{"id":11,"date":"2015-02-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/billandkatie\/happiness-highlights-pushing-through\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T01:42:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T01:42:35","slug":"happiness-highlights-pushing-through","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/billandkatie\/happiness-highlights-pushing-through\/","title":{"rendered":"Happiness Highlights: Pushing Through"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0Happiness often sneaks through a door you didn\u2019t\u00a0 realize you left open<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

– John Barrymore<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Every day life is full of ups and downs.\u00a0 Some days it is easy to sit back and feel a deep sense of contentment.\u00a0 Life is good, things are easy- happiness resonates off of everything around you.<\/strong>
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And then there are times like last week<\/span>– when I had to stop everyday and look very closely through my exhausted, over tired, slightly crossed not-sleeping- a-wink eyes to find glimpses of happiness.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Zoey had stomach flu.\u00a0 She was puking every hour, pretty much on the hour.\u00a0 It was everywhere except in the bucket I put in her bed.\u00a0 All I can say is it was the nastiest thing I have been through on my parenting journey.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Washing out sheets and blankets in the tub in the night.\u00a0 Trying to pry her puke covered teddy bear out of her hands to take a tumble in the washer.\u00a0 Going through so many pairs of pyjamas that you\u2019re pulling out the summer stock.<\/span><\/p>\n

I swear if school boards are looking for a more effective way to promote abstinence or birth control all they should really do is force their students to spend the night caring for a toddler with stomach flu. That should do it.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Throw in a teething baby who likes to get up every night at random times and you\u2019ve got one tired mama.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m pretty sure I averaged about 2.5 hours of broken sleep for about a week straight.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy don\u2019t you sleep when the kids sleep?\u201d you might ask me.\u00a0 But here\u2019s the thing- I\u2019m pretty sure the two of them were in cahoots with one another plotting against me- because they napped- oh they napped- but try as I may-\u00a0 NEVER at the same time.\u00a0 I swear they were taking shifts\u2026..(and yes, I said cahoots- bet you haven\u2019t heard that word in a bit)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

As every parent knows- without sleep- everything starts to fall apart.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I spent a good couple minutes feeling sorry for myself (and by minutes- I mean quite a long time).\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I wished my mom lived closer and could come help me.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I wished I could pack my bags and head to a hotel for a night of blissful uninterrupted sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

I wished I had a night nanny like Jessica-stinkin\u2019Simpson- who could brag about how amazing motherhood is when she enjoys it before 8pm everyday.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then I sat down and looked at my happiness jar.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And amazing things started to happen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The happiness came flooding back. I had to keep pushing through.\u00a0 Keep pursuing the joy in everyday.
\n<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I saw Liam squealing with joy as his big sister proudly pushed him on the swings for the first time. <\/span><\/p>\n

I realized that Liam will have a lifetime of swinging on swings- but this first time- this look of exhileration on his chubby face- these giggles that are pouring out of him.\u00a0 This is the first time.\u00a0 I was there.\u00a0 I watched it.\u00a0 I savoured it.\u00a0 I locked it in my memory.\u00a0 That is happiness<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Being blessed with a year off to spend with my Zoey- before she spends the rest of her childhood in school- before she is would rather spend time with anyone other than her weird mother- this brief moment in time when she is three, and loud, and sassy and wild and fun.<\/span><\/em>\u00a0 To be able to sit at the table and make play doh animals without one thought of a deadline, an assignment, a task that is looming over me.\u00a0 That is happiness.\u00a0 To just be in that moment with her. Unrushed.\u00a0 Undistracted. Unbridled with joy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nFyodor Dostoevsky says that \u201cMan is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0<\/span> Although every day has it\u2019s ups and downs- peaks and valleys- it all balances out in the end.\u00a0 What a ride.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s to Happiness.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

– Katie<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Share this post and help spread the love! \u00a0Happiness often sneaks through a door you didn\u2019t\u00a0 realize you left open – John Barrymore Every day life is full of ups and downs.\u00a0 Some days it is easy to sit back and feel a deep sense of contentment.\u00a0 Life is good, things are easy- happiness resonates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,11,29,30,72],"tags":[73,74,48,37,75,76,77,41],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-happiness-highlights","category-inspiration","category-our-stories","category-parenting","category-quotes","tag-happiness","tag-joy","tag-motherhood","tag-parenting","tag-positive-thinking","tag-sleep-deprived","tag-stomach-flu","tag-toddlers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/billandkatie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/billandkatie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/billandkatie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/billandkatie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/billandkatie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/billandkatie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/billandkatie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions\/38"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/billandkatie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/billandkatie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/billandkatie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}