Sunflowers!

This Kansas gal loved finding fresh cut sunflowers while farm market shopping on an August Saturday!

For the last couple of years, I have received Carole’s weekly Ten on Tuesday topic email…historically, I have very rarely posted on them (although I’ve mentally compiled many lists). With the new year…time to jump in more often. Without further adieu, here are 10 highlights of 2013 (beyond what might have been blogged & are only in calendar order)…

  • Being surprised by friends welcoming me home at the Green Bay airport when I flew back to Marinette for a work trip in January.
  • Completing the Whole 30 in March – time to do it again.
  • Heading back to Mercer in May to celebrate a favorite professor, who was also a great mentor and friend, as she retired.
  • Sitting on our balcony at The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island watching the boat traffic through the channel and under the bridge.
  • Catching an amazing sunset over Green Bay while driving around Door County during family vacation.
  • Seeing the New Kids on the Block/Boyz II Men concert with my sister here in Philly. May we always enjoy screaming like silly school girls on nights like that!
  • Canning tomatoes under the pergola on a Saturday in August – taking a class taught by Marissa from Food in Jars. It was exactly a year since I had moved to PA – as I was contemplating the move, I made an off-hand comment to Mom about maybe taking a class with her after I moved here since she is Philly based. And then it happened.
  • Sitting in the end zone berm with Rebecca at Mercer’s first football game since 1941 – exploding to our feet with 3 seconds left in the game as Mercer kicked a field goal “towards us” that won the game.
  • Touring the Mayflower II in September and being amazed at the size (or lack thereof) of it – imagining what it must have been like for things to be so bad that boarding this boat to the unknown with 100 others was better than any other option you had.
  • Any of numerous FaceTime moments with dear ones in Wisconsin & Texas. Whether it be “just” chatting, having a beer while decompressing after a rough week at work, reacting to sports moments, watching/listening to piano practice, reading bedtime stories, general kid silliness, virtual Sunday supper prep, or opening Christmas gifts – it is great to be connected this way.

If 2014 holds even a fraction of these moments, it will indeed be a good year!