Monday, August 22, 2011

Good List Monday & Challenges




Hey hey, friends! Happy Monday to you!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. As always, mine was way too short, but very nice. Jon's best-friend-since-forever friend Ben was in town, and on top of visiting with him we spend a good chunk of time with family. ...Oh yeah, and I ran 16 miles somewhere in there, too ;)

Anyway, I didn't get a chance to put up my Friday Good List at the end of last week, so I thought it would be a nice way to start the week off (it's looking like this week is going to be chock full of good stuff, so I'm not at all worried about having enough to pull together another list this Friday.) Sometimes life is too good to be confined to one list, you know?

So, tonight I am going to give you a good list to sum up my last week+ weekend+ today (whew), but before I do that, I want to tell you about a new challenge I am giving myself.

I'm bringing back the 21 day challenge.

Last year I challenged myself to take one picture a day and blog about it, and I thought it was a lot of fun. So this summer I am bringing it back, with a little twist: this year it's going to be more of a 21 day writing challenge! I want to work on developing my blogging skills to write short sweet anecdotal posts that I can take from brain --> publish in about an hour. If you haven't noticed, I tend to be a bit... uhm, verbose... and I think it will be freeing to challenge myself to get a little something out there every day. If at any time I feel like I might be starting to sacrifice quality for quantity, I'm going to stop... or maybe just take a day or so off to freshen up ;) So, in a nutshell: I'm going to blog every day for the next 21 days, in the process taking more pictures and (I hope) maybe finally resurrecting some of my writing from the "post graveyard."

I'm really looking forward to this, and I hope you'll come join me!
... Tune in tomorrow :)

And for tonight,

Good List:
1. Jon. We had some amazing heart-to-hearts this weekend. I swear, I cannot talk to anyone quite the same way I talk to my husband. He speaks right to my heart.
2. LAURIE PASSED THE NCLEX! Baby sister is a bona-fide RN :) I am absolutely glowing with happiness for her ♥


3. My 16 mile run on Saturday went wonderfully. And now there is absolutely no doubt that "Oh my gosh, I am actually going to do this thing." I am going to run a marathon, Woohoo!
4. Today's weather was absolutely gorgeous. Sunny and in the mid-70's. Perfection. Thank you, God!
5. Lunchtime walks (the picture at the very beginning of this post was taken during my 20 minute stroll at noon today!)


6. Retail therapy with Laurie. On Saturday, while Laurie was in town to take her exam, she and I met up to go shopping. I bought a book (The Help!) for my upcoming vacation, and amiably tagged along to clothing stores while Laurie searched for a new dress. At H&M I had to try on this little number-- it was just calling me from the hanger. And it fit like a glove! ...A very tight glove. I put the dress back without any regrets, but not before I happily snapped a picture to memorialize the moment.


7. I think that perhaps one of my greatest lessons in life is that almost anyting can be enjoyable if you allow yourself plenty of time to go slowly and enjoy it stress-free. Case in point: grocery shopping. Tonight Jon had the boys over for games, and so I took myself on a date to Trader Joe's. I spent a good hour and a half wandering the aisles and swooning over colorful produce & exotic sounding cheeses (Honey goat gouda?! Yes, please!) I emerged with 4 full bags, and one very full & happy heart :)
8. "Old favorites". Books, jeans, movies & childhood comfort foods-- they're all good.


9. I hate to get all "fallfallfallfall" on you, but the cool bite in the air and the lingering scents of wood fires in our neighborhood, coupled with the early sunsets and changing leaves has me pining for my favorite season. I. Can't. Wait. The newest potterybarn catalog has a multiple page spread devoted to all things fall, and you can bet it sets this heart a-flutter :)
10.
"Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase."
— Martin Luther King Jr.

Great words spoken by a great man :)

Your Turn: What tops your Good List for last week/this past weekend? Are you an 'Autumn Addict" like me? What's your favorite season & why?