Daily: Reflect on 5 things for which I'm grateful.

Today, I am aware of my gratitude for:
1. A job that feels secure, the provides flexibility in my work schedule, that presents challenges but not insurmountable ones, that allows me to work with some of the best people in the world and that I truly enjoy most days.
2. A husband who loves me and cares for me and dreams with me and puts up with me!
3. A friend who reminds me how much I grow in love and gratitude when I am documenting my gratitudes here regularly.
4. Restful sleep filled with interesting and mystical dreams.
5. The range of emotions that I can experience in a single day: frustration, accomplishment, joy, ennui, hope, impatience, competence, stress, love and I am sure I went through more than that today!

1. Grateful for the flexibility to work at home. It really helps when I have to focus on something that requires uninterrupted time to get a lot done in a limited time.
2. Grateful for the support I get from my mother and my mother-in-law. I am so lucky to have 2 such fabulous women in my life.
3. Grateful for the delight I take in watching Zoom and Sabrina (the two cats we brought into apt life with us – Jazz, the big boy, is rooming with his Nana) enjoy their morning romp. It starts with Zoom stalking around the apt making a sound somewhere between a purr and a miaow and a growl, leaping onto the coffee table (which is apparently “base” in their game) when he spies Sabrina. They chase each other, bat around one of the thousands of milk jug tabs or caps they have acquired over the past six months and make funny noises. After a while, the fun winds down and they both settle down for their morning nap.
4. Grateful for the sense of anticipation for getting into the new house. Hard to believe that in just a few weeks, we will be waking up there!
5. Grateful for my adorable husband – who stood in the laundry room last night and looked like a two-year old with his hands splayed in exasperation at something. I wish I could explain it better or had a photo to show you. It’s that thing kids, especially little boys, do when the want to emphasize a point they are making. There should be a word for it. Oh, well…

I’m not as good about entering my grats every day but I am aware of them every day. Here are a few things which have elicited a deeply felt “thank you” to God and the Universe recently:
1. I am grateful for having a great builder with whom to work. He gets us and he is so easy to get along with.
2. I am grateful for the continued signs of maturation in SD#2. The mood in the apartment every time she is here is no longer dark and menacing. It is actually light and pleasant. I can see the struggle between the maturing her and the not-yet-there her but, overall, it is quite a nice change of pace!
3. I am grateful for my mom and her husband, who are going to help us fill in the gap between what we have saved on our austerity budget and what we need for closing.
4. I am grateful for the flexibility to work at home. Last week, when all that nasty rain and cold wind settled over us for days on end, I was able to stay snug in our little apartment and still get lots of work done.
5. I am grateful for a return to reading. Most of my “reading” the past few months (or more) has been in the form of listening to short stories on my iPod but recently, I picked up a couple of books I have had hanging around and actually finished one of them last night. Reading has always been such an important part of who I am and it feels good to come home to it!

1. I am grateful that I was able to resolve several Manic Monday Crises today without losing my cool!
2. I am grateful for dinner with Krissy Lynn and her tow-headed 5 year old son.
3. I am grateful for the support of my mother and Papa Jack in the purchase of our new home.
4. I am grateful for the continuing good signs from SD#2 – maturity might be in her future after all!
5. I am grateful to learn that we will qualify for the latest version of the homebuyer’s tax credit. Originally, it looked like we might miss out when they extended it to existing homeowners but they put in that little clause about owning a home for 5 of the past 8 years and we satisfy that! Yay us!
6. I am grateful that mortgage rates only went up a smidge in the past 6 months and that we were able to lock for an additional 60 days with no trouble!
7. I am grateful that we will have a state holiday on Wednesday and I will take a day off on Thursday, giving myself a weekend in the middle of the week!

