A handful of happiness

You know those things that just make you can't-really-explain it, no-great-big-reason, just-a-little-thing happy? Don't you just love them? Don't they just make you say, "Thank you, God, for that!" and "Man. That made my day." ? They're so easily missed, so effortlessly ignored in the face of a day gone wrong or the calamity of the moment. But when we notice them, we add a lot more smiles and heaps more gratitude to our lives. And sheesh, I don't know anyone who will turn that down!

Here's my right-now list:

• Night time walks (it's SO much cooler and I get to watch the sun paint the sky as it drops down- amazing.)
• Flowers: They just make me smile. I know they serve actual purposes, but I just can't get over how pretty they are. I saw this one the other night as I was walking around the lake.
• The pool. Especially when there are kids running around.
• Tuna fish sandwiches. I'm not sure why, but I've been eating them like crazy this summer.
• Fresh fruit.
• Pictures- I'm in the process of getting together and organizing hundreds of photos of my family, so I can have them when I move away. I get trapped in a trance as I flip through, snapshots of Mom on her wedding day and then me on my first day of kindergarten and then some of Papa in Aruba behind that. You see what I'm saying?
•  Grown-up blue nail polish.
• Apple spice cake. (Ask me for the recipe! It's really healthy and low-fat, too.)
• Lemonade.
• Finishing a work out.
• Finishing a work week.
• Tanned legs.
• Little boys who say, "How's you doing, Lindsey?"
• The perfect song on the radio.
• A text message or a phone call that reminds me that people are out there, missing me and loving me, even though they're not here.
• Little boys who run into my arms after I've been away for a few days.
• A new issue of pretty much any magazine. Well that's not true. Sports Illustrated doesn't exactly make me jump for joy.

This isn't the first time I've put little bits of happiness down in a blog post. Check out the other lists here.

And tell me, what's filling your days with sunshine this summer?