Five Things Today that Have Made Me Happy

1. The weather is warm enough to walk the boys without having to wear a coat.  It may be drippy (and sometimes actually rainy) and the grass may be so wet that my leather shoes soak up the water onto the tops of my socks, but I'm still walking without the burden of hat, scarves, mittens, and coat.  Even better the birds are singing us a sweet serenade as we walk, the trees are in full bud if not yet leaf, and the grass is deep green. 
   
2. Another deep joy has been sharing time with friends around tables of food.  The Wyandotte Ladies Who Lunch (retired teachers from Wyandotte High School in KCK) lunched at Aixois at 55th and Brookside in the Crestwood Shopping Center this week.  The food was excellent but even better was the talk around the table, sharing new gossip about school, family news, and health updates.  That lunch was followed by dinner with my concert-going friends at Los Tules Mexican Restaurant.  Hubby and I arrived early and I got to share some personal time with a friend that I haven't had much contact with lately, which managed to cheer me greatly. 
   
   
3. Our Mexican meal was followed by #3 on my list of happy events when we attended the final UMKC Conservatory Artist Series concerts.  Hubby was able to walk from the restaurant (just across the street at 16th and Baltimore) into the Kauffman Center and into his seat on the mezzanine level.  He wasn't actually able to go down the stairs into our seats, but they set up stand-alone chairs along the top level for him and he nearly made it through the entire concert, only having to leave during the last 15 minutes of the program.  We haven't made it through more than half of any concert in the past year, so this is quite an improvement.  The music was performed by the UMKC conservatory orchestra and concert choir and included Beethoven's Symphony #9, one of Hubby's favorites.  
   
4. The refrigerator is stocked with food, once again.  Living within our pension / social security checks, I'm trying to keep the food budget reasonable by stocking up only once a month.  Sometimes the pickings seem a little slim toward the end of the month -- not that we're ever hungry but that I have to made do with what's in the house.  This means I'm actually having to cook according to what's available -- not what we really want to eat or what's quick and fast.  I'm not the most creative cook so it's always nice when I have a wide variety of choices every day for our mealtimes.  Right now Hubby is happy with melon salad for lunch and a very good crockpot beef soup for dinner.  I like having things around that don't require anything more than a few minutes in the microwave before a full meal is ready.  
   
   
   
5. Finally, I'm wildly enthusiastic about the Charles Todd WWI era novels – I’m nearly through every single one of their novels in both series (one featuring a nurse; one about a man returned from WWI suffering from shell shock but trying to make it in Scotland Yard).  Charles Todd is a mother / son writing team who put together very clever mysteries while building up strong character identity.  In some ways I like their series better than the Maisie Dobbs books by Jacqueline Winspear – not the beginning books but the last two, anyway. Winspear has announced that she is not writing another Dobbs book for two years (ack! for many of us Dobbs has been a favorite read) while she travels to England to work on a new book, so a replacement series was called for.  Both my Kindles have been getting quite a work out in the past two weeks; I been charging one while using the other at least twice daily.