Category: Gratitude Sunday (Page 10 of 12)

Sunday’s a good day to remember what we’ve been grateful for over the past week, don’t you think? I’m joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition, and here’s my list:

– Purging a drawer of clothes — I was surprised at how much I gave away, and it felt fantastic!! Now I just need to get to the thrift store to get a couple new staples; looking forward to some new things in my wardrobe! I hate clothes shopping and have been wearing the same things for so long… it’ll be fun to see some new stuff.

– Feeling a little more caught up; I hate feeling so sick and yet knowing there are mountains of things waiting to be done. Feeling like I’ve got a better handle on moneymaking work, household stuff, and projects makes me very happy.

– Getting out and about more this week; making it a priority. Being extra attuned to my mood and getting out of the apartment when I begin to feel that sinking, trapped feeling. Even if I don’t feel well physically, and have to ‘pay for it’ later, it’s worth it for my mental health and spirit. And when our spirits are strong, we heal better.

– A better week, physically. Still mega sick, but not that awful, crushing fatigue of last week.

– Doing some wonderfully normal things this week! Like going to a play with my dad and my Hubby (mom was out of town) — that was SO fun, just the three of us! I loved it. And going to a holiday boutique with my mom and meeting Hubby for lunch one day. Doing normal stuff is such a spirit-lifter!

– My mom making a special trip to our apartment to pick me up one afternoon and take me to their house so I could lie outside in the sunshine. I was very very unwell, and sinking fast and feeling trapped; that trip to their house was the perfect thing. I am so lucky to have the support around me that I do; I never realized what a “support system” was, exactly, or how important it is. Actually, how essential it is.

– Lying outside that afternoon, in their yard in the sun, on the earth next to my gardens. Watching the warm wind whipping leaves off the trees and carrying them through the air like confetti.

– Getting my moneymaking work done on Monday so that I had the rest of the week free. I love when I don’t procrastinate!

– Youtube! I’m so grateful for Youtube. To learn a new skill, I no longer need to search out a local class, sign up for it, pay for it, wait a month or two for it to occur, hope it doesn’t get cancelled due to low enrollment, and then after the class forget what exactly it was that the teacher said. I no longer have to go to the library, hoping they have a book to walk me through the process…finding out they don’t, then putting one on hold and waiting for it to arrive, and then try to make sense of the poorly written instructions. With Youtube, I can now learn pretty much any new skill I can think of, at any hour, right in my living room, for free! I can replay the video as many times as I need to…pausing when I need to…in order to learn it fully. And in a couple weeks’ time, when I forget exactly how it went, I can watch the video again! What an incredible invention. I really appreciated it this week; and the internet in general.

– Watching some TED talks one evening with Hubby, then watching a beautiful BBC program about artic wildlife. It was fun to just vege out and be entertained.

– A great bikeride with Hubby yesterday. Such pretty weather, and we rode to our favorite health food store that we haven’t been to in quite a while. It felt good to be out riding together.

– Lots of laughter in our house!

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What blessings have you appreciated throughout your week? Leave a comment and let us know!

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Sunday’s a good day to remember what we’ve been grateful for over the past week, don’t you think? I’m joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition, and here’s my list:

– Getting through this week intact. It was such a long and battering week… when I look back at last Sunday when we went to the farmer’s market and bought winter squash, that seems like a month ago! I overdid it last week I think, and it took most of this week to recover. And by recover I mean lying in bed all day, unable to muster energy for the monumental task of taking a shower… or having the energy to turn over in bed, or lift an arm, or open my eyes.

I had a very very difficult time this week accepting my current situation. 

It’s so not me. I’ve never been one to lie around… I love to be up and about and out and doing things…experiencing life and the world. And I’m used to having all the energy I need in order to do that; to be able to just jump up effortlessly and do whatever I fancy… flitting around the kitchen doing various projects, or taking a brisk walk without even thinking about it, or doing heaps of errands on my bike without a second thought. Or just feeling reliably well and being able to travel, make plans, do projects, live life. And it makes me so sad when I can’t do those things. Always feeling ill with no end in sight and not having the energy to live the life I want is a really fast way to crush a person’s spirit. And then when my stomach isn’t keeping anything down… and I’m hungry but can’t eat, or maybe just little bits of very light things…and I’m feeling so sick… is when I drop to a very very low point. I dropped to some very very low points this week. Being this sick, and the uncertainty of it all, and the fear that comes with that, is requiring everything I have — and then some — to stay mentally sane. Some days I do a better job of that than others. But I had a really nice weekend, with improved energy today and that really lifted me up. A lot.

