good things

1.  our home gets lovely natural light, as well as large patches of warm sunlight in many rooms.  our dog and cat shift from room to room throughout the day, following the sunspots and letting the heat penetrate their weary, old bones.

2.  there was enough coffee left in the pot to make a perfect noon pick me up cup- not so much that i'll never fall asleep this evening, but just the right amount to warm my hands and keep me from eating the chocolate peanut butter cups (with sea salt) i've made for our guests.  

3. there is plenty of chocolate almond milk to make that little cup perfectly decadent.  i don't need a peanut butter cup.  i don't.  no, i'm fine.

4.  the corner of the living room in front of me looks exactly the way i want it- if i sit here, i can forget that it is the only place in my home i've completed the decor.

5. caroline's eighth birthday is this week, and i believe she will be so pleased with her gifts- this is not an extraordinary thing, but a good thing.  it means she won't be overwhelmed with so much 'stuff' that she forgets to be thankful and enjoy each gift thoroughly.  too many gifts are not as good as just a few good gifts.

6.  caroline is turning 8.  the baby girl that made me a mama- the one who arrived so quickly and violently, then slowly and persistently changed me to the core.  the one who asks the deepest, hardest questions, then follows them with silly giggles and the fleeting attention span of a little girl.  the one who has shown me definitively that raising a child to be a grown up person is the hardest thing in the world.  love is vastly different than i ever expected.

7. almost every person who has visited our home has brought a plant or flower of some kind... there is green and blooming life in each room, and i love it.

8.  there is not a mouse in my living room, although it sounds exactly like a teeny little mouseling when the wind blows the tree branches against the bay window.

9.  i love having a bay window again- this home reminds me of the first home we owned on Holly Drive, with it's bay window and divided light panes.

10.  matt is wandering the property... praying, meditating, thinking, possibly smoking a cigar?, and practicing for his sermon tomorrow.  that's just a good thing- no explanation needed. 

i think i *may* need a peanut butter cup.  just one.