Little things

The little things can make a big difference: seeing a dear young lady at the funeral (well, old enough to have five children, two of whom are in high school) who traveled up from Oklahoma; finding out when I purchased Nate's coffee prize this afternoon I also received a free latte; discovering the barrista who served me is the Stone Creek Coffee promotions guy assigned to our campus - and that there is a free tasting of their Honduran blend coffee in the AMU next Wednesday (a blend that will be exclusively sold at MU).

The library notified me that my next Christmas-themed book was available. I returned last weekend's read - The Christmas Box - after being seriously underwhelmed. Overlooking the Mormon writer's distinctly LDS viewpoint was easy; overlooking bad writing was not. I cannot figure out exactly why this book was so popular when it was published, except that the theme rises above the stinky prose.

The next read is David Baldacci's The Christmas Train. Engaging, fun, lighthearted and much better written than the other. The comfortable recliner, natural light reading lamp, warm quilt and (free!) latte, along with the good book made it difficult not to sit and read cover to cover...

But into the kitchen I went. Chicken breast is speed-thawing, to be cooked and thrown with lots of other good things into the crockpot to make chicken chili overnight. A tuna casserole - the ultimate childhood comfort food - is in the oven for dinner. The chili, when done, will be individually packed and frozen; I'm really beginning to appreciate having a stash of thaw-and-serve lunches in the freezer.

Early to bed, I hope. The dreaded basement cleaning has been put off until tomorrow. In fact, there's quite a bit that needs doing tomorrow, but taking today to do what I wanted - rather than what was needed - went much further toward restoring my mental health.