– Taking a fun, leisurely Halloween night bike ride around the neighborhoods! It was a balmy night, and so fun to see all the action.

– A clean house. I’m always amazed at the difference it makes to have a clean house! When your home feels like a sanctuary instead of a dump… then golly yes it is nice isn’t it!

– Looking forward to tomorrow’s forecast of more snow. I just love cozy, cloudy days with snow falling.

– Being so thankful that although this illness can absolutely flatten me, that I’m really strong, and I bounce back. My body’s strong, my mind’s strong, and I’m otherwise very healthy. And I WILL bounce back when this is all said and done. And I’m so SO thankful that I’m not completely bedridden. I read a book called The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating (thanks for the recommendation Sarah!) and the author is completely immobilized and totally bedridden by a mysterious virus or bacteria that she contracted on a trip to Europe. I’m so thankful I’m not in her situation — it could be so much worse!!!

– Some interesting, entertaining dreams. I love when my dreams are like that!

– Just hanging out with my hubby…talking, laughing, dreaming!

– The coziness of being home on a wintry, cloudy, snowy day. Not needing to go out into it, but enjoying it from the warmth of our little apartment.

– Synchronicities. Lots of them lately. This always brightens my mood because I feel that whatever’s going on, it’s what’s meant to be going on, and I’m right on track… right where I’m meant to be, frustrated as I am sometimes with that!

– Sunshine flooding in the south windows.

– An “Irish moment” that really tickled me. I don’t have a lick of Irish in me (a bit of Welsh, though…close enough?) but I had some Irish music playing one day, and had just fixed myself some delicious soup of pastured chicken bone broth with potatoes, celery, and onions (all from my garden!). I was eating my cozy, comforting, homegrown soup in the living room where the music was, and it just felt so homey and…Irish! Haha!

– Improved energy today.

– A wonderful walk today with my dad at a nature spot we haven’t been to in a while. We spotted hawks, an unusual duck cruising the pond (a Wigeon, we think), a duck skeleton in the grasses (such light, delicate bones!), and a kingfisher. It felt so good to be outside in nature, in the Autumn sunlight and brisk chilly air, one on one with my dad. Then we came back and he made us some really delicious hot chocolate from scratch. Then we had a nice, simple dinner at the kitchen table. After such an awful week, my appreciation of the simplest of life-filled moments like these increases a thousand-fold.

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What blessings have you appreciated throughout your week? Leave a comment and let us know!

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Sunday’s a good day to remember what we’ve been grateful for over the past week, don’t you think? I’m joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition, and here’s my list:

– The peak of Autumn leaves! Every year I seem to forget just how beautiful it is, and every year I am reminded.

– Banana slices, fried in a teeny amount of coconut oil in my cast iron pan. I love that snack, it’s like dessert!

– A cloudy, chilly October day, perfect for being inside with a cup of tea, working hard on my moneymaking project.

– Cranking out that big, huge, tedious, challenging, nuanced work project. DONE DONE DONE!!! It’s been hanging over me. When I sent it off at 4:09 one afternoon, I leaped out of my chair and ran for my sunny ‘balcony’ clutching a fun magazine!

– That the library had two books I wanted…right there in stock…without me having to put them on hold and wait for them to be delivered to my local branch, and then making a special trip to get them, which is usually what I do. I really appreciated that instant gratification!

– Making my own kombucha instead of buying it. Making my own tortillas instead of buying them. Drying my own herbs instead of buying them. Growing my own tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, celery…instead of buying them. Making our own pickles instead of buying them. It’s not even because of the money; it’s not that at all (though money is saved by doing all these things and more). It’s because making and growing and eating my own stuff scratches a deep and ancient esoteric itch that no other activity can come close to satisfying.

– All the laughter in our household! Hubby and I are always laughing together about something.

– Smelling Autumn in the night air. It reminds me of Halloween nights when Sonja and I would go trick-or-treating together, surprising favorite neighbors with our costumes…crunching through leaves up and down the sidewalks to each house…looking at all the Halloween decorations and carved pumpkins…sorting and snarfing our candy, going for our favorite Three Musketeers bars first; those were such fun and happy nights! And that October smell was always in the air. Smell is powerful because it can take you right back in time. When I went outside last night at my parents’ house, one sniff of the night air and all those memories came back to life!

