Our lives are filled with things that make us happy.  In fact, I think that we often have so many happy moments in our lives that we often forget the tiniest gratitudes.  I was sitting at the dining table last night to do my German homework about life stages vocab and grammar when I was confronted by two German words:

1. die Freude:  the happiness or pleasure
2. die Baustelle: the building site or job site

They’re interesting words for a a chapter on life stages, huh?  They’re also interesting when you think about the happiness we get from little moments in our personal building sites – the place where we become who we are – our homes.

So today, pause.  What are the little things that bring happiness to your home and to your life?  Here are some of mine.

1.  The pause right after our family sits down for dinner. We’re together.  We have food to share.  And in that moment, everything is peaceful.

2.  Fresh vegetables and fruits. Sliced.  Arranged on a plate.  Consumed raw.

3.  Walking in the front door after a long day. Being home.  Unloading the school books, the grocery bags.

4.  Standing at the window, watching the people outside with their sleds and children, their dogs, or their cross country skis over their shoulders.

5.  Finding a letter from the United States in our mailbox because that means it isn’t a bill.  It isn’t a project.  It’s just something fun from someone who cares… and writes in English.

Just listing these things makes my day feel sunnier.  I know I’m not alone.  What are the bits and pieces we easily overlook… but mean so much in a really good day at your house?

I am determined to expand my creative journaling.  Between opening a shop to creating a daily December journal that I’ve publicly put out there, I feel really inspired.  My journals were even featured on the front page of etsy!  A big thanks to Cameron at Create Beauty Daily for capturing this screen shot for us:

We’re just about out of inventory!

I think it’s so important to capture bits and pieces of ourselves.  If you have someone in your family who is addicted to Ancestory.com then you know what treasures postcards, photographs, and memorabilia from the past can be.  The amazing thing about journaling is how it also transforms us or reveals a part of us we didn’t even know.

As you know, I don’t have access to American scrapbooking stuff (without paying an arm and a leg!).  I’m playing around a little.  I’m brainstorming.  I’m having more fun with this German date stamp than I thought possible.  Martin, too!  It’s the latest addition in our home – a splash of creativity, a good dose of German order.

Thanks for supporting this journey.  Stay tuned for more projects and more ideas.  In the meantime

learn learn learn.  stamp stamp stamp.

Ever wonder how living with less became a habit at our house?  Or how we learned to manage not to literally step on each other’s toes in the kitchen?  Or think so much about the environment?

Christine over at Simple Savvy did a pretty good job stumping me on all of those and more when she asked me a couple of questions.

Some of the answers might surprise you.  Or at least they surprised me.  I never really thought about why I feel so passionate about not having stuff or a huge house.  I think I need to head over to video chat and send my parents a high five.  Then I’ll do the same with Martin, as he is all the way on the other side of the house right now.

Swing over to Christine’s blog for all the juicy living with less bits.  Christine – thank you for stumping me without a single der, die, or das.

(Der, die, or das – the German language nightmare for English speakers from day one.  All three words mean “the” along with a handful of other options.)