Really, it is.  It’s the simple things. Today I have been reflecting on our lives over the past four years, as asked of course at both the Republican and Democratic conventions recently. Are we better off now than we were four years ago?

Well, financially, probably not, with me having a mild stroke and hubby suffering job loss , but we’re not upside-down in the house, we do have medical insurance, although not the same, we’re closer today than ever before, we value the things we have to look forward to and treasure more deeply the relationships we have with family and friends.

We still have the same house, with a much improved downstairs, so all of my children and their children, and sometimes their friends, can come and stay in comfy beds.  And we’re grateful for the simple things that give us such joy.

One of my happy-dance moments recently was reading on-line that putting baking soda (about a tablespoon) into the water when cooking hard-boiled eggs makes the easy to peel. I tried it and was elated at how easily those eggs peeled. Many people would laugh at this, but if you’ve ever slaved over trying to pick off tiny pieces of cooked egg shell, ending up with some of your deviled eggs pock-marked, you know what I mean.

I was totally thrilled, and decided on the spot to fix tuna salad for lunch with our lovely hard-boiled eggs, even though they were sliced and diced, and added with the sweet pickle relish.  Yep.  The simple things.

I’m in the same same kitchen as I was four years ago, my husband has gone to work, as he did four years ago, although to a much different job and with a much different schedule, but we still love the same things to eat ~ like delicous tuna salad.

I’m sure it gives me even more pleasure than it does my husband, because I know the eggs in that tuna salad were absolutely the most beautiful and perfect hard-boiled eggs I’ve ever cooked. In fact, I couldn’t chop them up until I had a picture to remind me of how much pleasure I’d gotten this particular summer morning, delighting in peeling my eggs so easily, with the screen door open to the yard, and a hummngbird busy sucking nector out of the pink geraniums on the patio.

Yep.  It really is the simple things.