Enjoying Small Things

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post for our Share blog titled “Enjoying the Small Things.” I totally stole the idea from the blog that I have mentioned here called Enjoying the Small Things. I love that blog. I check it daily, even though she only writes a few times a week. Only…LOL…I have often been tempted to write to her and tell her that she must write every single day. I have refrained however. I just really enjoy her blog. She takes wonderful pictures, and she often inspires me to stop and savor the small things I encounter in life, things that I might have just passed right by if I wasn’t paying attention. It’s gotten to be such a habit that now, I often LOOK for little things to enjoy and focus on. On the Share blog, I wrote about how when you are grieving, sometimes small seemingly insignificant things may be the only things that get you through each day. I am not grieving, but life lately has been a bit shall I say…challenging. In fact, just this morning, I wanted to cry when Lauren asked me, “Mom, why does stuff keep happening to us? Are we bad or something?” She said this because something happened to Tony’s car Friday night,, not sure what, but it doesn’t seem to be good, the engine is making a horrible noise, it smells funky, and he barely made it home. It's in the shop right now. And though he desperately needs a new car, we can’t afford one right now. And just to make things even better, NOW something is wrong with my car, and Tony has spent the entire day working on it and driving all over kingdom come in the car he rented yesterday to find the parts he needs for it.

I didn’t know how to answer her question, so I put on my Miss Susie Sunshine hat and told her that while lots of things have happened to us, it could always be worse, and we have so much to be thankful for. It’s been a rough couple of years for us, and it really does start to wear me down. But thinking about this Enjoying the Small Things blog has often turned a day around for me.

Back to my blog post about enjoying the small things. I wrote about how I hate winter. Well, I didn’t say “hate” because when I sent my post to my boss to read, she said hate is too strong of a word and I need to not use it. So I changed my wording. However, this is MY blog, and if I want to say hate, I’m going to, as many times as I want to.

I HATE winter. I HATE winter. I HATE winter. I HATE winter.

Whew. I feel better now!

And this winter has really sucked. Big time. It is the worst winter I remember in years. However, I decided that I was going to make the best of it…I decided I was going to do whatever I could to enjoy all the snow days my kids have had, and I decided I was going to do my best to appreciate the beauty (cough cough gag) of winter even though I hate it.

I wrote in my blog post about taking the long way home from work one day after we had an ice storm. I often drive this route home from work as it is more scenic and relaxing, and it helps me unwind and distress a bit. This long route follows the Missouri River, and the road is lined on one side with trees and tall grasses that normally sway in the breeze. On this particular day, everything was coated with a thick layer of ice, and the sun was poking through the January clouds just enough to make everything sparkle and shine like it was coated in crystal. When I left for work that morning, it was gloomy and gray, so I didn’t take my sunglasses. On the way home, I wished that I had them because it was blinding. I pulled over and tried to take some photographs, but they didn’t turn out at all. My camera sucks. I want a new one, a really good expensive one. But that isn’t happening, so I make do with what I have. Sometimes I get good pictures, sometimes I don’t. I really wish I could have captured that sparkling crystal look that day because I have no words to adequately describe it.

The next day, I drove by the river in downtown St. Charles and stopped once again to take pictures. There were huge chunks of ice floating down the river, and it truly was breathtaking. Those pictures turned out much better. I have lived in St. Charles for 20 years. I have worked at Share, and our office is only 3 blocks away from the river, yet I have never even thought to drive by and take pictures on a winter day. And now I know I have been missing out. Check out this photo!





None of this has made me hate winter any less. However, trying to appreciate it more has made me feel less down and depressed than I normally do. When I wake up in the middle of the night and hear ice pelting against the window, I burrow under the covers and try to focus on the soothing sound rather than think of it as something I will have to scrape from my car’s windows in the morning. When the kids had yet another snow day, I did my best to make the best of it. We spent our many snow days watching movies, baking cookies and playing games of Yahtzee, Scrabble and Scattergories. One afternoon stands out in particular…each of the girls had a friend over, and Justin was home as well. They all played Scattergories for hours, and there was so much laughter and fun and for once, no arguing, and it did my heart good to hear my kids having so much fun together.

