Simple Little Things That Bring Me Joy.

When I was in college, in Chicago, my friend Laura and I would get together every Tuesday night at Starbucks and share life together. We'd sip Chai Tea lattes and talk about school and LSAT's, marathon training, dates gone good {or bad} and life. Plain and simple life.

I had this little yellow notebook that I'd always bring and in it I'd write lists and lists and stories and quotes and one of the recurring themes was "Simple Little Things That Bring Me Joy".

Laura and her husband and daughter are now all the way over in New York and we don't get to connect like we used to. We haven't seen each other since H was 2 months old, when her and her husband married in North Carolina. But the friendship we shared, it's still there. I still count her in my head, on my hand and most importantly, in my heart.

So today, even though it's not Tuesday and even though I'm not hanging with Laura, I'm sharing my list of what's bringing me joy, right now:

1. Teeny, tiny, little girl braids. I doubt you've ever seen anything so cute. {I was inspired by this a few weeks back and realized, it was time. Oh it was time for E to wear braids too!}

2. Did you get a look at that bench Miss E is sitting on? My husband MADE that! I've been complaining about that stinking ledge for oh, pretty much the 6 plus years we've lived here and one Sunday a few weeks back, we traipsed to JoAnn fabrics, picked out that pretty print and my husband made the ugly, paint chipped ledge into a soft, beautiful looking bench. No, friends, he's not for hire.

3. My crockpot. Tonight's the third night this week that I am making dinner in the crock pot and while it's always been used for things like chili or meatballs, I've been loving finding recipes that take me 10 minutes in the morning and cook all day long. I enjoy my afternoon and the witching hour before dinner so much better now.

4. Stripes. I am obsessed. They wear stripes a lot.
And so do I now.

5. This Indian Summer we're having. Politically correct or not, seriously, I love picking H up from school with dinner in the crock pot {see above!!} and being able to go to the park or play outside. T and M even got to play outside after dinner earlier this week. On school nights, we very rarely go outside again after dinner, so this was a BIG deal!


6. Friendship mix. If you are older than 4, you'd probably call this trail mix. And H loves making it with cereal and goldfish and raisins and marshmallows and whatever other fun ingredients we've got lying around.


7. Fall. Fall. Fall. I am in love with our front door step right now with a haybale and pumpkins and an orange mum! I love all the decorations around my house and the scent of apple candles.

8. Candy corn. I have never been a big fan of candy corn and usually buy it to put in the candy dish for looks. I filled our gummy bear jar with candy corn and I can barely stay on top of refilling it.

So, play along with me here, because though I'm ashamed to admit it the lack of comments but the increasing traffic sometimes makes me wonder what's going on. Mixed signals, people!

So say something, anything, what things you're finding joy in? What do you think of the music when the page opens? Some people say they hate it, some love it. Today, I love it. So tell me what you're thinking and enjoying...right now.