photo by Tara Whitney
This is an exercise that I started doing after a bummer of a week last May. It's a great way to focus on the good. Hoping to bring it back once a month or so to share the things that are making life easier and keeping me happy.
stamps.com. This site was recommended to me after I complained for the 50th time about having to go to the post office to ship first-class international packages. I can now fill out customs forms and print postage without leaving my desk and my friendly mailman picks them up at my doorstep. I think the fee per month is about $16 but it's totally worth the time and energy saved by making trips to stand in line (especially now that the tellers have to type everything in!). I found the system easy to use and their customer service outstanding. Thanks for the tip, Tiffany!
new projects. I am so happy with how my floor pillows turned out and am excited to share our new shelving unit next week. (There's a fun video that goes along with it!) I am so glad we took the summer break (and obviously, I needed it) but I am ready to get rolling again. For the first time in a long time, I have more projects on my list than time in my day. I've also got Ellerie, who is thankfully game to wander the fabric store and Paul who is usually up for heavy lifting.
e & p date night. We were fortunate last weekend to get out just the two of us again because my parents were here to watch Ellerie. Although they usually involve running errands before dinner, I am enjoying our date nights so much. I recently wrote about having a baby in an email and I mentioned that my marriage has been better since E arrived. I wrote that life feels more romantic. It feels (much) more hilarious. And somehow it's more exciting - we get to figure out how to raise this real-live person together. As I was writing, it triggered a memory... I remember being newly pregnant and receiving an email from a blog reader. She had written to share that post-kiddos her marriage became more romantic. I didn't get it then (how could that be possible?!), but now I know what she was saying. It seems like we have reached a new level in our relationship. (There are approximately 56 levels to marriage and I think we're on level 4 right now.)
fresh figs. I had never tried a fig until last summer and this month have eaten my fill. We stuck them on a pizza a few weeks ago but usually they are just a snack (just cut the stem off and slice in half). I'm a little obsessed.
