Things I Love Right Now

That the dryer is running.
Homemade hot fudge sauce.
My son's recent amazing change in behavior.
My daughter being home from college for the summer.
My daughter scoring a job at a local greenhouse.
The This American Life podcast.
My vegetable and flower gardens.
My fruit trees.
My ASPARAGUS! I'm totally digging that!
That The Baby is missing her front tooth.
That the family has a music studio set up in our gathering room and intermittently jams together throughout the day (video soon to follow!)
The four little kitties we have that the girls and Monet are totally in love with. I do not, however, love their poop.
Seeing Rejoice laugh.
God's amazing provision in my life, even when I totally screw things up.
The chapter "Blink of an Eye" in Anne Lamott's book, Grace, Eventually.
Facebook. Totally. I know.
Mike Birbiglia.
Greenhouses. Yet spending money in them--not so much.
Sweetheart's piano playing.
Houdin's piano playing.
Rejoice's piano playing.
Monet's drumming.
Bard's guitar-playing.
Sweetheart's fiddling.
Working vehicles.
Twitter.
Life in general.

How about you? What do you love right now?

Things I Am Thankful For Today

I do an awful lot of grumbling and complaining, so for these next five minutes, I'm going to list every thing I can think of that I'm thankful for.

Thank you, God, for:

My five beautiful children;
their good health;
my good health;
my husband's good health;
a beautiful home;
a great community;
a wonderful church full of people who are loving;
being able to stay home and orchestrate my own day;
great food;
this incredible computer that lets me do so much;
my iPod, with which I am learning so much;
the ability to communicate with friends and family;
my daughter's ability to go to college and not pay a thing;
cats who are fun to watch;
neighbors who let us live our lives;
my dad, who vacuums the house and loads the dishwasher every day;
a very comfortable bed and bedroom;
friends;
the ability to clean and declutter;
the views from my windows;
living in a place where we get to experience all four seasons in their fullest;
a vehicle that runs;
getting snowed in every once in a while;
great food stores nearby;
chocolate cake;
the freedom to home educate my children;
the freedom to learn every day;
Monet's artwork;
Sweetheart's great, helpful attitude;
clean, running water;
the organization that's part of our church that helps others have clean, running water;
extended family;
photography;
vitamins;
pizza;
blogging;
affirmation.

That's as far as I could get in five minutes, though there's much, much more to be thankful for.

What are *you* thankful for?

Things I Love Right Now...

And when I say things I love "right now," I mean things that are particularly close to my heart at this time. The normal things that I love, like my family and life and God, go without saying. These are just things that make me all warm and fuzzy at this time in my life.

My new iPod Touch. This is just love, pure and simple. It's a thing of beauty. How did I live without this for so long?

Podcasts. I mean, wow. I know I'm W-A-Y behind the times, here, but there is just nothing in the world like listening to This American Life or The Splendid Table at my own convenience.

The Library. I go in phases with this one. Sometimes I love my library, and sometimes I leave her in the dust. Usually the latter comes after me misplacing some very expensive book for a great amount of time, or one of my children misplacing some CD for a great amount of time, and me being too embarrassed to pay the fine for it. But then I break down and return to the arms of her comforting shelves once again.

Books on CD. This is part of the loves mentioned above. The Library + Books on CD + iPod = lovelovelove. The problem is that I listen to go to sleep, and then I can't remember where I left off. Currently, I'm listening to Before You Know Kindness by Chris Bohjalian, whose book Midwives was my first exposure to him. I even got to do a little interview with him and get some signed copies back when I worked for an independent bookstore. On deck: So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger.

CDs. Another library/ipod combo. There are many CDs that I own but are not playable anymore, or works that I own on cassette, and then there are those things that I've heard smatterings of but would like more, so I find them at the library and pop them onto my iPod. Mmmm.

Interlibrary Loan. Pure genius. Makes all of the above even more fabulous.

iCal. This is a great Mac application that also happens to be on my iPod, so when I plug in my iPod, iCal syncs them both and I always have my calendar updated. Quite nice, really.

Electricity. We were without this for about a week when Ike swirled his coattails across o-HI-o. I was not a happy person while I was without refrigeration, water and computer access. Electricity is my friend.

Free time and The Jar. See my previous post about this one.

This gorgeous weather. I do wish I would get outside and enjoy it more. I love these cool, sunny days and could definitely handle them all year long.

Garden-fresh tomatoes with a sprinkling of kosher salt and feta cheese. This is food-love at its simplest.

Apple season. I can't wait to get to the orchard tomorrow and get some of the bestest apples on the planet.

Clean refrigerators. When we had our power outage, it forced me to clean out our three fridges, so now I have some very nice-looking appliances.

facebook. Yes, I have all but neglected my poor blog because of my new jones, facebook. I say new, but I've really been enjoying it for some time.

Text Twirl. A facebook application that is quite addictive. I find myself making words out of series' of letters wherever I am.

Raw milk. We had gone without it for a couple of months, but now it's back, and, boy, am I happy. That cream that sits on the top after the milk has been stored overnight is pure gold.

I think that's it for now.

What do you love?