This month's happiness project is focused on learning. For once, I can report that it's going well so far! I wanted to work on my Swedish this month, and I've been listening to more talk radio and reading more books with the intention of comprehension (normally I skim the local newspaper with the intention of getting half...
Happiness
Happiness Project Month 6: Learning
(Sorry for the short disappearance, friends. I started to feel sick late last week, which evolved into a pretty nasty stomach bug that hit over the weekend. After spending all day yesterday alternating between the bed and the couch and trying to rehydrate, I'm feeling a bit better today and trying to get back into the...
Happiness Project Month 5 Wrap-Up
This month in my happiness project I wanted to give myself an attitude adjustment. I wanted to pause to enjoy the moment, and I wanted to work on my bad habit of complaining too much. I was fairly successful in my first goal but less so in my second. It helped that I set myself up...
A Trick to Making Vacation More Pleasurable
Last winter we went to Portugal for a month. We stayed in a lovely town outside of Lisbon and we found a Swedish school, where we sent August a couple days per week. Some days James and I took turns taking care of the boys so that the other could put in a few hours of work (I...
Happiness Project Month 5: an Attitude Adjustment
This month I'm working on giving myself something my mother offered to give me countless times throughout my teenage years: an attitude adjustment. I'd been struggling with what to focus on this month (and yes, I know that we're already ten days into the month and I'm late to the game); I really want to...
What Is "Enough" In the Middle of Winter?
Happy New Year! How's 2017 going for you so far? We've been having a lovely time; the kids are off school, so yesterday we went on a train adventure to the Natural History Museum (Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet), and today James and I are trying to get a couple hours of work in while the kids play at a...
Celebrating the Winter Solstice
Today is the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. This morning the sun rose at 8:43am, and it will set this afternoon at 2:46pm. We won't see any of that, though, because the sun's entire path across the sky is obscured by clouds. Today feels dark and closed-in, and I've felt an overwhelming tiredness that...
Happiness Project: Building Community Through Winter Traditions
This month in my happiness project I'm focusing on building traditions and community for our family. Last week I wrote about forgoing Christmas gifts in order to donate money to organizations that help to build the kind of world we want to live in. This whole month, though, I've been working on surrounding ourselves with friends and loved ones to help...
Savoring
Today I'm pleased to share another guest post from my lovely friend Sophia. You can read her first post on Dear Sabrina, a rumination on decision-making, here.
Building a Better World With My Wallet
Last week I wrote about focusing on community and tradition for the next month of my happiness project. While we've been trying to fill our social calendar, I've also been trying to empty our bank account.