Happy Things Friday: 23 October

I’m girding my proverbial loins for the next 36 hours; it’s going to be a doozy. A church event our family is volunteering at is happening this weekend and it’s sure to be a lot of very intense fun. It will be overstimulation to the nth degree (for me), but I’m excited, too.

A few weeks ago I mentioned something in one of my posts about a youth event I had volunteered at, and Michelle’s comment made me so very happy.

I believe this to the core of my being. This group of teens is poised to do great things for God and in the world at large. Part of our weekend will be spent volunteering to help seniors with lawn care and other home maintenance tasks, along with collecting hundreds of pounds of non-perishables for the local food bank. We’re going to play games, jump on giant inflatables, worship, and bond and talk about very real (sometimes hard!), prescient topics in their lives.

And then I will take a very long nap on Sunday afternoon, or such is the hope.

I came down with a head cold in the middle part of the week which… wasn’t what I wanted. Since then, I’ve done the bare minimum in terms of keeping life, work, and house things afloat, with lots of support from John. There was an afternoon nap, and a few optional things fell by the wayside. But it was relatively short, as these things go, and after about 48 hours, I was mostly feeling back to normal.

My father-in-law’s visit was lovely; there was also a sense of relief when he left. Not because he’s an imposition in the least, but there is always a sense of being “on” that’s impossible to shake when any company is in the house. But we had a delightful visit with a lot of very special memories, good food, and plenty of laughter.

Okay. Let’s talk Happy Things from the last week.

CANDY FUN

I had so much fun reading all the comments on the Top Five/Bottom Five Halloween candy post. (If you haven’t had a chance to check out Kristen’s related blog post, make sure you do that; the comment section is a treat!)

Side note: this picture of the kids peering into our carved pumpkin (many years ago, now) is one of my all-time favourites!

BOYS’ VOLLEYBALL

So… an interesting thing happens when your teen daughter starts dating a player on one of the high school volleyball teams.

You (as the parent) start watching boys’ high school volleyball.

To be fair, she’s done most of her cheering without me, but needed a ride to a tournament last weekend and begrudgingly let me stay since she NEEDED ME FOR TRANSPORT.

Eventually, she moved to the other side of the bleachers into greener (and younger) pastures, which left me to have some lovely conversations with moms I knew.

Volleyball is a lot of fun to watch.

That said, it was literally like walking into a brick wall of sweat and teenage B.O. when I went into the gym. I have NEVER experienced any exercise-related scent that overpowering before. Belle had been to the tournament the previous day and told me I’d get used to it, which I was sure I most certainly would not.

Lo and behold, within 15 minutes, I couldn’t smell anything. It was actually a bit concerning that I acclimated that quickly.

Even closer to home, Indy has signed up for middle school volleyball. His season hasn’t started yet, but I’m excited for that (I really enjoyed watching Belle when she played volleyball).

SUNNY DAYS

It has been an abnormally chilly fall for us. We’ve already had temperatures BELOW zero, and it’s not even the end of October.

But, after a stretch of gloomy, overcast days with near-constant wind, we have seen a fair amount of sunshine this week which has been delightful.

HEATED SEATS + HEATED STEERING WHEEL

I know I’ve mentioned this as a Happy Thing before, but it bears repeating: living where we do, having heated seats and a heated steering wheel are such a delight.

WARM FEET

Speaking of heat… my package from Nicole arrived with multiple pairs of like-new slippers that she graciously gifted me. We happen to wear the same shoe size, and she found they made her feet too hot! I have been BASKING in the delight of very warm toes.

When I put out a call for suggestions of how to keep warm this winter, UGGs came up repeatedly and one of the pairs Nicole sent my way was indeed UGGs and I can confirm they are very toasty, indeed.

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDES

I couldn’t decide whether to publish all my gift guides at once (what most “influencers” seem to do, a category I don’t really fall into), or just sprinkle them into my regular posting routine over the coming weeks. I’ve decided on the latter because it seems more fun and a lot less cumbersome for me (preparing them) and you (reading/skimming/ignoring them… whatever the case may be).

The first guide (for men) went live this week. I had a lot of fun putting it together and received such enthusiastic feedback, so thank you!

I have 15 Stocking Stuffer Ideas for men coming tomorrow, and next week women will get their turn.

A BEAUTIFUL SKY

We were driving in the early evening one day this week and the sky was stunning. Pictures don’t do it full justice!

BONUS HAPPY THINGS

• My father-in-law brought some of my mother-in-law’s jewelry down for Belle and me to share. I was especially thrilled to receive some simple golden knot studs and have been wearing them almost every day.

• We got a good chuckle out of this meme!

• And this one. Go for it, girl! Godspeed.
• Belle went to a corn maze on the weekend with her friends. I didn’t make any arrangements, didn’t pay for her entry ticket… I just dropped her off and went home. Big fan!

• The picture isn’t overly appetizing (food photography is not my thing), but I literally put the remainder of our Thanksgiving leftovers together, added some homemade chicken stock, and created a soup. A few spoonfuls of leftover gravy? That goes in! The remaining cranberry sauce? Also in. Turkey! Potato! Carrot! Stuffing! Corn! A handful of peas. Done and done.

• Speaking of food. This is one of our family’s favourite dishes. It… also doesn’t look particularly appetizing. We call it Bacalhau (Portuguese for salt cod) and it includes chickpeas, hard-boiled egg, broccoli, cod (soaked for over a day to remove the salt, and then boiled), potatoes, garlic, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. My father-in-law keeps everything separate and the rest of us mash it. So good!
• Catrina was invited to register for the Tokyo Marathon (which is almost impossible to get into as an international runner)!!
• Pickleball as a family. We all went and there was so much light-hearted trash talking and some incredibly close (and fun) games. I really enjoy doing this together. Not going to lie: I also prefer when I’m on the winning team!

• This text from Belle. The cynic in me—seeing as this arrived randomly on Wednesday morning—immediately thought: What does she want?? But there was no follow-up request and it warmed my heart to receive this message. She’s a great kid, really and truly.
• Vacuumed floors. It never lasts, but when we left for pickleball we set up Eufy to run while we were away. What a joy.

• Morning coffee. Still loving the auto function on our coffee machine, and still LOVING this mug.
• My Dad needed some tech support (read: he had some documents in his inbox and had no idea how to print them off). Sometimes trying to help him over the phone can be the very definition of an exercise in futility. This time, things went remarkably smoothly. The forms got printed with virtually no hassle. And, he’s been asking for me to arrange something for months now and for various reasons it didn’t work… and in the span of 24 hours I got it all sorted and he was SO happy. Hearing his happiness in turn made ME happy.

That’s it from me this week.

Happy Weekending, friends.

Your turn.

• Tell me all about the Happy Things happening in your life!
• Do you offer tech support to any seniors in your life?
• Best meal you ate this week?