I’m really not sure how it is possible, but I get the craziest deja vu every time I sit down to write these Friday posts. I swear – the weeks go by faster and faster as time goes on. I remember being a teenager in high school and thinking that the weeks just dragged on, and every time I complained to my mom about it, she said, “Oh, just wait until you’re older. You’ll be begging for time to stand still.” I would roll my eyes at her and run off to my room, but I 100% understand it now. It makes me realize even more how much I need to be intentional with how I spend my days and make sure I am associating myself with the right people.
It seems like the theme of this week has been gratitude. Lauryn wrote a great post about it here earlier this week, and my yoga teacher has been stressing it in our last few classes. At multiple points throughout the class he encourages us to just stop and realize what we are grateful for in that exact moment, and it’s really interesting the things that pop to my mind. Some of them obvious, and some of them super random and seemingly insignificant. Even more proof to me that the small things we look over day-to-day are sometimes the best things in our lives.
With all that being said, here are my five favorite things this week:
1. Yoga
It blows my mind that I went so many years without practicing on a regular basis. I am a worrier by nature, very high-strung (although I hide it well), and am almost always in a rush. Yoga is the one thing that I have ever found that allows me to slow down, stop thinking so much, and realize that worrying about my “problems” is serving no one. It also allows me to move and exercise my body in a way that makes me feel really good. I have spent a lot of years doing high-intensity workouts, a ton of cardio, and making a specific schedule each week for what I wanted to do each day. When I add a few days of yoga into the mix, it gives my body a much needed stretch, release, break, and time where I don’t have to think about what I’m doing – I just move as my body will allow as the teacher speaks. This week I was also lucky enough to bring one of my best friends to a class with me and my mom to another.
2. My mom
On that note, my mom is amazing. I know that I’ve talked about her before on here, but the more and more I spend time with her, the more grateful I am for her. She has been really into reading the Shauna Niequist books lately too, and on Wednesday night we cooked a few recipes from one of her books. They turned out great (everyone loved them), but it was also fun to just spend time together in the kitchen, hanging out, and then later getting her to finally start watching Big Little Lies. Which I will sing praises about forever. But again, when I was young I thought my mom was crazy overprotective and making my life miserable, but now I appreciate how she raised me more than ever and hope to be half as good of a mother one day as she has been to me.
3. My boyfriend
Chris is one of the most amazing people I have ever met in my whole life. For many reasons, but specifically this week for handling something that would ordinarily bring me a ton of stress that I didn’t even have to deal with. We noticed a small drip in the basement at the end of last week and after having a few people come to the house to look at it, realized that it was due to the fact that our dishwasher was broken and needed to be replaced. Chris took care of everything from scheduling a plumber to come to the house to researching dishwashers online to actually going to Lowe’s and picking out the one we ended up buying. I hate dealing with things like that, and I so greatly appreciate him handling it (like Olivia Pope). Of course I love him for many other things, too, but mostly for that right now 😉
4. Stability
The last few days I have been very aware of how blessed I am to (right now) have things and people in my life that I can count on. As much as I love letting go and just “figuring things out,” I love even more to know what I can expect most days and who I can expect to be there. It gives me such a sense of calamity to know that I get to go home to my same condo each night, that my same cats will be there, that Chris and I will watch Ellen and drink sleepytime tea, that my friends and I will get together for a workout or wine (or both!) a couple times a week, and that my mom will always pick up the phone when I call. And those are just a few small examples of what I count on the most lately. This list could go on and on.
5. Cooking
One of my goals lately is to cook on a more regular basis. Chopping vegetables and preparing sauces relaxes me. I love the combining of random things to make something delicious. I’m not a very creative person, but I also love how modifying recipes allows me to be creative. And is there any better feeling than making a meal for someone and knowing that they really loved it? For those of us that like to take care of others, one way we can do that really well is by feeding them. I’m looking forward to researching and brainstorming some new meals to try out next week.
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I would love to hear about some of the things (or people!) you are loving most this week and what you are really grateful for today. Have a great weekend!
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