Happiness Project: November Resolutions Progress Report

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read about Our Happiness Project.

Here's Our November Happiness Project Resolutions Progress Report:

October Resolutions Update

1. Exercise
• We both completely fell off the bandwagon with this resolution.  I've been battling a sore throat for a few weeks, and Philip's work schedule has been crazy.  We're hoping to find a solution and get into a habit before the Christmas season is upon us.
2. Sleep
• We are in bed and almost always have the lights out by 10:30
3. Faith
• The nightly family decade of the Rosary & nighttime prayers around the dinner table is a well-established part of our routine

November Resolutions Update

1. Couple prayer time right when we go to bed

• We are reading Day by Day With the Catechism by Peter A. Giersch.  It's a great little book with a daily excerpt from the Catechism followed by a reflection.  This book has been a great way for us to get our feet wet with couple prayer time.  After Philip reads the daily excerpt and reflection, he leads us in impromptu prayer followed by a Hail Mary or Our Father.  I follow with some impromptu prayer of my own and close with a Hail Mary or Our Father (whichever one we didn't pray after Philip's prayer).  Having this dedicated prayer time together before bed is helping us to grow in intimacy and learn more about what is on each other's hearts.

2.  "You can do anything for 15 minutes."  Work for 15 minutes daily on these 4 things

• 1 Shutterfly album
• I've had a few technological difficulties in getting our 2012 photos back on to the computer, and I've spent most of my time so far just figuring out how to work the program.  I'm slowly making my way through our 2012 pictures.  I probably won't have the album ready to order by 11/30.
• Add & edit recipes to Paprika (recipe organizing app)
• I have all of my miscellaneous computer files on Paprika, and I'm halfway through my random Excel doc of recipes.  
• Return/Draft E-mails
• I'm learning to stop letting "the perfect be the enemy of the good."  My mentality used to be that I wouldn't bother writing an e-mail if it couldn't be a real update.  Now, I'm slooooooooowly learning that a quick check-in e-mail is better than nothing.  I love having little correspondence with faraway friends and my mother-in-law throughout the week.  Seeing their sweet notes in my inbox are such a pick-me-up.
• Decide one & prepare activity to do with the kids for the next day
• We have quite the arsenal of activities, and we've been having a great time!

3.  Do at least 1 of the following activities daily with the kids, and do each at least once a week:

• Craft
• baking
• library
• outing
• play date
• enrichment/homeschool-esque activity
• write letters

Zacchaeus craft (trace hand and arm on brown paper, glue to blue paper, make leaves with thumbprints, and glue Zacchaeus in the tree).  Walt abandoned this one to play with trains.

"M" is for Mouse.  Walt also abandoned this one!

Coloring

"1, 2, buckle my shoe..."  (I put the printables into a file here)

Playing dress-up on a play date.  Walt didn't want his photo taken while he was playing with (surprise!) trains.

We've only gone to the library once this month.  We delayed that trip since we had such great books still out on loan.  Now, we have 17 great books (most of them about numbers since that's what we're working on) that we read over and over and over again!  We have done plenty of crafts and homeschool-esque activities as well as outings and play dates, but we still need to write letters and do some baking.  Perhaps some cupcakes are in our future this afternoon.

4.  Family thankfulness

• It wasn't working to record what we were thankful for at dinner since that was such a chaotic time.  Instead, we've been recording what we're thankful for on looseleaf before our family prayer time, and I store the paper in our Family Prayer Binder.  We've missed a few nights, but having it right before family prayer time helps us to remember.

5.  Budget

• Hasn't happened yet and needs to before we start holiday shopping!

6.  Will

• Also hasn't happened yet

7.  Philip's Resolutions  (I'll rewrite them here, but I won't evaluate them for him.  If I had to guess, I think he'd say that it's been a wild month at work and that he hasn't done as well as he'd like, but he's made a great effort!)

• Eat four salads a week for lunch 
• Do 10 pediatrics boards questions a day
• Put away all electronics from dinnertime to kids' bedtime (for both of us)
• Read 1-2-3 Discipline book

Sum It Up

We've completely tanked on a few resolutions this month (exercise, budget, will, letter writing), but we've done pretty well on most ("you can do anything for 15 minutes," variety of activities with the kids), and even nearly mastered some (family prayer time, sleep by 10:30, couple prayer time, and family thankfulness).  

We are still enjoying our Happiness Project.  I think it is bringing more positive structure and purpose to our days since we are trying to reach all of our resolutions.  Even though it's been a rotten month in terms of Philip's wild work schedule, the month is flying by and has been relatively peaceful.  I attribute  that to our improved prayer life and our well-structured days.  Everyone is more well-rested, we are spending more quality time together without electronics, and I am choosing family time over housework.  

I am so grateful for my devoted husband who is working doggedly at my side to make these changes for the good!  Here's to a successful end of the month to our Happiness Project!