Count your blessings - October 2023

• Summer days in October...walking in T-shirt and short
• Returning home from the self-harvest farm with bags full of fresh vegetables.  (who would have thought that I'd get happy by vegetables :p).
• Outdoor lunches in the sun
• Professionally cleaned windows at home...what a view
• A troop of wild parakeets that fly by regularly in Leuven
• Similarly or much more wild and gracious: a couple of swans flying over the city
• A family weekend in Aachen in the sun (wearing shorts in October...crazy). 
• The Dom of Aachen ...what a treasure
• The return of sweater season.  As much as I enjoyed our crazy long summer, some crisp autumn weather is nice too. I am so ready to cocoon for many weeks
• Waking up after one or more good nights of sleep and feeling rested
• A group of children on a walk without too much whining
• Homemade pumpkin-pepper soup
• Rodin purring
• Lunch with a friend
• Champagne and sushi dinner with friends at home
• A squirrel racing around on our deck
• Singing loudly together in the car to the "Temple of love" by the Sisters of Mercy with the boys. 
• Hazy fields with layers of fog and the sunrise on my commute to work
• Those first days that the heating turned on
• The cosy cocooning feeling with the arrival of autumn
• Sinutab pills
• Calmer times at work
• Walking behind the boys while they are totally absorbed together in some imaginary game they make-up and observe them interact. 

This is a monthly list of simple things in my life that make me happy or that make me smile.  

As the world often seems full of negativity and disaster, I want to pay attention to these small things that make me happy in my daily life and be grateful for them. You can find all of them via this link