While life goes on, and isn’t easy right now, I think I have done a darn fine job of finding small things to enjoy. I’m a list person, so I will make a list now of all the small things I have enjoyed lately.

*Baking bread
Bread baking is my new addiction. For years, I always wanted to try my hand at making bread, but I was too afraid to. I have no idea why, but the whole kneading thing scared me. Not anymore. Kneading the dough is my favorite part of making bread. Wait, I lied. My favorite part of making bread is eating it, and tied for first is the wonderful smell that fills my house while it bakes. Kneading is my second favorite part. I feel like a little kid playing with warm Play Doh, only better. My favorite bread to make is the Rosemary bread they serve at Macaroni Grill. No, I don’t like it because it’s called Rosemary bread and I’m narcissistic…it’s just really amazing bread. I make it at least once a week, and my kids go nuts when I do. I go nuts when I do. The recipe makes 2 loaves, and both loaves are always inhaled.




I have also made two luscious loaves of my grandma’s banana bread.




*Baking cookies
I have baked oodles of cookies this winter. I’ve tried new recipes; I even wrote about one of them a couple of weeks ago, the peanut butter cookies with white chocolate, pretzels and sea salt. I’m addicted to those too. My next addiction needs to be going to the gym, and I hope it kicks in soon or I’m going to hate putting on summer clothes. If any of my summer clothes even still fit me…

*Baking cake
I’ve made several new cake recipes…my favorites are pistachio cherry cake, malted milk ball cake, and little individual chocolate cakes made in custard cups called Lava Cakes. That name is very deceiving. Lauren calls them “Heaven on a Fork” cakes. When you cut into them, this hot yummy chocolatey gooeyness oozes out from the middle of the cake.

*Baking pizza
I think we have eaten more homemade pizza in the past 2 months than we have eaten ever. I’ve spoiled my kids and created a bunch of pizza monsters. A couple of days ago, after a crazy day at work, I didn’t want to cook and decided to order pizza from our usual take out pizza place. The kids were mad because they wanted homemade.

There is a theme here…baking. I think I’ve gained about a million pounds this winter. I can’t wait for spring so that maybe my baking hobby will get in a fight with my gardening hobby and my gardening hobby will beat the crap out of my baking hobby.

Enough about baking. Just writing about it is making me hungry.

Other small things I have enjoyed/noticed/maybe photographed lately:

*Watching a beautiful sunset unfold before my eyes while sitting on my front porch




*Chatting with my niece who I love dearly but don’t often talk to

*Watching my daughter handle situations with her friends with grace and wisdom that I did not possess at her age. Some of the things she has had to deal with lately with her so called “friends” would have left me in a puddle of tears when I was 12. Heck, if I had to deal with friends treating me like that NOW I’d be a puddle of tears. I have so often worried about her, and I know I will spend many more years worrying about her, but for now, she seems to have good head on her shoulders and won’t put up with any bullshit. I wish I could be more like her!

*An old friend who I haven’t seen for over 9 years is going to come to St. Louis in March with her little girls.

*Seeing the many tulips we planted in the spring sprout through the cold ground. Last spring, when Tony was still working at the zoo, he brought home a huge number of tulips. Apparently the zoo thins out plants each year, throws the discards into a big pile, and the employees are welcome to take them home. The flowers had already died and fallen off, so there was no way to know what colors they are, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they turn out to be.




*The organization We Love St. Charles! that gave our office a makeover back in the summer brought us all new office chairs last week, and the backs of them vibrate. Oh my, it’s heavenly. My back has been treating me poorly for the last week, and that chair vibrates right in the perfect spot. I was tempted to bring it home with me each night.

*I got a haircut for the first time since September, and I feel like a new woman and no longer hate looking at myself in the mirror. The last time I got it cut, it was a short layered style, and as it’s grown out, it started to look like Florence Henderson from her Brady Bunch years.

*I bought a new purse for the first time in I think 3 or 4 years. And it was only $12 at TJ Maxx. And it's pink! Check out this cutie!



