Find Your Happiness

Welcome to our 365 Project and the first official Inspire Happiness Daily Project! Everyone joining us from last week... Welcome back! And if  you're here for the first time, we hope you join in the fun! We'd like to challenge you to take a photo a day and every week link up and share your project with us and with each other. It's quite the task but a lot of fun! And at the end of the day, we're all learning so much from each other.  Don't have a 365? Don't worry! If you've had a great day or a great week and you want to share with us, please join in the fun. Although many of us are doing our own 365, our goal here is to INSPIRE HAPPINESS DAILY. If that means you join us sporadically, we're okay with that. We're all here to encourage each other and learn, too. Each week Audrey ( The Daily Wyatt ), Tracey ( Inspire Me Photography ), and Diana ( Find Your Happiness ) will be picking our Top 5 Photos to highlight on our blogs. In order ...

I made Coconut Chicken Curry last week and my husband has been (literally!) bragging about it to everyone. It really was delicious and taste even better as leftovers because the flavors had more time to marry together. Even our sixteen months old son eats this like a pro whereas I have to take breaks and sips of water every few bites because it's spicy. We also had leftover Lemony Lentil soup with mini-sausage meatballs and greens from the previous day and when we ate both leftovers together, my husband said he felt like he was eating in a local cafe in the middle of downtown Beirut, Lebanon. You can serve this with bread but best over a bowl of hot rice. Adapted from Kitchen Shoebox Serves 8 Ingredients: 2 onions, chopped 3 cloves garlic, chopped 2 tbps olive oil 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed 1 lb boneless, skinless thighs, cubed (you can use breasts if you pr...

For Today (April 26, 2011) Outside my window...  Chilly but sunny 50 degrees I am thinking... my lower half body has a love/hate relationship with me right now. I did the P90X Plyometrics yesterday and it was brutal! I am thankful for... mommy friends. This is such a great post by Stacy at Delighting in the Days . Check out her list of inspiring/encouraging mom-blogs. From the kitchen... homemade banana bread I am wearing...  long sleeves, pajamas I am going... to start marinating the chicken for dinner tonight: Sweet and Smoky Barbequed Chicken I am reading... Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson I am hoping/praying... for no injuries on Dean's first full marathon this Sunday. I am hearing... maintenance mowing our front lawn. Around the house... the contents of Nathaniel's Easter basket . One of my favorite things... finding new recipes to try. I can't wait to try this and this . Inspired by the church song... I wi...

The Easter Bunny brought such a great Easter basket for Nathaniel this year! He received a talking Back Pack, Chuck the Dump Truck, Weeble Wobbles, egg-shaped chalks, Spiderman bowl, a book, and of course a chocolate bunny. Nathaniel went straight for Back Pack, which is his favorite character from Dora the Explorer . It says several different things but he skips them purposely and stops when it starts to sing the Back Pack song. I wasn't able to take any photos during the church service/potluck, which is unfornate because Nathaniel looked adorable in his Easter outfit and my husband wore his Service Alpha. Later in the evening, we dyed eggs. We were supposed to do this Saturday night but we were just so exhausted from spending the day at the park with friends. Oh, and this is also my first time dyeing eggs :) {Linked up to Trendy Treehouse: Shutter Love Tuesdays }  While Dean was busy dyeing eggs (and me snapping photos)... ...all Na...

Week 16: April 16th to April 22nd 106  Spent a day playing in the sand, walking by the beach and enjoying the company of family and friends at the Asilomar Beach (see part 1 and part 2 ) 107  Nathaniel holding a song book during the evening service. 108  Sweet, delicious cantaloupe 109  It's not too early to start having your 16 month old do chores :P 110  Homemade Yogurt 111 I need to take more photos of me, even if it means using my iPhone. Also, I wish I'm brave enough to actually wear a bright red lipstick outside the house. 112 Nathaniel and I went to Michaels after Ladies' Bible class and we stopped to admire and smell these beautiful flowers on our way back to the car. We repeatedly sang this song, too: " Smell the pretty flowers, smell the pretty flowers with the nose God gave you. " Linking up to: The Daily Wyatt: 365 Days in Pictures NapTimeMomTog: Project 365 Becoming a Strong Woman of God: Capturing Life... One Photo a...

