Simple Joys

We are bloggers without a dedicated purpose.  We aren't food bloggers, travel bloggers, DIY bloggers, photography bloggers, etc.  I feel like we are "life" bloggers.  Not lifestyle bloggers-- which I don't really even know what category is.  We are real life bloggers as we treat this more as an electronic journal.  A lot of times real life doesn't present full length "blog worthy" events so we share a jumble of ideas.  This is one of those posts. Real life has all types of moments and here are some snapshots of our simple joys the past few weeks.

At the beginning of June our garbage disposal gave up the ghost.  We called the landlord and then waited patiently trying to keep as much debris out of the sink as possible.  A month past so we called again.  She had forgotten but would have someone over to fix it in the next week or so.  By this time the sink drain is getting slower and slower.  Finally it gets to the point where it stopped draining.  Luckily they came and replaced it the next day.  Arthur has had a new zest towards washing dishes and once again it is a pleasant experience.  It is interesting how little things like a broken garbage disposal can give a different perspective on the blessings in our life.

Another evening this week we found a hornet in the back bedroom.  We didn't have time to deal with it then so we shut the door to come back later.  As we were discussing our plan of attack Arthur being the valiant protector of the home said he would go in after it.  He commented that he had been stung before and getting a paper cut was worse.  I had different feelings about my hornet sting experience so I sent him off to battle.  We realized at this point that even after being "real life adults" for three years there are still some essential household items that we haven't invested in yet.  Like a fly swatter.  He went into the room with a rolled up newspaper to get the hornet buzzing in and out of the window blinds.  After several direct swats it didn't seem to terribly phased so he tried to squish it.  At that point Arthur responded with sudden surprise as he found out that hornet stings are not really preferable to paper cuts.  He continued blindly through the pain to finish the conquest that he started.  I ran off to get a poultice of baking soda to dress my hero's wound with.  The hornet fell behind the bed and after stinging Arthur was unable to fly and was crushed to the death.  It was quite the battle but I slept much easier that night knowing my husband and protector had freed our home from insects.

Another simple joy for myself has been working on some watercolors.  In the evening after a day of work filled with protocols and documentation it is nice to doing something creative.  Watercolors have been my outlet for this recently.  My project lately has been doing a series of woodland creatures- a fox, raccoon, and hedgehog- as decor for the nursery for my brother and sister-in-law who are expecting twins.  I haven't painted animals before but why not give it a shot.  I loved when my fox took shape with its sly smile on the piece of paper.  I am continually amazed that water with simple colored pigment on a blank sheet of paper can have such expression.

In our garden we have a toad who has taken up residence in my pots.  The soil is usually moist and cool and he is able to hunker down below the foliage.  Most mornings I startle him when I water and he jumps out.  We have named him Basil.  Basil the British toad who lives underneath the basil plant.

Since it is summer we are making use of the weekends for traveling and adventures as we can.  One of the greatest joys of our marriage is going exploring together.  We were just discussing recently that while some of our activities while dating seemed a little over the top- a date where we walked 13 miles because we forgot to turn around, a 7 mile run because Arthur wanted to spend time with me, and decathlon date- it really was a good representation of what we do now as a couple.  A few weeks ago we rolled out of bed at 5am to go biking in Council Grove on the Flint Hills Trail before it go to warm.  We had a wonderful 30 mile ride through the heart of the Flint Hills.  We saw wildflowers, cattle cooling off in farm ponds, a coyote, hawks circling, and rolling prairie.  After cleaning up a little we ate at the Hays House which is one of the reason Arthur is always up for a trip to Council Grove.  This past weekend we did a shake down hike for our upcoming backpacking trip.  We haven't actually "backpacked" anywhere before we decided a practice run would be good before we end up on an uninhabited island for 4 days.  We backpacked 20 yards from the car to our site (Kansas has minimal true backpacking opportunities) on a beautiful summer evening.  Showers had rolled through a few hours before and the air was actually cool and crisp.  Arthur set up the tent and I was able to get the backpacking stove working to boil water to rehydrate our backpacking food.  We fell asleep to the quiet sounds of nature-- the occasional bullfrog and cicadas.  The next morning we packed our backpacks and did a loop on the trail.  We adjusted to carrying loaded packs again and Arthur- my defender and protector- battled all the spider webs the crossed the trail early in the morning since we were the first ones out to enjoy the morning. 

 So there are our snapshots of real life joys-- a new garbage disposal, having the company of a toad in my garden, and a husband who will take on hornets and spider webs out of love for his wife.  Omnia Vincit Amor.