Let’s Look at Leaves

I was struggling to come up with something for my “L” post, so I was looking through pictures, hoping for inspiration. 

It turns out that I take a lot of pictures of leaves.

So, for “L” let’s look at leaves.  

Do you enjoy looking at leaves? 

Love Languages

This is one of my favorite songs from Fiddler on the Roof. At first, it seems terribly unromantic. When Tevye asks Golde if she loves him she begins to explain that for 25 years she has washed his clothes, cleaned his house, milked his cows, etc. To some it might sound like the romance is dead. But then she goes on to say that if that’s not love she doesn’t know what is, and that she loves him.

It speaks to me because my love language is Acts of Service. I’m far more likely to do things like laundry and cooking than to say that I love someone. I’m an actions speak (MUCH) louder than words kind of person. 

Nick’s love language is Words of Affirmation. He’s a you need to tell the people that you love how much they mean to you kind of person. This song doesn’t really do it for him.

It’s interesting to read about the different love languages, and it’s very helpful as a couple to know which one your partner is speaking, and how to speak theirs. Different things really do mean very different things and hold different value to different people. 

So what about you? What is your love language? Is it the same as your partner’s?

Life

I had a plan going into the A to Z Challenge to write and schedule a lot of my posts for the week on the weekends, and have everything scheduled to post on its assigned day of the week.  It takes a really, really long time for pictures to upload, and I thought that would be easier in addition to allowing me more time to visit other blogs during the week.

Sometimes life gets in the way of plans, though.  That was the case for me this weekend.  Nick was off, the weather was beautiful, we had a class Saturday morning, and we had plans with Nick’s grandparents to attend a nearby festival.  We took advantage of the beautiful weather to get a lot of yard work done.  We put in our first raised bed, which I’m extremely proud of (probably more on that in a later post).

This made me think about the things that make up our lives, and how much time we spend doing them.  Life is busy, and it seems like we’re constantly juggling to fit everything in.  Obviously, some things are more necessary than others, and some have a much higher priority than others, but they’re all part of our lives. 

Here are the major things that make up my life:

Work.  I imagine this one is a biggie for most people.  It’s 40 hours a week, probably for the next 40 years, unless we win the lottery or something.

Fur kids.  We have six of them right now, so taking care of them and spending time with them takes up a lot of time.  It’s time we both feel is time well spent, but still a lot of time.

Volunteering.  For hubby it’s at the Fire Department, usually at least one day a week.  For me it’s something involving animals.  Today it will be driving to a kill shelter in South Carolina after work to pick up kittens to bring to the no-kill shelter here.

Home and yard work.  The dishes and laundry (and sweeping and dusting) seem to be never ending.  No matter how much we try to streamline it, they still take time.  This is also the time of year when yard work becomes a major thing.  At least we get to be outside for that!

Cooking.  This is how I spend a lot of my time.  I love cooking.  Most of our socializing seems to involve having people over to out house to dinner, and I’m in the process of writing a cookbook.   I spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

Spending time with family and friends.  This one is so easy to push to the side, but so important to make time for.  Because Nick’s work schedule is pretty crazy we have to be very conscientious about blocking off time for the two of us.  I also think it’s very important to spend time with family and friends, even if it’s just meeting someone for coffee to catch up.  

Of course there are other things, but those seem to be the main daily and weekly things that make up my life.  

What about you?  What are the main things that make up your life?