I’m sitting on my bed right now. It’s 7:30 am on Sunday morning. The weather has been positively GORGEOUS the past few days… blessing me with dark gray, overcast skies and the occasional snowfall. My favorite kind of snow is falling now… “movie snow”. These are large flakes – maybe the size of marbles – and they are falling gently to the ground.

Perfect.

I am blessed to be warm and cozy inside my house, typing on my new, purple, Dell laptop. I have a lot of things that I am thankful for in life, but these little moments are too fleeting… and I wish to pause and appreciate them more.

Japan is around the corner! A month from now, I should be sipping hot, green tea while watching sumo. SO EXCITED! I have yet to fix the name on my passport, but that should be taken care of tomorrow.

My Texas/Florida trip is shaping up nicely too!! That will be two weeks in June, seeing mostly family and hopefully a few friends!

And my Washington/Oregon trip is starting to take shape too!! I’ve already booked a “cabin/house” for 5 evenings of my stay. It’s between Forks and La Push beach! I am so excited!!

Something I thought of after I planned all this… I will basically be doing a diagonal drive across America this summer. I will see each of the 4 time zones within 1 month, AND I will be doing it all DRIVING. I know I haven’t been very good about posting pictures, but I will get better about that this summer. After all, there will be lots to see!!

Dear Xanga,

Today I participated in the 2010 Jump Rope for Heart at my school.

The last time I jumped for ANY heart was in 1994… in 5th grade. In honor of my 90’s heritage, I wore a neon pink hair scrunchie in my ponytail. 🙂 (Not on the side, though… I thought about it.)

It was pretty cool watching these kids jump rope! It was nostalgic for me, since I had accumulated at least 100 hours of said activity during lunch recesses in my early education years. 🙂

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In other news, it has now been snowing continuously since Sunday morning. I love it so much!

I’ve read a couple of blogs lately where the authors mention things they like. Things that bring them joy in an otherwise dark world. There’s a lot of stress right now, at work… and so, it wouldn’t hurt to dwell on the little things that make us happy.

Here are mine:

1. Green lights all the way to work… especially when I’m late.

2. Singing loudly to the radio, with the window down… on a spring day, when the weather has finally turned warm and things are turning green.

3. Finding a friend on facebook that I haven’t talked to in years.

4. All things SUMO. 🙂

5. When my cats come up and cuddle at night… and start purring.

6. Watching the snow fall… specifically, the large puffy flakes (movie snow), while at home in front of a warm fire.

7. Evenings during December when the lights on the tree are the only light in the room, and sitting next to it, sipping tea.

8. Actually waking up and doing an hour on the treadmill… well, I have joy AFTER it’s over. 🙂

9. Snowdays, or any other days where I get to stay home and veg.

10. And evening with good friends playing board games and laughing.

11. Driving anywhere, alone. Specifically long trips.

12. Surprise conversations with people I enjoy! Chatting, email or otherwise.

13. Little animals… especially rodents. They are just SO CUTE!!!

14. Mail. The old fashioned kind! Give me a hand-written letter any day!!!

15. When my husband makes dinner for me… 🙂 He is so great!

16. Clean laundry.

17. A clean house!!!

18. Opening a new planner and all the hope it brings for the new year ahead.

And last but not least… Little moments where I am truly at peace with who I am, what I am doing, and where my life is going.

For those of you who don’t know Matthew West…. let me say this…. you SHOULD.

While I’m not usually a huge fan of the sub-par garbage that the Christian music industry exposes the world to… the songs on this album really spoke to me… well, one song in particular.

And I liked it the moment I heard it (almost a year ago). But given my recent state of mind/transformation/finding of passion… it didn’t really affect me as profoundly as it could have until now.

Here are the lyrics to the song “Motions”… aka, my new anthem for 2010.

The Motions by Matthew West

This might hurt; it’s not safe
But I know that I’ve gotta make a change
I don’t care, if I break,
At least I’ll be feeling something
‘Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming, passion inside of me
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking,
“What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?”

No regrets, not this time
I’m gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love make me whole
I think I’m finally feeling something
‘Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of this life

‘Cause I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking,
“What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?”

take me all the way (take me all the way)
take me all the way (’cause I don’t wanna go through the motions)
take me all the way (I know I’m finally feeling something real)
take me all the way

I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking,
“What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?”

I don’t wanna go through the motions