Finally, yesterday it showed up. Yesterday, midway through the month of December, less than two weeks before Christmas, it showed its face in the dark recesses of my mailbox. Yes, it is the long awaited, much anticipated, highly sought after, FIRST Christmas Card of the Season!
Not just the first one from a friend, but the first one period. There hasn’t been one from the insurance agent, the auto shop, my alma mater, or even any of my students. Imagine the joy I felt reaching into the mailbox and finding this card from a dear college friend. The envelope was beautifully decorated and hand addressed, and the sparkles lit up my evening. I was especially delighted to hear from this friend, as I know she’s had some trying times recently.
Without further ado, here is the lovely card she sent, so that it may spread holiday cheer to you as well.
Life is made happier by noticing the simple pleasures and appreciating them. Here are some things that make me happy in the kitchen.
1. An empty sink and dishwasher. I don’t enjoy the chore of putting away dishes, so if I use a dish it’s nice to know that I can easily rinse it and put it in the dishwasher. A pile of dirty dishes in the sink isn’t so nice to look at, and a dishwasher full of clean dishes is a chore waiting to be done.
2. A well stocked pantry. I can pull a meal together, make lunches for myself and my family, and know that I can do a little baking if I want to when the pantry is well stocked. Currently it is not. Bummer.
2a. A well stocked fridge and freezer. Again, options abound and we can make healthy choices when I’ve taken the time to make a list and actually follow it.
3. Cleared off counter tops. I grew up in a home with a lot of clutter. Not dirty, just a lot of stuff. I prefer to have more space and less stuff, especially in my kitchen. I want to see those expanses of builder grade pinkish formica! Something about having less on the counter is calming to me.
4. The smell of something good cooking. I love food. This should come as no surprise. So when there’s something delicious cooking I enjoy the aroma. Of course at that point the counters are usually covered, there’s a lot of dirty dishes in the sink, and the supplies from the fridge and pantry have dwindled, but that’s what it’s all about in the first place, isn’t it?
5. The knowledge that we have more than enough and never have to face the day hungry. My mother used to tell us about starving kids in China. I thought it was a lame attempt at guilting us into eating something unpleasant, but as an adult I do appreciate that we have more than enough. That alone, is something to be thankful for each and every day.
Talk about crazy, here I sit going through my various stuff, seeing what I ‘ve written and trying to figure out if there are any trends. I also took a little time to sort through my spam folder, and figured I would wander over to my draft folder too, just to see what was collecting cobwebs over there.
Imagine my surprise when I found this post, completely done, with illustration inserted and everything. Why on earth didn’t I publish it? I wrote it on the 21st of November, in the thick of NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo, so all I can think of is that my poor tired brain must have been completely fried. I wonder if I thought I hit the publish button but didn’t? Weird. Anyway, since it’s done and I’m doing some end of the year clean up, I present a nearly month old blog post, originally entitled NaNo No No.
So here we are three weeks into NaNoWriMo and I have over 33,000 words written. I survived my NaNoWriMo Freak-O and have learned the important art of correctly backing up files. I have also been a good little NaBloPoMo participant, posting at least one blog post per day since November 1.
Let me tell you, that’s a lot of words. Oh, I know, for some of you it’s a drop in the bucket, but for this girl, it’s a lot. Today I composed two blogs posts and wrote a piece for my writing class. When it came time to work on my novel, I just couldn’t quite do it. I hit a wall. I needed a break.
So here’s the NoNo: I did not work on my novel at all today. Not one word. So what? Give yourself a break, I think. But the deadline won’t give me a break. I really want to get my 50,000 words written before midnight on November 30. Whining about it here won’t get it done. But it’s laaaaaaate. And I’m tiiiiiiiired. Oh jeez. Time to give it up for a few hours and come back to it later. I will get it done. I’m the little engine that could. Look out, the weekend is coming! And then, no more no no’s.
BulgingButtons 