– My gratitude journal. It helps me capture wonderful moments that would otherwise eventually slip away and be forgotten.

– Yesterday’s slow pace; I visited my parents, but felt very sick and didn’t want to do much of anything. We all ended up at the bottom of the yard, basking in the sun on the lawn, doing absolutely nothing for quite a while. Just being rather than doing. Talking…not talking…guessing the length of a particularly long piece of grass. I guessed sixteen inches; seventeen, my dad said, ever the architect. Later when we finally drifted back inside, the grass got measured. Dad won — it was sixteen and three quarters!

– A really neat live bat demonstration today that Hubby and I went to. We loved seeing their little bat faces…their little quivering hands…their little antics! Completely endearing. We love bats.

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What blessings have you appreciated throughout your week? Leave a comment and let us know!

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Sunday’s a good day to remember what we’ve been grateful for over the past week, don’t you think? I’m joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition, and here’s my list:

– October. I love love love this month. It’s so beautiful.

– More incredible weather yesterday! And being out in it, all day long.

– Food. Eating. Being able to eat. Never have I been so thankful for that. For a couple days this week I wasn’t able to keep anything down, and after I improved a bit…even just back to my current ‘new normal’ of small amounts of very light foods, I experienced an entirely new level of gratitude for food — especially the foods I really want to eat like fruits, and my fresh garden produce (and not just the BRAT diet!). Yesterday I was able to eat a little bit of spaghetti with my mom’s homemade sauce, and aside from being a triumph for my tummy, it was the most incredible tasting thing! It’s amazing how different one thing can look, depending on your perspective. Eating just a simple bowl of garden tomatoes, cucumbers, soaked & solar-cooked quinoa, with chives, salt, pepper, and a bit of red wine vinegar yesterday felt like being able to actually eat heaven.

– That this past week is over. It was such a battering, defeating, awful week; it’s over and done with, and thank farking goodness for that.

– My family. Always. Even if I don’t write it here every week, they are always on the list.

– Hearing my cat’s precious little voice, and the way she answers my questions with the appropriate intonations…and then questions me. She’s a master of language even without words.

– A wonderful day yesterday. It’s like I got a break from being sick, it was the most incredible feeling! Like someone finally said “Um, seriously guys, she’s about to crack; I think we need to give ‘er this one.” I have such a new appreciation for simply feeling even just “yeah, pretty good!”. Again, it’s all about perspective. I will never again take “feeling normal” for granted. Yesterday reminded me what normal felt like, since I’d actually forgotten quite a while ago. It felt INCREDIBLE!

– My folks got home safely from their vacation. That’s always such a relief, when loved ones return home, safe and sound, healthy and happy, and all is well and normal.

– Being up on the roof of the house yesterday with my dad! For some reason it’s so fun to be on the roof! Such a new perspective on the house, the yard, the neighborhood…and it’s always fun to hang out with my dad doing ‘man’ stuff together, heehee, like inspecting the roof. Here’s a whole new perspective on the garden! (This week was full of new perspectives, wasn’t it…hmmm…)

– My wonderful hubby ever-so-gently and tenderly stroking my face and hair during a bout of utter lifeless despair; and feeling all that love pouring out of his hands. I needed that so much, and having him there with me, just being present with me in that un-glorious moment, was such a gift.

– That frost hasn’t gotten the garden quite yet!

– That since I don’t have a regular cubicle job anymore, I don’t have to masquerade as someone I’m not and pretend to like everyone and make smalltalk with them. What a total waste of energy. I remember thinking “it’s not the actual job that sucks up all my energy, it’s the people!” I’m so thankful that I finally quit that silliness, and instead I am home, being myself, spending my energy on things that actually matter to me.

– Hubby surprising me with two new packages of canning jars! YAY! Thank you!!

– Baking 3 winter squashes today from the farmer’s market this morning. Combining the butternut and acorn flesh to can (tomorrow maybe?), and keeping the kabocha flesh separate to eat plain! I thought the other two were my favorite until I tried kabocha in New Zealand, where ‘pumpkin’ (there are several varieties of squash that are called ‘pumpkin’) is very popular — pumpkin soup is big, and they eat pumpkin as a side dish with dinner as frequently as Americans might serve potatoes.

– A fun time at the zoo with my mom, on a beautiful golden afternoon! And, finding peacock feathers to add to my feather collection!

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What blessings have you appreciated throughout your week? Leave a comment and let us know!

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