I’ve decided to take this month and once again, post every day for the next 31 days. I’ll be sharing one thing per day that makes my heart smile. Each post will usually be a picture, but I’m not going to limit myself by saying it has to be a picture.

All pictures will be taken with my trusty iPhone so the quality won’t be the best ever.

And now, I present Day 1:

My Kalanchoe with white flowers. I only have 3 plants and this is the prettiest of them all. Please excuse the dead leaves. I suppose I need to go out and pick those off. If you’re looking for a VERY low maintenance plant, this is the one for you. It’s nearly impossible to kill, can be started from shoving a cutting into the dirt and saying a little prayer. And the flowers are just beautiful.

See you tomorrow!

I have a love hate relationship with Southern California. There are many good things about where we live. The weather for much of the year is fantastic. Our neighborhood is pretty great too. Disneyland, the beach, the mountains… The main problem I have with SoCal is the cost of living. It’s darned expensive to live here. I just don’t see how we’ll ever be able to afford buying a home here. Unless a long lost extremely rich family member passes and we get a large inheritance, it just doesn’t seem feasible.

I’m also not enamored with SoCal weather. It’s the reason a lot of people live here. We have mild temps much of the year. Well, mild to the rest of the country anyway. And then there are the summers with the scorching heat. Hot like AZ? Yes and no. Kind of, because during the peak of summer, it’s 100+ often. No because it’s not scorching for as long here as it is there. And then there’s “fire season.” That has to be one of the most horrible things about SoCal. Where I’m specifically located, there isn’t much threat of a wildfire wiping us out. But we’re not too far from locations that regularly burn. That means ash and smoke. Lots of it.

Anyhow, I found the website Find Your Spot. Just answer questions about the weather you like, what activities you enjoy, how much you want to pay for rent, how much you’d be willing to spend on buying a home and so on. It return 25 locations you might be interested in. I really wasn’t all the surprised by the results. And none of the results were in SoCal, or California at all. However, I can see myself in San Francisco. I think the dollar figure I used was too low for SF though. The site also gives you a ton of information about each location.

My top 25 locations:

• Eugene, Oregon
• Corvallis, Oregon
• Olympia, Washington
• Tacoma, Washington
• Providence, Rhode Island
• Anchorage, Alaska (which surprised me a little)
• Salem, Oregon
• Portland, Oregon
• Kent, Washington
• Bellingham, Washington
• Norfolk, Virginia
• Chesapeake – Virginia Beach, Virginia
• Medford, Oregon
• Seattle, Washington
• Bend, Oregon
• Baltimore, Maryland
• Little Rock, Arkansas
• New Haven Connecticut
• Charlotte, North Carolina
• Hampton, Virginia
• Spokane, Washington
• Greenville, South Carolina
• Fayetteville, Arkansas
• Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Some of those places have more snow than I’d be willing to deal with (I’m looking at you Spokane) and several are way too humid. But I can see myself living in the majority of those locations. It would be really interesting to see Jason’s results.

By the way, I’m in no way affiliated with Find Your Spot. I just ran across the site and thought it was interesting. Give it a try!

Wishing you a Joyous Christmas

And no, we didn’t install Christmas lights onto Caitlin’s forehead.

What brings you joy?

Here are a few things that bring joy to my life. In no particular order:

• Early mornings before everyone wakes up. The house is nice and quiet while I enjoy my morning coffee.
• Christmas Shopping. I love picking out gifts for people.
• Wrapping my little one up in a towel and carrying her downstairs after a bath.
• Empty plates after dinner has been consumed.
• A good sandwich.
• Penguins
• Disneyland
• Spending time with my husband or my friends.
• A full fridge and full cupboards
• Making tamales with my (“ex”tended) family
• Eating one tamale from the first dozen tamales we make. There’s nothing like a fresh tamale.
• Playing Apples to Apples with the Wright boys.
• My grandmother’s apple cake recipe.
• Target and the chance to win a $300 gift card to my absolutely favorite store EVER thanks to Barking Mad

Here we are again. It’s that time of year where we struggle to find the perfect gift for the kids. I have a large whiteboard that holds my grocery list and any notes that need to be remembered. It’s also an art board for the kids. When people come to visit, half the time they leave little messages on it as well.

This time of year it becomes the place the kids write their wish list.

Here it is:

What’s that? You can’t read it? Well here, let me help you.

What do you think? Too passive aggressive? A mom’s allowed to wish for things too right? And hey, it won’t even cost the kids any money to fulfill my wishes!