Time with the Littles.

I have several friends who are little people.  I don't mean they are adults afflicted with dwarfism, although I know that dwarfs sometimes refer to themselves as 'little people'.  However, in my case, the little people who are my friends are the children of my adult friends.  These five little girls and two little boys call me Auntie, and their little hugs are one of the treats of going to one of my friends' homes.  

They often help ease the sadness that my adorable little grandson is three hours away.  When I need a 'kid fix', I'll go visit a friend and be introduced to one little sweetheart's entire Tinkerbell collection.  Or see how fast one little buddy can 'drive' a Hotwheels car.  Or watch my two other little friends quote whole scenes from their latest favorite Disney movie, each taking the part of a different princess.  

Today, I got to watch three of my little friends for the day.  Their daddy had to go to work, and mommy is out of town, so I got some Auntie time with them.  Today was rainy, so unfortunately, going to the playground, as I had planned wasn't an option.  It ended up being a day full of at-home fun.  Curled up on the couch with a little friend on each side, and one on my lap, watching movies, reading books, popcorn for a snack, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and milk for lunch.  

Their energy and chatter and affection has effectively worn me out, and it was a long day.  But it was such a joy to spend the day so simply, and with such sweet little friends.  

Now I'm going to go take a nap.  

You've Got Mail

When I was 14, I went to summer camp.  This was no 'across town, go home every evening' summer camp.  This was '4 states away, island in the middle of a lake, stuck there away from home no matter what' summer camp.  And I was terrified.  My personality is one that is very uncomfortable in unfamiliar situations, and although that's something I'm trying to work on, I was very aware of it as I stepped off the boat onto that island!  I found my cabin, staked claim on a bunk, and wondered what to do next.  There were no counselors in my cabin, and I didn't see any other campers.  However, one saw me.  She introduced herself and suggested a plan for 'what to do next'.  It sounded reasonable, so I went with her.  And from that moment, for the rest of the week at camp we were inseparable.

By the end of the week, we were the best of friends, and exchanged addresses.  She lived 5 or 6 states away from me, so our friendship was limited to the occasional phone call, and letters.  Oh, how we mastered the art of letter-writing.  Two, three, four...sometimes five or six letters a week flew up and down the coast from her house to mine and back.  We even started being creative, to keep each other entertained.  Long, long lengths of letters on toilet paper, written with magic marker.  Huge poster-sized letters written on poster paper, rolled into a tube.  Letters written on blown-up balloons which were then deflated to put into an envelope.  If you could fit it into a letter-sized envelope, we sent it through the US Postal Service.

We ended up the very best of friends, and we are still friends to this day....still 5 or 6 states away, still keeping in touch by letter or phone, but still the best of friends.

I realized, today, that aside from the occasional 'thank you' for a gift, or for a special thoughtfulness, I don't write letters anymore....and I don't receive them, either.  Paper, envelopes and stamps have given way to email, messaging, and texts.  And I suppose some people would say that's kind of sad.

But my everyday joy today is letters.  Because three times today, I have gotten a message from someone far away...a friend 45 minutes across town, wanting to get together for lunch and shopping.  My sister, who is 2 hours away saying hello, and making my day with a very nice compliment.  A dear friend who lives half way around the world, but who makes me smile and feel loved everytime I hear from her, just by her sweet way.
They may not be the paper letters I exchanged for so many years, but they certainly mean no less to me. In fact, maybe the fact that they can be sent instantly makes them better?  I know right now, whenever I get a message or text that somebody, somewhere is thinking about me and wishing me a good day.  That is truly something to be joyful about.

Date Night

Sometimes life gets hectic, and days or weeks will go by in which I have barely had a chance to wave hello to Darling Husband in passing, much less spend any time together.  I am not ok with this.  I married him because he is my best friend, and we enjoy spending time together.  So, with him in school full time, and working full time, and me running our business and dealing with all the paperwork and appointments involved in buying a house, it seems like it's been a couple weeks since I've actually done something just for fun.  

Sometimes, our fun thing is cooking together.  We like to make a menu, make the shopping list, go grocery shopping together, cook together, and then have a nice quiet dinner, with just the two of us.  It is companionable, therapeutic, and....well, we have to eat, right?

