#14 DO-NOTHING DAY

I simply love those days when you can sit and do nothing, not that there is nothing to do just that you don't want to and don't have to.  One channel, one room, a few actions, roaming thoughts and breathing.  I don't know what else there is to say...

#13 WATCHING THE OFFICE WITH SARAH

I know that Sarah loves the TV show The Office but I also enjoy it.  It makes it even more special when I get a chance to watch it with her.  I get to see her smile when she likes a joke.  When something makes me laugh out loud, I get to see her smile when she tells me "Mom, it wasn't that funny."  But it was that funny!  Just awesome!

#12 RUNNING

I know that you are probably thinking that I have said I hate running (Mom...), but my personal experience with it isn't why I am writing about it, it's running in general. I run on my school's cross country team, and I know that I do complain about running and how terrible I feel and how stiff I am, but something about running is awesome. I don't know quite what it is. If it's how amazingly fast you can lose weight by using it daily. Or the fact that when you run (or when I do at least) I never think, I only think beforehand how bad it's going to be and after about how I did. I've actually tried to think and run at the same time but I can only focus on... well, nothing, I don't even know how or why. Or maybe its that reliable satisfaction after running that, when not compared to others, but yourself and only yourself, just makes you feel: wow, I can do that. Maybe it's the fact that it is a sport and yet it doesn't have to be. Or perhaps it's the superhuman strength of some and others the superhuman persistence. Or even the transportation aspect of it, you're moving (fast or slow), racing, running to a destination that can only be described to yourself or someone who's been there before...

It's just awesome.

#11 GEORGE GALLOPING THROUGH THE HOUSE

People often say they love to hear the sound of little feet pitter pattering through the house.  Well, I love to hear the sound of our cat George galloping through our house.  He's so funny because he sometimes will randomly tear through the house like a wild banshee!  Just for the joy of it.  He loves to run up and down the stairs.  He's always done this but now he's not even a kitten anymore.  He is six years old.  That just makes me smile more.  If he was a person, he'd be one of those happy care free types.

#10 ERIN BEING GREAT AT BIOLOGY

There is something that makes me so happy when I can watch one of my kids do something that they love...and do it well.  Erin loves biology!  If that is not in itself a great enough thing, she also is really good at it!  I don't know if she realizes it, but I love to watch her when she is studying something that she loves.  I like to watch her and imagine her in a lab coat working on some complex problem.  Hee hee.  It always brings a smile to my face.

#9 TOM BEING A HANDYMAN

Tom has two traits that in combination make him an especially great husband.  One is that he is a great handyman and the other is that he supports me in all the things I do.  Recently I needed him to make something that I needed to use for one of the responsibilities that I took on for myself.  Not only does he have the talents to make this, but he jumped on board with no hesitations.  He didn't even think to say that it is something that I chose to get myself into and he should stay out of it.  He immediately agreed to help me.  That was just a great feeling!

#8 REALIZING THAT SARAH IS EFFICIENT AT HER HOMEWORK

I recently realized that Sarah is very efficient at doing her homework.  She does not procrastinate and also is able to find small chunks of time to use to get bits and pieces of her homework done.  When she gets home from school she starts her homework within a half hour.  She tends to be able to make decisions on how to do things easily.  She is so efficient that I used to believe that she wasn't getting much homework.  Now I can fully appreciate her ability to just get things done!

# 7 HAVING THOMAS BE HAPPY AT COLLEGE

My son, Thomas, is my oldest and the first to head off to college.  As the time drew near, I became more calm and less worried about missing him.  I realized that he wasn't gone for good and I would still see him quite a bit.  I was however, still worried that he would not be happy there.  We dropped him off two days ago and this morning I had an email from him waiting in my inbox.  He is SUPER happy and that makes me happy!  I'm sure that he will have times where he is homesick but overall he will love this experience.  Not much could be better than that!

#6 RECYCLING

I really love that we can simply put something in a recycling bin and know that it will go to a place and be used again and again. It's amazing that one thing can cause such damage to the environment but if one person takes that one thing and sends it to a recycling facility that damage will not happen. Recycling is like a virus, too but a good one. Perhaps one day the whole world will recycle as much as possible and the world will be a much nicer place. What I like even more is when I myself recycle. I, being dismissed for the school year, have a lot of colored paper. I love colored paper and I'd be very mad if I were to just throw it out. Instead of putting it in the recycling bin, though, I, being creative, had to do something better. I cut out little shapes of the different colored paper (which has writing on both sides, if it didn't I'd save it to draw on the backside) which would be put together to look like lions, tigers and giraffes. I then glued them on an old piece of cardboard in a pattern and I am very proud of it. Since there are different colors it looks like pop art but the cute animals shapes would be something in a nursery and on a more personal note it reminds me of all the work I did in school. This is one of the best things I believe I've ever made and not only that but it's out of recycled paper and cardboard.

#5 GARDENING

I feel the need to remember fondly how much I have loved gardening in the past.  This year I am having a vole problem and although I have tried everything short of poison to get rid of them, they still are happily munching down the roots of my plants.  If the voles had a 1000 Awesome Things blog, at the top of their list would be Elise's garden!

Anyway, I really do love to garden.  I love the exhaustion after a day spent digging and weeding.  I love seeing a plant sprout out of the ground.  I love to start seedlings inside especially when they come from seeds that I have saved myself!  I love when I finally manage to harvest a plant that I have never been able to grow in the past.  I was overjoyed when I finally discovered that I really needed to apply more cow manure and fertilizer in order for things to grow.  It feels great when every once in a while I have enough to be able to give something away...even if it's just one zucchini!

The fantasy of a large and productive garden is almost as good as the actual garden itself.  In the winter there is nothing better than dreaming of the abundant produce I will get the next summer.  It never seems to pan out but the dream gets me through!

#4 THE START OF SUMMER VACATION

I love the feeling I get the first couple of days of summer vacation.  Although I am not in school anymore, I am very involved helping out with all that my kids do during the school year.  It is nice not to have to wake them up at 6:30 am, make their sandwiches and then do all the million little things that each in themselves are not noticeable.  I don't have to remind and nag them to do their school work.

I make it a point to savor the first few days of summer.  It's such a feeling of freedom!  I want to wallow in it like a pig in mud.

#3 HIKING

I'm not sure why I like hiking so much.  Although I have a decent amount of leg muscles, I tend to hike hard enough to often times get out of breath.  My feet begin to hurt and my hands get puffy.  My face turns red and I sweat so much that it's embarrassing.  Yesterday when I went on a six mile hike with my son, Thomas, we encountered a grassy section of trail that had so many ticks that we ended up running and darting through until we were laughing and out of breath.  The ticks had been crawling up our legs at breakneck speed.  There seemed to be dozens of them and there was just a touch of panic in our voices.  We have never experienced that before in all the miles we have hiked.  Yet, I love to hike.  Not sure what it is but yes, I love it.

#2 EATING WHEN YOU ARE REALLY HUNGRY

Have you ever noticed how food tastes so much better when you are hungry?  It's such a great feeling to eat when you are really hungry! BUT not so hungry that you already have a headache.

#1 COMING HOME

It's so great to drive into Pennsylvania after being away.  The best is when I am driving up route 209 and it's summer time.  The trees and vegetation are like a jungle.  This stood out the most after Tom and I had taken a three week vacation to drive across the country and had seen many barren areas.  I also appreciate it when driving home at night and I pull onto our community dirt road.  It almost seems cozy to be driving down the tunnel my headlights make in the darkness.