Day 85

1. Exercise

2. Spring

3. Learning more about my neighborhood.

Day 84

1. The preschool consignment sale committee.

2. A beautiful full moon, but it might be partly responsible for MJ's behavior.

3. Undoing some of last week's impulse buys (which meant another shopping trip).

Day 82 & 83

1. Easter baskets - for years the Easter Bunny has been very practical in our house with containers, but this year we went all out to have the right baskets with cute liners for the first of several egg hunts.

2. A perfectly time egg hunt at the church/preschool - with Daddy out of town for a week, we all needed a good Saturday afternoon distraction.

3. Spring trying to make an appearance.

4. The chaos of little kids waving palm branches down the aisle of church.

5. My husband returning safely after what seemed like forever away (a week is a very long time).

6. Feeling like life is returning to normal - whatever that means.

Day 81

1. It's Friday!

2. Finding a great dress and shoes to wear to my brother's wedding, and they were on sale at my favorite consignment boutique.

3. A lovely party at my neighbor's house.

4. It's Friday!

Day 80

1. No fevers in the house today.

2. M doing a great job on all of his homework.

3. Packing away my winter clothes.

4. Blog comments - thanks mom!

Day 79

1. A candy bar - it made me happy for a minute, but then it felt more like the retail therapy impulse buys from yesterday.

2. A lovely dinner out and outside with my kids.

3. Lots of time spent walking, very little time spent in the car.

Day 78

1. The mall, it makes me happy to be there all by myself.

2. Retail therapy (although I should have stayed away from the impulse buys - I guess I'll need another mall trip to make returns).

3. Another beautiful day.

Day 74 - 77

Somehow weekends, sick kids, and lack of sleep are making it hard for me to keep this up on a daily basis. That doesn't mean I'm not having at least a few happy moments each day...

1. Spring arrived and we spent most of the day Saturday outside playing with friends.

2. Starting a 500 piece puzzle with M.

3. Catching up with our neighbors for cocktail hour on the lawn.

4. An easy bedtime tonight.

5. Turbo Tax (our state refund already came through)

6. Paddington Bear - a great little book.

Day 73

Once again, having a sick child in the house makes it hard to have a really happy day, but there were moments...

1. Finding $12 in my pocket (coffee money).

2. Our preschool.

3. Harry Potter - tonight I finished reading the 7th (and last) book in the series to Mason a little less than a year after we embarked on the journey in book one. Amazing books, and I'm so glad that we got to share the experience. (That's actually a bittersweet happy thought).

Day 72

1. Strolling around the gardening store, pretending like I have any gardening knowledge.

2. The discovery that C loves going to Wednesday night choir practice.

3. Weekly lunch at Panerra.

Day 71

1. Another home party - wine, friends, and shopping all in the comfort of someone else's home. It's not a great thing for my marriage, but still fun.

2. The bookstore once again, always a fun outing, MJ along today.

3. Taking a few minutes to think about all of the good parts of my day - today and every day.

Day 70

1. All 3 kids playing well together for an hour before dinner.

2. A great dinner conversation with C - she was telling me all about the politics of getting a turn on the see-saw at wiggle time.

3. A cup of hot tea to end the day and the hope that MJ is feeling better (she seems fine) and will actually sleep tonight.

Day 69

I have to say that "spring forward" is not a happy day for me, I always feel like I've lost at least an hour. That said, it was still a good day.

1. A clean house!!! (and the best husband)

2. Feeling ready for another week.

3. The Buckeyes are a #2 seed for March Madness (that's Rob's happy for the day).

Day 68

1. A very relaxed Saturday with no plans, the kids still seemed to enjoy themselves.

2. Our taxes are done!

3. The elementary school auction - a fun night out.

Day 67

1. Getting paid for spending the morning at the preschool for a change (substitute teaching - it was so much fun.)

2. The excitement of having a best friend over to spend the night when you're 7.

3. A very relaxed Friday evening.

Day 66

1. Letting go of old feuds over coffee.

2. Giving myself permission to let Mason skip karate because we all felt a little over-committed this afternoon.

3. A ballet class of 3 and 4 year little girls - so very, very cute.

Day 65

1. Avoiding carpool line by parking and walking in the rain, MJ likes her rainboots and raincoat - we might as well use them.

2. Really being done with the preschool consignment sale, and celebrating after the last shift with my husband and the committee - thanks dad for watching the kids.

3. A surprise visit with my brother who is on his way over in a few minutes.

Day 64

1. Finally getting caught up on the laundry (for now at least).

2. Yet another beautiful, beautiful spring day.

3. A stop at the park on our walk home from preschool.

Day 63

1. A small square of really good dark chocolate.

2. A walk through the woods on the way home from school on the most beautiful day we've seen in ages.

3. Feeling like I'm going to sleep really well thanks to all of the physical activity I've had today.

Day 60, 61, & 62

It's hard to believe that a preschool consignment sale could leave me so tired that I didn't even have the energy to come up with happy thoughts for a few days. Here they are, things which have been making me happy this weekend...

1. Spring clothes for the girls.

2. A very successful sale.

3. Working with an amazing group of moms and dads at the preschool for a week.

4. An amazing surprise dinner out at a very nice restaurant with my husband.

5. A beautiful day for a long walk with my 3 favorite kids - stops at Starbucks, CVS, and a birthday party.

6. Packing away lots of winter clothes, it's still cool out, but we can put layers with spring attire.

Day 59

1. A successful start to the spring consignment sale.

2. Hearing a great story about MJ using her imagination at school.

3. M's excitement over losing another front tooth (but it makes me a little sad, too - he's going to look much older with new teeth.)

4. Somehow navigating a very, very busy day.

Day 58

1. An all too rare dinner date with my husband.

2. Seeing the rock-star welcome home the kids gave Granddaddy when he came by after being out of town for 2 weeks.

3. My husband visiting with MJ's friend at 8:00 this morning when the little guy came over for a ride to school with us.

Day 57

1. Big snowflakes that looked beautiful coming down but didn't stick around long enough to cause too many problems.

2. Running into friends at Starbucks.

3. Sneaking in a chapter of Harry Potter with M before dinner. Only 7 chapters left in the last book in the series, I'll be sad when we're done.

Day 56

1. A fairly successful Monday, no unnecessary tears or arguments.

2. A trunkload of kids' things purged from my basement to be sold or donated at the consignment sale.

3. One on one time with each of my kids, even if it was only for 10 minutes.