Please come visit with me every Thursday… I love to chat with you all!
You know you’re an adult when…
And I know, this sounds like a leadup to a Jeff Foxworthy bit, but sadly, I’m not quite that amusing.
This past Sunday, on Mother’s Day, we were all gathered at my mom’s house and my niece was talking about finally finding a house for herself and her long-term boyfriend. It was funny listening to her talk about adult things, despite the fact she’s well into her 20’s, but sometimes, she’s still that little girl with the big eyes, you know?
At one point, she said she was officially an adult, to which I joked back about how on Saturday, I had finally completed my conversion into my own mother. Why? Because I had replaced my long-dead chest freezer with a new one. My mother would have been both excited by the new appliance and the fact I’d saved $160 on it thanks to a mega sale at Best Buy. She was, too, when I told her later.
But this got me thinking about all the silly little things that make us happy or get us excited as we grow older.
A friend mentioned that she was officially an adult when she realized that the prospect of new bed sheets made her happy. I can’t lie – this makes me happy, too. Even more so when I can find a smoking deal on them, since they’re always so dang expensive.
So, what are some other unexciting things that I get excited about?
A good sale! Especially on practical items like a freezer or a vacuum.
Dish towels. I don’t know why these make me so happy, but they do. My kids have caught onto this and have started buying me cute and/or funny towels to hang up.
Comfortable shoes. I’ve always appreciated a good pair of shoes, but the older I get, the more my feet hurt.
Being able to find everything I need at one store. This never works with groceries, but if I’m out shopping for other things, if I can get it all in one stop, bonus.
New appliances, even small ones. I once got really excited over a mini vegetable chopper my mom gave me. I used the heck out of that thing, too, just because it was so convenient.
A clean house or even just a clean floor. I have cats, though, so nothing really stays clean for long. Not thirty seconds after I mop the floor, all four of them will go trekking through the kitchen, leaving little paw prints there to dry.
A bulk store membership. Years ago, I’d had a Sam’s Club membership, but we were so broke that we weren’t able to fully take advantage of what they had to offer. After a year or two, we dropped it. Last year, when my older child moved out, we joined Costco to get her the things she needed and stock up on. It gets used a lot, and not just by her. Why is having nine rolls of paper towels so satisfying?
A coupon for something I’ll actually buy. So many of the coupons I see are for things I either don’t need or won’t spend the money on. But that digital coupon for $0.88 bell peppers? Heck yeah!
What about you? Do you have silly or mundane things that make you overly happy?
As an avid reader, I tend to pick up weird facts here and there through the books I’m consuming. The strange thing is, I tend to pick up more factoids from fiction than I do from nonfiction.
In anticipation of the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale beginning next week, I’ve been doing a rewatch of the first five seasons. Thankfully, I had remembered a lot of the major plot points, but I was surprised at how many of the smaller, but still important, things I had forgotten about.
I moved from the Midwest to the desert southwest when I was four, meaning I know very little about weather that isn’t either hot and dry, or cold-ish and dry. Rainstorms are few and far between here, which makes them extra special when we do get them.
When I was a child, my grandparents lived in Phoenix, AZ. My grandfather had screened in his back porch so that he could sit outside, away from the bugs and the scorching sun, and read his paper. But I discovered that I loved sitting out there with a book during those afternoon monsoons. The sound of the drops hitting the aluminum cover, the cool breeze, and the peace it brought me was amazing. I miss being able to experience that. My back patio isn’t screened in, but it does have a cover. Hopefully, if we have a more normal monsoon season this year, I can try and recreate that experience as an adult. Thankfully, my Kobo is waterproof, just in case.
I love to experiment so always have some new recipes each week, but if I have some items on hand, I can always throw something together.
So, when I saw cannoli French toast on the menu, I immediately knew what I had to have it. It came out looking like a small loaf of bread, topped with a mixture of ricotta and mascarpone cheese, pistachios, and chocolate pearls (shoutout to the molecular gastronomy being used here). Also, maple syrup, but I figured that syrup was rather superfluous when you considered everything else already on this massive meal.
