Unexpected pleasures....

My lilacs are about to bloom any moment now.  I love the anticipation of that first heady whiff of their lovely perfume.

I noticed our first lilacs just starting to peek out here in Michigan - I so love the smell of them in waves when I walk through the neighborhood.

~Liza

Good food, good company, new friends...

(You know who you are!!!  )

Mother's Day pressies from the kiddos - including a poem by 11yo dd entitled "My Very Special Mom".  Won't share it here, but it was really sweet!

I love when my eight year old reaches out for my hand, or snuggles up to read a book. Just when I think he is growing up too fast and outgrowing his Mom he surprises me. I love when the man of my dreams rests his hand on my knee in the car or reaches out to hold my hand when we are walking or when he just kisses me out of the blue. Ahh the good things in life.  I need to win the lottery so I can get back to England 

I have started cleaning out drawers and cupboards in preparation for my eventual move. Because I have slight pack rat tendencies, and I am usually pretty busy, my collection of bath stuff has gotten quite big. I have loads of bubble bath, ballistics, bath oil, bath cubes, etc. I decided I'd rather use them than throw them out so I have been taking 'loaded' baths 2-3 times per week recently rather than my previous once every month or so. Not only am I enjoying the stuff that I had bought or received as gifts, but it forces me to slow down for a bit and this really helps keep the stress levels down. Who knew being too cheap to throw out some bath oil could be so relaxing?? 

Bisquick in ASDA - 98p a box.

  Because I have slight pack rat tendencies...

Good idea on the bath stuff!  Be careful with the pack rat tendencies...   When my gran went into the nursing home, and we were cleaning out her house & barn for auction -- it was FULL of every kind of junk you can imagine, but particularly things like paper & plastic grocery bags, empty glass jars, empty plastic containers (like old Cool Whip tubs, margarine tubs, etc), newspapers.  Ok, she raised a family through the Great Depression -- so she saved everything -- you never knew when you were going to need it or find a use for it!

Now you laugh...  Since moving to England, I have developed a tendency to save glass jars (jam jars, condiment jars, olive jars, etc) & my husband was questioning me on that.  Of course, I gave him my perfectly rational explanation on how jars are useful objects & you never know when you might need one for something (like for leftovers, homemade -- I dunno? - salad dressing, a button jar, etc).  Another day -- I was telling him about cleaning out gran's house back in the States...'Yeah her house was full of all kinds of stuff she'd saved for eons -- like plastic containers, glass JARS...'  OMG!  That's me now.

 Be careful with the pack rat tendencies...  

Now you laugh...  Since moving to England, I have developed a tendency to save glass jars (jam jars, condiment jars, olive jars, etc) & my husband was questioning me on that.  .....  OMG!  That's me now.

LOL! I have been guilty of this too and I don't have the depression to blame it on! My only small revenge is when someone needs something odd, and I am able to produce it out of a drawer or cupboard because I have been saving it for just that moment. Hee! Sweetness! But honestly, I do keep it all in check for the most part. My mother is an 'out of control' packrat and knowing this, I do tend to purge regularly so that I don't turn into her. Maybe all of us fellow packratters should have a mutual "spring fling" this weekend and toss that stuff!

LOL! I have been guilty of this too and I don't have the depression to blame it on! My only small revenge is when someone needs something odd, and I am able to produce it out of a drawer or cupboard because I have been saving it for just that moment. Hee! Sweetness! But honestly, I do keep it all in check for the most part. My mother is an 'out of control' packrat and knowing this, I do tend to purge regularly so that I don't turn into her. Maybe all of us fellow packratters should have a mutual "spring fling" this weekend and toss that stuff!

hehehe....

I do the same thing...but my excuse is that I'm going to make jam this year.  (Over abundance of wild blackberries growing) 

When my parents cleaned out their attic three years ago, they found a box marked 'Things for the next house.'

They'd been living in the current house for 33 years.   

When I was last home at my parents house, I found a small wooden chest that I used to keep jewelry in.  I opened it up and found a bunch of old notes people had passed to me in HS.  I spent one night reading them all till 3am.  It was grand!  Brought back so many memories!!!  Most of them ended with "I must talk to you about something later!!!!"

Either at some point my mom gave me a stack of my 'baby stuff' (congrats cards they got when I was born, etc), or else I got it when I was cleaning out her house for auction...there was a letter among these things, on a little scrap of paper, that one of my older brothers wrote when he was nearly 8 years old, to my mom when she was in the hospital after having given birth to me.  So funny!  To read his 8 year old handwriting & thoughts, and me -- always having known him as a big brother (not as an 8 year old boy).

My mom is recently (well, 3 years) re-married after almost 30 years post divorce, and 10 years of marriage.  She gave me a massive box of love letters she and my dad wrote back and forth.  They were high school sweethearts, she was 16, he was 17.  They were very sweet, and oh so mushy!  The letters carried on over the months of their relationship, and then she bacame pregnant with me at the age of 17.  It was so amazing to hear the change in her tone in these letters, and to read about how she felt about being pregnant with me and when she first felt me kick.  It gets me all choked up just thinking about it.  That was truly an unexpected pleasure. 

~Liza

LOL! I have been guilty of this too and I don't have the depression to blame it on! My only small revenge is when someone needs something odd, and I am able to produce it out of a drawer or cupboard because I have been saving it for just that moment. Hee! Sweetness! But honestly, I do keep it all in check for the most part. My mother is an 'out of control' packrat and knowing this, I do tend to purge regularly so that I don't turn into her. Maybe all of us fellow packratters should have a mutual "spring fling" this weekend and toss that stuff!

Uh oh, me too and what about those plastic ones with lids from chinese takeaways ? I just cannot bear to throw those away! My hubby hates me doing it though for some inexplicable reason ( ah, okay, might be something to do with the fact that he usually washes them.........

My mom, in all her humour, just before I moved over here passed on a packet of information that she's been gathering since I was born.  It was a packet of marriage and wedding readings, articles, ideas, etc.  Yes, since I was born she has saved up mucho information in hopes that someday I would use it.  I've gotten to 36 without needing the info, she was moving, I was moving and so she passed it on.  I thought it was so sweet though a tad weird...and kinda sad that she has such hopes but haven't been able to share them until now.  Sigh.