Sometimes, we will go out, like any other couple on a Saturday night.  Dinner and a movie.  Or fast food and minature golf.  Or more rarely, ice cream cones and a walk on the beach.  But with this being exams week, Darling's been wandering around like a brain-fried zombie trying to keep up with projects due at school, tests to study for, and his full time work schedule besides.  'Going out' wasn't really fair to suggest tonight.

So tonight was a stay-at-home date night.  Curled up on the couch watching movies.  Usually, we take turns picking movies.  His favorite genre is 'fast cars and things blowing up'.  My favorite genre is 'natural disaster/end of the world' movies.  Clearly, the standard movie genres just don't cut it in my family.  Tonight, he picked an action/adventure movie.  No fast cars, but lots of things blowing up, and the good guys won.  Then scrolling through the online movie choices, I saw a movie which I recognized by name, but not description, so we watched it.  It turned out to be an older-elementary or junior high fairy tale, but it was still pretty good.  He made me watch an episode of Black Adder with him to regain his masculinity, tho.

And I realized, while I was curled up on the couch with Darling Husband's arm around me, listening to him make plot guesses and comments about my fairy tale, that as simple as it is, as ordinary as it seems, I wouldn't trade the joy it gives me to spend time with him for anything in the world.

As Long As I'm Living......

I love technology.  In a perfect world, I suppose I could be Amish and live completely without it just fine.  Ok, maybe I'd still want electricity.  But the computer, the social networks, the constant barrage of information, wanted and unwanted, the inability to ever really have any solitude....it sometimes wears a person down.  So, in a perfect world, my kids would live down the street from me.  My brother, sister, nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles, all so beloved would live in the same tiny town somewhere, where I could see them and love them every single day.

But this is not a perfect world, and so the child that lives closest to me is 45 minutes away.  Another is three hours away.  The last is half way across the continent.  So I love the technology that keeps us connected, and allows me to still be a part of their lives, no matter where they are.

I got to talk to My Son via a chat on our favorite social media site.  And he asked me to do him a favor that dealt with some of his business still here in our local area.  It was a simple enough favor, took very little time, and I was happy to do it, so he wouldn't have to think about it.

And that was my joy for the day...getting to talk to one of my kids for a nice long chat, and do something for him that any mother would do.  Because, just like the story book said, when they were little...

I'll love you forever.
I'll like you for always.
As long as I'm living,
My baby you'll be.

They may not be babies anymore, but being their mom is an everyday joy to me.

Possibilities

One of my best friends gave me a subscription to a magazine for Christmas.  I've enjoyed getting them, and flipping idly through them, daydreaming about having rooms as beautiful as those pictured in the magazine, or a home in any of the exotic locations pictured.  But these were little more than nebulous, idle musings, since I was surrounded by the dull reality of a tiny rented apartment.

Last week, Darling and I put a contract on a house.  She is a graceful, beautiful Craftsman foursquare, located across the street from a gorgeous view of the bay, in a quiet, quaint neighborhood full of Victorians and brownstone boutiques.  She has been lovingly restored to maintain all the charm she was built with 100+ years ago, and I can't wait to move in.  To spend early mornings on the porch swing with my tea and the bay.  To gently introduce myself to her, and get to know her quirks.  But also to make her mine, to put my personality and stamp on the house so that, even with more than 100 years of charm, it also looks like MY place in the world.

There are many ways to do that, I suppose.  Furniture.  Carpet. Decorations.  Remodeling.  But while meandering through pictures of beautiful coastal homes, I discovered a treasure.  A simple, 3 x 5 piece of paper that represented the simplest and easiest of all 'statements'.  A coupon for a free sample of paint.  Off I went to the home improvement store, to find my perfect shade.  After all, I will soon have an entire HOUSE full of rooms that, unlike my apartment, are mine to paint, if I choose.

