Sweet, Simple Things

 

I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. ~Laura Ingalls Wilder

 These days I drive with my windows down whenever possible. A lot of times it is because it is so hot and we don't have air-conditioning in our van (I may have mentioned this before--like maybe a hundred times or so). Today though, it wasn't too hot. It was glorious. It was the kind of spring day that I thought we had been cheated out of this year--blue skies, gentle breeze, sun-shining and about 72 degrees. Perfect. Absolutely and unequivocally perfect. Today I drove with the windows down just to soak it all in.

At 10:30 this morning, I had just dropped Specs at preschool and was looking forward to some leisurely grocery shopping. On the way to the store I was waiting at a stop light when I heard a bird singing. I looked around a noticed a mockingbird perched on a telephone wire above my car. I love mockingbirds.

Usually I hate waiting at traffic lights. Silly, I know, but I am impatient. I want to get where I'm headed and traffic lights slow me down. But, with the breeze blowing gently through my open car windows and very little traffic noise, I savored every second of that traffic light. I think I heard half a dozen different bird songs from that sweet mockingbird before the light turned green.

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Fresh strawberries warm from the field are one of life's great pleasures. In the absence of strawberry fields, strawberries in clamshell cartons at the grocery store are a passable substitute.

I always flip the carton over and look at the underside to make sure there are no moldy strawberries on the bottom. When I flipped one of the cartons over to check today, there was a friendly little white strawberry flower waiting for me. It was kind of magical.

In all my years of grocery shopping and buying strawberries, I have never gotten a carton with a flower in it before. I had to buy it and take it home with me. I will be eating the strawberries with sugar and milk for breakfast.

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I love brown speckled chicken eggs. I was cleaning out my fridge to put away my groceries after my shopping trip and found the last of the eggs that our friends shared with us a few weeks ago. Isn't it pretty? Fresh eggs=pretty dang good. Brown speckled fresh eggs=pure awesome.

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After a quick weeding session at our garden this evening, I treated the family to homemade Pineapple Whips (recipe HERE) and then went on a walk with my husband. He made me laugh until my stomach hurt.

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Today was a pretty ordinary day on most accounts, but I was blessed to be in the frame of mind to experience some of the sweet, simple things that often slip by me. I had my share of frustrations and failures. There were a couple of temper tantrums. One kid thought what I made for dinner was yucky. Another refused to eat it altogether. I snapped at the neighbor boy after sending him home for the fourth time. I got irritated with someone for parking like a jerk. My mountain of laundry is still waiting to be folded and put away. But at the end of the day, the things that are standing out in my mind most vividly are mockingbirds, strawberry flowers, speckled eggs and laughter. And for those things I am supremely grateful.