Count your blessings - July 2024

1. Attending the concert of Bruce Springsteen at Werchter
2. A summer drink at the neighbours
3. Train ride to Maastricht
4. Hanging out with our friends in Maastricht for an evening.
5. Supportive colleagues when in a stress with tears moment
6. A late "New Year's drink" at some neighbours in their garden. 
7. Feeling super energetic again after a full off-week 
8. Wearing a full week sweatpants and a sweatshirt (while lingering at home with Covid).  Seriously, I do love wearing non-stop sweatpants and sweaters.
9. Hanging out of the VELUX roof window at bedtime, observing the city, the sunset with the boys.
10. Jan and the boys complete the new deck in the garden and the installation of our little pool
11. Sitting on our terrace together on a summer night and Jan putting on a perfect mix of Dire Straits and Pink Floyd music and feeling totally chill, absorbed in the perfect music for the moment and feeling happy.
12. Jan and Beertje having some father-son quality time and sending me at work lots of super fun pictures together.
13. Jan taking a picture of Kabouter at scouts camp when he drops off Beertje a few days later.
14. Surprising my resigning manager with a goodbye reception on her last office visit in Belgium and seeing she didn't anticipate but was touched by it.
15. Surprising her again the day after with a lunch with my peers
16. Feeling how my Covid-forced break , helped take some distance from work and the stress I felt at the start of the month. 
17. 2 date nights with Jan to go dine out fancy while we spent a child-less week at home
18. Being absorbed in a book and read a stretch of 250 pages in one go in the garden.
19. Meeting up with some friends downtown to enjoy the new "kroket" festival before they leave on vacation.
20. Making it downtown with my mom just on time to see the finish sprint of the Baloise Women Tour
21. Watering the neighbour's plants in her travel absence and feeling grateful to have more contact and connection with a group of neighbours in the last years, in contrast with the decade before. 
22. The excessive rain of previous months became less excessive and we enjoyed at few warm summer days. 
23. Workload at work decreases well as planned during vacation period.
24. Hugging my two boys again after their return of scout camp and being able to put them in bed again. 
    
    
    

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