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Brittany L. Bergman

Savoring motherhood, building marriage, and living simply

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Savoring Life’s Simple Pleasures

Aug 31 37 Comments

If you’ve been hanging around this space for any length of time, you probably know how much I love the little things. I take stock of the big and little things I’m thankful for each week, because this practice helps me cultivate a positive perspective and a grateful heart.

Like most people, I totally love the finer, grander things in life: luxurious vacations, attending weddings and dinner parties, exploring new places. But the majority of my life isn’t made up of grand moments; it’s made up of sweet, little details that will flash past me if I don’t notice them.

I’ve also come to find that enjoying the little things isn’t just about noticing them but about creating opportunities to enjoy them. I can choose to add a little extra flavor to my daily life by treating myself to some of my favorite simple pleasures. Many of these things are easy, cheap, or free, and take little to no effort. They just take a little extra thought.

I don’t want to hustle my way through life, always looking forward to the next big event, not taking the time to savor the richness that’s all around me. I want to look around instead of looking straight ahead; I want to soak up the beauty of each little moment and let it settle into my veins; I want to be able to recall just how that moment smelled, tasted, and rattled my thoughts.

These are my favorite simple pleasures, the things that cause me to stop during my normal hustle and exhale and say “Ahhh.”

  • Freshly washed sheets and a made-up bed.
  • Summer night ice cream runs to Oberweiss, filling my belly with impossibly creamy vanilla soft serve whipped with Oreos.
  • Snuggling with my dog.
  • The crackling of a fire on a cold day, and the way it makes my home smell like earth.
  • Dining al fresco on a warm, sunny day.
  • Sipping my coffee outside on my patio on a Saturday morning.
  • Picking up a surprise for Dan (usually a donut).
  • Sunday afternoon naps on the couch, when I don’t even notice I’m falling asleep.
  • Fresh flowers in a mason jar on my coffee table.
  • Sending and receiving hand-written mail.
  • Sleeping with my windows open on a cool fall night.
  • Feeling exhausted and accomplished and strong after a hard workout.
  • A crisp fall breeze, the sound of rustling leaves, and the taste of an apple cider donut.
  • The smell of a baby’s cheeks.
  • Eating Funfetti cake straight from the pan.
  • Getting lost in a fascinating book.
  • Wearing my favorite cozy hoodie on a fall day.
  • Holding hands with Dan.
  • The first sip of a glass of really rich, deep red wine.
  • Listening to a thunderstorm while I’m curled up in bed.
  • Licking the spoon when I’m baking brownies.
  • Hilarious photos on my Timehop.
  • Perfectly creamy foam on top of a fresh cappuccino.
  • The smell of saltwater and the sound of crashing waves.
  • Watching my stomach move and ripple as baby girl kicks against it.

Not all of these are things I can choose every day, but anytime I get to soak up one of these little moments, I feel like the richest woman in the world.

What are your favorite simple pleasures?

Grateful Heart w/ Ember Grey

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Filed Under: Gratitude, Simple Living & Minimalism Tagged With: choices, contentment, experiences, gratitude, intention, joy, love, simple living

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brittanylbergman

Brittany L. Bergman
✔️ Kamala shirt ✔️ Kamala pearls ✔️ Ka ✔️ Kamala shirt
✔️ Kamala pearls
✔️ Kamala mug 
✔️ Kamala curls

It’s a great day to witness the shattering of a glass ceiling, to embrace empathy and decency, and to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

The work is only just beginning, but today, we celebrate. Congratulations, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris! 👏🏼🎉💙
What a beautiful, exhausting, festive, heartbreaki What a beautiful, exhausting, festive, heartbreaking, cozy, chaotic-but-strangely-quiet Christmas we had. ✨🎄✨

