The Happy Home

I have been asked many times to start a blog. On what??? "You know, organizing. Running a house."

Yes, my house is organized (most days). Yes, my meals are planned in advance (most weeks). Yes, Erev Shabbos in my house is fairly calm (most weeks).

Does this make me an expert in running a home? Certainly not. However, I am blessed with certain strengths, and there is a sense of responsibility to share them with others. After my Aunt Irene called me and told me that I absolutely must start a blog (the whole world must be blogging now after Julie and Julia), I finally acquiesced.

Why "The Happy Home"? Why not "The Organized Home" or "Cook for Shabbos on Wednesday"?

An organized home is really not the goal. It is a means to achieve the goal. What is the goal? Haha...don't think I am going to expound on the purpose of creation in a blog. But I will say, the way to accomplish our purpose here is best done by living in a HAPPY HOME.

What is happiness? Another haha...philosophers for thousands of years all have different ideas. Wikipedia defines happiness as "a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, love, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy". That sounds goods to me.

Practically speaking, you KNOW what a happy home is.

It's when everybody gets out in he morning and gets to where they need to go - on time, with relatively clean clothes, and with whatever they need to get through their day (lunch, homework, trip money, etc.) - without screaming or tears.

It's when the kids come home at the end of the day and they ask you "What's for Dinner?" - and you ACTUALLY have an answer for them, AND it will be able to be served before those same kids start eating the expensive "school only" snacks you just bought from Costco, AND you don't need to go to the store first to get the ingredients to make that dinner.

It's when you finally get those kids to bed, and you are able to get the house back to baseline (you know, how it was in the morning before they all woke up) without tears of exhaustion and frustration and the feeling of not having accomplished anything that day.

Dictionary.com defines happy as "favored by fortune; fortunate or lucky" - that's a happy home. It's time to get happy. It's time to pull our houses, and ourselves, together. We'll do it together.