keep a gratitude journal

I always am so happy and productive when I do this. Its really important and I stop then come back and vow to keep it up.

• A very patient boyfriend/boss that loves me enough to put up with my moodiness.

• Creativity and those who are driven enough to create. It makes life worth living for me.

• Social media. With so much going on it the world I so appreciate being able to get in touch with loved ones via Facebook.

Abbie won the right to see her kids. I’m really glad. Its only a few days a year but its a start. http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/25/california.triplets.visitation/index.html?hpt=T2 Its a terrible thing that this had to go to court. Sorry that I’m judging the father without even hearing his story but its not right to treat your children and their mother this way. Sad that money that could have gone to her care had to go to lawyers. Its good to see her with her parents. She looks like she’s smiling and the caption says they were looking at pictures of her kids. How lucky she was that her parents took action to assure her rights as well as the rights of her children and their rights as grandparents.

Video here. Apparently she can use a brainwave interface to control things; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370087/Abbie-Dorn-wins-right-triplets-paralysed-giving-birth-them.html

The fact that she has a yes/no signal with her eyes means that she can understand people. I looked at the Dynovox system which has an eyegaze interface. She might be able to use that but the system is $12,000. There are simpler systems that would allow her to just raise an eyebrow but they’re pretty complicated. http://www.dynavoxtech.com/products/eyemax/

• got up early enough to write
• great weather ahead of me today
• finally picked up a couple of pots at the hardware store so maybe today there will be seeds
• stuff I see from my window. The most adorable little twin 4 year old girls with golden braids and red glittery shoes were walking by the house with their family. They stopped to pick flowers from our yard. One had a stuffed dog hanging by its neck in a love hug. When she finally got her coffee drinking moms attention long enough to get the needed assistance to pluck the flower she was so grateful. She really loved the flower and shared it with her toy and looked at it as if it were the most beautiful flower in the world.

Really grateful that a potentially stressful day was not.

Great weather.

Cookies. I really love cookies.

It was really wonderful. I woke up, fully awake at 6:40am! I love this day.

The small creatures in our yard all came by to eat. It was a total party of squirrels, blue birds, and these little brown birds. No crows or hummingbirds yet.

Got some code working that I’ve been struggling with.

I worked really long hours today. Got up at 7am and hit the floor running. It was a good day though.

• Spending the day with a group of counselors at the VA who were learning to use our product with veterans with TBI/PTSD. I’m so grateful that they are learning to do good things for these soldiers. It takes heart.

• Talking to my grandaughter and my middle daughter on the phone today.

• My friend sucessfully put the crockpot on to cook at noon and dinner was ready when I got home. White bean chili made with ground turkey.

• Finishing the IRB packets for the final reviews and having them all ready to go in the morning. Its midnight now.

I’m working on some weekly goals and the theme of the week is Abundance. So I’ll try to identify three things each day.

• I was able to get all the warm clothes I needed this weekend during my trip to a couple of thrift stores. I didn’t have to spend that much and now I’m warm. We also have a good heater so thats really nice.

• I have been able to stock enough food for cooking each week so we are eating well and not snacking. Had a bit of a backslide this weekend because of the Halloween candy. Ate a bag of candy corn over the last few days.

• I managed to keep the correct amount of money in by bill pay bank account so all of my bills will be covered. I get so tired of having to make partial payments and move money around. Finally got it right this month.

• A happy day. I felt happy and was not muttering about things that bother me in the back of my head all day as usual. It felt really good.
• Wearing pigtails even though I’m too old and the feeling of freedom that let me be more social than shy.
• A realization that I have been burning bacon all these years because I was totally underestimating the difficulty of cooking it. I’ve always thought it was a sort of thing that you can put on the stove and let cook while you prepare other things. Today I gave the task my full attention and it came out perfect. I realized it was because I’d always assumed that people who make it look easy to cook bacon do so because it is. It isn’t.
• Getting some great stuff this weekend to cozy up the house. New bed set, frames from Goodwill for most of the pictures and posters, a score on warm winter cloths at the thrift store sale, and a soft robe.
• Finding the wonderful side of my partner every day and learning to appreciate him.

Was youtubing around this morning watching Santana videos, rocking out to music inspired by the univeral spirit of love and ran into this video by Santana and Steve Tyler – Just Feel Better..
http://youtu.be/icD8mBBeIwU

Life for todays teens is so much more complicated. Remember to hug your teen today and tell them you appreciate them.

• Squirrels. I love them. Did you know they make big NESTS in trees?!
• Kids eating vegetables at the farmers market. They don’t even Know they are not suppose to like them.
• Having a front porch to enjoy the evening sundown and eat dinner on. We pretend we are at one of the local restraunts. Its fun to cook for only another adult. No mac-n-cheese. I can use spices. We can have wine.