My Ten Things.

This post is inspired by the lovely Annie over at Turning Pages, which was inspired by another of my favorites,  C. Jane.  Such a fantastic idea, I cannot pass it up. They both shared ten things that make their life more enjoyable, more simplified, more in-control. What a great idea! I am sure we all have these things, but really stopping to think about it, to recognize these things, and to really internalize them so that they're conscious joys, turn them into a reliable source of happiness. How cool. Seriously.

So, without further ramblings, Here is part 1 my list. ( Following suit, and due to lack of posting time, part 2 will come tomorrow!)

My favorite tea {honey ginseng} at one of my favorite places

1. My daily tea break. I am not  a coffee drinker by nature. Don't get me wrong, I love coffee, but if I don't drink it regularly, I crash. I crash hard. Tea, on the other hand, is something that I can rely on to do good by me. I even carry a few bags with me everywhere I go, just in case.
Every day, I find a minute or two, sit in quiet,  drink my tea, and contemplate my day, have a quiet conversation with God, or just think about nothing. It gives me fantastic perspective and piece of mind.

~~~~~

 {The beginnings of our garden the day we planted it- SO TINY!} 

2. Watering my garden.  I love the responsibility of keeping our vegetable garden alive and well.  It's one of the few "home owner chores" that I haven't really tired of yet.  I  love going out into the cool morning every morning to water them, and watering them again as soon as I get home.  Sometimes, the dogs even help :)

~~~~~

{Making fondu for the parents, circa 2007}

3. Planning and Cooking Dinner.  I love dinner ( or supper, as it's referred to in my family). It's my favorite part of the day, I think. And I love cooking with E.  Sometimes I get to work in the morning and immediately start thinking about what we can cook for dinner. And then the emails start - recipe swapping- ideas - discussions over what we have in the fridge, what we'd need to buy, etc, etc..these can go on all day - oh the anticipation!  Over our two years of marriage, E and I have learned to work so well together when we cook-every movement throughout the kitchen is well-choreographed. We've learned each others  strengths and weaknesses in the kitchen, and we work with it.

~~~~~

{thats a LOT of groceries! (via apartment therapy)}

4. Grocery Shopping. What? Is that weird?  ( am so food oriented..) Goodness, I LOVE grocery shopping! And I don't just mean picking up a few things, I mean hardcore-groceries for a week- a list a mile long- shopping.  I love the feeling of heading to the store with an empty fridge and pantry, and coming home with car  full of groceries to fill it up with! Every time I fill my fridge, I remember how blessed we are that we are able to do  this every now and then. (we're actually going on a big grocery run this weekend- I've already got the list started!)

~~~~~

{on the trail in our neighborhood- it goes all around town!}

5. Daily Walks.  This is not something we're awesome at, especially when its still 100 degrees at 8:00, but we have been trying to get into the habit of eating dinner AT the table (the couch is our go-to dinner spot..hopefully one day it will be the back yard instead) and then after we clean up from dinner, we leash up the dogs and go for a walk. We did this quite a bit when we lived in the apartments, but now that we have a back yard, we tend to slack off a bit.. but I think it's so important to get the dogs out of their natural habitat once and a while! They love it, and we love getting to know our neighborhood a bit better.








Stay tuned for Pt 2!