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.