Positive Things in March

Phew, what a month!  This one put me through the wringer.  This picture's about the only one I could wrangle up that I haven't already posted here.  With the long hours at work, all kinds of excitement on our HOA board and Miss Chef's neverending need for ironed chef jackets, my little photography hobby's suffered.

A few weeks ago, I turned back through the pages of my planner where I keep track of my Positives, to discover I'd skipped nearly two weeks.  "Well, this month's list will be a short one," I thought.

But now as I flip all the way back to March 1st, I think perhaps it might not be as short as I'd feared...

1. After weeks of stressing, cleaning and extra effort, Miss Chef's culinary department at the Art Institute received a very positive evaluation from the ACF (American Culinary Federation).  This means the program is likely to be certified, giving each graduate the designation CC (Certified Culinarian) to put after their names.

2. After a horrible, stressful long day in which I had to deal with non-work issues while already several days behind at work, Miss Chef had dinner waiting for me at home: Jim 'n' Nick's Barbeque.  She knows just how to make me happy!

3. I finally opened the bottle of wine given to us by neighbors.  Not just any wine--they actually made it, right in their living room!  They have a sort of wardrobe set up with all their fermentation process; it's a side hobby they've been dabbling with.  But, even for dabblers, the wine was good; so good I had to call them up to tell them.  It was a nice way to reach out and connect with people we see only sporadically.

4. The numerous Bradford pear trees started their annual floral show around the 4th.  Within a week, the ornamental cherries and apples were joining them.  It's always a spirit-lifter to walk or drive around town when everything is so gracefully blooming.

5. During one of those horrid, stress-filled weeks, I found myself outside late at night, waiting for Rosie to find the perfect spot to pee.  Looking up, I noticed the frigidly clear sky with the stars like the proverbial diamonds.  One in particular caught my eye--it was blue, and it twinkled.  I don't recall ever seeing a star twinkle so definitively.  It made me feel like I finally understood why the stars have always held such mystery for us.  What are you doing up there, Blue?  And what are you trying to convey with your twinkles?

6. When I stress, it really affects my sleep.  Even when I do sleep, I do it poorly, often waking up feeling like I've been clenching every muscle in my body for eight hours (or six, as the case may be).  One morning I awoke in the dark, desperate to escape the negative frame of mind that was defining my existence.  I found myself silently praying, "Help me see the love."  I don't pray.  Not normally.  But I do believe in the power of prayer, and, if nothing else, I do believe in the benefits of raising your thoughts to a higher plane, above the petty worries of daily life.  I'm not going to tell you that I walked out the front door that day to sunshine and roses...but neither did I have an anxiety attack on the drive in to work.

7. My eldest nephew celebrated his 12th birthday over there in the land of Angles.  Due to the time difference, I had to take a short break in the afternoon and go stand in the parking lot to call him from my cell to wish him a happy birthday.  How cool is it that I can use this tiny little plastic gadget to have a crystal-clear conversation with a loved one 4,000 miles away?

8. Miss Chef got a random Friday night off.  Since her favorite meal is one that she doesn't have to cook, we ended up at TGIFriday's for dinner.  Boring, right?  No, because we never get to have a normal, Friday-night date, so it was pretty special for us.  I even had a pretty good glass of wine.

9. I got my taxes done!  A month early!  All by myself, without any wringing of hands, I downloaded Turbo Tax, then sat down on  a Thursday evening and got it done.  I even beat Miss Chef to the punch.  (If you're wondering why this is such a big deal, check back in a couple of weeks...I'm going to re-run my tax rant.)

9b. Part of my stressing had to do with money.  We've been trying to set cash aside to cover all of our expenses for our Big Summer Vacation, but bill after bill came up.  Annual things, like Terminix, the dog's pills, insurance...plus the oil change "oh and you need $500 worth of work" experience.  The positive?  I had forgotten about tax refunds.  Mine was enough to finish off my credit card and cover the apartment in Paris, including the refundable deposit.  Big load off my mind.

9c. Oh, and my state refund--that's for shoes. :)

10. I went to the volunteer meeting for the Matthews Community Farmers' Market--check out the link to see how lucky we are to be able to support this market!  I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that getting together with a group of like-minded people is an infrequent pleasure that I truly appreciated.

