Let's wrap up this challenge, shall we?

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It's amazing for me to see that June is almost out of the door already. Seriously, where did this month go?? I felt like weeks were just flying by in a blur. I never posted yesterday what made me happy (for "Twenty ways in 20 days" challenge) but, honestly, I'm happy that this month is almost over!!! It was a very long and stressful month. There were so many things I wanted to do and achieve but never did. I worked a LOT more than I was used to, and it just seems like my whole world has shifted. Which it did, if you think of all the changes that are coming soon.

But what was the hardest is that I love to have things under control, I love to balance my time. And now I just feel that I can't get a grip of things. Talking about getting a lesson on humility, faith and trust :) Because that's exactly where I am right now.

On the other hand (and the thing that makes me happy today!), I'm so happy that I did this challenge! It really helped me to slow down and find at least one thing every day to be grateful for. Seriously, I don't know how I would have survived through June without it!!

Even when life sucks, there is always ALWAYS something to be happy about and to be grateful for! Even when you can't see the sun, it doesn't mean, light isn't there.

With a few adjustments, I'm slowly getting life balance back. We are not where we want to be but we are where we can still thrive and be happy...

And what made you happy today, this week, this month??

Twenty ways in 20 days, Day 17. Friends....

Pin It                             "The language of friendship is not words but meanings".
                                                                                        Henry David Thoreau

Today I got a call from a friend. We haven't talked for a few months because she works nights, and it's really hard to get a hold of her. But she found out from our other friend that my husband will be jobless soon. So the very first question she asked after saying Hi, was, "Do you need food?"

Honestly, I was deeply touched. Yes, we are doing OK, but it's the thought that counts. In the past few weeks we've been overwhelmed and amazed by all the love people shared with us. Prayers, hugs, kind comments, letters, notes, phone calls, helping with jobs, you name it. I never knew I had so many people in my life who cared!!

Friends are truly amazing! Thank you for being my friends! :)

Do you have a special friend/friends in your life? And what made you happy today?

What about you?

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As I was doing a crazy amount of ironing yesterday, I was watching "Say yes to the dress" on Netflix. Don't ask...I just wanted something that doesn't require much thought...Surprise, surprise, it did make me think :) Or more remember, my own wedding and my dress.

Honestly, it was crazy to see how much money some brides spend on a dress. There was one who bought a dress for $22000!! It's like a down payment on a house! On the other hand, there was the cutest Grandma of one of the girls who got married in 1944 and paid $25 for her dress :)

My own dress wasn't much more :) All because my wonderful Mom made it for me. She's an amazing seamstress (I wish she'd passed that gene on to me... sigh...and an even bigger sigh...) but it was her first ever wedding dress. I wanted something modest, and dresses like this are virtually non-existent in Russia. But I think, she did a great job:

Sorry for the grainy picture -it's a scanned version of it :). The funny thing that made this dress so cheap is that the "lace" we used was actually a curtain lacy fabric. We couldn't find a true "wedding" lace because they only sold it in a specialized store in a different city, and we would have to wait for three months for our order to arrive. We just didn't have time. But it still turned out great, and nobody noticed :)

I don't say everybody should go my route. I mean, if you have 20+ thousand dollars to spend on a wedding dress, kudos to you :) After all, a wedding is a very special day that you (hopefully) want to remember for the rest of your life. Whatever makes you look and feel special. I was just surprised at how expensive some of these dresses can be.

So now I'm curious about you :) How big or elaborate your wedding was? What about your dress? Do you have any regrets? And if you are not married yet, what do you want your wedding to be like? I want to know it all :)

And on very non-related topic, as part of my Twenty ways in 20 days, what made me happy today (on day 16) is that I finally joined Bloglovin. I'm going to miss Google reader (you know that I don't like change) but so far I'm liking Bloglovin. It's not nearly as bad as I thought it would be :) Have you made the switch? If you didn't, don't wait because Google reader/Blogger dashboard will dissapear  in just a few days, on July 1st! And if you want to follow me on it, you can click on my button on the left. I would be happy if you did ;)

 

Twenty ways in 20 days, Day 16. Sleep...

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 Something that made me very happy today is pretty simple: getting a good nights sleep!! Yesterday, when we came home from my sister's, I felt so tired that I just crashed at 10. It's pretty unusual for me. I usually go to bed close to midnight. I know, it's pretty unhealthy, and I'm trying to brake this habit, half an hour at a time. There is just always so much to do after the kids go to bed...

