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?

My Small Stuff

Happiness

I have been tagged by three lovely bloggers, Chic Mama, Tiddlyompompom and Beth at My Good Life, with the Happy 101 meme.

After my last post I definitely wanted to write about something positive and upbeat. I love to be happy and to laugh so this seemed a perfect way to count my blessings.

The rules:

List ten things that make you happy, then pass the award on to ten other bloggers.

Ten things that make me happy:

1) Nap time - although Presley has pretty much dropped his daytime nap, there are still days - like today - when I get some 'me' time. I take it when I can these days!

2) Friends - there is nothing like spending time with a good friend, someone who knows you inside out and never judges you. You can see each other every day and never run out of things to say or you can see each other once a year and simply pick up where you left off. A good friend will be honest with you but will always consider your feelings. 

3) Shopping - Before Children I went shopping a lot. I bought clothes, shoes, bags, jewellery, make-up etc. Nowadays I buy children's clothes and shoes and rarely anything for myself. On Saturday I went to the Trafford Centre with my best friend. We spent the day shopping, just the two of us. Heaven!

4) My new maxi dress - I normally live in jeans and linen trousers, but this caught my eye in Debenhams on Saturday: 

It makes me happy because it's colourful, it fits, it didn't break the bank and I found a cardigan to go with it.

5) Christopher Guest films - Spinal Tap (obviously), Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman and A Mighty Wind are all hilarious and make me laugh out loud every time I see them.

6) Eating - I'll never be skinny, I like food too much. After working my way through the menu of our favourite Indian takeaway I finally found my favourite curry, a chicken tikka Afghani special. This made me happy.

7) Kisses and cuddles - especially from Andy, Presley and Cash. 'Nuff said.

8) Writing - more than twenty years after leaving school I've picked up a pen again and started writing. I'm enjoying it. Who knows, I may even be quite good at it? I always maintained I wasn't creative, I'm revising my opinion right about now!

9) Blogging - or more specifically, bloggers. I love the fact that I've found a group of online friends, some of whom have become real life friends, that are easy to get on with. We have so much in common. Although blogging is 'only' a hobby I get so much out of it. I'm over-excited about going to Cybermummy and am looking forward to putting even more faces to headers!

10) Booths' Tea Room - for those not familiar with Booths, it is a wonderful local supermarket. Our nearest Booths has a tea room. I take the boys once a week or once a fortnight. I like the fact that they give you a number to put on your table when you order, they then bring your food and drinks over to your table. This is perfect if you have two toddlers with you. Other tea rooms please take note, it is impossible to carry a tray of hot drinks and push a pushchair at the same time. The boys and I share four slices doorsteps of toast and butter (79p). They have the middle and I have the crusts. I have three cups of tea from a proper teapot (99p) and then pour the remaining milk into my cup so the boys can have a 'milky tea'. How civilised!

So there we go, ten things that make me happy.

I'm going to tag:
Muddling Along Mummy
Yummy Mummy No1
Christine at Thinly Spread
Susie at New Day New Lesson (just to see if she can think of even more happy things)!

If you would also like to have a go at this one, please let me know and I'll add you to the list.

Happiness

Happy Happy Joy Joy

The gorgeous Wife of Bold tagged me in her happiness meme. The title is 'the ten best things in my life that are free'. I love the idea of this one.

So often I find myself inwardly complaining that life is tough, that I don't get enough sleep, that I have too much to do. It's good to reflect and think about what makes you happy. Like counting your blessings.

I struggled to cut my list down to ten, you will see from the last two that I bunched a few together.

1. The smell of sweet peas. These remind me of my Grandad.
2. Sleeping in clean sheets. This doesn't happen as often as it did Before Children.
3. Singing. The louder the better, like noone's listening .
4. A nice cup of tea and a sit down. Yes, I'm getting old.
5. Loading the dishwasher. I pretend I'm on The Krypton Factor. It will all go in. It will.
6. The Flaming Lips. I never get tired of listening to 'The Soft Bulletin' in particular. I went to see them last year, for the third time. I envy people seeing them live for the first time. It is an amazing experience.
7. Long Summer evenings. Sitting in the garden until it eventually gets dark. Feeling the gentle, cooling breeze in your arms. The delicate scent of Summer blooms and cut grass.
8. Doing the Rubik's Cube. Andy found one out today for the boys to play with. I learnt how to do it when I was ten. I felt my age today when I realised I'd been able to do this for nearly thirty years. I still got a great deal of satisfaction as I made the last few turns and saw the colours come together.
9. My husband. Andy totally gets me. With him I can relax and be myself. I'm comfortable, safe and loved. He makes me happy.
10. My children. They amaze and delight me every day. Their personalities are developing along with their speech and movement. They are cute, especially when they play together, and they bowl me over with kisses and cuddles. They make me happy.

I'm very lucky.

The photograph above is me, bursting with happiness, about to give Presley his first bath.

I'm passing this meme on to ten bloggers, most of whom are new to me - all members of Judith's Room. Finding fabulous new blogs to read should probably replace the Rubik's Cube on my list as I probably won't do it again for another few years!

Bare Naked Mummy

Bumbling Along

Make Do Mum

Mummy Mania

Weston-Super-Mum

Baking Mad Mama

Use Before

A Mum's Survival Guide

Notes From Lapland

Spinning Plates

Enjoy!

Happy Happy Joy Joy