Reverb 11: Wrapping Up (Almost) #18-24

18. Ordinary Sparkling Moments

Reflect on the ordinary moments that bring you joy (e.g., the tea pot whistling, the sun setting). What moments would you like to relish in the coming year?

The leaves, in all of their fall beauty, clinging disparately to their branches and then giving way to the inevitable.
Riding in the car with a client when all of a sudden they start singing along to the song on the radio.
Those first few minutes of the day, before my alarm has gone off and I'm awake enjoying the comfort of our bed and the handsome man I get to wake up next to every morning.
That first sip of a peppermint mocha latte or a pumpkin spice latte when they are just in season. Same thing with shamrock shakes. 
A warm shower on a cold day.


I want to relish all of the small things. I get caught up in the future and hustle and bustle of busy days and forget, but when I do stop and notice the small wonders of life I thoroughly enjoy it. So no specifics. Just enjoying a slowed down life.

19. Joy

What does a joyful life look like for you?

Before the last few minutes I hadn't really spent much time thinking of joy. Sure I grew up in church singing the songs, one of my bosses signed every email with "keep the joy!", and I'd seen it often in blog land. Lately however I started thinking about what joy means for ME. I'm just exploring my joy and I'll tell you what, finding myself happy every day, not just most days and not for every minute of every day, but feeling happy a least once every day has been quite joyous. And that's what a joyful life looks like to me. Sure not every moment is beautiful, but every day has some happiness in it. And that is beautiful.

20. Community

Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2011? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2012? (Author: Cali Harris)

For the past 3 years, and really all of my years before that I have taken community for granted. I lived on campus for 7 years and worked for Residence Life for 6 of them. Community was our lifeblood. It's what we taught our student staff to strive for and what we hoped our residents felt a sense of. Through this I had a strong community ready-made, something I loved and thrived on. After moving our of the residence halls and into an apartment, I have realized that community is much more difficult to achieve. I have been wonderfully immersed into the community of blogging and have really enjoyed creating a home here for myself over the last few months. I'd also consider Pinterest to be a form of creative community. 
Our little hometown is full of friendly people but we don't really know anyone here and or neighbors that we most talked to moved into a house, so a sense of community in our actual living area is something I desire. I also would like to invest more time to my online community. Doing Reverb was my first parlay into some sort of shared blogging experience and I've been posting to link-ups, but I'd like to start having dialog with other bloggers also. Let me know if you have advice for starting that! 

21. Space
Where do you feel most safe, most free to be yourself—where you let down your guard?

In our apartment. Oskaloosa, Iowa. At my best friends house. 

22. Mischief
What can you do to add a spark of mischief into your life?

I think I probably have a healthy dose of mischief in my life. I love to be playful with Vince and we're always teasing each other. Other than that perhaps I can do a little risk taking in trying new activities..I'll have to think more about that though :)

23. Magic
What do you consider to be every day magic in your life?

I love the morning time lately. I find that I wake up before my alarm goes off most days and then take a few minutes to wake up slowly. This time is quite magical. 

24. Creativity

What was the most creative thing you did in 2011? How do you plan to use your creativity in 2012? (Note: creative does not always mean artistic. Think outside the box here. Get creative!)

I've become a domestic goddess in 2011. Okay, that may be a little much. But this year I have done more creative projects than probably ever before. I've painted all kinds of things, I've cut wine bottles in half with fire, I've wrapped letters in yarn...I've baked, and cooked, and pureed. I've stepped outside of my box and loved it. In 2012 I would love to take some sort of artsy class, namely wheel throwing. I'd also love to explore photography and actually print some of my pictures.