Listy bliss

Oh my, I do love me a good relaxing Saturday, and today was just that. Lots of little things checked off the list:

• mail that stuff to mom and dad
• remove the very unnecessary and actually bulky pockets from my new fleece skiing pants
• do a couple loads of laundry
• vacuum the upstairs
  
• bake a couple loaves of pumpkin bread
  
• finally unpack all those wonderful pieces of China from my mom-in-law
• take the wreath off the front door
  

Do you keep a list of things-to-do? I admit, I regularly toy with list-making. I come by list-making honestly: my dad is an avid list maker. Often the list is a mental list, but I have been learning the virtues of the tangible list. Not only am I less likely to forget some fleeting idea, but I can take tremendous pride in crossing the items off one by one.

Of course, being a self-proclaimed anti-perfectionist, I am perfectly content to not cross off every thing that goes on the list. For example, "take Jake to the dog park" is not going to get crossed off today. I has been about 15°C all day, with strong chinook-like winds all morning long, and what snow there was a few days ago at the aforementioned park is inevitably all mud gook. Mud gook caked dog is something we can live without today. Sorry buddy.

But overall, crossing items off a list one by one is a fine way to spend a lazy Saturday.

... and as I type, chaos and tempers are erupting downstairs. (Last night Kai went to a friend's house for a sleepover, so he's a teensy weensy bit tired today.) Bliss bliss... where is the bliss?

Oh, here's some bliss. These photos are from earlier today, when the sun was actually still mostly visible through the foggy sublimating-ice and -snow haze:

Look! I can help things grow!
The first photo is the jade plant that I purchased not long after we moved to Colorado. (I had to leave all my plants in Canada when we moved - something about not bringing soil across the border.) I think the jade is the only houseplant we have that I bought from a store - most of my plants are either from garage sales, gifts (i.e.: my holy-cow-it-has-tripled-in-size! aloe) or inherited. My friend Meg gave me the African violet before she moved to New Hampshire last summer. I replanted it in a larger pot and watered it diligently for a few months (when I was here, at least) with nary a bud in sight. When we returned from Canada at the end of November, out of the blue there were two open blooms and a host of buds ready to burst!

And finally - what could be more exciting than having a window open and a breeze blowing through the house to encourage the freshly-hung January laundry to dry? I'm so easy to please, eh?