My Favorite Things

Earlier in the week my sister-in-law did a My Favorite Things post, and she challenged her readers to do the same. What a good idea I thought! Unfortunately it took me a few days to think of any "favorite things." If you read my last post you'll know that my attitude was on the cloudy side of the rainbow for a moment. So it was actually really good for me to notice all of the things that I have been enjoying. Thanks Sarah! You touch my life even though you are far away and we rarely visit! Here goes:
Dish Soap: For my birthday in January, my dear friend gave me some dish soap. I already had a bottle open but I finally used it up and have started using my new soap. Little did I know this would change my dish soap life forever. The stuff is amazing. Sadly I poured it all into my soap jar I use and tossed the bottle so I can't tell you what brand, or even the official scent. I know it has some ginger in it I think. It smells SO good, I can't even describe. And the best part is the smell lingers. So as I walk past my sink I get a whoof of gingery, fresh goodness. Where was this all those years of washing dishes by hand in Wymount? I am definitely going to have to find out the brand from my friend because I am hooked.
Flowers: As a child I used to grumble because my parents were ALWAYS making us work in the yard. Our summers were spent endlessly planting, weeding, mowing. As all stories go, now I love gardening! And I really do miss mowing the lawn. Flowers bring such life and beauty to a home and I enjoy the process of nurturing them along. I do not claim to be a master gardener because as life would have it I haven't done a lot of gardening since I left home. But I treasure my little pots of flowers each year. I have been going over the dilemma of plant, or not plant this year since about January. The problem is we are leaving out of town for most of the summer and I didn't want to invest in the plants just to have them die. But in a moment of weakness I threw all logic and restraint out the window and we bought some flowers for my pots. Once I got over the guilt of having spent the money...I have been thoroughly enjoying my flowers.

In the big pot we have an African daisy (I wanted a normal daisy but we didn't find any) and a Vinca. In the teapot I planted some grapefruit mint. Matthew already broke it so we will see how long it lives. And even though my bird bath is broken I have been unable to part with it. So I just screwed the base to the bowl and now it is a very short, but still adorable, bird bath! All I am missing now is some bird seed for my bird feeder.

We told Matthew he could choose one plant that he wanted. He had his heart set on these Calla Lily's. They really are very beautiful. We also have a Vinca and some Phlox in this pot.

We have them in the front right now so they can get the sun they need and to keep them from the boys (remember the poor mint plant?). So even though I can't see them from my window, just knowing they are out there makes me happy! Oh how I love flowers.

Make-up: For my birthday/anniversary I got new make-up. I had been running out of make-up for upwards of a year and was rationing it to make it last longer. So I would only wear it for nice occasions and sometimes on Sunday. But now I can wear my make-up whenever I want to! I have never been one of those fanatic make-up wearers; I am totally fine to go out with nothing on my face. But I do love that I feel beautiful and confident when I get all prettied up. I ended up getting mostly Mac makeup this time since I wanted to get some more eye shadows there and figured I would just get the other things I needed while I was at it. It has been working fine except I really dislike the mascara. It is always smudging on my face and giving me that black eye look. Well this week I had the chance to get $20 of Mary Kay stuff for free. One of the things I chose was their Eye Makeup Remover. Now I can wipe those smudges off any old time! Oh happy day!

Good Books: My mom recently suggested a book to me: West with the Night by Beryl Markham. I have only just started it but so far it is fantastic. The past few years I have really been in a book slump. When I have a good book on hand I will gladly choose reading over watching t.v. but I'm not always good at getting another book once I finish the one I am reading. So I often have big gaps in my reading. Something I am trying to work on because I LOVE reading and I LOVE books. I have also learned to appreciate libraries. I used to really despise them. The boys and I go to the library at least 2-3 times a month. I have a pretty good children's book collection but we love having new books to enjoy and discovering new favorites. I still have to regularly fight the urge to go down to the used books stores, but for now I am learning to appreciate the library. And Lubbock really does have great libraries!

Golf: Who knew I would turn out to be a golf fan? Maybe someday I will learn how to play golf. A few years back I watched Tiger Woods play an INCREDIBLE game of golf and I have been hooked ever since. Yes, I am a bit of a Tiger fan. There have been quite a few golf tournaments on lately and this weekend has been the Masters. It is probably the only sporting event that can draw me in as I walk past the t.v. I really, truly, enjoy sitting down and watching some golf with Justin. Bummer deal this year-I don't think Tiger is gonna win.

These are a few of my favorite things! What are yours?