Last night I slept for 9 hours. Can't even remember the last time it happened before. I felt amazing today and achieved tons (including the bazillion loads of laundry and ironing that I wrote about in my previous post :). On this note, I'm going to finish this post and go to bed...:)

Do you go to bed early or late? Do you make a good night sleep a priority in your life?

Twenty ways in 20 days, Day 15. Family.

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First, I want to apologize for not writing yesterday. My Internet connection was acting up all day. I really can't wait until our contract is up, so we can shop around for a different provider. I digress...

This week is an unusual week because we've been spending a lot of time with the family. We had dinner with my MIL on Wednesday, a surprise Birthday party for my SIL yesterday, and another B-day party tomorrow for our nephew and my sister's husband.

In the past few weeks our combined family has been very supportive. We are lucky to have all of our siblings living close to us. My husband's Mom and Dad are both living close too with only my parents far away, unfortunately.

This month we were asked many times how they could help. We were offered money but we politely declined. At least at this point, we don't have need to borrow from anybody. But family still cares.

This week we were showered by "care packages" :) First, I received a small package from my parents. My little one has a favorite kind of Russian candy. We give him one a day (after he uses the potty - his one-a-day sugar, as we call it :). At least, we used to at the very beginning of our potty training journey. Not so much any more because at $5.99 a pound at the Russian store, they are pretty expensive. Well, when my parents found out that we ran out, they got a whole package with  five different kinds of that particular candy:

Not that he needs that much sugar but to say he was excited is an understatement:) And it should definitely last us for a few months.

Then, my mother-in-law brought us a care package of her own:

I'm in the process of switching to all green cleaning here, including detergent, but at the moment I'm honestly most grateful. It will last us for months and, hopefully, I can switch to homemade when times are a little easier (or when I run out because homemade is cheaper anyway :) But for now, I'm just thankful...

And then yesterday my sweet SIL surprised us with some treats of her own. She's reading my blog more than anybody else in the family, and one of our biggest supporters. She's absolutely amazing (hey, Mer :) and we love her so much. After reading my recent sad post, she decided to spoil us:

I guess, she can't let her funny nephews "starve" without string cheese (or "stick cheese" as they call it :) Or me without Lyndt chocolate :)

I'm really grateful to have a family. And not because of the gifts or care packages. I'm grateful for love and care, and that we can be together and support each other through different times in life. Definitely, nothing can make me happier than them :)

So what made you happy yesterday/today?

Twenty ways in 20 days, Day 14. Work...

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After a long work day, I was sitting here all exhausted and thinking about what happy moment I can possibly write about. I had to work double today because yesterday my MIL was coming for dinner, and I don't know about you but in our house a visit from Hubby's Mom means removing an extra layer off of every surface in the house through unplanned hours of deep cleaning...

And no, she never did and never will say anything. She's a great Mom, honestly, one of the best MIL's anyone can only hope for (one more reason to love my Hubby even more...). But maybe, because she's always so amazingly nice, I want to put extra effort in to making our house VERY clean before she comes. I imagine if she was the hateful type, I probably wouldn't care about cleaning at all...

I digress...

So sitting here today I was thinking about how tired my eyes were from staring at the computer screen all day, and then it occurred to me how lucky I am that I have this part-time job. Yes, it pays very little, less than $500 a month. But then how many stay-at-home Moms love what they do and also get paid for it? Plus, I have time to make lunches and dinners, wipe noses and other unmentionable parts of kids' (well, only one kid now...Phew!) bodies, take a break to play UNO or Wii and for many-many other things that I'm so grateful for.

So today what makes me happy is work and working hard. Because now I have a whole different appreciation for being able to contribute to our budget and still enjoy it!

And what made you happy today?

I hope, you all had a great day :)

Twenty ways in 20 days, Day 13. Vegetable garden!

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This morning I spent an hour weeding our vegetable garden (well, I made a dent in the amount of weeds that are waiting to be brutally killed by me...). But I thought I'll give you a little peak.

It's our third year to have a vegetable garden and I'm really enjoying it. We have a small strip of our back yard that we use for it, so we don't plant enough for canning but more for enjoying fresh produce through most of summer and fall.

