Five Favorites (vol. 3)

Praise the LORD it’s Thursday! Psychologically, the weekend begins TODAY and I’m all about celebrating. Here are a few other things I’ve been celebrating these days:

1) Coffee Syrup – It’s an almost daily ritual now. Around 10 when the boys enjoy their mid-morn snack, I put 4 cups of decaf on to brew and enhance the experience with a light splash of Heaven. Though caramel flavored is ever reliable, I ventured to hazelnut last week and it’s delish. A smackerel of sweetness to enhance the day, it’s refreshing and mostly guilt-free. Check your coffee aisle.

by C.D. Ryan

2) Saturdays – Saturdays are the best. They have the nicest weather, the easiest mornings, the most spontaneous afternoons, and there’s no denying Saturday nights are chock full of excited potential. Saturday is the week’s bright, blank canvas to splash with any productive or whimsical activity. Growing up, it was dedicated to washing the car in the driveway (country radio in the background), fun shopping trips, and cutting the grass. At the end of the day, we either sat back to enjoy our handiwork, watched a movie; or in my college days, we headed to the Plaza in Kansas City or Zona Rosa in Barry Road.

3) Getting rid of stuff – After channeling Ruth Soukup and minimizing our boys’ toy stash, my living room’s neatness is way easier to manage. I can’t get over it. Pick up time is a breeze and the space looks so much more open, which generally follows when you sort through the excess. The plan is to continually go through our house, evaluating whether a given item is necessary to our family or whether someone else would appreciate it more than I do. I want very much to live simply and to detach from materialism, which is a big temptation for me.

4) Americone Dream – Stephen Colbert’s signature flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. I don’t care how you feel about Colbert or ice cream, this stuff is phenomenal. A perfect blend of chocolate covered waffle cone pieces and caramel swirl in vanilla ice cream – hands down my favorite flavor to get if I’m going the binge-on-a-pint route with my husband. Try it – it’s a pretty great time.

5) Cheap flip flops – Every other year I buy a couple of pairs of $2 plastic flip flops from Walmart or Target. (Shoot, you can even find them at CVS on an end cap.) With mostly wood flooring in our house, my bare feet tend find an occasional crumb or they might discover an unreported spill from my little boys. (I solemnly swear that I sweep and vacuum frequently.) I can’t tell you how I cringe at the sensation of a crunched Cheerio underfoot, so I wear flip flops. Socks are a happy alternative but for the fact that they’re not water proof; and right up there with crunched Cheerios are wet socks. Can’t stand it. I don’t move from any location in the house without first slipping on a trusty pair of flip flops. Plus, they make the transition from being inside to going outside perfectly seamless if I’m taking out the trash or taking my big boys out back to play.