11.  I got the garden in, more or less.  But you already knew that.

12 Without any planning at all, I brought Miss Chef breakfast in bed on a lazy Sunday morning.  She was still snoozing when I got up with a grumbly in my tumbly.  After getting on slippers and sweats, I toddled out to the kitchen to toast a bagel.  I slathered it with cream cheese and some of our homemade jam, then carried it back to bed, Miss Chef was much more awake, and feeling a bit peckish herself.  It was a quiet, humble little moment of happiness to split that yummy bagel.

13. Miss Chef returned the favor by grilling some burgers for dinner later.  So much yum!

14. Speaking of yum, we went back to the Crêpe Cellar, where I'd had dinner with some friends last month.  Miss Chef had been wanting to go, and she was not disappointed.  We had a lovely, delicious Sunday brunch.  I ate far too much, but loved every bite.  No dinner was needed that night, I can tell you.

15. Chef Adam had a wine tasting at the restaurant on a Monday night, when they are usually closed.  Since Miss Chef had the night off, and was on break from school--no 4:30 am alarm on Tuesday--she made us reservations.  The rep running the tasting had done one for the restaurant staff the week before, and Miss Chef was impressed by his depth of knowledge and clear explanations.  We ended up tasting six wines that night, all from Oregon and Washington states.  We also ended up staying for dinner, as neither of us was in a state to drive home right away!  hee hee

16. The evening of the wine tasting, the temperature was forecast to drop down to the low 30s (yeah, those 80-degree temps ended a couple of weeks ago).  Due to our, erm, exhaustion, I completely forgot about covering the newly-planted broccoli and thriving lettuce.  But, in spite of a heavy frost, they both came through with no damage at all.  Plus...the peas and beets came up that morning!  (But you already knew that.)

17. Perhaps the best news of all--Miss Chef found a colleague with the knowledge to try recovering our crashed computer drive.  Not only did he recover ALL of our files--including everything for my French class starting Monday--; not only did he do it for less than half the price of Best Buy, in a miniscule fraction of the time; not only did he discover that we were right to go buy another one, since the old one was beyond repair...but he also said the new computer was a really great machine that he'd like to own himself.  In almost complete ignorance, we had made a very good decision.

Wow, what a roller coaster it's been.  Compared to last month, starting back to teaching seems like nothing at all.  I hope your March went out like a lamb, and is leaving you with a wonderfully pleasant April.

Wanna be positive, too?  Here's where you can share:

Positive Things For February

There are some weeks that should just be erased from the calendar once you've made it through them...weeks when you keep thinking "at least I got through that," and then something else crops up.  Repeatedly.

Which is the best reason for me to reflect on all the good things that happened before this week!  For anyone new, I stole borrowed this idea from another blog--I keep track of positive things throughout the month, then share them all here.  I'm actually a glass-half-empty kind of person, so this is a good mental exercise for me.

Anyone else playing along?  I'll Linky-dink at the end as usual.  (Oh, and the spring pics are for those in less southerly climes who need something to focus on to get through this last painful month of winter--I know how that goes.)

1. I remembered that I have points on my credit card, and got to go shopping online!  I opted for a new shredder, having pushed our old one to the limit.  Sillily practical, but it's always fun to come home to a box on the doorstep, and the new one's got all the bells and whistles (in case I feel like shredding a CD.  Too bad most of our bills are now online, lol.)

2. Friends invited me to join them at a restaurant called the Crêpe Cellar that I didn't even know existed!  It's a tiny place that gets quite crowded, but we got there early and had a great time.  I stuck to the classics: a "galette" style buckwheat crêpe with ham and gruyere and accompanied by hard cider.  Followed up with a standard sweet crêpe with marscapone and berries--out of season, which I normally don't do, but it sounded like a great combo.  Shoulda stuck with a lemon & sugar one, as the crepe itself was tastier than the stuffings.  I brought home a spinach & mushroom crêpe for Miss Chef, but she preferred my leftovers!  Oh, and the oddest thing...their mac 'n' cheese side was really, really good!

3. Miss Chef and I had our own little Superbowl party.  I thought we'd just turn it on in the background (neither of us being big football fans), but she had the idea of ordering wings and making it an event.  Which we did.  And had a great time.

