It’s really no secret that I love food, is it? I’ve blogged about juicing, and on my website I list popcorn and good wine among my favorite things on this earth. So you probably won’t be surprised when I tell you that ohmygoodness, my friend Lauren introduced me to the best grilled cheese sandwich ever when I was visiting her in Washington. Although we used real bread (sourdough) instead of pound cake because we wanted dinner, y’all, not dessert. And believe me, Lauren’s been one of my best friends since elementary school, but I love her even more after she made this for me. I’ve whipped it up for Danny twice since I got back to Florida. Voila.Speaking of Washington and Florida — I am so, so, so (so, so, so) grateful that in this day and age, living thousands of miles apart doesn’t mean never seeing one another. I can spend one day on an airplane and be with one of my best friends on the other side of the continent. Or I can hop on Skype and have a face-to-face chat with another friend in another part of the other side of the continent. Or Danny and I can do a Google Hangout with our small group from CONNECT, even though we’re scattered across several states. It is incredible, and I am appreciating it more and more as I make new friends around the country, and as my circle of friends at home spread out to other states. Facebook and Skype and Google and FaceTime all make it so easy to stay good friends and to become better friends.

And, speaking of “easy,” Danny and I have been hard at work to make certain parts of our lives easier. We’re trying to simplify our work life and our home life — to put systems in place so we don’t have to repeat ourselves, so we know what we need to do when, and so those tasks are straightforward and automatic. Last week, I got to enjoy the first instance of putting that automation into practice, and let me tell you, it was like a lightbulb going on and angels singing in the glowing heavens. Now I want to create a system for just about everything. A system for washing and folding laundry (it should involve watching Netflix or listening to an audio book at all times). A system for keeping my house clean. A system for creating new systems. Or maybe not. But I’m loving the start of these new systems! They’re making me more efficient.

Now that I apparently have a ton of free time on my hands, thanks to these systems, I’m going to go make a grilled cheese sandwich and hop onto Skype. Happy Monday, everybody!

~ Laura