I just feel good tonight and here are some of the things feeding that feeling:
1. My gratitude for a great Board meeting today – after the last one, I was more than a bit anxious going in but it turned out just fine!
2. My gratitude for the progress on our new home – seeing and feeling how solidly built this home will be.
3. My gratitude for the lucky chance that led me to discover the DAVID WILCOX is coming to town on the 20th! Oh, be still my heart and get ready for a wonderful concert!
4. My gratitude for the quiet season in one of my programs.
5. My gratitude for little moments of romance from my rather unromantic husband! (and I mean that in the most loving, uncomplaining way – he just doesn’t do lots of romantic things but he’s been sending romantic signals recently)

1. The Franklin Covey Store – a few years ago, I found my perfect planning system from them and it definitely keeps me from completely losing my mind some days!
2. Mortgage interest rates that are still where they were when we first locked in back in May – we will do our final lock next week and our rate should be great!
3. Being able to get my “I Will” list done today.
4. My husband, who took the leftover Halloween candy to his office today.
5. The fact that I have not taken even a half of Xanax for the past two weeks – not only am I managing my anxiety better, I am experiencing less of it!

1. I am grateful that this tiny little apartment cleans up so easily.
2. I am grateful that my husband helps so much with the clean up, making it even easier.
3. I am grateful and hopeful that the funny, sweet, helpful SD#2 has come back to us – so very much preferable to the surly, rude, and annoying girl who had been here for a while.
4. I am grateful for a good discussion on forgiveness and forgetting.
5. I am grateuful for quiet, rainy weekends with no drama and lots of warm happy feelings.

1. I am grateful for Sophia, who cuts my hair exactly as I like it and always gives me an extra long head massage during the shampooing!
2. I am grateful for my MIL who has quite generously kept one of our cats at her house while we live in the apartment.
3. I am grateful for Sergio, our delightful builder, whose commitment to excellence can be felt in every inch of our new home.
4. I am grateful for my sweet, funny husband who took me out for breakfast this morning.
5. I am grateful for a Saturday of errands, laundry, helping out my MIL, watching football and waiting for trick-or-treaters!

1. I am grateful for a lull in the pace at work.
2. I am grateful for signs of growing maturity in SD#2.
3. I am grateful for the local furniture consignment shop “Impulse” which will surely help me decorate our new home in a cost-effective manner!
4. I am grateful for the way a gray day makes the golden autumn color more vibrant!
5. I am grateful for the preponderance of things for which to be grateful in my life. (Does that even make sense?)

Since Tuesday evening, I have had lots of opportunity to reflect on the things for which I am grateful. I thought of them in the flash of a second in which the pictured accident happened and I haven’t stopped since. Tonight, I want to capture some of that gratitude here and in more than a five item list so here goes:
1. I am grateful for airbags.
2. I am grateful for seatbelts.
3. I am grateful (oddly enough) that the Lincoln that is under our car managed to get under us instead of smashing flat out into us at the 35-44 mph it was travelling. (According to the police on the scene, this would have been a much worse accident if that had happened.)
4. I am grateful that the car in front of us and into which we were slammed was a Chevy Suburban because it meant that our impact with it caused relatively minor damage to that vehicle and absolutely no injuries to the driver, who was about 7 months pregnant, and her 5 children under the age of 10.
5. I am grateful that, in the aftermath, I was able to maintain my composure and comfort the young girl driving the Lincoln and to talk to her mom on the cell phone to assure her that while, yes, it was a bad accident, yes, it was her daughter’s inattention that caused it and, yes, her car was a total loss and so was ours, that no blood had been shed and no bones had been broken and that we were looking out for her little girl until she could get to the scene.
6. I am grateful that my husband and I were together when this happened and that we have been able to comfort one another and process this event in our lives and to do that we have been able to do that without having to deal with serious injuries.
7. I am grateful that we hold the deep and abiding belief that while this will end up costing us money at a time when we are trying to be quite frugal (because let’s face it, the insurance won’t come close to replacing our car), we really have so much to be grateful for.
8. I am grateful that I can tell everyone who tells me to sue for pain and suffering that, in no way do I consider my bruises and body aches to be pain and suffering. I consider them to be gentle reminders of just how lucky we all were to walk away from that accident without serious injury.