count your blessings

This world can be a pretty ugly place sometimes. It's easy to start thinking that the bad stuff is all there is, to get so bombarded by all the ugliness that we forget the world is also breathtakingly beautiful.

So in honor of that:

• Dirt roads. They remind me that it's not always a good idea to rush though life. Sometimes you need to take things slow.
•  Friends. I've had some pretty great ones through the years. I'm not necessarily still in touch with all of them, but they've all left impressions on my heart that have changed who I might have become otherwise.
• Summer. Working in an office that leaves my hands like ice cubes every day even makes me grateful for the southern heat.
• Puppies, even the ones that slobber all over everything. If you need to be reminded that you don't have to take yourself seriously all the time, play with a puppy.
  
• Kids, even the stubborn ones. My kids have changed me. They make me crazy, proud, scared, annoyed, amazed, crazy, thankful, loved, frustrated, and crazy every day.
• Home. That's been a lot of places over the years, but really it's boiled down to a select handful of people.
• Family kitchens. It seems like my family always gravitates to the kitchen when we're together. That's where all the good stuff happens--food, laughter, and good conversation.
• Writing. Sometimes it's the hardest thing for me to do, putting words on paper. At the same time, though, it's often how I keep my sanity. It's how I process the hard parts of life and how I work through things to get them to make sense. It's my passion.
  
• Farm life. There are a lot of lessons you learn just from spending time on a farm. I'm glad my kids are getting to learn those lessons...even the hard ones.
• Books. Lots of them. All types of them. Books piled up on bedside tables and spilling off of bookshelves. Books that tackle hard truths in subtle ways. Books that have taken me on adventures.
• Physics. It's a mesmerizing subject that has taught me so much about life--about creation, about the Creator, and about myself.
  
• Cake. Specifically chocolate...or cheesecake...or pineapple upsidedown cake...or really pretty much any kind of cake. I'm not a huge icing fan, though. Plain and simple is best, nothing crazy and thick.
•  Books. I like pretty much everything about them--the look, the feel, the smell. I definitely don't agree with Marie Kondo on the whole "get rid of your books" idea. I don't think you can ever have too many. I would fill my walls with bookshelves if I could.
• Coffee. This one has been a relatively recent development, one that didn't really grab hold until grad school. I'm a fan of anything coffee now--including chocolate covered espresso beans!
• Family. My family means the world to me. I don't know what I would do without every crazy one of them.
• Nature. I'm constantly amazed by it, and incredibly thankful to live where I live.

• Grace. I don't know where I'd be without it.