This year, for example, we planted ten kinds of tomatoes - 1 plant each:

I LOVE tomatoes, can eat them straight off the bush! We wanted to have a colorful collection this year, and I'm happy to say that all of them are doing great, and flowering right now, and at least half have tiny tomatoes coming:

The climate where we live is mostly sunny and somewhat dry so tomatoes and also zucchinis are thriving:

For some reason, yellow squash had never done as good, so this year I decided to just stick to zucchinis. We already have a couple coming, so, hopefully, in about two weeks we'll have some of our own.

We don't have much of our own produce yet but the kids definitely enjoy fresh-grown peas:

Also the radishes are almost ready to be picked (maybe, another week or so):

We also have green beans, three kinds of cucumbers, spinach, kale, two peppers and broccoli. And herbs- rosemary, parsley, dill, oregano and two kinds of basil. Oh, and also onions that I started in a cup from those white bottoms of the onions you buy in the store. They are doing great right now:

As you can see, I still have plenty to weed:) Unfortunately, we don't have any space for fruit trees or berry bushes (well, we actually have 1 tiny blueberry bush) but we got some strawberries this year:

And what makes me really happy is this:

We share this apple tree with our neighbors, and it has A TON of apples coming this year. I'm so excited for all the applesauce I'm going to can :)

I really enjoy having our tiny vegetable garden. Next year I'm hoping to add a small green house to it too. My sister just got one this spring, and her cucumbers and peppers seem to be doing much better than mine, even though mine are doing pretty well too.

And this is what made me happy today. How about you? :)

Twenty ways in 20 days, day 12. Patience...

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I just realized that I never posted about my challenge yesterday! Sorry about that!!

Last night my 6-year old was playing with our puppy. He threw a toy up in the air and knocked off one of my favorite vases that we got from our trip to Arizona last year:

Sigh...Those of you who know me personally, know that I'm a very impatient person. I want it all and now! But, especially in the last few weeks, my patience has really been challenged. I certainly learn new levels of it that I didn't know I was capable of.

Patience is one of my husband's biggest virtues (they say, that people in a couple should complement each other, right? :) And now I learn a lot from him!

Yesterday, when I was looking in the wet eyes of my terrified boy, I knew that there is so much more in life than some broken vases. And that family comes first!

So I gave him a big hug and told him he's going to clean a bathroom for a week...Just kidding :)

What made you happy yesterday?

Twenty ways in 20 days, Day 11. Family games.

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I'm in a little funky mood today, so no usual Monday menu post... I've been working all day, and just feel a little overwhelmed and tired, physically and emotionally.

So I unplugged the computer this evening and we spent some time together as a family. Among other things we played UNO for more than an hour. It was so much fun! Sometimes we all need to just unplug from all the worries of the world and enjoy ourselves:

It definitely made me a little happier today.

And how was your Monday?

Twenty ways in 20 days. Day 9. Happy mail!!!

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 I was absolutely giddy with excitement when I opened my mailbox today:

Lucky me!! No, seriously, I'm so excited today!!! :)

First, dear Debby from Nanny's Place sent me this awesome book and a beautiful handmade card:

Her timing couldn't be more perfect. My sister recently started culinary courses, and just yesterday she was bragging to me what she learned. I had to brush off that little green envy guy that peeked inside my home...And then today I'm getting this awesome book! I can't wait to read it all and learn, and learn, and learn. Debby, you are amazing and so thoughtful!!

The second package was something that made my kids super-excited. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky to win a giveaway at Carla's awesome blog. I never win anything (like, never ever!), so I was excited. This is what we got:

It's called a Brobo toy/ night light. It makes some funny noises, and my kids have been playing with it all day today. And now my 6-year old is sleeping with it :)

Thank you so much, ladies! You totally made my day!!

And we also got a paycheck today. And no bills. It was a really great mail day today!

How was your day??

Twenty ways in 20 days. Day 8. Yum!

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One thing that made me happy today? I baked a yummy dessert that I haven't baked in the longest while - Sour cream vanilla orange bread:

It is so yummy and moist! I, probably, won't be as happy when I step on the scales tomorrow but today I'm indulging :)

I apologize for the very short post today. Wanted to write more but Hubby had a late night meeting, and it was just too much to juggle work, dishes, bed times, baths, and so on and so forth... But I promise, the recipe is coming tomorrow :)

How was your day?

Twenty ways in 20 days,Day 7. It's all about me :)

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Today I decided to have a "me" day :) Kind of...

