Inspiration Sunday: Little Joys

Years and years (and years) ago, I used to frequently write Inspiration Sundays posts. It was a place for me to share things I found meaningful or that were important or pretty to me. I have brought them back every October as a chance to fill up that Blogtober calendar, but I’ve struggled to find a purpose to them.

This year, I had the idea to focus on one small thing each week.

This week, it’s little joys.

As Nabela (if you don’t follow her on Instagram, what are you doing?!) says, there is a pocket of peace inside of each day, even when things are hard. And she’s right!

Let me tell you about my week.

We had Forrest’s birthday (yay!) and then he got sick the day after (boo!). I knew he was going to get sick once he started school. He’s 5, that’s just what kids that age do! But I expected it to be 1) longer than 2 weeks in school and 2) not quite as bad as it is. He had a fever and a very runny nose. On Saturday, I waffled and finally called his pediatrician to have him tested for Covid19. My suspicion is that he doesn’t have Covid19; the reason why it is so hard to spot in kids though is because kids symptoms aren’t the same as adults. Kids, especially small children, get fevers for everything: allergic reactions, average colds, because their body feels like it. They just get fevers! So it’s hard to distinguish a Covid19 fever from a “this is normal for my kid” fever, especially in a kid (like Forrest) who is prone to fevers anyway.

(On that note, I am also prone to fevers. When I had chronic UTIs in college, I think I had a low grade fever every single day for probably 8 or 9 months.)

That’s been the last few days and it’s tough! I’m considering what it will mean if he does test positive and we have to quarantine for 14 days. I’m trying not to panic about it. I’m trying not to feel bad about having him around my parents, who I really don’t want to get sick.

But amongst all this worry, and Fo being sick, there has been so many little joys. Let me list them:

• Watching Lego Movie in bed with him Saturday night and having him fall asleep beside me almost immediately

• Making pumpkin muffins together on Friday afternoon

• Picking up his favorite dinner after school on Wednesday

• Watching him play with his cousins at his birthday party

• His excitement when he got Grouch Couch for his birthday after asking for it every single time we went to Target for 2 months

• Planting my pumpkin patch in Animal Crossing

• Placing a special Target pick up order for today specifically so we can make chili cheese fries and dip

In my newsletter on Monday, I wrote about finding joy in frivolous things and I wanted to share that here as well: I hope you find joy today and every day. Things are hard. The news is weird. The world feels overwhelming. But I have found that the more I am able to disconnect and find joy in each day, the happier I am—and the more able I am to focus in on the news when I need to and get actual work done.

Thanks for reading! I hope you’ll join me next Sunday as well.

10 Things I'm Excited for This October

Happy October! Happy Blogtober!

What a month September was, huh?

I know I’m not alone in this, but it’s been a rough start to my favorite season of the year. But as I’ve been saying recently: happiness is now or it’s never. It is possible to find joy right now. And for me, joy is very much about this season that I love so much.

That’s why, despite everything, I decided to move ahead on Blogtober. It does feel a bit frivolous to be blogging right now; there is so much going on but at the end of the day, my work still has to exist. I still have to eat and pay my bills and finish all the things I started. Part of staying sane right now, for me, is staying grounded in these things, that are ultimately so much in flux.

Today’s blog post is all about the things I’m excited for in October: the things I look forward to every year, the things on my bucket list, the moments where I will dig deep to find the most joy. I hope this, if nothing else, gives you a moment to break and breathe.

1. Celebrating Halloween in a new way. 

Danny and I always say we want to have a Halloween party for Forrest—but every year, we become overwhelmed by the trick-or-treating, the costume, the school stuff. This year, Halloween is on a Saturday, but we know we won’t feel comfortable taking Forrest house-to-house or even to a trunk-or-treat event.

The other options are an at-home Halloween party. We’ve been considering doing an Easter egg hunt style Halloween where we hide candy for Forrest for him to find in his costume. We’re still toying with this idea, but ultimately, we’ll be celebrating Halloween in an entirely new way as a family and that’s exciting to look forward to.

2. Finding new things to do this Autumn. 

When I wrote this list and this blog post, it’s September 13; right now, we are 1 week from the start of the McKenzie River Fire (also called the Holiday Farm Fire), as well as multiple other fires in Oregon. Outside my office window, the sky is completely yellow, swathed in smoke. I haven’t seen the sky, or the sun, in a week now. It’s hard not to feel claustrophobic and depressed about it.

But I hope by the time that this blog post goes live in October 1 that we are seeing some relief from the smoke and claustrophobia, that the fires are at least partially contained, and that we do have the ability to go do new things this Autumn season!

I had fantasies of taking Forrest to the Spring Creek Holly Farm along the McKenzie River, going hiking on the coast, and more. These are things we started doing in quarantine that gave us something to do while being socially distant from other people. We hiked Sahalie Falls, visited the Raptor Center, went to the butterfly center in Elkton… I’m hoping we can keep doing these things.

3. Cooking & baking 

I love to cook and I love to bake. I recently bought a slew of new cookbooks and have been slowly working my way through all of them. It makes me happy to have something I can do each day—plus, tons of leftovers for easy lunches for both Danny and I. Nothing makes me feel cozier than baking either, even if I had the clean up process.

4. Decorating outside

Another item impacted by the smoke! However, we’ve been working on getting the outside of our house cleaned up. Neither Danny nor I are green thumbs and we struggle to keep the outside of our house looking, well, nice. But I’m determined to really decorate and make our outside area cute this year.

5. Carving pumpkins

I don’t care if we make it to a pumpkin patch this year. But carving pumpkins makes Forrest and I bought happy. I will carve a grocery store pumpkin, I don’t care.

6. Making our home cozy

Quarantine turned us all into homebodies, so it goes without saying: making our homes comfortable and cozy and adaptable for how we live has been huge. I’ve ordered both of us new office chairs; I’ve spray painted so much furniture that I gave myself carpal tunnel but like, in my finger if possible; and I’m considering painting an archway on our wall because I’m just that trendy.

Most importantly, I’ve been trying to find ways to make our home super cozy. We’re in for the long haul here, clearly.

7. Taking socially distant day trips

Please let me be able to go to the coast or the mountains just once this Fall. It’s all I ask.

Like I said, we have loved exploring Oregon this summer. Packing up the car with some supplies and a cooler with sandwiches and water has been more fun than anything else. It definitely helped relieve my stress and Forrest has some great memories.

8. Wearing scarves again

I just want to wrap myself in flannel. Please. Let me wrap myself in flannel.

9. Autumn-scented everything

I’m lighting a pumpkin waffle scented candle, I’m setting up my diffuser to have orange and clove oil, I’m using my fireside body spray. I will smell like a carnival and Autumn leaves, this is the point I’m at in my life.

10. Starbucks seasonal drinks

Controversial: I don’t like pumpkin spice lattes. I find them really sickly tasting. Plus, they’re so oddly orange? But salted caramel mochas??? Gingerbread lattes? Peppermint mochas?? I’m here for this.