Yesterday marked my 37th birthday and as I was falling asleep the night before, I had an idea, in honour of this momentous number (I’m told by my children that I am now very old!) to riff on 37 reasons to smile. It started out quite thoughtful and deep (in my pre-sleep swirly brain at least!) but then, after a brilliant day, I woke up this morning simply thankful for all the little things that bring a smile.
This list is neither deep nor particularly thoughtful but that’s entirely the point because, when I started to think about what makes a day wonderful sure, yesterday included presents and cake and flowers and I might not have carrot cake at 11am every single day but, it’s the little things that actually make life wonderful.
And so I give you my personal 37 reasons to smile this week (which was stupidly easy to list out even though it’s only Wednesday!) by way of inspiration.
You might start out your own list thinking it would be really difficult to find that many reasons to smile but, before you know it, you’ll be done! 😀
Here’s mine (I’d love to see yours!)
1. Finding craft materials for making fun stuff for El Post. (The envelopes arrived this morning and they are more kingfisher blue than TARDIS blue which I’m slightly gutted about but they’re still cute!)
2. Book babies. (Yes, I shared my birthday with Sandi’s book baby. Cool eh?!?)
3. Kindle. (Seriously, as I was saying to my fella yesterday over coffee and carrot cake, I love, appreciate and am thankful for the opportunities today that weren’t available even five years ago.)
4. Coffee and carrot cake. 😉
5. Doctor Who. Enough said! 😉
6. The surprise balloons and bunting my eldest daughter put up.
7. My wonderful, daft family wrapping my birthday presents in Hannah Montana paper.
8. Walking in the sunshine.
10. And the Welsh word for microwave.
12. The beautiful bath bombs my daughters found for me (including this lush cupcake shaped one) which are now making my office smell amazing.
13. Beautiful flowers from my parents and sister.
14. Delicious feet (thanks to one of my other sisters.)
15. A son who knows me soooo well (and so picked this brilliant Doctor Who swag for me.)
16. Hair straighteners. (Because without them my hair is all over the place but, thanks to them, I could have pretty hair yesterday!)
17. Anticipation. (I can not wait for them to open. I’m learning just how much smell is important to me.)
18. Chocolate birthday cake! (Need I say more?!?)
19. The sun came out (albeit it 24 hours late!)
20. I learnt how to do a French plait in my youngest daughters hair – and it stayed in! (I had short hair as a kid and so my poor daughters have been stuck with boring old (easy!) pony tails for years!)
21. My favourite perfume. (See #17 for why this makes me smile.)
22. Two novels for my new favourite author. (This is the lady who inspired me to write what I love most instead of what I think everyone wants from me.)
23. Waking up to a Facebook wall full of birthday messages. (You crazy lot!)
24. Wonderful emails full of happy birthday greetings and inspiration. (You know who you are. Thank you for emailing me yesterday!)
25. Warm caramel crunch for dessert in one of my favourite restaurants. (I had this one time, about four years ago, and have never seen it there since. When I booked the table for dinner I mentioned this to the waiter and bingo! 😉 )
26. Delightful new notebooks.
27. Wonderful old (treasured) notebooks. (I can not wait to back and look over this in 2019!)
28. Watching Molly leap around in huge circles when you walk her across a wide open space.
29. Charlie’s cute little paws.
30. Our postman. (It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s raining or sunny, he always greets me with a cheery smile.)
31. My bright yellow car. (It is almost impossible to be grumpy when you drive a bright yellow car!)
32. Freshly ground coffee.
33. Origami. I am totally inspired by this guy on Instagram. (He is just brilliant!) And, after mentioning in a kind of throw away comment to my mother in law that I’d love to learn, I finally can!
34. Far away friends who know me so well.
35. A long-suffering husband who totally spoils me.
36. The opportunity to share this crazy wonderful ride with you.
37. And last, but my no means least, today.
Because it is a gift and I vote we keep our eyes open for all the lovely little things that add up to make it delightful.
And now it over to you my lovely. Start your own list. Record it in some way (because if you keep it in your head it will feel so much less brilliant!) And then, if you’d like to, share it with me. I can’t wait to hear about it. 🙂