The Happiness Project :: WORK :: September

My year long Happiness Project (inspired by Gretchen Rubin's best selling book) is in full swing.  Thus far I have completed "Energy", "Parenthood", "Friendship", "Mindfulness", and "Marriage".  

This month is "Work" which might seem funny considering I don't have a job... but I made it work for me anyway.  I may not have a traditional career, but I do have a few important hats I wear.  Namely stay-at-home mom, homemaker and homeschooler.  

Homemaker:

To improve my work as a homemaker, I want to continue organizing my way through the entire house. Right now that means working through paperwork, filing things and getting our online and financial life in order.  I am grateful that when we got here in August I got straight to work sorting through closets and boxes to make sure every inch here is being used.  Being the best homemaker I can be also means making our house a home with seasonal decorations, and keeping our house a home with daily tidying to keep the messes at bay. 

Homeschooler:

In an effort to up my homeschooling game, I am lesson planning each morning, and making sure  we have something fun planned each day that will engage the boys and get them excited about learning.  I am also working at being 100% present during school.  No phone, no Facebook, no distractions.  It's not easy, but the job is so much more rewarding when I am fully invested.  The boys' behavior is also better when I'm not multi-tasking.

Stay-at-home Mom:

I am happy to have another chance to work on my parenting after spending May focused on the boys through my Parenting Goal.  I have started another No Yelling campaign in the hopes that this time it will stick.  I am 6 days into my 21 Day habit-changing, no-yelling challenge.  The hope is that after 21 days of not yelling (and instead breathing, taking a break, or expressing my dislike for certain behavior in another form) it will become habit to stay calm.  I am practicing patience, listening when the boys talk and trying really hard to remember what I envisioned staying home to look like when I was a working mom.  This means making cookies in the afternoon, snuggling on my bed to read Junie B. Jones with them, and coloring at the table while they marvel at my coloring skills.

To enhance my motivation with not yelling, I am reading Raising Cain (a book about boys' emotional illiteracy) and I am keeping a chart of my success (aka- sparkly stickers on my calendar for each day I make it without yelling).  I find both to be truly motivating and am feeling positive about maintaining peace in our house.

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