Small Details…BIG IMPACT

I’ve been extremely busy for the past five days. I have two new potential jobs (that are requiring me to do a lot of prep-work), I’m still teaching seven classes, working more than full-time, and ….we moved this past weekend.  Oh, and Matthew spent the weekend with us too.  I’m happy to say that I’m not actually behind right at this present moment—it’s going to be a delicate balance this week, with a funeral and calling hours to go to, a presentation to give, and lots of things to grade, do, and discuss online.  I have incentive to stay on top of it all because we’re going to NYC next weekend, and my cousin is visiting for the following week.  Sleep?  heh. Who needs it!

My point for this post is that I have had to focus on small details in order to get the big things I want done. Small details sometimes yield big results in the arena of pleasure—and isn’t it true that the more pleasure we feel, the more capacity we have to deal with stuff?

Back to the story: We moved into a new apartment, about 15 yards in straight-line distance from the old one.  Unfortunately, this move required me to transport all of our belongings down the stairs, out the door, down the sidewalk, in another door, and up the stairs!  All I have to say is that when you move everything you own one laundry basket at a time—it is one heck of a workout.  Joe was out of town all week, and I wanted to do most of the work because I knew he would have to do some of the heavier stuff (and because he would have never moved if I didn’t want to).  Why, you ask, would we do such a silly thing as move next door into an identical apartment?  The new apartment has one small detail that is different from the old one—-a porch!  Yes, I moved for a balcony—it’s small, and it attracts evening sun.  And I’ll be working a lot from home, which sometimes makes me feel like a caged animal, even when I sit next to the window.  So I told Joe I’d be doing my work outside to make $20 a month extra in rent and moving be worth the trouble.  You should stop by sometime…in December.  I swear I’ll be out there in my snowsuit.

The other small detail yielding big results for me right now is the chocolate cherry protein ice cream I made. Seriously, it’s the best protein ice cream I’ve made yet. I have had it twice, and it would be just as easy to make into a smoothie.

Ingredients:

1 cup almond milk (but you could use any kind of milk or water)

1 Tbsp Maca (optional)

1/2 Tbsp Cacao (or cocoa) powder

1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used Sun Warrior, but you could use anything you want)

1 big scoop of sun butter (I believe this is one of the two most important ingredients!)

A large handful of frozen cherries (I chose these because I had no ice….and it turned out to be the other most important ingredient!)

1/4 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp guar gum (you could omit the gums and it would still be fabulous)

Blend. Eat. Repeat often.

What have you done lately that isn’t a very big deal by itself, but has made your life just a little bit nicer?