eat. The only suggestion I had from the family was they wanted seafood. We found a Hawaiian poke place that we enjoyed. It was kind of funky and different and probably a place we’ll only visit once, as the food sounded and looked better than it actually tasted.

I kind of liked not having a definite plan and no one to coordinate logistics with as we were able to just wander and see and discover what ever came our way.

Before you think this was a day in paradise, let me just tell you it wasn’t perfect. It was perfectly imperfect as I like to say, with lots of bickering and disagreements, trying to get everyone to agree and not touch one another nor say mean things. We are a modern family with lots of opinions if you know what I mean. We finally found our rhythm, but some days it takes awhile. Just keepin’ it real. And once we do, it’s awesome! Thank God for patience and perseverance!

We walked around downtown Santa Cruz and then headed North to admire the coastal views first along Cliff drive and then heading towards Davenport. We pulled off Highway 1 at one point, to walk along the cliffs. This was breathtakingly beautiful.

We walked down the path to the sandy part and Jeff walked through the arc.

This connects to my perfectly imperfect vision of life. I was so excited to get down to the water and discover the path through the arc and to the water but if you look behind Jeff, there is a dead whale! The smell was so bad, I almost cried! I had to get out of there before throwing up. So much for putting my feet in the water! I had to run!!

We were happy to get back in the car and to admire the coastline from a nicely enclosed space. We drove towards Pescadero and fondly remembered our first trip to Harley Goat Farm with Michele and her kids. We took the time to go say hi to the goats and to pick up some of the most delicious organic goat cheese. I love this place and the sweet memories of visiting here when our kids were little.

Our next stop was Half Moon Bay. We found this cute little shop called Oddyssea, which is an interactive retail shop with an outdoor creative garden. We had fun touching the toys and exploring and the kids made dog tags with hammering tin type letters into the metal tags and then rubbing black shoe polish into the debts to make the letters stand out. They had a lot of fun and it was something we didn’t expect to experience.

The craft project took a little longer than we thought and by the time we were done, the sun was setting and we missed watching it set, which was ok. We decided to drive back over the hill and had dinner at a place that Jeff has been wanting to take us to in Menlo Park, called Refuge. They are known for their pastrami and Belgian beer. It is definitely a guys place and was really loud. I’m glad we finally tried it but it was not my favorite place. I really loved their roasted root vegetable soup though.

We drove back home and all of us were tired and happy, having spent the day together trying and seeing new things. I’m glad that we had time to explore again, just like our days in Holland. I miss our expat days and am thankful to be able to enjoy our California.

Hope you had a good day and enjoyed California with me!!

5Mar2014

Work Gives You Purpose

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Everyone wants to be industrious. It creates happiness, and gives our life purpose at every age.

The 5th graders are at science camp this week, which leaves their school jobs vacant. Some of the fourth graders decided to ask the principal how they could help. She is so brilliant and I just love her. She found something for those who asked. Who knew she could create such excitement? You would have thought she told the kids they could go to Disneyland.

Charlie came home yesterday and had something very important to ask me. He couldn’t wait for me to get off the phone with my sister, and kept interrupting me. Of course, I’m still trying to teach him patience and respect, and I (meanly) asked him to wait until I was done with my conversation. He obliged and as soon as I hung up he told me his plan.

He had to be at school today by 8:05 am at the latest because he had an important job to do and he had to be on time for his training. He was going to be the school crossing guard and he took his job very seriously. He was so excited and the energy that was coming out of his body was bouncing off the walls, “entertaining” us all. He insisted that we wake him up early and he was the one asking me if I was ready to go way before it was time this morning. I LOVED his enthusiasm.

We were the first of the four students to arrive. He picked out his vest and sign and was ready to report for duty. This is a very serious job and there is a bit of a danger component that made it even more important. I was very proud of his work effort and how he focused on learning the new procedures and executed his role with confidence. I loved watching the kids work with the principal, and I loved being in the group of moms standing on the sidewalk observing and being proud.

All the kids really were truly happy serving and being helpful. This made me realize how important it is for all of us to feel needed and purposeful. He can’t wait to go back to school early again tomorrow and serve again.

Be purposeful.

Be of service.

And you will find happiness. Just like Charlie.