First, I cleaned the kitchen...Not that I like to clean it (or cleaning in general, really) but I like how it looks and smells when I'm done.

Second, I left my boys to hang out together and went for a nice walk with my neighbor. We covered about 4-5 miles and got in plenty of girl talk :)

After that I enjoyed a long-long shower...That is definitely a treat for Mom :)

Last but not least, I painted my toes :)

I don't know why I thought you would want to see my feet...I just didn't have a good picture for you today...Maybe, I should've taken a picture of my kitchen...Oh well :)

How was your day?? :)

Food waste, menus and Day 6 of my "Twenty ways in 20 days" challenge.

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Hello, my friends! How was your Monday?? We've been very-very hot here (and not in a good, sexy kind of way...). We set a new record getting to 101 F before the middle of June. And our swamp cooler has been broken :( My sweet Hubby spent the whole week on the roof trying to fix it while we were all slowly melting on the couches. None of the bazillion fans that we have in the house did much. We are seriously considering investing in a ceiling fan for the living room right now...

How's the weather on your side of the world?

As for food waste, I'm happy to report that I have nothing to report :) So instead, I thought I would show you my salad that is growing on our window sill right now ( I mentioned it the first time in my food waste post here):

I started growing it from a small salad stump, and it's two weeks worth here. Isn't it awesome?? I thought the stump would give some roots (like onions do) but it didn't. But it keeps growing and growing daily. And I'm like a little kid with a science project, watching it every day :) It does entertain my kids too :)

And this week we are eating:

Mon.- tikka masala, rice, naan, salad (yes, call me crazy to cook Indian food in this heat... But I promised my sweet Hubby after all the hard work he's done in the past few days ;)
Tues.- leftovers (I'm NOT cooking!)
Wed.- pesto pasta, steamed broccoli, salad
Thurs.- grilled sausage and zucchini, chips
Fr.- chicken Caesar salad
Sat.- pizza, leftovers/ shepherd's pie (bumped from last week...maybe)
Sun.- Father's Day dinner with in-laws

What are you eating this week?

And last but not least, I'm back with another five days of my "Twenty ways in 20 days" challenge. Today is day 6, and one thing that makes me very happy and excited right now is that I finally (FINALLY!!) have an "About me" page!! If you glance at the top, it's right next to the "Home" page:) It took me a while to write one, so I'm happy to be done!!

And how was your day? Anything good and exciting happening?

Twenty ways in 20 days, Day 5. Done!!

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No, not with the challenge, don't worry :) One thing that really makes me happy is when I finally finish up one of the projects around here that I've been working on for the past, oh I don't know, two months? I finally have a little reading area that I absolutely love. We don't have enough space to have a library, so a little corner with books is the next best thing for us :)

I will post more about it tomorrow (still need to take some pictures) but here's a teaser a sneak peak:

Come back tomorrow to see what we've done :)

And how was your day?

Twenty ways in 20 days, Day 4. Paying it forward.

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I got pregnant with our first child five weeks after we got married. It was a happy but VERY unexpected surprise. When my Mom found out I was expecting, she started planning immediately how to save enough money to come and be there for me when I go into labor.

The first year in the US was not an easy one for me. American movies like to portray Russian men as mafia and Russian girls as gold diggers (if not worse). Well, let's say, I wasn't one of those girls. I met my Hubby in Siberia, Russia, and when I married him he was a poor student working  in retail. I married for love.

But leaving my loved ones behind was, probably, the hardest thing I've ever had to do. The first year here was the hardest. Even with a loving and caring husband by my side, I felt depressed and lonely. So when I found out that my mom was going to be there when I would go into labor, I was ecstatic.

Well, she didn't make it :) He was born ten days early, and I had a nightmare of a delivery. So she came ten days later on Tuesday, and on Thursday night I was back in the hospital with terrible pain in my stomach. Turned out that, more than likely from pushing for more than 3.5 hours, I got a rapture inside of me that soon turned into an ulcer. And that night it perforated. I spent almost the whole week in the hospital recovering from the emergency surgery while my Mom was home alone with my baby.

But she was not alone. Hubby's family and the wonderful ladies from our Church were always by her side helping out, buying diapers and, most importantly, plain feeding her. My Mom doesn't drive, couldn't go shopping and speaks very little English (the ten words that she knows don't count :). And none of those sisters spoke Russian (duh!) but they miraculously understood each other. Since then, every time I make a meal for a friend who just had a baby, I think about those amazing women, and even now, six years later my heart is still filled with gratitude. Like it was yesterday.

