Things that make me happy...

Things that make me happy...

• Buying new school supplies... I just LOVE walking up and down the rows and rows of them at Wal-Mart come July. After all, I am the self-proclaimed writing utensil whore of the group.
  
• Spending hours in Books-A-Million... sitting cross-legged on the floor with piles of books around me, rifling through the bargain books, and people watching. Every time I go, I lose track of time and almost always spend at least two hours doing nothing.
  
• DVR'ing all my favorite t.v. shows that I don't have time to watch, letting them add up for a few weeks, and then having mini-marathons of each series on lazy Friday nights or Saturday mornings.
  
• Rainstorms. Thunderstorms. Any kind of storm, really. I love to be inside and curled up on the couch during bad weather. I like hearing the rumbles of thunder and the pops of lightning and the rain slapping my roof. Sometimes if it's not thundering and lightning or raining so hard that it stings when it hits your skin, I like to go outside and play in the rain. I haven't done this in a few years. Maybe it's time to engage in childish games again. (Note: I definitely HATE being caught in the rain when I don't want to get wet...)
  
• Going home to Baxley. There are so many parts of going home that make me happy. I love just being with my family. I love waking up on Saturday mornings to my mom's coffee and coffee cake. I love it (even though I sometimes grumble) when Daddy forces me to help him fix the lawnmower or hand him tools out of his truck while he works on whatever it is he's working on at that time. It's just him spending time with me the best way he knows how. I love when my family gets together with my Aunt Pam and Uncle Charlie and cook. The men go and "play" in the barn after dinner, and after clean up, we women lounge around in the sun room talking about everything and nothing all at the same time. I love the overwhelming sense of awe that I feel when I come home at night at step out of my car and look up at the sky. I'm stopped dead in my tracks by the overwhelming beauty of a clear, country night sky... stars twinkling, constellations swirling, and inky black night. I don't get to see that here in Valdosta. I love the sense of pride I feel when I help pick vegetables and get them ready for the freezer or canning. I have many memories of digging potatoes and picking squash, snapping green beans with Grandma, shelling Pink-Eye-Purple-Hull peas til my fingers turned purple from the hulls, and silking corn and muttering under my breath because I can never get rid of all of the silks. I almost always complain when I'm "forced" to do these chores... but I secretly love them. Mostly because it allows us to spend time together as a family. One of the other things I love the most is stepping out into the sunshine on a spring day and watching the cows grazing in the green, grassy field in front of the house. They're just so cute. (If you've never seen a cow before, you must try to find some soon. And if you have seen cows and you don't think they're cute, you just haven't seen ours! ; )