be more grateful

My gratitudes round up… Ive been grateful for

1. Finding a beautiful Christmas Tree, it is truely stunning.
2. A nice weekend getting ready for Christmas
3. BashfulC going to the effort of plucking and preparing two fresh pheasant which we had been given as a gift. We ate them with roasted vegetables – a lovely meal which tool a lot of effort on BashfulCs part.
4. Our first night out in a whole year. We booked a babysitter and went for a meal out. We had our special rose Laurent Perrier champagne. It was a lovely meal and lovely (if a little strange) to have an evening out without the children.
5. Getting a nap on Sunday afternoon, we were tired after Willow had a bad night and as my doula appointment was cancelled, we had a welcomed opportunity to catch up on sleep.
6. New curtains for the living room.
7. Our great Christmas Cards arriving.
8. Resigning from my old job
9.BashfulC being thoughtful and buying a freebox box which also records, so we can now record programs rather than miss them (which was brilliant for taping XFactor and Strictly while we were out on Saturday!)
10. BashfulC and I having a laugh when we went to a shop to buy presents for his extended family, and we ended up leaving with nothing for them, but instead 3 more pressies for Oren!
11. My advent bags from BashfulC.

I have been grateful for a lot recently, and I am pro-actively trying to use it to moderate some of my lower moments.

Some recent gratitudes:

1. BashfulC booked me a hairdressers appointment for this Saturday. Ive been unable to do this for myself, as I keep seeing it as a luxury rather than a necessity, and so putting it off. Truth is Im really looking forward to it as a bit of pamper-time.
2. A nice family Saturday afternoon out in town – was very chilled out and low key and it was nice that BashfulC actively wanted to come with me rather than let me go on my own.
3. A friend agreeing to meet half way yesterday for a catch up rather than me travel to her house, just made the day a bit shorter for me, which was appreciated.
4. BashfulC going to get curry after the Chilli con carne incident on Sunday night
5. A lovely (albeit bit short!) woodland walk on Sunday
6. Willow continuing to be a contented baby, most of the time
7. A friend coming down the swine flu the day we were due to meet up – Im not grateful she has it of course, but SO grateful that my kids werent exposed to it.
8. Two friends making the effort to come and visit me and the kids on Monday, they spent most of the day here and it was nice to have the company – even if most of the time Im paranoid that I am now the most boring person in the world now that I have kids.
9. Willow is sleeping through the night… there are some minor blips (from both her and oren) but on the whole I can begin to see the end of the sleep-deprived road.
10. Nursery – Oren loves going once a week, and it gives me a bit of time with Willow, or if she is sleeping, to get stuff done.
11. BashfulC and I finally saw eye-to-eye on a very important matter regarding the business we are setting up. We have had some heated arguments about some aspects and it is good to feel like we have finally reached common ground.

1. For being motivated enough to take the kids out to the playground (this involves a 20 minute car journey so is a bit more faff than just walking down the road!) when our playdate fell through.
2. Oren having fun at the park
3. The admiring glances Willow gets when I carry her around in my sling – makes me very happy!
4. Finding info about a nearby nursery – I have my reservations but if it works out it could make a big difference to us.
5. Feeling like I do have some skills as I write a job application.
6. Having lots of family orientated plans for the next couple of days

1. Willow slept through the night, 3 nights in a row, bliss!
2. Oren having SO much fun playing on his friends toy slide – it was lovely seeing him have that much fun.
3. Managing to keep the motivation to go to my fitness class – it does me the world of good to have a couple of hours away from the house and the kids.
4. My GORGEOUS new nursing clothes from BOOB. Got them for a knock down price and they are amazing – clothes I can feed in which dont make me look frumpy. Finally!!
5. Oren just getting cuter by the day.
6. Having lots of plans with other mummies, have been very busy for the last week.
7. Remembering to join the NCT and discovering a bunch of stuff I could get involved with, as well as a potential job I could apply for.
8. Lovely tomatoes from our garden – very tasty and Oren loves them.
9. Seeing Oren have such a good time at swimming.
10. Remembering both my clubcard and vouchers so I could double up on baby items and basically get £30 of nappies, wipes and food for free!
11. BashfulC cooking dinner and tidying up the kitchen while I was out – and without being asked too :o)
12. Willow not crying for too long after she got her first set of injections.
13. Oren being very well behaved while we were at the doctors for Willows jabs.
14. Oren liking his Tiny Love in-car toy – it was very cute to hear him playing with it while we were driving.

Today for

1. Willow still being on the 50th percentile at weigh in today at baby clinic – still a happy and healthy baby and seems I must still have enough milk.
2. Playing games with Oren – throw the sock made him squeal in delight, as did the raisin game!
3. Molly not killing the sparrow which somehow managed to fly into our house.
4. Arriving first at baby clinic, no queuing and meant that Oren didnt have time to cause too much chaos!
5. Willow having a (short!) lie in, which meant I could get Oren up, give him his milk, have a cup of tea and check my emails.
6. Having a clean and ironed nursing top to wear
7. Beautiful smiles from my little girl
8. How gorgeous my little boy is, he has such big eyes and I dont really notice any more, but today I really did, and they’re stunning

BashfulC and I have recently realised, that despite some hardships, that we have a pretty great life and we should be more appreciative of what we have. Im not very good at having to write entries on this kind of stuff daily, so am going to just write under this entry when and as I can.

1. Playing with Oren – and making him laugh when I was tickling his feet while he was on the swing in our garden.
2. The smiles which Willow gives me when she wakes up from a nap or finishes a feed
3. That BashfulC harvested a load of Rhurbarb for me from our garden so that I was able to stew it up ready to make crumbles today
4. Starbucks at the weekend – an unexpected treat. Havent had a frap in 2 months.
5. Enjoying watching the children at swimming lessons on Saturday.
6. Coffee with friends following swimming class. I love going out for coffee and its just too difficult to attempt now with two little ones when Im on my own.
7. Willow taking regular naps today
8. Oren waking up in a good mood this morning
9. A lazy day playing with the kids, making crumble and playing silly games on Facebook.
10. Some lovely presents to celebrate 2 years of being engaged from BashfulC.
11. Enjoying my current book ‘Plain Truth’ by Jodi Picoult. Am looking forward to reading more.
12. Making progress of sorts in the hunt for Oren’s missing shoe…

Im grateful to have met my partner and fiance, Dean. For the first time in about 6 years I am looking forward to Christmas and New Year, and I just cant wait to spend it with him as I know it will be special.

Im also grateful for my good friends, those people who share in my life now and enrich it.

molly (my cat) cuddling me all night
my lovely new warm coat, cos its cold… brrr
my ER boxset
central heating

grateful that I can rest for what is left of the weekend…

• again getting to the bus stop just in time
• coffee (albeit instant) before setting off for work
• seeing a friend for a drink
• a good aerobics session
• the email system working again at work