A Few of my Favourite Things

Last night as I lay in my bed and watched the lightening flash repeatedly, I was reminded of The Sound of Music, one of my favourite musicals. That song in the thunderstorm scene is just so catchy! And, as part of my elementary school choir repertoire, it is firmly implanted in my long term memory, every single cuddly schnitzley word. We must have had a Julie Andrews thing going at my school since I also know every word to "Let's go Fly a Kite." But I digress. 

In honour of this most auspicious piece of music I thought I would make a list of a few of my favourite things. Which, oddly enough, has very little overlap with the beloved mentionings of the von Trapp children and their delightful nanny. I have no love of whiskers on kittens, and I distinctly dislike woolen mittens, which when damp smell disgusting. So here is my list of things that bring me joy "when the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad..."

Disclaimer: this list does not include people. This is not to say that there aren't persons who would be favourites when I'm feeling sad, but this is a list of favourite "things". And people aren't things. 

1. Canadian spelling of words like favourite! This is really not the most important thing to list here, but I'm feeling somewhat irritated that every time I type favourite it is underlined with that silly red wiggle that indicates that this site has no idea of the proper way to spell such words. Clearly. :) 

2. Jello jigglers. By Jello, I don't mean the actual name brand of sugary colour (another wiggly underlined word) laden gelatin that you buy in the grocery store. But it sounds weird to call them squares of fruit juice fortified by loads of gelatin powder. So Jello jigglers it is. I love to take 100% fruit juice and make my own jello that wiggles and jiggles and glows in the light with natural jewel tones of red and purple. I love the look, I love the texture, they just make me feel happy. 

3. My blanket. As long as I can remember I have adored my blanket on my bed. It's not always the same one, obviously. But the one thing that they all have in common is that they are made of 100% cotton and are both warm, and cool at the same time. As a young child I used to dream about what it would be like if I could have a room in which my cotton comforter covered the floor, the ceiling and all the walls! Weird perhaps, but there you have it. 

4. Cool breezes that drift in through my window. This should not be confused with a love of cool breezes outdoors. I'm not so much an outdoors person and anyone who knows me will immediately recognize that as an understatement! But I do love the cool breezes that come in through my window while I am lying in my bed with my aforementioned blanket.

5. Thunderstorms. One individual in my life, who has had his house hit by lightening, has suggested that I might not have a proper respect for lightening and that had my house been hit by lightening I wouldn't love storms quite so much. This is likely true. But since I haven't had that experience, I continue to adore the loud crashes and the bright flashes of a good Manitoba thunderstorm, even better when accompanied by some much needed rain. 

6. Melted cheese that has been broiled to a lovely crust. Need I say more?

7. Stories aka fiction. Since I have already written extensively about this, I won't do so again. 

8. Colour. I have a thing for bright colours. I went through a brief phase of wearing dark or respectable looking clothes sometime in the late 90's and early 2000's, and then I came to my senses. I love deep jewel tones and bright colours that remind me of flowers or tropical waters. I know that at times it embarrasses others when I walk about in bright pink crocs, or teal crocs, or purple crocs. But...that's just too bad. The world has a enough darkness in it without my adding to it.

9. Snow. I love snow, and winter, and cold. I always have. Perhaps it comes from the fact that I get heat stroke and sunburn, or maybe I just love to have my nose hairs freeze together, or maybe it's both. I don't know. But nothing is quite as glorious as standing out in the middle of a flat prairie field covered in pure white snow, looking up into bright blue sky and having the breath just catch in your throat. 

10. Hugs. Good hugs. Not awkward side hugs, or limp-insincere-it's so nice to see you hugs, or awww poor baby hugs. I like good strong, darn it I'm glad you were born kind of hugs where your stuffing threatens to come out and your ribs feel a bit bruised.

11.Simplicity. By this I mean a complete lack of clutter. A good wooden shelf should not be hidden by all manner of kitschy dust catchers that detract from the glorious sheen of the wood (not the sheen of veneer or melamine or whatever).

12. Wood. I have always loved wood. It depresses me to see all of the cheap compressed garbage that today passes as furniture and tomorrow floods our landfills. I am endlessly proud of the beautiful end table (my favourite piece of furniture in my parent's house), the kitchen cabinets, the desks and the doll cribs that were carefully and labouriously crafted by my dad and which will probably last for a century if cared for. Living in Indiana and being able to occasionally walk through Amish furniture stores was probably not a good thing for me in terms of not coveting things. 