4. I finally trimmed some bushes out front and cleared out the overgrown bed of mint in back.  The bushes look like crap because I had to cut them back so severely, but we can see out the kitchen window again.


Actually our view out the back door.  This is prettier than the neighbor's garage.


5. This may sound weird, but...our manager lifted all restrictions on overtime for our department.  Which means I've been working 10-hour days again.  But I'm excited to make all the extra income I can before our trip, so I can have lots of spending money....and, even better...

5b. ...we were also allowed to work on President's Day, a bank holiday.  Which meant double time and a half.  That's extra-concentrated spending money!

6. My obsessive trip planning came to a climax with the reservation of an apartment in Paris!  I was very excited to go back to the rental website after making our deposit, and seeing our dates marked "not available."  Yes, it's ours!

7. I knew when I reserved it that our apartment is located at the edge of the gay district of Paris (just a coincidence, but hey, it's a great location!)  But I had to laugh for several days when I found out that Paris' huge Gay Pride day will be the day after we arrive there...which also just happens to be my birthday!  Not sure if I want to head the other direction that day, or go thank the Parisians for holding such a great birthday party for me.

8. I got to speak with my brother's family in London briefly, trying to coordinate this whole apartment thing.  We don't have long distance, and have yet to to install Skype in Miss Chef's laptop (which is usually with Miss Chef anyway), so we rarely get the chance to actually talk to them.  They still don't have English accents, as far as I could tell.

9. Valentine's weekend was a crushing schedule for Miss Chef, since it fell on a Monday.  The restaurant is normally closed on Sunday and Monday, and Sunday is Miss Chef's only day "off."  (If you count sitting at the kitchen table grading and lesson planning as off.)  She was scheduled for that entire weekend, but I found out Saturday night after hostessing that she didn't have to  work Sunday.  What a great Valentine's gift for us!


The lettuce is still growing--harvested enough for a salad tonight!


10. As part of my trip planning, I made Miss Chef sit down with me to tell me what she's really interested in doing, especially in Paris.  We both ended up digging out our old photo albums to show each other what we'd seen, and next thing I knew, Miss Chef was reading to me from "Sam the Scarecrow," the first book she ever read aloud in class as a child.  It was silly fun--she did the voices and everything.

11. Miss Chef and I managed, at the last minute, to arrange a day off together.  Sounds dreamy, but we actually used it to get our hair cut, get the oil changed in both our cars, etc.  Still, it was so nice to actually have a whole day to use as we wished, without the pressure of her having to go off to work.  Plus, Miss Chef was pretty diligent about getting her schoolwork done that afternoon, so that on Sunday we could go...

12. ...kayaking at the US National Whitewater Center!  The weather was absolutely perfect, in the mid-70s and sunny.  We got there fairly early, and mostly had the river to ourselves.  Besides the usual herons, bluejays and fishing boats, we saw an osprey, which was being followed back and forth across the river by a crowd of crows.  Apparently whatever he had clutched in his talons smelled pretty appetizing.  There are several manmade nest platforms in the area, one of which has been used, so I'm hoping there's a breeding pair around.

12b.  Miss Chef and I took the plunge and purchased annual season passes to the Whitewater Center.  This means unlimited kayaking, whitewater rafting, mountain bike rentals, wall climbing...it's like joining a gym, only with ospreys!  And you don't have to make an appointment for a tanning bed; it's all-in-one. ;-) Miss Chef even gave me permission to go kayaking on Saturdays without her.

Unfortunately, today's weather isn't as nice.  Rosie had to enjoy the outside from inside.

13.  I skipped something...on our day off together, we went back to our favorite restaurant, Passion8, where we're always treated to something extra.  It's been a while since we've been there, and I was happy to be able to continue our support of a great local business, which in turn supports our local farmers.  And the complementary pumpkin gnocchi was simply perfect.

14.  Finally, as you already know...the daffodils bloomed and spring arrived!

Have some good news to share?  Here's your chance to join in!

Positive Things for January

Yipes, it's almost halfway through February!  Well, I was all excited about Rosie's DNA test, and then things got busy, and here we are...  So, not many pictures with this one; though I'll still add a Mr. Linky at the end if anyone else is ready to play along.