Stacy at Delighting in the Days gave me her extra copy of  Healthy Homemaking: One Step at a Time and I was so excited when I saw a recipe on how to make homemade yogurt. I'll be honest in that I haven't been giving Nathaniel the full-fat yogurt because it's just too expensive. So imagine my happiness when I found I could make 6+ cups of yogurt with just the price of half a gallon of milk and 1/2 cup of plain yogurt. Score! Lemon-flavored yogurt with fresh strawberries I did opt to follow a different recipe because I am known to burn milk (and butter). I always ask Hubby to heat milk up or melt butter for me but he was out for a six-mile run when I started this. It definitely would have saved me a lot of time by heating the milk on the stovetop instead of using a crockpot but that insured that I would not be wasting half a gallon of milk when I wasn't already sure if this would work in the first place. Oh but it did work! I was so happy whe...

During our trip to Asilomar Beach (see part 1 ), I was able to capture a decent photo of Nathaniel looking in the camera. Oh how rare this come nowadays! My husband and son definitely had a great time playing in the water. I am glad that wherever we end up for our permanent duty station (NC or CA), there is a beach nearby. What a precious father and son moment! Nathaniel tried to run from the cold wave but he wasn't fast enough! Dean was just mean and laughed before picking him up. Joining the rest of the crowd at looking for Hermit crabs. Can you believe the photo below is taken with my iPhone 4? And as we were having fun playing and exploring, the birds were having a great time eating our Cheetos! We don't buy chips unless it's a special occasion so I was really bummed. I tried to chase the bird but it just flew with the more than half of Cheetos bag; it was crazy! I guess I could have tried to stop them once it landed but I wasn't about to eat i...

For Today (April 19, 2011) Outside my window...  Drizzly and chilly 54 degrees I am thinking... maybe I should have breastfed longer. Now that I don't have that extra calorie burning, the pounds are slowly (but oh so surely!) creeping in, even if I had started working out three times a week. I am thankful for... my husband and his dedication to serve. Two years tomorrow since he left for USMC bootcamp! From the kitchen... leftover Triple Cheese-Spinach Manicotti. It was yummy! I am wearing... t-shirt, hoodie, pajamas I am going... to try P90X Kenpo today. I am reading... Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson I am hoping... to make it to the Area wide Ladies' Devotional tonight. I wish I could just leave Nathaniel with his Daddy so I could go alone but he has to go to study hall tonight, too. I am hearing... birds chirping outside. Around the house... Nathaniel's Easter basket goodies. I hope to make it to Michaels soon so I could...

This is my first time participating on Menu Plan Monday over at Organized Junkie . I usually buy 5-7 worth of (dinner) meals every time we go grocery shopping and just cook what we feel like eating that evening, how much time I have to cook, and/or what we have going on that evening (study hall for hubby, church, etc.). But I figured if I plan ahead now and designate each evening with its own meal, it will be one less thing I have to think about that day. Also, it will remind me what I need to prepare (thaw, softened, etc.) ahead of time. Monday (today): Triple Cheese-Spinach Manicotti Tuesday: Lemony Lentil  Soup with greens (and I'm adding little Italian sausage meatballs [think Italian Wedding soup]) Wednesday: Coconut Chicken Curry ; I haven't cooked this before but it looks very delicious! Thursday: Cheesy Turkey Sausage Stromboli ; another new recipe. I've been looking forward to making this since seeing it at Stacy's Menu Plan Monday over at Deli...

We went to Asilomar Beach last Saturday and spent a few hours playing in the sand, walking by the beach and just enjoying the company of family and friends. It was foggy and a little bit chilly when we first got there but it eventually warmed up (enough for the white boys to get sunburned!) and made for a perfect day at the beach. Who doesn't love chubby sandy little baby toes? Nathaniel loved playing in the sand and it kept him busy for hours. He definitely made this $1 bucket and shovel set more than its worth! He also had his own share of eating sand because he refused to be fed. He wanted to do it himself even though his hands were completely covered with sand. He is definitely a very curious little boy so he also had a great time exploring. My two earthly treasures {to be continued} Linking up to: Mellow Yellow Monday Smiling Sally: Blue Monday Communal Global: Tuesdays Around the World