Mail it Forward

on wednesday i told you one of my summer goals was to publicly launch mail it forward. that goal is about to get a big check mark next to it!

i'm so excited to be sharing this with all of you. you are probably wondering what mail it forward is. let's start at the beginning:

back in march, i was hit with some pretty amazing inspiration from all kinds of directions and in many different shapes and sizes. since then, i have been working very hard designing websites and blogs, collecting ideas, formulating goals, and sinking my teeth into a whole lotta goodness.

i'm the kind of girl who likes to cheer people up, and i finally found a way to do that with an unlimited capacity! there's a fire inside of me that i hope never goes out! it's been a long time since i was inspired in a way that never let me stop thinking about one thing. and that one thing is mail it forward.

mail it forward is all about spreading happiness through the mail. starting this week, i have mailed two very unsuspecting people (whom i've never met or heard of) a small note of encouragement and cheerfulness. and i'm going to keep sending more. every note encourages the receivers to mail it forward, in the hopes that the cheerfulness won't stop spreading!

i have more than enough ideas to help this thing get rolling, grow, and progress for a long time. but i would really love the support of my dear friends and readers! after today, nothing about mail it forward is going to be publicized on this blog. i want to be completely separate from it because the point is for me as a person to remain anonymous, especially to the recipients! i'm only sharing this with you today because i need your help!

please check out the website and the blog! share your thoughts and suggestions with me, and then share the links with your friends. help me get this going! you can follow the blog on bloglovin, or keep up via twitter, but just share it! and help me spread some happiness!

i'm so grateful for all of your support and your love already. it means so much to me to know people out there care about lil' ol' me. so thank you.

a happy home: one year without a fight

i thought since this is the very first post on the happenings in my home, i should explain why my home is such a happy one.

basically, brock and i have made it a whole year without a "real fight," {plus our dating months, engagement, and like 2 more months after the anniversary}. don't get me wrong, we've had some disagreements, but i can't call them fights because a] they never last longer than 5 minutes, b] rarely rarely rarely are we both frustrated at the same time, and c] they're just not fights.  so how do we do it? i shall tell you.

1. sometimes, you just have to act like children.
just because we're all adults doesn't mean we have to be mature all the time. it's exhausting! let loose and let go. children are care free and they do silly things. this is really only beneficial if both of you do it, otherwise the "adult" may get annoyed. so when the other one starts acting childish, join in! it relieves a lot of stress and you will eventually be laughing! if you start whining and pouting playfully during an argument, it tends to be hilarious.

2. when you are wrong, admit it.
this is super huge. but i feel like brock and i are pretty good at it. it's the reason our disagreements never last. this works especially well if you make a super obvious frustrated.defeated.obnoxious "you're right" face. the other will then laugh, feel free to gloat, and next thing you know, problem solved.

3. fights are better fought when only one is fighting.
this goes back to us not being mad at the same time. if the other one is laughing, no one gets hurt. on one hand this aggravates me to no end, but on the other hand, it totally lightens the mood {eventually}. brock would honestly have me laugh at him than comfort him if he makes a silly mistake even when he is super duper frustrated. i would rather be comforted, but he usually laughs and then i laugh too. win win.

4. be 100% honest. always. don't keep secrets {but you can keep surprises!}.
keeping secrets means you have something to hide. if you have something to hide, it's probably not good. if you are keeping something from them, you are not being completely honest. it's pretty straight forward. love without trust is a whole lot harder than love with trust. trust me {see what i did there?}. honesty makes those fights so much easier because you have nothing to hide. it makes resolving those fights much more possible because you count on that half of yours.  

5. if there's that one thing that bugs you, find out how it fits with yourself.
i know this seems silly, but give it a go. brock seriously loves to aggravate me. it's like his favorite past time. sometimes i wonder if he just didn't do enough of it to other girls in junior high. the picking and poking and the mocking. rawr! i go insane. i on the other hand am super dramatic. sometimes is totally subconscious, others i'm completely aware that i'm being ridiculously dramatic. brock aggravates because he likes to get a reaction out of me {he has admitted that several times}, and it works out ok because i usually like to be dramatic. it seems silly, but once i figured that out, i didn't mind his agitation so much. i still get dramatic about it, but it's more fun now.

and with that, we are fight free! there may be other factors, but these are the biggest.