Identify 20 things I like about myself and read them until I believe them

I haven’t made up a lot of my own recipes, but I’m pretty good at picking out good ones and following them. Most of what I make is healthy, and I pick out stuff the people I’m feeding like.

My daughter won a goldfish at a fair when she was two and a half and it lived until it was nine.

For years I had a cat who was very healthy and well taken care of. She was very loyal to me.

My guinea pig is not trained at all, but she seems to respond to my voice and purrs a little bit when she climbs into my sweater.
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I questioned this when I was in Virginia, but working up here again has proved this. Kids like me. They don’t mind when I tell them what to do because I let them know that I believe they can do it. When things go a step further and I let them know that they won’t be able to squirm their way out of doing it, they seem to accept that without too much fuss. They talk to me because I listen to what they’re saying.

At least not on the things that are important to me.

When I was kicked out of the college the first time, I swore I’d graduate, that I wasn’t meant to alphabetize every day for the rest of my life. So I talked about it, whined about it, and bitched about it for a few years. Then ,exactly ten years after I should have graduated the first time, I found myself graduating from an Ivy League college.

I wanted to teach. It took me forever to get certified, but eventually I found a school that wanted me, and I’ve been teaching all year.

This morning I wanted a cup of coffee. When I pushed the button, the light on my coffee machine went on, but it never started making slurpy noises. So I dug deep in the clutter and found my old coffee press from when I couldn’t afford a real coffee maker, and now I’m having my coffee. I’m so glad I didn’t throw it out in a cleaning frenzy.

It may take me a while to get to something, but I will get to it eventually.

Since I found out I was pregnant, I have made many choices with my daughter’s well-being at heart. I quit smoking while I was pregnant. (though I did start up again and quit again after that.) I married my ex because I thought it would be best for her, then divorced him when I realized it would not. I stayed at a job so she would have health insurance. I moved back in with my parents so she would have a roof over head. I worked in a daycare so I could earn a living and know she was being well cared for. I went back to college so I could become independent. The hardest thing I’ve given up is the bad judgement I used to have when it came to relationships. Sex is no longer a diversion, it means more than that to me. My daughter has transformed me into a different person. I might not be an ideal housekeeper or the best mom there has ever been, but I’m doing a fine job considering where I was in my life when I had her.