My Happiness Project - March Madness

It's Happiness Monday!  I love My Happiness Project, where I decided to spend a year "finding" happiness with the help of Gretchen Rubin and her awesome book.  Check out her website for more information.  And buy the book!  It's never too late to start your own Happiness Project.  

How'd I do in March?  

My goals for March were child-centered:

1. Stop yelling.
2. Read 2 parenting books.
3. Finish our Family Mission.
4. Have family meetings and family nights.
5. Have Polite Nights on Sundays.
6. Buy Creative Memory Software.
7. Continue no TV (except one show per day).

The tally?

1. I yelled at them 3 times in 31 days.  Awesome.  We were all so much happier.  It wasn't like my brain was a pressure cooker either, like I had expected.  Knowing I "couldn't" yell (or else I'd have to put an X on that column in my scoresheet), made me so much more willing and able to work things through with them, instead of just jumping to yelling.
2. I read Best Friends, Worst Enemies and Siblings without Rivalry.  Both were awesome - highly recommend them and will likely be topics of future posts.
3. We finished our family mission on March 7.
4. We had 6 family nights, and for busy season, that's pretty darned good.
5. Polite night.  Fail.  Didn't do one.  Might have to wait a little on that concept and plan.
6. I bought my Creative Memories software - can't wait to use it.  In a couple of years, at the rate I'm going.
7. And the no TV thing went great.  Now we're back to one a day per child, for a total of 2 per day and it's still just lovely without TV.  

Other resolutions from previous months:

1. I'm giving up the 1 sentence gratitude journal.  I'm an expounder and to say what makes me grateful in one sentence per day is kind of like punishment.
2. It's now spring, so we will no longer be eating at home 4 times per week.  Maybe summer.  We'll see.
3. Exercising  - I exercised 26 days out of 31 in March.  
4. Food journal - not as good, but I'm sticking with it in April.  It's a great way to stay legal.

There you have it!  I highly, highly recommend making a no yelling resolution.  What a great gift for my children - and me!