I was tagged by the blooming lovely and blooming pregnant Bec over at Beetroot and Gherkins to think about ten of my most favourite things in life that are free. As I read Bec’s post my heart started to sink, her ideas are great, everytime I thought of one I’d read on and she’d only gone and bloody beaten me to it! Anyway I’ve been mulling this over for a bit, keen to do it because I have vowed to be good with fulfilling my tags and also because I am running my Simple Pleasure theme through my life this year and Simple Pleasures generally cost nothing. So here goes, here are my ten most favourite things in life that are free, in no particular order:
- Watching a beautiful sunset, or in days gone by when I was still up from the night before, watching the sun rise – especially that bit when the sky goes a velvety navy blue – that’s always special.
- Having a lie in, time spent in bed with no children is traded at rates higher than gold bars at Lancaster Towers! I’ve always loved sleep, its something I’m really good at and I like to do things I’m really good at a lot! In my life before kids I used to set the alarm on a Saturday morning just so I could wake, turn it off and be aware of the extra luxury of that Saturday morning sleep! Mmm Sleep!
- My babies first milestones – the first smiles, steps, words … all absolute joys for any parent.
- Jumping in puddles – have kids, have wellies so why not? Go on try it! You never know you might just like it.
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Teaching my children my childhood games, Lil’ H isn’t three yet so we’re only just getting into the zone – we’ve yet to master hide and seek based on H’s principle that if he can’t see me I can’t see him so there he is standing facing the wall in the middle of the room! Anyway in the Summer I taught him how to play pooh sticks so my joint number five is teaching my kids “stuff” and pooh sticks because its a a classic, timeless and simply great to while away some time by a river - Hugs and cuddles – especially with my bubs and Mr L. A good squeeze is always lovely.
- Friends – catching up with a good friend you’ve not seen for ages either by chance or by plan to remember, reminisce, laugh and share.
- Finding money – in my head the “bank of life” operates – the amount of money you lose are your deposits and the amount of money you find are your withdrawls and across your lifetime they will all balance out. It’s a theory that helps me keep calm about losing my purse or slot machines that eat my coins when it happens. Walking home from the tube early evening I found a tenner just in the middle of the pavement, how chuffed was I? I walked a bit further and there were two twenties, just lying there, I picked them up and did the obligatory look around for people/you’ve been framed camera’s and by the time I got to my flat I’d picked up £150! Interestingly my car had been damaged the week before to the tune of £140 – Karma and the life bank in play me thinks!
- Handwritten post – I love a letter or card and love sending them too, hence why I set up Dandelion Lounge, sadly handwritten post is on the decline with email and text on the rise, but that just makes handwritten correspondence more special. Extra special are birthday cards for people who you don’t expect to remember that its your birthday.
- Last but by no means least is the weeks when the Spring blooms bloom! It’s just around the corner now in the UK. The snowdrops are out and in a few weeks the crocus will be peeking through, then the UK will be awash with the yellow trumpets of Daffodils, I love Daffodils, mingled in amongst them will be Tulips and the trees will be laden with blossom. Ah roll on Spring time!
