California Leaves & Picture Joy

 

 This is what it looks like when the leaves turn in Southern California.  No where near what it's like on the East coast, but it's still beautiful to me.  Beautiful and peaceful and that brings me joy.

So that's Joy #33 in the 100 Reasons for Joy Challenge.

And for Joy #34... instagram!

Ok, so maybe I've been living under a rock.  Maybe I'm the last person to know about this free app.  But thanks to Sarah Markley linking it on her post yesterday I was able to figure out how to use it.

Seriously these kinds of things just make me silly happy.  I love the vintage feel and it's so cool that it's sooo easy.  Really I thought everyone was taking their photos into photoshop and adjusting and rounding corners and applying stamps to rough it up etc.  The layers and the saving and the adjusting and resizing, I thought oh I don't have time to do that for every photo for every post.  But really, it's an app.  1, 2 click, done.  Wow.  Impressed and joyful.

So Joy #35, my son lost his tooth and with his tooth fairy money wanted to go buy a 'hex, nano' bug.  A hex nano?  Also new to me.  It's some kind of a bug that kind of reminds me of a cockroach with a battery.  It sounds like a piece of junk really. 

 But they can have races and of course the people that market them have created all kinds of 'habitats' for them that are mighty expensive for a bunch of plastic that will be out of style in a year.

We added some of his allowance money to the tooth fairy money to buy two so they could 'race'.  And my inventive son built his own 'habitat' all through our hallway.  Seriously the cheers and hooping and hollering for 'black night' and 'lemon drop' (the names the kids gave them) made it sound like they were at a racing forum. 

They were absolutely giddy with excitement.  My husband and I couldn't help but enjoy their delight.  So my initial judgment of the latest piece of plastic that is becoming the new 'rage' for boys this age is completely gone.  They're kinda cool and it was sort of fun (I dare say) watching them flitter along the very imaginative race track obstacle course. 

Joy #36 this yummy candle.  It's orange, clove, cinnamon and is making my home feel a little like Christmas.  We've yet to get anything out.  Hopefully that will be tomorrow's joy!

And my final Joy #37 for tonight... getting the kids to bed in just a few minutes and having time to hang out and watch a movie at home with my husband.  I like to pretend it's like a mini vacation when we don't have anything else going on and I can actually sit down and relax!