A while back, Luke got me hooked onto Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project blog. After studying all that she could about happiness, from literature, popular culture, scientific studies, philsophy, religion, etc., Gretchen put together a list of 12 personal commandments to help herself to be more happy.

You can see her list here: http://www.happiness-project.com/

I've been wanting to do this myself for quite a while, and now that my life has had a reset (with the arrival of Leah,) I figure this is a great time to reassess my priorities and set myself up to be a happier (and hopefully better) mom, wife, friend, woman.

I feel like I should mention that I am, in general, very happy. I have a beautiful, healthy daughter, a husband who loves me even though I do weird things, a daily life filled with coffee dates and trips to the park and no more lab work, and an incredible support system of friends and family who love me and care for me. But I know that I can be happier, and I know that being happier will help me to love better. And I know that I want to love better.

I took some time in the past weeks to think, pray, and talk with Luke about what makes me happy - about when I feel my happiest, when I feel my un-happiest. I spent some time reading through my favorite bible verses to get some insight on what God says about my happiness. I read through my own blog, and read through emails I sent to learn more about myself from myself. Finally, I took two days (this past Saturday and this past Monday) to be aware all day of what was making me happy and what was making me unhappy. I purposefully chose Saturday because we were getting ready for Leah's Halloween party, and Monday, because Leah and I were home doing normal things all day.

In the coming weeks, I'll be writing in more detail about the somewhat-cryptic list below... but after some big consideration, here are my 14:

1. Love God, love others.
2. Define the win.
3. Finish the race. (even crawling)
4. Touch everything once.
5. Start the day ahead.
6. Outside everyday.
7. Inside everyday.
8. No dessert for breakfast.
9. Reset twice.
10. Be a novice.
11. No counting.
12. Love the groundhog.
13. Mind the catch-alls.
14. Be thankful.