Day 560: (Not Quite) The Best Birthday Ever!

While I was out last night, HH and the kids did a little errand run to pick up a few surprises for me for today.  I knew that one of these was a special breakfast.

So, you can imagine everyone's disappointment when the first sentence out of my mouth this morning was, "Don't make me breakfast.  I'll throw up."

Yeah.  I appear to have picked up some sort of stomach bug.

Yay!

But folks around here have still made it a pretty good day.  The kids came in to tell me I needed to get better so I could have my (surprise) ice cream cake (or pie, in Little M's version).  Sweet P spent every spare moment today making me sweet cards and wrapping them so cleverly.

This was my favorite.  That's me on the right, in case you can't tell.  And she's watering my herb pot.

And this is the inside.  Those are the kids playing on the deck out back.  Baby B is crawling across the top of the railing, apparently.  And please note where she wrote, "Hope you feel better in time to have cake."  So, thoughtful.

HH was really good about making sure I've had as relaxing and restful a day as possible.  And has been very sympathetic to my feeling rotten.

I did taste the cake.  It was yummy, but after a few bites my tummy started to rebel, so I had to stop.

And then there have been lots of birthday wishes via phone calls and facebook.  So, I've felt very loved and special.

Overall, it was a day full of Joyful Moments.

Wishing you all Joyful Moments that are the best ever!

Day 559: Green Cake

This morning, HH and rode our bikes to the Farmer's Market.  That's a 20 minuted drive from my house.  We were a little closer since we left from the gym, but it was still a 14 1/2 mile ride round trip.  And we brought along the bike trailer, so we could bring home our CSA veggies in the cooler. I pulled the majority of the time because poor HH had just returned home from two hours of intense basketball and was already pretty tired.  It ended up being more of a workout than I bargained for.  But it's so good to have fresh, healthy veggies in our fridge again.  And it seemed so perfect and healthy to ride our bikes there instead of drive.  So, the experience was a very satisfying Joyful Moment.

I went out with my girlfriends tonight to celebrate my birthday and the birthday of another friend.  We went to a little French restaurant I'd never heard of.

It. Was.  Amazing.

Just looking at the menu was a Joyful Moment.  Albeit, a stressful Joyful Moment because it was impossible to decide what to order.  But finally I did and it did not disappoint!

Plus, there was ample girl talk going on.  I just love my girlfriends.  Seriously, they are the best.  They showered me with beautiful, thoughtful gifts--many of which were handmade.   They're amazing.  Huge Joyful Moments all around.

And then, the waitress brought out the dessert tray.  And we had a long moment of silence as we stared at it in loving adoration.  Well, maybe with a touch of lust in there, too.

This is the one I finally chose.  But we all shared and this ended up not being my favorite.  Which is alright.  It was still a yummy dessert.

And then we finished off the night with even more chatting a more Joyful Moments.

Really Good Day.

Wishing you all Joyful Moments on a Really Good Day!

Day 558: MONSTER TRUCK EXTRAVAGANZA!

I hope you read that in a big announcer's booming voice.

If not, go back and do it again.

So, it's my BirthWeekend.  HH said I could choose whatever I wanted to do.

We ate out quite a bit on our recent road trip, so going out for dinner didn't sound as great as it usually does.

Then I discovered that there would be a Monster Truck Show going on tonight.

I've never been to a Monster Truck Show.

Not the best picture, but the only one we got of us and one of the trucks.  That one in the background ended up being my favorite.  The driver was pretty crazy and put on a really good show.

This one was my favorite at the beginning.  Just a sweet looking truck from Australia.

Who would have thought that monster trucks would ever make the Joyful Moment list here?  But they did tonight.

Of course, it helped that I had my HH right there with me.

All in all, it was a lot of fun.  Definitely part of a BirthWeekend to remember.  I felt a little guilty not taking Little M.  He would have loved it.  We'll have to go again with him.

But to an indoor venue, so I don't step in a mud hole walking out at the end.

Because that makes my shoe look like this.  Not a Joyful Moment.

Still totally worth it though!

Wishing you all Joyful Moments that are totally worth it!

P.S.  Baby B slept a ton today, leaving very little time for disaster-creating; it looks like HH will be able to fix the washer for very little $$; my back is feeling much better; and the kids were not quite so crazy today.  Just in case you were wondering.

