Pictures Of Things + Le Love List :: 19/52

May 14th, 2017 - filed under: Furthermore » Feedback

This absolutely beautiful oasis of a place.

So, I recently realized that I wrote this post just a little over a year ago. One year! It’s hard to believe what just one year can bring.

One year ago I was slogging my way out of a serious depression. Feeling helpless and hopeless and like a forever-failure, it seemed as though my life was perpetual spinning of wheels, always exhausting but never actually getting anywhere. And with a string of bad luck on top of it all — just one thing after another after another.

One year later. My life feels so completely different these days, it’s hard for me to believe how far I’ve come (how deep I had sunk, to be honest). And it just keeps getting better. And so, I’m going with that. Onwards and upwards! These days, I work really hard, but I see rewards for my efforts. And I also have down time, and play time. Family time that feeds my heart and friend time that fires my soul. It’s just indescribably different than it was one year ago.

And this is what it looked like, this week:

These beauties are left over from the flower dissections our students did in the plant labs last week — and now our office is overflowing with lovely lilies!

A fancy dinner with my love, and I sat inside an actual confessional to eat! Kinda weird, right?

They held a Mother’s Day Tea at Waits’s school, and it was truly a highlight of my year. Waits was absolutely thrilled to shower me with gifts that he’d made, and to serve me tea and strawberries, and to tell me over and over how much he loves me. The whole thing was so sweet I could barely contain myself. No, seriously. I’m too sentimental for this stuff! I could barely keep from crying!

Beautiful flowers from the childrens’ garden.

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Oh my heart. ♥

I know, it’s a terrible picture . . . but it makes me sooo happy! I share an office with my boss, and she’s just as much of a tea lover as I am. So this is our tea station in our office — with always-hot water, a wide variety of teas, and cute mugs to share with visitors. Yeah, it’s good.

Spring is for bikes.

Passionflowers all over my passion vine, and already so many little fruits! It’s going ot be a very passion-y summer, I can already tell.

Hiking in the coastal foothills.

Hiking to find this: a natural sulfur spring. Hot, mineral-rich water seeping into this freshwater stream. Pooling in warm bubbly bathes of strange, smelly, healing, magickal soup. Absolute heaven.

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Heaven

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And now, it’s time for the one, the only, Le Love List!

Super fun pizza parties with fellow vegan families! Making friends with another vegan family here in Santa Barbara has been so nice, for me but especially for Waits. We had a pizza party this week and it was such a blast! // When I step outside my office and get hit with the smell of the ocean. // Finding two baby skunks in my garden one night. Finally, confirmation! I always suspected it was skunks because of the scratch pattern and the way things were disrupted. Damn them! But also . . . awww so cute. // Spending time with old friends is soul medicine. // Waits telling jokes. // Visiting new friends and being greeted by the entire household welcoming committee — two excited kiddos, two dogs all up in my lap, and even both of the household cats rubbing my legs and mewing for attention. It was an absolute raucous pile of creatures, and it was awesome. // Homemade green juice. // Harvesting pine nuts, like actual pine nuts from an actual pine nut pine (!!!), and eating them fresh. // C L A R I T Y

~~~

Alright guys, now it’s your turn! I really love reading your own Le Love Lists, so please leave them down in the comments below. What are the little things in your life that make you smile this week?

I hope you had a truly magickal weekend, I hope you have a most wonderful week!

♥

Rebecca Carnes

Natural Springs!! SO jealous – and so awesome!!
Love list: Garden harvested breakfast potatoes & zucchinis!! So yum! Hearing P try to sing along to Moana, and always morning snuggles XO
Have a great week!
http://suburbansnowwhite.com Katrina

Boy, I guess things are better! I reread that post and — man, we’ve all been there, and you know intellectually that things HAVE to get better. But in the moment it feels like they never REALLY will. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could go back in time and have a little chat with your past self/selves? Give them little pep talks? That would actually make for an interesting book.

Love reading your weekly love lists. You find the charm and magic moments that other people walk by. It’s a weekly reminder to seek out those little nuggets of cool in our lives.

My Love List
*Bought 2 boxes of vegan donuts and brought them to the two mommas in my life.
*Taught a lesson on line plots with kids creating boats out of 6×6 in. aluminum foil. They floated the boats and had to see how many pennies could go on the boat before it sank. It was raucous and a BLAST! (it’s on my FB feed. Name: Katrina Seach. I’m in LOVE with the video. You should try it with Waits. So much fun!)
* Speaking of videos, this video. I cannot stop laughing at this little girl. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA11NlkIREA
*In our classroom morning share, kids had to pick what message they would put into one million fortune cookies. One boy said, “Brace yourself,” which was one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard.
*My first Fitbit arrived on Sunday. I’m obsessed.
Annelise Seifer

Honestly, it’s so nice to read those two posts together. I’m having one of those periods myself – a time where I feel like all I’m doing is slogging, and while I intellectually know that I’m making progress, emotionally it feels like spinning wheels, and just being…tired. It’s a great reminder that this is temporary.

My love list –
-having a rare chance to go to the health food store and restock my favorite teas
-my four year old taking it upon herself to carefully put aloe on my burnt back while reminding me she’s big enough to help me reach with sunscreen next time
-summer heat and fans
-finally writing again for the first time in a year
-finally cresting the hill of toddler pickiness to a 4 year old who asks for carrots and broccoli for snacks. I got a lot of grief for not forcing it as ‘spoiling’, and it’s always feels good to see your instincts were right.
-lots and lots and lots of tea

I hope you have a great week!
http://www.thegreenpenn.com/ Lindsey P

I’m so glad things have improved for you. Life can change at light-speed sometimes, and we just have to hang in there and welcome what the universe has to bring. You look so happy these days. It just shows in your eyes. Can’t wait to see what else time brings to you.
My Love List: Whirlwind tours with my band in paradise, amazing friends who bring vegan/GF muffins and cookies to pick me up from the airport after said tour, the look of excitement on my 4-year-old daughter’s face when I pick her up for the first time in a week, puppy snuggles, meeting iguanas and sharing my lunch with them, sunsets over the ocean, meeting new people and sharing our stories, the smell of honeysuckle surrounding me when I walk my dogs behind my apartment building, snuggling up with a good book and new sheets, hilarious conversations with my kiddo, and the feeling of finally having “my own” space after 34 years.
sonja

So interesting to read those two posts from now and one year ago. And thanks for the inspiring post about Earth Day! Love it!

My love list:
- teaching my own courses at university for the first time – sooo much work, but also so much fun!
- it’s finally summer here in Germany! Yeah!
- Having a long weekend without any real plans ahead of me
- home cooked food
- matcha-turmeric latte in the morning
- meditation
- riding my bike
- laughing with my bf
- spontaneous night out
- berries

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