Finding Joy

Sugar Jones over at Sugar in the Raw, posted a terrific post about Finding Joy in her life. Like Sugar, I too am a walking barometer. So much so, I truly feel I have a seasonal affective disorder (nothing like self-diagnosing). And I'm a highly sensitive person. If you hadn't noticed my total Ventfest (my last post), you may not know what I'm talking about. I'm the type of person that likes to be friendly with everyone. I typically care a tremendous amount about making others happy and about keeping the peace. It's hard for me to comprehend being rude to someone just for the sake of doing it. So I was feeling badly until I realized that I don't need to allow others to steal my joy. My life has so much joy in it. I'm happy to join in with Sugar and list the 25 things that make me joyful.

1. Cuddling with the kidlets
2. Lazy mornings spent in bed with hubby
3. Listening to my kiddos giggle
4. When my family (hubby and kiddos) spend the entire day doing something together - no matter what it is
5. My in-person friends: Celeste, Katie, Jen, & Mary - you all deal with my ADD, my goofiness, my neuroses, my whining, and my crazy life and STILL accept me for who I am
6. My online friends: Too many to list here - you all keep me sane when I have a day of laundry, scrubbing toilets, and cleaning to look forward to. I absolutely adore the blogging community I've stumbled upon.
7. Knitting!
8. Freshly ground and brewed coffee.
   
9. Jeans that make my bum look smaller.. HELL that's not just joyful, that's damned near miraculous!
   
10. Sitting on my balcony with a glass of lemonade with hubby - just enjoying talking to each other and the beautiful weather
11. Date nights (Thank God for the drop-in daycare!)
12. Crafting
13. Reading
14. sunshine
15. Cooking a large family meal and having everyone love it so much they stuff themselves
16. Nectarines
17. Baking Kuchen and Streudal from my Oma's recipes.. The smell just brings me right back to being 10 years old and baking all day with my Oma
18. Pedicures
19. A nice glass of Pinot Grigio
20. My niece and nephews: Ms. Shayne, Erich, Clayton, and Carter - you all remind me how awesome it is to be an aunt and how glad I am that our family is so close
21. My sister - there was a time when I wanted to strangle her daily and now I can't imagine life without her. Must talk to her several times a week
    
22. Living in another state (away from our families) - it has really strengthened our immediate family. I never imagined we could've gotten any closer, but we have and we're the happiest we've ever been
    
23. Letting go of material things - we were always so worried about having this and that. But now that we've moved, we've learned that we're happier without them.
24. Chocolate!!!!!!!
25. My chocolate chip cookies - nobody makes 'em better (Modest, aren't I?)

Join in with Sugar and link the 25 things that bring you joy!

Finding Joy