These are a few of my favourite things...

At the end of the day, it is the small things that bring me joy in my everyday life. So, here are a few of my favourite things in no particular order:
-my Mint and Birch gold bar necklace. It has the names of my kids engraved on it and I wear it every day. It's simple and elegant and I love it.
-my church. This is not to say that the joy my (frivolous) necklace brings me is equivalent to the joy I get from my church. But, I love my church. I love the pastors, I love the worship, I love the actual building where we meet. No, it isn't perfect, but every time I leave there I feel so grateful and encouraged and joyful.
-the cloud library app which I only discovered last week. It has all the newest books and a lot of them are readily available.
-spotify. I love listening to new artists and checking out new albums. I love going home and adding new songs to my playlist that I heard that day that are new to me.
-BSF. I can't say enough good things about what a difference this Bible study has made in my life.
-my Sage diffuser. I find it so much more effective than a candle and obviously way less smokey.
-my friend Lesley. We teach together and we're friends. We drink wine together and discuss school, and diets and decluttering.
Of course there's my family and my other friends etc etc, but this list is just from today specifically.

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."

It's happening...

So....I think I have now officially become an old lady. Recently I had to buy readers because I was finding it hard to read in the evenings. My eyes were not able to focus and the text started to look blurry. But that's not all. Yesterday, I bought COMFORTABLE shoes. They're not stylish and comfortable, they're just comfortable. Part of me wants to race back to the store and return them. But the other part of me loves how they feel on my feet. I keep trying to convince myself that maybe they're funky old lady shoes and not stodgy, totally uncool, granny shoes. But I'm pretty sure they aren't cool. Do I keep them or do I move another step closer to old ladyhood? I mean, my soul has been old FOREVER, so maybe I should just be happy that the outside is finally catching up to the inside, lol. Anyway, the tags are still on so the internal debate continues. But, if you see me wearing black grandma shoes with straps, you'll know that comfort has finally overtaken style....

clearing the clutter...

It's January, which means that I have started a new decluttering challenge. I do them every January with varied success, but I find that every little bit that I do manage to declutter or organize makes me feel so much better. Today, the grade 7s at my school were doing a bottle drive to raise money. Our outdoor storage closet has been overflowing for awhile and Pentti hasn't gotten around to going to the recycling depot. So, I loaded up four garbage bags full of bottles and took them to school. The kids were thrilled with the bottles and I was thrilled with the empty closet. Plus, I was able to help their cause and I wasn't the one to have to take the sticky bottles for sorting to the depot. Such a small thing, but something to check off my list.
My back has been really sore for the last couple of weeks, so my house is in disarray. But now that its feeling a little better, I feel like this weekend will be the perfect time to get inspired to organize and clean. I am a homebody and I love my home. It brings me joy. I read a quote that sums it up for me: "everyone is trying to escape the everyday, but I believe that hanging out at home should feel like a vacation". For me, this is mostly true.
Back to the decluttering challenge. I like having one "assignment" a day. Today's challenge is under the sink. So, I'm off...