5 Things I Love Today

In an effort to pay a little attention to my deplorably neglected corner of the Internet (and in response to a desperate need to write something but not really having anything interesting about which to write, foreign travels being put on hold for the time being), I decided to copy join up with Hannah and write about a few of my current life favorites. I know what you're thinking: Amy's picking favorites of something? Impossible. But really it's not so hard; I'm not picking one favorite--I get to pick 5!

1) Ultimate Frisbee- Husband and I played this with our youth group Sunday, and I think it's safe to say that we all had a blast. I hadn't played since the last summer I worked at camp, but back in my summer camp employment days we played at least once/week; I'd forgotten how much I love running back and forth across a big open field making clumsy daring swipes at a disc someone has just hurled down said field. I actually really do enjoy playing Ultimate (despite that glamorous description), and I have a feeling that it will become a much more regular part of our lives. :)

2) Maxi Dresses- It took me a long time to get past the name "maxi dress" because it sounded too similar to "maxi pad" which, for whatever reason, I have always associated with elderly women. I realize that isn't necessarily accurate, but, regardless, I finally broke down and, with the help of a friend, made one following this tutorial found on Pinterest. It was love at first wearing. Seriously, they could call them by pretty much any name in any language known to man, and it would still not overcome my love for this dress. I would wear it every day if wearing one article of clothing 7 days a week without washing it was considered socially acceptable by any stretch of the imagination. Since that would give people good reason to question my personal hygiene I guess I'll just have to purchase more fabric and more tank tops and make a rainbow assortment of maxi dresses. Which, now that I mention it, sounds like the better option anyway since further Pinterest research has yielded at least 10 more maxi dress tutorials that I'm impatient to try. Thank you to the many bloggers who are better seamstresses than I for putting step-by-step instructions on the interwebs so that wannabes like myself can, too, wear beautiful, unique, home-made clothing.

3) Day lilies- Lilies have been my favorite flower for a long time, so you can imagine my ecstasy when a few short months after moving into our house, my husband pointed out our back window and said, "Hey, Amy, what's that orange flower over there?" One quick look and much excited jumping around our dining room later, I was able to stop hyperventilating long enough to calmly tell Husband that the flower in question which was being mercilessly choked out by the Ivy Hill of Death in our back yard was, in fact, his wife's favorite flower: a day lily. So, last fall I confidently took our shovel, uprooted that brave little lily, and transplanted it to a place of honor in our front flower garden. In the 8 months since then that dear little clump of grass has multiplied, and our front flower garden has at least 5 day lily clumps which have been blooming gloriously for the last two weeks. I think either this fall or next spring we'll be buying and planting some more day lilies because a girl needs more than just 1 variety of her favorite flower.

4) Where to Go When- This is, hands down, my favorite book. Husband gave it to me for my birthday in 2011, and it goes on pretty much every road trip that we take and sits prominently on our coffee table when we're home. Our globe-trotting being something that only happens for a couple of weeks out of each year (we have plans for this to change dramatically in the very near future; more on that later), this book has allowed me to visit hundreds of fascinating places worldwide in the best month to visit each location without even leaving my living room (or front seat, as the case may be). No, it's not an actual trip, but it is the next best thing because I'd rather vicariously travel the globe through the pages of a book than not at all.

5)Fresh fruit- Fructose be darned, I cannot get enough. It's a good thing there are so many farmer's markets in this area selling their home-grown wares because we are plowing through the fresh fruit in this house! It may only be Husband and me, but we can put away an entire watermelon in two days. I should probably be ashamed of that, but I'm too busy enjoying fresh strawberries with honey-sweetened lemon curd, local peaches, juicy cantaloupe, and other similar summer treats. Maybe it's just me, but summer is the time for fruit. It's too warm out to bake (this is not a complaint in the slightest; if I were doing 6 favorite things, the gloriously hot weather would be the sixth. I know many of my friends joke that I don't really have a winter here in South Carolina, but this past one was more winter than I wanted, and I am so thankful for hot, sunny days), so we turn to fruit to satisfy our sweet tooth. I love it. It's a good thing there are so many delicious, fresh veggies coming from our garden and local farmer's markets because I'd be tempted beyond measure to live solely on fruit until October otherwise.

Hmm, that was fun; maybe I'll do this more often. :)