I have no idea how many positive things I'll end up with.  Let's find out together, shall we?

1. January 1st--I found out that one of my dear friends from college gave birth to her first baby girl!  My friend's been wanting to have children since I met her *koff* years ago, so this one of the most exciting birth announcements I've gotten in a while.

2. The first weekend of the year we had freakishly warm weather in the 60s.  So I was able to open the windows, air the place out, and even get in a little pre-spring yardwork.

3. We received Christmas thank you notes, handwritten, from our two young nephews in London.  So charming!

4. Of course, there was my dad's blog post on his heart transplant experience.  Beyond getting to share his story with you all, the post opened up a chance to talk to him in some more detail about his mindset, memories and feelings.  And I continue to get positive feedback from friends.  Thanks to you all for your comments!

5. I finally cleaned up my ever-growing pile of "to be filed/sorted/dealt with" papers on the desk.  You know the one I mean...the "someday" pile!

6. Snow day!  I already shared stories and photos of our fun time here.

7. I made bread for the first time in my life, thanks to Linda at the 7MSN Ranch.  Her super-easy recipe was so easy I was inspired to try a more traditional one...which failed miserably.  But that's ok, I went back to Linda's recipe and it came out even better the second time.

8. A friend and  co-worker in my department was promoted.  While this wasn't totally easy for me to take, she was very careful to let me know the background before it was announced, and we've made it a point to try to do lunch together when we can.  It took a few days for us to be able to talk freely after she was promoted, but I'm glad that we're both making a point to maintain our friendship in spite of these changes.  (I've seen other colleagues promoted who leapt whole-heartedly into their new positions, abandoning any pretense at personable collegiality with former peers.)

9. Miss Chef ordered oranges direct from a grower--citrus is one of her seasons (after apple, and before asparagus).  She tried something new, called Honeybells, and they are AMAZING.  In fact, they're not oranges at all, but a mix of grapefruit and tangerine (I think).  They're only ripe for a few weeks in January; they're also known as Minneola tangelos and can be found in grocery stores by that name.  I'm sorry I didn't tell you all about them earlier, because I'd have told you to rush out to the grocery store and buy some!

10.  Although it was the middle of January before we seriously got down to de-Christmasing the living room, Miss Chef finally was ready to part with some off our holiday junk decor.  Which meant we are a few boxes lighter in the storage closet now.

11. On a Wednesday evening, I didn't get out the door to walk Rosie until after dark.  There was a full moon and a clear sky, so I went ahead into our little, unlighted park area to walk around the pond.  The moon was like a floodlight, the pond and surrounding woods were quiet, and Rosie and I had a beautiful, peaceful walk in the dark.

12. Paris rental apartment hunting on the internet!

13. Miss Chef dragged me to the mall because she needed more pants to get through her 6-day, two-job work week.  I needed pants, too, but absolutely hate buying them--read this to see how much.  However, between the fabulous sales and Miss Chef's excellent hunting skills, I came away with SIX new pairs of pants for very little money.  My mornings in the closet are suddenly much less stressful.

14. I made turkey burritos--with powdered taco seasoning--that Miss Chef loved.  I spent a Sunday evening chopping tomatoes, tearing lettuce, making beans and rice while Miss Chef graded and did lesson plans.  Not only was she grateful for my taking care of her, but she was quite happy to eat leftovers for several days.

15. I met a new neighbor.  One of my secret identities is as a member of the 5-person board of our homeowners' association.  This, my third (and FINAL) year, I was pushed into named as President.  Well, when I saw a woman taking the trash out at a house I knew had recently sold, I felt it was my duty to introduce myself and answer any of her questions.  And you know, it felt really good to welcome her to the neighborhood!

16.  Charlotte's restaurant week brought lots of business into the restaurant, and Chef Adam asked me to come work the last Saturday night as hostess.  (I do this 3 or 4 times a year on big restaurant holidays.)  While it wasn't my best night juggling diners, tables, servers and owners, Miss Chef told me later the servers were grateful I was there, and truly happy with the way I did my job.  That makes it much easier to go back and do it again this Saturday!  (Valentine's Day weekend--be patient with your hostess, and reasonable with your server, folks!  They're working their tails off all weekend for you.)