That’s a wrap for me on 2020—I’ll be off social media until sometime in January. May you be filled with peace and hope as we close this year but still wait for the close of this chapter in our history. 💜
I have faced Christmases full of grief and loss; d I have faced Christmases full of grief and loss; depression and rage; exhaustion and loneliness. But I can honestly say this is the weariest Christmas I can remember. I say that not to shine a spotlight on me, but to say that I have a feeling this might be your experience too. I’m with you.
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And so the words to my favorite Christmas hymn hit me different this year. They resonate in a place much deeper, more tender and true than ever before. I rejoice in the giggles of my meltdown-prone child. I rejoice in stolen moments alone in the dark, the room lit only by the glow of the Christmas tree. I rejoice in every video and every social media post I see of a frontline worker receiving the COVID vaccine, our ticket out of this nightmare. I rejoice in the vision that next Christmas might look more familiar than this one does. I rejoice in the hope of Christ, whose universal, creative, motherly love holds the whole universe together.
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On this Christmas Eve, I’ll leave you with this quote from Howard Thurman. I hope these words bring a slant of light to your day.
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“The symbol of Christmas—what is it? It is the rainbow arched over the roof of the sky when the clouds are heavy with foreboding. It is the cry of life in the newborn babe when, forced from its mother’s nest, it claims its right to live. It is the brooding Presence of the Eternal Spirit making crooked paths straight, rough places smooth, tired hearts refreshed, dead hopes stir with newness of life. It is the promise of tomorrow at the close of every day, the movement of life in defiance of death, and the assurance that love is sturdier than hate, that right is more confident than wrong, that good is more permanent than evil.”
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Whatever and however you celebrate at this time of year, I’m sending you all my love and peace. 💫
I found my Christmas spirit this weekend, just in I found my Christmas spirit this weekend, just in the nick of time.

I baked cookies with Selah without getting frustrated (first time ever?), took the kids on drive to see Christmas lights, and wrapped a bunch of gifts.

But here’s what I think did the trick, and please do steal this idea (because I stole it from someone else but have no idea who): Magical Movie Night™️.

On Saturday night, I stealthily placed a golden ticket under Selah’s pillow (which I printed from the internets and colored quickly with a yellow marker; good enough is good enough for Magical Movie Night!). We put Eamon to bed and got Selah ready for bed too, going through all the normal motions of brushing teeth, putting on pajamas, picking out a book. When we climbed into bed, I told her to look under her pillow.

She was confused when she found the ticket, and I told her it was for a Christmas movie night. “When?” she asked. “Right now!” I said. “What do you mean ‘right now’?” When it dawned on her that she was going to stay up past her bedtime to have a special movie night with Mommy and Daddy (sans Eamon), she lost her mind with excitement.

Bonus: Gramma was waiting downstairs with a bag of popcorn and Swedish Fish!

We snuggled under blankets, turned on Elf, and laughed our festive butts off. (This was her first time watching Elf, and it felt like the dawning of a new era. It’s such a big kid movie! And she loved it! Hold me. 😭)

Deck the halls, bring on Christmas, fill my mug with holly jolly goodness. 

I also acknowledge this has been a crappy year in so many ways, and I know many of you are not going to be able to access Christmas cheer this year. That’s okay. The real spirit of Christmas is light breaking through the dark, love making a way, and the beauty that can’t help seeping through the dirty, messy, horribly human moments of our lives. So you’re covered.

(And if you want to fake it ’til you make it, give Magical Movie Night a try. It’s the actual easiest.)
In which I couldn’t come up with a clever captio In which I couldn’t come up with a clever caption. There are signs of life but my brain is dead. 💀
“This is what I find most mystifying about Adven “This is what I find most mystifying about Advent: the period of waiting ultimately ends in great joy, but we can’t get to that great joy without intense, active, unbearable pain. In Advent we sense the mingling of anticipation and anxiety, excitement and disappointment, joy and pain, hope and fear.
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“On this side of history, we have the luxury of waiting with great hope, great joy, and great expectation. We know Jesus will be born, we know he will save us and redeem us, we know he will die and rise again, and we know he will set all things right one day.
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“But before Christ came, Advent was dark. It was lonely and unknown, as the Israelites waited in faith to hear from God, and all they got was… nothing. Silence.
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“Isn’t this more characteristic of the waiting we usually do? The waiting seasons of our lives are less often marked by joy and hope and more often marked by pain and fear. They are not often cozy or comforting but difficult and dark and even laborious.
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“We wait as a pregnant mother waits for her child to be born—there’s a vision of the joy to come, to be sure, but in the throes of gut-wrenching labor pains, we think we might actually die before we see that joy fulfilled. After a long season of pregnancy, when the fullness of time has arrived, the advent of labor ushers in the real period of waiting—and it is active and painful and raw.”
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// From “In the Fullness of Time,” a new blog post on @first15. There’s a link in my bio to the whole piece, with thoughts on pregnancy, Advent, and waiting well in an exceptionally hard year. 💜 Thank you so much to @first15 for publishing this post!
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Brittany L Bergman is a for-profit blog. Any company that I collaborate with is chosen by me and fits the theme and readership of my blog. At times, posts may contain affiliate links or sponsored content, which is never at any charge to you.

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