I started knitting a new scarf in a lacy pattern that I have never attempted before. I love how it's turning out, even though by the time I finish it, it will not be scarf weather. Oh well.





*Girl Scout cookies are in!

I’m sure there are more things I could write about, but this is probably enough for now.

My Spirit is Weary.

I know I am supposed to be writing only positive things here, but bear with me for a moment, and I will eventually. I'm even going to share a delicious new cookie recipe I tried today.

I know things could (and have been!) worse. Much worse...Tony has a job, he really enjoys it, and even found out this weekend that he may have another job offer, at a company he applied to back in August. If he gets this other job, we will be moving, and I'm not sure how I feel about that to be honest. Like I said, I KNOW things could be worse. But, at the same time, I am just tired of so many things being hard. I do my very best every day to keep a positive attitude, and it is becoming harder and harder to do.

Okay, that's enough whining. Onto the postive things!

In true Rose fashion, this morning when the house was quiet and I really had nothing pressing to do, I really just wanted to huddle under my Aunt Mary's raggedy quilt on the couch and watch movies all day. Knowing that if I did, it would depress me even more, I did what I always do...I decided to cook!

The first thing I did was check out my favorite food blog. It's called The Picky Palate, and I absolutely LOVE it. I have found more unique, yet simple recipes there...remember the chocolate peanut butter cupcakes from a few months ago? That recipe came from there. I was in the mood to bake cookies, but none of my go-to favorites sounded good. So, what do I find as the newest post on The Picky Palate? A recipe for Double White Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies with Sea Salt. Oh my stars...you have to try these...they are so yummy. I've eaten WAY too many of them already.

Switching gears...what a beautiful day it was. I went for a walk for the first time in...well...a long time. I even got brave and took the black beast along. Big mistake...I'm just thankful my shoulder is still in it's socket where it belongs.

That's all I got for today!

Bloom Where You're Planted

Years ago, there was a local artist who had a local business who eventually made it big in the world with her cute whimsical drawings and fun, cute, or inspiring quotes. Right up my quote collecting alley. She started out with greeting cards and moved onto painted kitchen things like cookie jars, pitchers, plates, etc. She eventually published a magazine of her cuteness, called Home Companion, which I devoured each time a new issue arrived in my mailbox. Each issue had a page of paper dolls, and I spent hours laminating them and cutting them out for Lauren to play with. I think I still have them somewhere. I know paper dolls are kind of silly now, but I remembered spending hours making and playing with them when I was young, and I envisioned my daughter doing the same. When Lauren was 2, I decorated her new “big girl” room using many of the ideas I’d seen over the years in Home Companion. She had a store at a mall in St. Louis, and that was my go-to place when I had a bit of extra money to spend on something completely unnecessary and frivolous. I even had my kitchen decorated with her framed prints and some of her pottery. It was pricey, and I only had a few pieces, but I loved them all. I sold most of them at a garage sale a few years ago, and I kept only one, my favorite, a pitcher. It sits atop my kitchen cabinets.

Perhaps this artist is recognizable…her name is Mary Engelbreit. I haven’t bought anything in years, not even a card. She stopped publishing her magazine, and I heard several years ago that her store at the mall closed. I honestly hadn’t given her a thought in years. Then yesterday morning, I was reading one of my favorite blogs. I’ve talked about it before, it’s called “Enjoying the Small Things,” written by a young mom in Florida with 2 little girls, one with Down’s Syndrome. She was writing about all of the company she has had lately and how they had all just left to go home. She wrote about how she loves having out of state guests because taking them to do the touristy stuff reminds her to stop and enjoy all of the unique things about where she lives that she often takes for granted and maybe doesn’t think about on a regular basis. Every few sentences, she showed a couple of beautiful photographs that made me wish I had a swamp to take a tour of.

And then she said it. “Bloom where you're planted.” That used to be one of my favorite Mary Engelbreit quotes. Many years ago, I even painted it on a flower pot that sat in my kitchen window with an African violet in it. I hadn’t thought of that quote in years either, but yesterday, it made me stop and think about what it really means. And here is what I came up with. Mind you, these are some really scattered thoughts, that is why I put them in list form. Maybe they will be easier to follow that way.

