#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.