My Happiness Project :-)

Everybody deserves to be happy right?  I believe so, in fact, I know so!  I am so fortunate to be happy about so many things in my life and I try hard every day not to take for granted what I am grateful for.  But, there are some things that I am not so happy about, that weigh on me, that I know I need to change or do something about, but finding the courage, the time, the gumption to do so isn't always so easy.

I recently read an article in an old Good Housekeeping magazine that was about a Happiness Project.  A woman decided that she would take more time for herself and for the things in her life that made her happy.  She wanted to do an experiment to see if these things would truly make her life better and make her....well....more happy.  So she went ahead and make a conscious effort to every week/month concentrate on something in her life she wanted to change.  I fell in love with this idea!  I want to do my own Happiness Project!

So, I am going to tag all of my Happiness Project posts and hopefully learn some things about myself along the way.  I have a couple of things I want to tackle first and foremost that are attributes of myself I need to change, so those will be coming up shortly.

I think everybody should take time out of their busy lives with taking care of others, work, and all of their responsibilities in life to focus on themselves and what makes them TRULY happy.  What parts of yourself do you want to change?  What characteristics do you wish to posses or rid yourself of?  Think about it....its a deep dark subject, but one I have to get over being afraid of and tackle, head on!

And on a side note....Merry Mabon!  It is autumn equinox and time to celebrate life and all that it entails, good and bad.  So what a better time to start my Happiness Project than today?

Bright Blessings and Happiness to all!

Let's try it and see.....National Consumer Panel family :-)

So, I saw on Facebook through one of the pages I follow about this placed called the "National Consumer Panel."  I had heard of it before and almost signed up for it, but ended up having lots going on in my house at the time and didn't want to add one more thing.  I heard from this FB page that they were accepting new families so I thought, let's give it a shot and see what happens!  Why not?

My son thinks that the scanner that you use is the coolest gadget EVER! and he has become my designated helper with HUGE amounts of enthusiasm (we'll see how long it lasts ;-).

Basically, you scan all of the purchases that come into your home with a handheld scanner that has a docking station you hook into your modem/router at home.  You are supposed to scan EVERYTHING you buy.  It looks to be quite a chore on the bigger shopping days, but with my little helper it should be more fun, i'm thinking?? okay, hoping!  :-)  When you are done, you place the scanner back into its little station and it automatically sends the information to the NCP and from the info they gather, they can tell what people are and aren't buying these days.

Now what is in it for us, you may ask?  Well, we earn points for each time we submit our scans and we also earn points for completing online surveys.  With those points we can earn free stuff.  Now, mind you, you need a huge number of points to get anything good, but I figure, why not do it?!  Its something fun for us to do and its completely free. My son says its like playing grocery store in our kitchen when we scan items.  He loves it and who knows, maybe we can get a free TV or something.  We shall see.  I am going to post about it as we go along and fill you in on how it is going, good and bad.

If you are interested in trying it out with your family, check their website..NCP.

On another note....I was also contacted by Vocalpoint to possibly start blogging about products that I get to sample and coupons that I get from their site.  If you haven't signed up, its a great site!  It is completely free and you get some great deals!  I receive lots in the mail from them as well as printable coupons, so it is totally worth it!

Hope everyone is having a great day.  TTYS (type to ya soon :-)

Bright Blessings!