As I looked through the paint chips, I found this shade of blue that might be nice in a craft room.  That shade of green that would be lovely in an office.  This shade of tan that would be amazing in a bathroom.  Some other shade of rose that was perfect for a bedroom....SO many colors!  I did come home with my free sample...a lovely sage-y green I'm hoping will be a subtle, welcoming statement for the foyer...and also a color that Darling Husband has claimed for his office, as well.  But I came home with so much more than just a paint sample.  I came home with endless possibilities of what could be.   A full imagination of how my dream home can slowly, steadily become my 'reality' home.

And that is a joyous thing.

Here Comes the Sun

If you are reading this from anywhere in the United States except California, or possibly other parts of the Southwest, you, along with everyone else in the US, had an incredibly cold and snowy winter.  Here in my East Coast town, we usually get a dusting of snow, or maybe even a few inches accumulation once in the year.  If the ground has been more white than green or brown even once, we declare that yes, it was a rough winter.  After all, we even 'got snow'.

I live in one of those places in the US where a half inch of snow effectively shuts down most every business.  As a matter of fact when my kids were in high school, they once got a snow day that was called the day before a storm was scheduled to hit...and then the storm passed us by, and they got their snow day...on a day there was not even a flake.  Such is life in a beach town that prides itself in 7 months per year of beach weather.

So 4 snow storms in one winter?  More than 2 feet of total accumulation in the SAME winter?  Clearly, the East Coat was heading for some 'Day After Tomorrow' type nuclear winter.  On February 2, when the Groundhog saw his shadow, that very sad rumble you heard was the entire population of my state collectively groaning for mercy.

But today, finally, it really began to feel like warm spring.  Two or three weeks later than usual, the sun was shining, the sky was clear blue, and there was a balmy breeze replacing the bone-chilling wind.  It was so gloriously warm and sunny today.  Nearly 80 degrees.  Everywhere I went today, people were smiling, cheerful, liberated from the indoors, happy to finally be able to come out like the hibernating groundhog, and glance at the sky, unobstructed by storm-clouds.  Spring arrived today.  And with it, something else to be so very joyful about.

Welcome, Sunshine!  We've missed you.

Lost and Found

I am working on writing a book.  No, it's not a collection of blog posts. (hee hee) It's a topic that is a personal interest, and so I decided to collect all my thoughts on the subject in a coherent manner, in a single location.  Voila.  BOOK!   Who knows if it will ever be published, and right now, that is very much not the point.  

But a few weeks ago, I misplaced my notes.  Two whole notebooks full of ideas, brainstorming, half chapters, and random paragraphs....gone.  Seemingly disappeared into thin air.  If you knew how small my apartment was, you'd wonder how I could ever lose anything, but I seem to do it on an annoyingly frequent basis.
I searched wherever I thought might have been a good place to put them.
I searched wherever I thought wasn't really a good place, but that I might have, at some point, thought was a good place.
Then I resorted to searching places I was fairly certain they couldn't possibly be, but....who knows?
I even ultimately started moving furniture, wondering if somehow, maybe the notebooks had slid under the couch, or under a chair.  All without success.
Ultimately, I decided that I would have to wait to find them as we move into the new home on which we recently placed a contract. 

Then, this morning, I headed into my closet to get a pair of shoes and a purse that matches my outfit.  I adore purses and shoes, however, because of the limited space in my apartment, my walk-in-closet usually looks like a tornado has hit a very cute boutique.  Finding a purse and shoes usually results in me sitting on the floor, rummaging through the pile for matches.  Which is what I was doing this morning, when I happened to pick up a purse that sometimes doubles as a tote bag.  It seemed rather heavy, for not being in current use, so I looked inside....and there were my notebooks!! 

I was thrilled, relieved, and excited all at once.  Not just because the notebooks have been found, although I'm certainly glad all the work they represent is not wasted.  I was also glad because finding them has been something of a personal quest for a few weeks, and it felt like a personal triumph.  And because I don't have to spend so much mental energy trying to figure out where I still haven't looked.  There is so much joy in finally finding whatever it was you were looking for.  Whether it's car keys, or a specific DVD you wanted to watch, or that out-of-print book you finally find on Amazon, nothing feels quite as great as 'finally' finding it.

I hope that whatever you have lost today, becomes found.  It's a wonderful, everyday joy.