Day 557: Another Stinky Day

Yeah.  Today was rough.

By 8:30 AM I was ready to trade all three of my children in.  Preferably for a nice Harley to take me to Sturgis, but I'd have settled for just about anything that didn't whine about the breakfast I'd made (and I actually made what they requested this morning!).

Baby B is a walking tornado, destroying anything and everything in his path.  And veering this way and that to make sure his path is as wide as possible.  So, I spend the majority of his waking hours trying to keep up with him, telling him 'no', cleaning up or fixing whatever he's ruined, and then trying to locate him again to fix the next disaster.

I think I might have pulled a muscle in my low back during yoga this morning.

And then to really round off the day, the washer quit in the middle of a load.  Leaving me with a washer full of soapy water and soapy clothes.  Thank goodness for a nearby friend who let me finish my load in her washer!

Big, deep, purging sighs, Everyone.

Just another day in Paradise.

Today's Joyful Moment was pretty worthwhile, thank goodness.  We met Sweet P's new teacher at the school open house tonight.  She seems just as kind and caring as last year's teacher.  Yay!  And since that is a Joyful Moment that will affect us clear through next May, it still trumps all of today's woes.

Wishing you all Joyful Moments that trump your daily woes!

Day 556: First Songs

Baby B has started singing.  Cute little baby songs.  I love them.  They've brought me little Joyful Moments for the past few days.

And this morning I ran 4 miles in just under 34 minutes.  That's the best I've done since I switched to my Vibrams last fall.  Still not as far or as fast as I was going, but huge progress.  It was a glorious Joyful Moment.

Visiting with friends while the kids swam in a friend's pool, yet another Joyful Moment.

And then we went to the fair tonight.  Which is fairly disappointing because we had such amazing fairs back in New England.  But mostly, it was still a good time.

The best part was how beside himself with delight and excitement Baby B was upon seeing the animals in the petting zoo.  He could not stop squealing.

Until this happened.  Then he was ready to be done with the camel and move on to the pygmy goats.  But watching his joy over all of these animals was my Joyful Moment tonight.  So cute.

Wishing you all a day full of a wide variety of Joyful Moment sources!

Day 555: I'll Give You A Nickle For Your Pickle

Earlier today, I came across a post on a friend's blog about homemade pickles.

Incidentally, when we got home on Sunday I went out to gather the harvest from our garden after being gone for nearly two weeks.  Among other things, I found several very large cucumbers.

I think there was a time that I used to love cucumbers.

Yesterday, as I was eating cucumber simply because we have so much of it, I realized that I haven't actually enjoyed eating a cucumber in quite some time.

Unless it's in my delicious steak salad recipe.  But that's for another post another day.

Anyway, so when I read about my friend making homemade pickles, I instantly thought of my vegetable drawer full of cucumbers (and the 5,000 baby cukes I saw growing on the vine as I weeded today).  And because I'm a genius, I put two and two together and realized I could do the same!

Boom!  A jar of pickles and then some cucumber chocolate chip cookies.

That last bit is a joke.

So, making the pickles was a super easy Joyful Moment (I tried one just a few hours after sticking them in the brine, expecting very little flavor--Holy Cow!  It was a amazing!)

But then I made the cookies to take over to our (Drum Roll, please....) NEW NEIGHBORS!!!!  They moved in just as we were leaving town, so I didn't get to meet them until tonight.  They have three small children, very close in age to my own little darlings.  Oh, yay.  Joyful Moment!!!

Wishing you all Joyful Moments with pickles and cookies!

Day 554: Neat Freak

I woke up at 6:30 this morning.  Not to workout.

To clean out the van.

It took over an hour.  But that included wiping down all interior surfaces and then treating the leather with conditioner, vacuuming, and shampooing the carpets.

It looks fantastic.  Inside.  The outside still needs quite a bit of work.  But making the inside all sparkly (as sparkly as carpet and leather can get, anyway) was today's Joyful Moment.  It just made me really happy to make such a big difference.

And then I went about returning to my normal daily routine (if washing more loads of laundry than I can count counts as a normal daily routine).  In the process I ran into many friends everywhere we went and it was great to catch up and reconnect with so many people.  Another Joyful Moment.

Wishing you all Joyful Moments in making a big difference in a little over an hour!