{"id":4689,"date":"2014-06-11T01:05:13","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T07:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/?p=4689"},"modified":"2014-06-11T01:05:31","modified_gmt":"2014-06-11T07:05:31","slug":"the-joy-in-simple-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/the-joy-in-simple-things\/","title":{"rendered":"The Joy In Simple Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cOnce she stopped rushing through life, she was amazed how much more life she had time for.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tonight was a good friend\u2019s birthday so we had a small group over to celebrate.\u00a0 Nothing elaborate, just bbq, swimming in the pool, a lot of laughter, playing fun games, and of course dancing\u2026in our family it isn\u2019t a celebration without dance music and everyone busting out their best moves.\u00a0 Sitting back watching everyone laughing and enjoying themselves I couldn\u2019t help but think how much joy there is in the simple things of life.\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t anything elaborate about our evening\u2026we ate off paper plates with plastic silverware, ate chips from a bag, and drank pop from the can. There weren\u2019t any fancy decorations.\u00a0 We hadn\u2019t put a lot of time into planning the night, it was a very last minute decision to do it. \u00a0The result was a simple night filled with friendship and fun that I wouldn\u2019t have traded for anything. \u00a0 After our friends went home late we sat as a family in our living room around the piano while my daughter played piano and we all sang songs. \u00a0We haven’t done that for a very, very long time and once again I was reminded that simple things can bring tremendous joy. \u00a0Happiness is singing songs around the piano with your family :).<\/p>\n

Sometimes we (definitely pointing the finger at myself as much as anyone on this) get so caught up in the fancy planning and the elaborate decorations and the fanfare of it all that we forget that it isn\u2019t those things that make it a great event or a fabulous evening.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t require a big event or a fancy night out or spending a bunch of money or going through crazy planning in advance. \u00a0It just requires good friends, good food (even if you serve it on a paper plate), and good music and vwalla\u2026you have yourself a great night filled with great memories.\u00a0 That is all you really need.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnjoy the little things in life for one day you will look back and realize they were the big things.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

When I look back at my life to see the times that stand out to me most I can see that it is moments like tonight where we enjoyed a simple night of fun with friends and loved ones.\u00a0 That is joy.<\/p>\n

Make it a goal this week to simplify and allow yourself to find joy in the simple things\u2026.that is what I plan to do \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Have a great day everyone!
\n~Amy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOnce she stopped rushing through life, she was amazed how much more life she had time for.\u201d Tonight was a good friend\u2019s birthday so we had a small group over to celebrate.\u00a0 Nothing elaborate, just bbq, swimming in the pool, a lot of laughter, playing fun games, and of course dancing\u2026in our family it isn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2775,419,89,1239,4292,4290,4298,51,4291,1919,189,132,1605,4297,55,464,87,64,4295,35,24,522,448,4293,161,4289,2021,4294,4288,440,1467,4296],"class_list":["post-4689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-big-things","tag-birthday","tag-dance","tag-dancing","tag-decorations","tag-elaborate","tag-families-are-forever","tag-family","tag-fancy","tag-food","tag-friends","tag-fun","tag-games","tag-good-friends","tag-happiness","tag-joy","tag-laughter","tag-life","tag-living-room","tag-love","tag-memories","tag-moments","tag-music","tag-paper-plates","tag-party","tag-piano","tag-planning","tag-plastic-silverware","tag-simple-things","tag-simplify","tag-singing","tag-tremendous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4690,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4689\/revisions\/4690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}