*Life just is never easy. Well, not for many people anyway. And I’m insanely jealous of those for who it is. I have always tried to tell myself that things aren’t always as they may appear, even for those who seem to live a “charmed” life. Even Mary Engelbreit who has spent her life drawing and painting things that are happy and inspirational--years ago, she wrote in the editorial section of her magazine about her young adult son who committed suicide.

*Life for me has not been easy at all the past couple of years. All of you who I invited to read this blog know some of the story, but not all of it as for the most part, I really do try to focus my energies on the positive, good things about my life. That is why I even started this blog as you all know…to force me to focus on them and not the bad things. Some days I am better at that than others.

*I truly do know that I have so much to be thankful for. I know that so many people who have dealt with the same things we have have not fared nearly as well as we have. But still…my life has changed in so many ways over the past two years…*I* have changed in so many ways over the past two years. Some of the ways I have changed are good…most are not so good. I am trying to change that. I feel like the past two years have been a huge turning point, and I don’t want all of the changes to turn me into a person that I don’t like very much. Again, it’s hard to not do that.

*Even though my life has taken many twists and turns, I still need to make the best of everything I can. I need to bloom where I am planted. Even the most barren dessert sand can still produce some beautiful blooming plants that would not bloom anywhere else.

*Bloom Where You Are Planted reminds me of the name of this blog…I guess dancing in the rain is kind of the same thing.

*This “bloom where you are planted” quote gave me some reinforcement when I need it the most…some reinforcement to do my very best to not let the circumstances of life that I can’t really control take over and control me. Coming across it again after so many years has inspired me to take control of the things I can and let go of those I can’t. I used to be very good at that, and hopefully, I can be again.

*I found this picture on Google images…I used to have this exact print framed and hanging in my kitchen. I even painted some Mary Engelbreit styled flowers on one corner of the frame. I am going to print it, put it in a small frame, and set it in my kitchen window so I can be reminded of it when I am tempted to give up and run away and change my name.




Yesterday, I decided to put this bloom where you are planted theory to the test and see if it really could change my mood, and it actually worked. It’s no secret that I hate winter, and yesterday was winter at its worst. However, I did my very best to enjoy our snowed-in day. It’s the first time in a while that I remember the weather being so bad that I couldn’t go out. I tried to enjoy the beauty of Mother Nature and took some awesome photos. Rachel and I baked. Lauren had a friend over, and all three girls wanted to make bracelets and I helped them. They made a huge mess, but there was lots of laughter, and it was fun to share something I love doing with my girls. I felt a warm feeling in my heart when after the bracelet making was over, all three girls were wrapped in blankets on the couch happily passing around a big bag of M & M’s and laughing together over a tv show. I played a couple of mean games of Sorry. By last night, I really was content and knew that I had done the best I could to get the most out of my day.

I know I haven’t been writing much lately. It was pointed out to me by a friend that I’ve been a slacker, and I have been. To be honest, I have started to feel kind of silly for writing here. I really do enjoy it, but I feel like I’m just writing to myself. Which really is okay I’ve decided. I have no idea who, if anyone reads this, and it doesn’t really matter. I have sort of mixed emotions about that. On the one hand, I was choosy about who I told about this blog, and only a handful of people know about it. On the other hand, sometimes, I do think it would be nice to be one of those “popular” bloggers who has tons of readers and people offering all kinds of witty comments. On the other hand…well, I don’t have three hands obviously…the thought of people I don’t know reading my innermost thoughts, most of them dumb, is kind of frightening too. I guess I can’t have it all, huh? So, I have decided to keep writing for no other reason than because I enjoy it.

It’s another snow day here. I will admit, I am sick of snow days. I think I jinxed myself a couple of weeks ago when I wrote here that I enjoy a snow day once in a while. We are now on our 7th one of the year, and I think I would bloom much brighter and prettier if I were planted somewhere on the beach. For now, I will have to be like a crocus and bloom in the snow.