HomeStruggling, Mom?AboutMeagan’s BookSponsorsPressContactHere’s why reading a post about setting goals freaked me outby Heather Caliri on December 30, 2013This post is by Heather Caliri, regular contributor to The Happiest Home and blogger at A Little Yes. Heather writes about saying “yes” to little things that scare us. You can read all her posts here.A year and a half ago, a friend of mine sent me a link to a Simple Mom post.“I read this and thought you would like it. But maybe not!” she said.She knew me too well. I opened the post, and my heart sank.“I wrote a five-year plan,” the title said. “And you can too.”I remember sitting down at our table as I skimmed the article. It’s fun to dream, blah blah blah not set in stone blah blah permission to Think Big, blahdey blah blah Join me?My stomach was in knots by the time I reached the end.I knew why my friend thought I’d like it. I’d just chirped to her about how empowering my list of goals for the year were. I was all about goals now! I was fearless!Maybe not. A year’s worth of goals had been daunting, but doable. Thinking about where I wanted to be in five years terrified me. But why? [click to continue…]0 commentsSunday Morning Coffee: Our Favorite Posts of 2013by Sarah Powers on December 29, 2013Happy Sunday, everyone! I’m sitting in for Meagan in the Sunday morning spot this week, and you know what that means: it’s coffee, not tea. No matter what you’re drinking, I hope you enjoy a little reflection on the past year here at The Happiest Home. -SarahIn 2014 Meagan and I resolve to have our photo taken together – as in, actually in the same place at the same time, no photoshopping necessary!I know many of us are looking forward these days – to a new year that is all of a sudden practically here – but I had the chance over the last week to look back at the posts we’ve shared with you here on the blog in 2103.As an editor I’m usually focused on what’s coming up, so this process of retrospection was an interesting change. I re-discovered posts I’d nearly forgotten about and read many of your comments for the second time. And while my plan for today was to pick my favorite posts from the year and share a kind of “Best Of 2013″ roundup with you, I instead found myself stringing together a bigger story, a kind of bloggy narrative, from the last twelve months.Back in April when we relaunched the site as The Happiest Home, Meagan came up with this tagline: the art of sane and satisfying family life. And as I looked back at the year those two words, sane and satisfying, are the concepts that really defined our posts. So I thought I’d share some of our favorites from the year, loosely categorized under these two ideas.  [click to continue…]0 commentsPlease Watch! The New Having It All Showby Meagan Francis on December 27, 2013Every year I make a point of trying something completely new. Sometimes R