The days are long, but the years are short.

I'm reading "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin and I come across one of her chapters on parenthood and it totally struck a chord with me, so I decided that I was going to blog it. She says, "In many ways, the happiness of having children falls into the kind of happiness that could be called fog happiness.

Fog is ELUSIVE. Fog surrounds you and transforms the atmosphere, but when you try to examine it, it vanishes. Fog happiness is the kind of happiness you get from activities that, closely examined, don't really seem to bring much happiness at all-- yet somehow they do.

... When I stop to analyze my emotions during the various stages of these activities, I see procrastination, dread, anxiety, nervousness, annoyance at having to do errands and busywork, irritation, distraction, time pressure, and anticlimax.

Yet these activities undoubtedly make me "happy." And so it is with raising children.

At any one time, the negative may swamp the positive, and I might wish I were doing something else. Nevertheless, the experience of having children gives me tremendous fog happiness. It surrounds me, I see it everywhere, despite the fact that when I zoom in on any particular moment, it can be hard to identify.

Before I actually gave birth, the aspect of parenthood that intimidated me most was its irreversibility... A baby is irrevocable...

I sometimes miss the freedom and leisure of my pre-mommy days, but I NEVER regret having children; instead, I worry about being a good enough parent.... I was uneasy about the fact that I wasn't living up to my own standard of behavior. I lost my temper, I didn't make enough time for fun, I knew I didn't appreciate enough this fleeting time in my children's lives.

Though the stages of diapers and dress-up clothes and car seats seem interminable, they pass quickly, and too often, I was so focused on checking off the items of my to-do list that I forgot what REALLY MATTERED.

... I wanted a peaceful , cheerful, even joyous atmosphere at home... I wanted my actions as a parent to rise to the level of that good fortune... I wanted to stop my quick bursts of temper... I wanted to be more lighthearted. I wanted to take steps to preserve the happy memories from this time.... The fact is, life is more fun when I keep my resolutions."