Positively Tuesday-Simple Pleasures and Other Joy's

      Life is like a box of chocolates, and sometimes you're stuck with the lemon cream, and other times  it's full of nuts. I love nuts, and am very appreciative of the nuts in my life. Or rather, I am happy with the nuts and bolts that make up my life, and when any are loose, that's when I feel off kilter. Maybe I should say, I am appreciative of the wrenches in my life. Just how many metaphors can I wedge into this blog post? I'll just stick to the post topic and share my weekly list of  simple pleasures, joys, and  things that made me smile in the past week. And just in case Anne's friend is reading, by no means am I saying I have a perfect life-I crab enough on other posts during the week to take that illusion away. But as Tuesday is typically a day I do not look forward to, it is my day to  pause, and acknowledge that despite the times of woe, there are a lot of good things in life. 

1. My great niece finished strong in her regional diving meet, and will once again be going to the state tournament. She is a junior, and this is her 4th year competing at the state level, and likely if she does well, she'll get offered a pretty decent scholarship. Anne, you might have another sport to watch at 'Bama as that is her dream school right now. 
2. We got another dose of September over the weekend, with Saturday nearly reaching 70. I am patting myself on the back for thinking ahead and dressing in layers  rather than a sweater and coat as the temperature swing 30 degrees from when my sister picked me up, to when we were having a beverage break. 
3. I thought it was odd that I wasn't getting any response for well over a day and 1/2 from my youngest. She must have seen, but wasn't able to reply but later I got a text from her friend/roommate letting me know she was on a school weekend and had no cell service. I had forgotten about this weekend, and yes, our cell service gets spotty in some places.I thought it was sweet that her friend  texted on her behalf as I would have been wondering all weekend what was going on.
4. I mentioned my oldest daughter is looking at options to go 100% self employed at some point in the next year. My son is not the most responsive person in the world, but  did reply to my question about a site he used to use to build up his client/freelance list because I couldn't remember it. It's nice to know that some things, his sister's well being for one, he thought was important and responded to pretty quickly. Other things-not so much. 
5. Bless DH's attempt at supporting my frugal grocery month. I had a short list of items I needed and a store ad with some loss leaders, plus a coupon for $10 of $50 spend, and I thought, how much damage could he do? He tries but struggles with substitutions, and just skipping items if they are out, and will buy alternatives that are either wrong, or carry a real hefty price tag. I add this to my list of things to smile about only because he did get  most of the things on my list, saving me a stop, even though he likely spent 20% more, even after applying the $10 savings, and without the big coupon item I really wanted us to pick up due to the store being out already. But folks, we have another four boxes of pasta! I can't convince him that I can get pasta for  80 cents a box all the time at Aldi and stockpiling just takes up needed pantry space. 
6. Making what felt like an endless pot of soup! DH, DD1, and I each had a large bowl of the pasta fagiole I made on Sunday. I then filled a container for my daughter for work, and two more jars, 28 ounces each, of soup to the brim. I sent one home with her, and kept one for an easy dinner one night for the two of us. Homemade soup is a simple pleasure. Seeing my family enjoy it is a bonus.
7. In other cooking successes, I used flax seed eggs and  made the other half of the can of pumpkin from last weeks batch for DD2, to make a batch of mini loaves for DD1. The bread is nice and soft so she could eat, plus, DH proclaimed it delicious as well. Even if you do not need to make eggless baked goods, having ground flax seed around as a substitute for eggs is a good pantry staple. I Tablespoon  ground flax seed + 3 Tablespoons water=1 egg. Mix and let it rest to get "slimy" before adding as you would an egg. This joy is added because my daughter and husband really enjoyed the bread.
8. DH and I both took yesterday and today off, but we also both had some work-work to do. However, the weather yesterday was absolutely gorgeous so we got outside time cleaning off the deck, sweeping the porch, cleaning up the yard. Today, I hope to plant some hostas and bulbs. Fingers crossed the squirrels leave them along this time.
9. I took advantage of how early the  sun goes down and a Monday off work to give myself permission to play on the computer for my own pursuits. I started a plan for Blogmas-switching up my routine on blogging a bit for fun, and did a little goal setting of my own. 
10. And, these socks made me smile and if they weren't the atrocious price of $12, and my daughter doesn't lose socks after a single wear, I might have bought for  my youngest. To be fair, they equally could apply to me as well. She and I are the queen and princess of "just one more episode." I'm not going to lie, I likely will do a bit of binge watching this week in between being productive. 
    
    
    
    
    

    

     Some of these joys were silly and some just the day to day stuff of life. As fun as my weekend was, I got a glimpse into a couple sisters lives and updates on their kids, and reminders that nice gardens still grow weeds ( another metaphor.) I think we owe ourselves to look for the flowers, and when overrun with too many weeds, reach out to others for a little gardening help.