17. Of course, finding out Rosie's DNA results and having a giveaway was fun, too!

Do you still have your positive things from January, written on the back of that junk mail?  Share 'em with us; we could all use more positivity in a cold, bleak February. 

15 Postive Things in December

New Year's, Schnew Year's!  I was very happy nobody inquired as to my resolutions this year, because I'm not making any.  I generally don't do New Year's resolutions, because I make plenty of them throughout the year!

Such as launching myself on this project of recording and sharing 15 positive things that happen in my life each month--inspired by Happy Frog and I, a previous Blog of Note.  I have to admit, it was a challenge in the last couple holiday-mad weeks to keep up with it, but when I finally sat down to peruse my nearly-daily notes, I discovered something remarkable.

I have way more than 15 happy things to choose from!  I'm wondering if any of you had the same experience?  If you too decided to keep track of your 15 Positive Things, you'll find the link widget at the bottom of this post, to share with us all the good things that happened to you.  Happiness shared is multiplied, right?

Flartus' 15 Positive Things

1. (Dec. 1)  In the face of the first good hard freeze, I found myself outside in the dark with a flashlight, harvesting lettuce.  I can positively say I've never done that before.  And how awesome is it to have fresh lettuce in winter?

2. (Dec. 3)  A co-worker and I went to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant around the corner which I've only been to a couple of times.  The food was good, but the service was excellent, and looking through Miss-Chef inspired eyes, I realized that this restaurant was a very well-run place that seemed to care about its employees.  As a result of my happy feelings, I left our server Elisa a 50% tip.  I love doing things like that!

3. (Dec. 4) Cookies!  I seized the day and made snickerdoodles, starting off Miss Chef's holiday cookie baking for her.  I was still up when she got home, and with a girlish smile, she eagerly grabbed one up when I showed them to her.

4. (Dec. 5)  Christmas tree!  We went to a new lot that opened up around the corner this year, and had a wonderful time wandering through the artificial but glorious-smelling forest.   Not only were the trees fresher than the last place we tried, and a bit cheaper, but it turns out the organization running it raises money for several charities.

5. (Dec. 7) Miss Chef and I finally manage to schedule an evening to decorate the living room, free from other distraction.  Along with carols on the radio and a fire in the fireplace, we finally felt like we were fully into the Christmas season.

6. (Dec. 8) I finally finished packing up the box of gifts to send to my brother's family in London.  It had been one of those projects I was both excited and concerned about, as it involved some decision-making to keep the weight down, and a bit of labor to get all the little pieces packaged and wrapped.  My first step in our homemade Christmas!

7. (Dec. 9)  The first part of the final exam in my French class--the 5-minute individual conversation--was not a success for all.  But I enjoyed the opportunity to chat with some students about their progress.  When I finished up and returned to the faculty workroom, another instructor said he'd run into one of my students who was flush with excitement about how he'd done, and about my comments on his improvement.  It was a very nice reminder of just how big an impact a teacher can have.

8. (Dec. 11) A lovely evening with friends, starting with appetizers at their house, then a trip to see the lights at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden, and back to their house for dinner.  Onward with the holiday spirit!

9. (Dec 14) Knowing how exhausted Miss Chef must be, teaching at 6:30 am and then going in for extra shifts at the restaurant until 10 pm, I prepped her morning for her.  Socks, underwear, bandanna ready in the bathroom, towel hung up by the shower, space heater ready to go...it feels so good to be able to help her any little way I can.

10. (Dec 17-20) My trip to see my parents.  Some things I didn't mention in my previous post were the dinner party with neighbors the evening of my arrival, and discovering a new fruit in one of their yards, which I was invited to harvest and take home to Miss Chef.  (Miss Chef incorporated it into our Christmas dessert, the olive oil and orange cake she'd made once before).

11. (Dec 22)  Having heard Miss Chef's story of waiting in line at the Post Office to buy stamps, I steeled myself for a last visit of my own, to mail one final package on my lunch break.  Imagine my surprise to walk in, see the automated machine free and spend about two minutes getting my package weighed and posted!  Bonus: when I got home that evening, an email from my nephew informed me that my carefully-packaged transatlantic gift box had arrived safe and sound in London.  Hooray!

