Just 3 Things

Sometimes life can seem overwhelming, with day to day responsibilities from work, life and kids filling every nook and cranny of waking hours (and even some of the sleeping ones, too). So from time to time I’ll do a new feature, “Just 3 Things.” These will be simple tips and ideas for slowing down, having fun and generally finding ways to enhance life. Here we go:

1. Meet someone for tea. Pick an afternoon, call a friend and treat yourself to mini sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and tiny pastries. If you’re near a major city, many fancier hotels offer it, or sometimes some Brits set up shop (Tea and Sympathy in the Village is a good one in NYC). Or go to the bakery, buy something delicious, put the kettle on and invite someone over. Great conversation, tasty treats and relaxing for an hour — what could be bad?

2. Clean out a closet. Or a drawer. Sometimes organization can just clear out your head. So just pick one closet or even a drawer and start putting stuff into piles: to keep, to donate and to pass on to someone. You’ll feel somehow more streamlined.

3. Call an old friend. In this day of email and Facebook and Linked In and every other cool (and by that I mean cold and impersonal) technology, actually talking to someone is a novel concept. But we all have that person that we love to gab and laugh with. So pick up the phone — in 30 minutes you’ll feel infinitely more connected to the world.

Air Force Two

We arrived in Phoenix just about the same time as President Obama…our little cousins went to take pictures of themselves with his plane.

Whoever’s in town, we’re just glad it’s WARM!