A little over a week ago our friends had the cutest little baby girl. We haven't had a chance to visit them since but I wanted to do something nice for them.

This week I decided to wrap an extra meal in our menu just for them. We happened to have a small 2lb boneless pork roast in the freezer, so I baked it with some spices (it smelled SO good). I added mashed potatoes and corn on the side:

I also added a little dessert - a simple pumpkin roll with cream cheese frosting (it's one of those few baked goodies that always turns out good for me :)

Today it was about paying it forward and sharing the love that somebody shared with me when I felt that nobody cared...

How was your day?

Twenty ways in 20 days, Day 3. You know you are a blogger Mommy...

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...when your 6-year old comes to you and tells you that he made and "decorated" a dessert for all of us. And then he says, " If we all like it, we should post about it on Facebook and on your blog"...

Yep, that's peanut-butter-and-chocolate-graham-bear sandwich :) Not what I was planning to write about today but my kids sure do make me happy :)

How was your day?

Twenty ways in 20 days, day 2. Giving back.

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 Over the past two weeks my husband and I were absolutely overwhelmed by concern and care that people (at times, complete strangers) showed us. In this time of uncertainty we know we don't rely only on the Almighty or personal strength or resources but we are encircled in a cocoon of love and support.

And I feel that I wanted to give back because that's something that makes me happy. There is not much we can give financially. But there are a million of ways on how we can give without spending money. I have a few ideas but today I concentrated on one of the simplest ways to give and that is- to donate.

We have been blessed with many earthly possessions. My closet, for example, is pretty stuffed, even though I've cleaned it quite a bit already, I knew that I still had stuff to give to those who are even more in need than I am. I challenged myself to find 5 things to donate. Before I knew it, I had 10 things that I could easily live without:

Plus another grocery bag filled with toys, books and other household items and knick knacks. Last Saturday, as we were driving, there was a man on the street asking for money. His sign read "I hope you will never know what this feels like". We definitely don't know how it feels not to have a roof over our head and food on our table. We are so blessed. And giving something to those in need is a very small thing that we can do.

We also want to go with our oldest to a Food Bank this year to help but apparently they have so many volunteers that we need to sign up three months in advance! :)

So what made you happy today?

If you wrote about what makes you happy on your blog (whether you are doing the challenge or not), please, link below. And if you don't have a blog, still share how you are doing in comments :)

Twenty ways in 20 days, Day 1. Smelling the roses...

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Literally. As I was coming from the Church a couple of weeks ago, I was thinking about what I wanted to do today as part of my challenge when I noticed this:

This year my rose bush just exploded! We planted it last year, and we are yet to trim it. But as I was looking at it, I was thinking about life's little pleasures. Like smelling the roses...

This bush is a kind of like me: a little on the wild side but with a soft and delicate scent:) And today that's what makes me happy: the beauty that comes free and cannot be compared with anything made by people. It's simple yet beautiful and smells oh, so good!!

So how was your first day?? What made you happy today?

Twenty ways in 20 days...

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Saying goodbye to May...What a month it has been...Definitely not going to miss it! I can't say June will necessarily be better but, at least, this time we are more prepared. I think...My emotions have been all over the place, and not just from my thyroid issues :) So June is the month to do something about making life happier!

Many of you decided to join me in "Twenty ways in 20 days" challenge. I'm so happy that you are here :) The challenge starts on Monday, June 3rd. For the whole month (minus the weekends) I want to work on twenty happiness-boosting things. If you want to join me, there is still time. In fact, it's never too late :)

I'm not going to share my list with you today for two reasons: first, we all will have different things that make us feel better. It doesn't have to be all uplifting or inspiring. Seriously, if a clean closet makes you feel better, you can clean twenty closets, one per day ( if you have that many. Or you can squueze in a couple of bathrooms in the midst...). I don't want you to have my things on your list, I want you to have yours :) And my list will be one crazy mix anyway :).

Second is...well, I'm still working on my list :) Mostly, it's done. But I still have a few days and ideas I'm thinking about....That's why it's not too late to join me :)

Just think about how you want to improve your life and what you want to achieve...\
what matters to you. And then come and share with all of us. Because I can't wait to see what you are up to :) Let's all make this month just a little happier...