12. (Dec. 23) As I sat eating my lunch in the breakroom, I watched two kids, a dad and even a granddad running around the adjacent parking lot, apparently playing tag.  So much more entertaining than tv!  After eating, I had another lunch break errand to run, this time to try to find Miss Chef a pomegranate for our Christmas dinner.  On the way, I saw more kids enjoying their winter break by playing outside in their yards.  Children at play made me smile.  Bonus: Not only was I able to find the pomegranate, but the Harris Teeter employee who helped me was incredibly kind and professional, in spite of a super busy store.

(Yes, Christmas was definitely a Positive Thing, but it seems too easy...so I shall leap over it...)

13. (Dec. 26) As part of our little extended Christmas, we went to see Bonnie's parents (Bonnie being Rosie's best dog buddy) to thank them for helping us out by kitty-sitting Smoky through her early days.  We ended up sitting down over a mug of hot chocolate, swapping stories and laughs.  We left with a fruit basket, a bottle of homemade wine(!), and several recommendations for our upcoming summer trip (which I haven't told you about, have I?  Heh heh...)

14. (Dec. 29) After spending an hour or two putting up my last picture-heavy post, I shut down the computer, and turned around to find this:

(For any unfamiliar with the story, we found Smoky in October as a not-quite-four week old kitten, at which point Rosie tried to eat her!  Feeling fully responsible for her survival at that point, Miss Chef and I proceeded to foster her through bottle feeding and butt wiping until she was old enough to be adopted by a friend.  We got her back for a few weeks of kitten-sitting over the holidays.)

15. (Dec. 31) A wonderful New Year's Eve party hosted by the same friends who had us at Thanksgiving.  Plenty of food, drink, games, laughs and concern about whether Miss Chef was going to make it from the restaurant before midnight.  She didn't, but our hosts kindly stayed up until 2 am to catch up with Miss Chef and allow her to enjoy a couple of drinks.  (We left her car there to pick up the next day!)

Well, time to get my 2011 planner, so I can keep track of January's Positive Things!  I hope you have enjoyed playing along.  Please share with us your December happinesses by adding your link below.

Reminder



Borrowed with permission from Happy Frog and I

Are you keeping up with your 15 Postive Things?  I have to admit, I fell off the wagon over the weekend.  But I'm back on track, scribbling down one or two things I felt good about each day.  (Except last Sunday...every once in a while, the whole day is too poopy to bother remembering.)

If you don't know what I'm going on about, have forgotten, or never got started, it's not too late to catch up!  You still have 15 days, and I guarantee if you look hard enough, you'll have more than one Positive Thing to report most days.

My positive thing for today?  Gave my final exam, got it graded and submitted my final course grades.  And two or three near-F students passed the class!  Phew!  A positive for more than just myself, eh?

An Invitation to Happiness



Picture from Happy Frog and I

 In spite of trying to keep my blogroll small, I do enjoy visiting new blogs.  Every once in a while (when you all are off having interesting lives in between providing me with new posts to read!) I check out the Blogs of Note.

That is how I happened upon Happy Frog and I a couple of days ago.  It is written by an English woman "closer to [her] forties than [her] thirties," who uses a stuffed smiling frog as her muse.  I quite liked one of her regular postings, and told her I was going to copy it here!

It's called 15 Positive Things, and every month she posts about 15, um, positive things that happened throughout the previous 30-odd days.  What a great way to stop and smell the roses, I thought.  And then, I realized how brilliant an idea it is.

See, not only will I have to sit down each month to reflect on all the good things that happen to me, I won't be able to come up with them all in one sitting.  Which means that throughout my month, I will have to focus on and jot down happy things; about one every other day.

What a great way to program myself for happiness.  I don't think it will take much time; just a second or two to write things in my planner every day or so.  And then, voila!  At the end of the month, a ready-made blog post!  And, in the process, I will hopefully develop a more positive mindset in my everyday life.  It's like free therapy. *grin*

I'm so excited about the idea that I'm inviting you all to play along.  I know December's a bit of a challenge, but I've never believed in waiting until the New Year to make resolutions for myself!  So, in the last week of December or first week of January, I plan to post my 15 Positive Things.  If you'd like to participate, I can do a Mr. Linky, and you can post your own list, and we can share it here.  And if December's too crazy, there's always January...

So whaddya think, wanna try it?