It’s Monday, back to the daily grind. Yesterday was a delicious day. There was no cooking, but it was Sunday, just fun, just relaxing.

Last week on New Years Eve, my parents, took us all out for ice skating on the Penn’s Landing Blue Cross River Rink. I have to say, an amazing idea for New Years! It was night time, the sky was lit by the city scape, the Ben Franklin Bridge and the reflection of it all on the Delaware River. While in our skates, on the ice, we got to watch incredible fireworks shoot into the sky from a huge boat in the middle of the river. The weather wasn’t too chilly, just right for a night skate. For those who needed a break there was complimentary sandwiches, hot cocoa, fruit, and chips. The building was filled with happy people and live entertainment like face painting, balloon animal making, spray-on tattoos.  There was a photo booth, free festive hats and noise makers and even a Mariachi band! It hit the New Year’s Spot so to speak. I had a great time! After skating was over, around 6 pm or so, we walked a number of blocks to Dave and Busters. Okay, not the classiest joint in Philly, but a great choice if want a burger, and play some video games. We were a gang of 5 adults and 3 kids. For those of you not familiar with Dave and Busters, it’s a big giant arcade type place with every video game or just game you can think of. Sometimes, it’s just a place to go to drop a boat load of cash on a few hours of fun. Okay, we only lasted about 30 minutes. It was crazy packed and loud as all get out. My point of all this is, we had a whole bunch of game tokens left over (well, now the tokens are on nifty credit card type things). So, the cards were given to me for another use. My brother and his wife and kids live in California, and I don’t think there is a Dave and Buster’s out there.

So, yesterday, my Guy and I dropped all of our ‘troubles’, and took a Sunday to ourselves. Just the two of us adults used up almost all the rest of the game cards on Rambo Street Fights, an enormous electronic Connect 4, SkeeBall, and my favorite…air hockey!  We followed it up by an all-you-can eat sushi buffet.  It was such a nice, relaxing day. Now, on Monday morning, I’m sitting, prepared to start a days worth of work…and still savoring the memory of yesterday’s fun.

A friend posted this on facebook just this morning. It’s a really nice sentiment, just some things to help you appreciate every day a bit more.  This was taken from Inc.com. I just thought I’d share!

 

9 Daily Habits That Will Make you Happier

These minor changes in your daily routine will make a major difference in your life and career.

Happiness is the only true measure of personal success. Making other people happy is the highest expression of success, but it’s almost impossible to make others happy if you’re not happy yourself.

With that in mind, here are nine small changes that you can make to your daily routine that, if you’re like most people, will immediately increase the amount of happiness in your life:

1. Start each day with expectation.

If there’s any big truth about life, it’s that it usually lives up to (or down to) your expectations. Therefore, when you rise from bed, make your first thought: “something wonderful is going to happen today.” Guess what? You’re probably right.

2. Take time to plan and prioritize.

The most common source of stress is the perception that you’ve got too much work to do.  Rather than obsess about it, pick one thing that, if you get it done today, will move you closer to your highest goal and purpose in life. Then do that first.

3. Give a gift to everyone you meet.

I’m not talking about a formal, wrapped-up present. Your gift can be your smile, a word of thanks or encouragement, a gesture of politeness, even a friendly nod. And never pass beggars without leaving them something. Peace of mind is worth the spare change.

4. Deflect partisan conversations.

Arguments about politics and religion never have a “right” answer but they definitely get people all riled up over things they can’t control. When such topics surface, bow out by saying something like: “Thinking about that stuff makes my head hurt.”

5. Assume people have good intentions.

Since you can’t read minds, you don’t really know the “why” behind the “what” that people do. Imputing evil motives to other people’s weird behaviors adds extra misery to life, while assuming good intentions leaves you open to reconciliation.

6. Eat high quality food slowly.

Sometimes we can’t avoid scarfing something quick to keep us up and running. Even so, at least once a day try to eat something really delicious, like a small chunk of fine cheese or an imported chocolate. Focus on it; taste it; savor it.

7. Let go of your results.

The big enemy of happiness is worry, which comes from focusing on events that are outside your control. Once you’ve taken action, there’s usually nothing more you can do. Focus on the job at hand rather than some weird fantasy of what might happen.

8. Turn off “background” TV.

Many households leave their TVs on as “background noise” while they’re doing other things. The entire point of broadcast TV is to make you dissatisfied with your life so that you’ll buy more stuff. Why subliminally program yourself to be a mindless consumer?

9. End each day with gratitude.

Just before you go to bed, write down at least one wonderful thing that happened. It might be something as small as a making a child laugh or something as huge as a million dollar deal. Whatever it is, be grateful for that day because it will never come again.