Things I love...

Sometimes it's important (especially during the month of March in MN) to reflect on the things that make a person happy and content. Not necessarily material things, although those will be included in my list, but I also mean *things* in the broader sense of people, places, events, instances and situations.

• My boys. Even Ludwig who is currently doing his best to fumigate the house with his flatulence.
  
• Chocolate. Because really, what's not to love?
  
• Spring. It will come, I just need to be patient.
  
• The smell of fresh baked bread.
• Being married to a man who bakes the aforementioned bread.
  
• A warm summer night where the temperature and the breeze are just right so you are neither cold nor hot but *just right*. Those are my most favorite summer nights.
  
• Books. I really do love to read and am fascinated by people who don't read. They don't know what they are missing and I feel sad for them. Kind of like how I felt sad for the accounting majors I knew in college. Their subject matter was so boring and I felt sad for them because they spent all their time learning about numbers.
  
• Comfortable shoes. For me they are my Dansko Mary Janes, Asics running shoes and Merrill sandals. At this point in my life all other shoes are not worth wearing and I usually don't.
• When Owen tells me he loves me "so much" and that I am the snuggler because I am the softest.
  
• Photography. It's my favorite art form. It's the only way for me to take what I see in my mind of something and put it on paper. I couldn't accomplish that with drawing and painting.
  
• Potatoes. Cooked any way. Even raw, although that is my least favorite. Like chocolate, what's not to love?
  
• Growing veggies in our yard. I love that some of our food has traveled mere yards to our table rather than miles. And knowing that what has gone into the growth of that food is water, sun and some tender loving care. I also love that Owen enjoys working in the garden with Morgan (I like to pick but I'm not much of a gardener).
  
• All-wheel drive. It's seriously awesome.
  
• Being able to stay home (mostly) with Owen since he was born.
  
• Baking. While not the healthiest of hobbies I do enjoy it. And I love to eat what I bake!
• My fuzzy blue blanket. My grandma made it long ago and then it was given to me and became so worn that I had to take it apart and make a new patchwork top for it and then sew it all back together. Someday it will be passed to Owen, he loves it too, and he (or maybe his wife) will need to fix it again!
• Friends and family who love me despite my quirks.
• A clean kitchen.
• A supportive and mostly not irritating bra. So hard to find.
• When I find clothes that fit me. I don't mind being short. Really, I don't. I mind that the fashion industry tailors clothes for women who are 5'10" and weigh 100 pounds and have limbs 3 feet long. That is like .5% of the population and I honestly don't care if they can't find clothes to fit them, it's time for the little women to come into fashion power!
• Recreational fires in the backyard.
• When all the laundry is done and put away. I love that feeling of accomplishment.
• Good fitness instructors. The classes I attend at the Y are taught by great instructors and that can make all the difference. (Not unlike having good teachers in school!)
• This little blog. It contains record of many small but important things that have happened over the last 4 1/2 years and I like that I can go back and read about them.
• Music.
• Living in an urban area but not in the city. We are close enough but not so close that there are drunks stumbling down the street at 2am. I don't miss that.
• Sunshine. Especially when it's barely in the 30's.
• Good neighbors. We paid very little attention to the school district or neighborhood when we bought our house and got so lucky.
• So many more things that I cannot list!