13. Chopping vegetables. I often get a warm fuzzy feeling when I put on my hideously filthy apron (which is washed regularly but no longer comes clean) and chop vegetables. Especially if I'm making soup. I love to make soup. Big huge pots of soup. 

14. Kneading dough. Almost nothing in the world makes me feel more...shalom-like than baking bread. I love the smell of yeast, the springy stretch of the dough, the woosh of air when you punch it down after it rises, and the neat little buns on their pans covered by clean dish towels. Yes I know I can't actually eat bread. But that doesn't stop me from making it and giving it away. And while many people these days are enamoured with baking all manner of flaxy grainy hearty loaves (which I am certainly in favour of), I just want to bake sinful white buns, golden brown on top with tiny white freckles. The freckles were my grandma's sign that the buns were perfect. No freckles, and out the buns went (often to our house!).

15. Stuffed animals. As long as I can remember I have loved stuffed animals. I collect them. Right now I'm working on a zoo. I have an elephant, crocodile, monkeys, camels, sheep, tiger, giraffe, walrus, beluga whale, shark, dolphin, turtle...I remember one particular night when I was quite young that I lined up all my animals around the perimeter of my bed and around three sides of my pillow. Then I carefully climbed into my bed and slept surround by them all night. I love animals (mostly mammals), but I'm allergic to a lot of them, and scared of the rest, so stuffed ones just seemed like the best bet. They don't make me sneeze. 

16. Reruns of M*A*S*H and Wayne and Schuster. Such fond memories. 

17. My blanket...oh I already said that one. Oops.

18. Trivia games. I love trivia, and word games. My dad and a few other people are willing to play word games with me. But nobody ever wants to play trivia games. It makes me sad. My favourite games as a child were IQ 2000 and Teacher's Quiz. So while these things bring me joy, they don't get to do so very often. So thanks to all those people who play Words with Friends with me!

19. Mystery. This probably sounds a bit vague. But I chose this word because it covers a lot of territory. I love mysteries, as in crime novels and whodunit kinds of things. But I also love things that look mysterious. Cloth, furniture, or objects that look like they come from distant lands or ancient times. Music that reminds me that there is a world beyond the one that I inhabit. Fables and tales that introduce me to the previously unknown. That's part of what I love about the biblical story, it takes me to other places. 

20. Underwater tropical pictures with fish and coral and stuff. I love the bright colours, and again a sense of mystery and the unknown. I have no desire whatsoever to actually go snorkeling or anything, I never have. But my sister always wanted to and she loved to swim underwater. Whenever I see a picture like that I imagine her swimming among the fish with her hair streaming out behind her, blue eyes flashing with excitement and joy. 

21. Verenke. For those of you non Russian-Mennonites, these are boiled pocket of dough filled with cottage cheese and salt and pepper and covered in cream gravy. They are even better fried in butter and smothered in cream gravy and strawberry sauce. This is the ONLY food that I have never developed a food aversion to even after throwing them up when I had the flu. Though I think my sister might have since she watched me throw them up on a huge fuzzy red pillow in our basement. 

22. Crepes with brown sugar. As a child my mom used to make us crepes for breakfast and we would just put brown sugar in them and roll them up by sticking a fork in the right hand side of the top of the crepe and spinning it across the plate. Makes sense if you see it. Even though these made me ill every time, I still loved them. And now I know how to make them without wheat or dairy! So I can keep loving them. 

23. Things in neat rows and clean lines. I don't have OCD. Not quite anyway. If I wasn't so bad at math I probably would have been an accountant. My favourite part of accounting class in high school was the grid-lined paper!

24. Having the ability to make things. I love to make things. Just simple things. I don't like to challenge my brain with new crochet patterns, or sewing clothing. But just single crochets, and sewing straight lines. The fun is in choosing the yarn or the fabric. I let someone else do the hard work. Then I just have the joy of sewing straight lines, or gentle curves (not circles, if I can help it!), or making scarf after scarf. You should see how many scarves Alicia has! 

25. The smell of fresh mown grass as I watch someone else mow it! I can't stand mowing, but the smell is intoxicating!

26. Blue skies and fluffy white clouds. I missed those so much when I lived in Elkhart. Manitoba has great sky. 

27. Chocolate! 

It's amazing how many favourite things I have once I start listing them!