My Small Stuff

One of my favourite bloggers, Is there a Plan B?, wrote a beautiful post this week called The Small Stuff.

Sometimes we spend far too much of our precious time preoccupied with the big stuff. Of course this is important, but what really matters is the small stuff.

Here is my small stuff. There is a lot of it. It makes me happy. This is the tip of the iceberg.

The first cup of tea of the day. Cuddles with my children. Sweet peas. Holding hands. Coloured glass.

Robert Downey Jr, Robert Pattinson and David Tennant. Fitting everything in the dishwasher. Blossom. Daffodils. My kitchen table.

Keeping on top of the laundry. Washing drying on the line. Getting into a freshly made bed. Tia Maria and Diet Coke. Diet Coke. Christmas. Sprouts. Jumper dresses.

Chit-chat before bed with my boys. The Smartest Giant in Town. The Snail and the Whale. Panda and Gander: Tutti Frutti. Numtums. Tree Fu Magic.

The smile on Presley's face when he counts to 100. Baking soda bread and eating it with butter. Decorating cakes. Licking the spoon. Being pleased with something I've written. Owls and dragonflies.

Only Connect, Desperate Housewives, Come Dine With Me, BBC4. Singing along to the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. Garden birds. Knowing I have tickets for the Olympics.

Amanda and John, Paul and Dez, Liz, Lisa, Valerie. Wuthering Heights. Jane Eyre. Sea otters. Dugongs. Giraffes. Duplo. Rowland Rivron. Squirrel nutcrackers.

Carrots with red-pepper hummous, Chocolate Philadelphia, jacket potato with cheese and salad. My Mum's Yorkshire pudding. Chorizo, pimento stuffed olives, Applewood cheese.

Tim Minchin, Sean Lock, Christopher Guest films. Peonies, forsythia, honeysuckle, lavender. Lemon flavour anything. Twirling ribbon between my fingers. Rosy cheeks. Down in the Jungle.

Cats. Sharpening pencils. Rebecca. Caitlin Moran. A clean house. Roses and castles art. Klimt. Rolf Harris. John Lewis. Salad bars. Paul Weller's hair. Rockeries. Swimming.

The smell of bonfire night. Cash pretending there are lions and tigers in the bedroom. Ron Sexsmith, The Flaming Lips, kd lang, Midlake. Making lists. Still quoting from The Youngs Ones and Blackadder after thirty years.

Father Ted. The Magic Flute. New socks. Orange. Laughing. Elizabeth Arden hand cream. Liz Earle cleanser. Notebooks. Singapore noodles. Salted caramels. MC Heapey.

The Smiths, Prefab Sprout, ABC, Heaven 17, Japan, Duran Duran, Adam Ant, Orange Juice, The Communards. People who collect jugs or teapots. People who smile a lot. BPP biros.

My iPhone. Comfortable shoes. BOGOF's, sales and bargains. How organised my Google Reader is these days. Blood Brothers. Double entry bookkeeping. Microsoft Excel.

Reading about children's names. Knowing what I would call my next four children (if I was having any more children). Minky Monkey and Big Teddy. Saying 'but it's not google' in my head every time I see bing.com.

Going to bed super early because I've got a great book to read. Staying up late with my husband, drinking, talking, laughing and queuing up songs on Spotify. Getting the guitar out. Getting through 'Sweet Child of Mine' or 'Don't Stop Me Now' at karaoke without laughing. Scarves.

The smell of rain on a hot day. Sunshine. Sydney. Central Otago. Barcelona. Manhattan. Looking at maps. Downward dogs. The Lemonheads. Tapas. Live music. The Ray Mears sketch on Shooting Stars.

What's your small stuff?