Category: Gratitude Sunday (Page 9 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 once again joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition.

– Being bathed in the angelic voices of a professional children’s choir!

– Lying on the living room rug at my parents’ house, wrapped in a blanket, watching them decorate their Christmas tree. I wish I’d felt well enough to help, but it felt homey and comforting just to be there.

– Challah bread! What a special, delicious treat to have around.

– Hubby making the most incredible pot of spaghetti sauce, and how amazing it made our house smell!

– Seeing glowing Christmas trees in other peoples’ windows.

– Candles in our bedroom.

– Having a wonderful day with my mom on her birthday. The stars aligned and it ended up being one of those rare days where I almost forgot I was sick; I felt really good, and we had such a nice day together, and then when my dad got home from work, we went and had a wonderful dinner out at our favorite French restaurant. And she really loved the framed mandala I made for her! I was happy with how it turned out. That’s a picture of it at the top of this post.

– Getting a Christmas tree! And decorating it together with F.

– Meeting my sweet Hubby for lunch twice this week. Fun!!

– A squeaky clean kitchen floor, cabinets, fridge front, and stove! I got roped into cleaning after accidentally spilling 4 ounces of castile soap on the floor! Gah! On the upside, it’s great to have those surfaces nice and clean.

– Speaking of the fridge, we have a light in there again. It went out last week, and a fridge is surprisingly dark and depressing without a light! It’s so nice to have light there again! Hah!

– Smelling the Christmas tree as I go about my day.

– Hot bath!

– Watching Radio Days with F. last night. I love that movie~

– Sitting by the Christmas tree in the quiet of the night before bed, writing my gratitude list by the glow of the lights.

– That dusk falls early during this quiet, cozy, inward season. To tell you the truth, it feels like a relief.

– Looking forward to snow tomorrow!!

– Feeling pretty good for several days this week; near-normal energy, and getting lots done.

– And then when I began feeling quite bad again, being reminded by my mom that “everything happens exactly as it should.”

– Being with my Hubby… just hanging out together. Laughing together! What an incredibly lucky girl I am.

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What’s on your gratitude list this week?

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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 once again joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition.

– Getting a lot accomplished this week — moneymaking work and otherwise. A couple days were a bit frazzling and kind of stressful, but then I laughed when I compared it to the stress at my former job! HAH. It’s good to remember that and keep things in perspective.

– Fraudulent charge taken care of fairly painlessly. Despite my very prudent online purchasing habits, someone stole my credit card number, name, and address, and purchased a giftwrapped Harry Potter book set from barnesandnoble.com. What an idiot! Thankfully I use my credit card (rather than my debit card tied to my checking account) for online purchases, and thankfully it was just one charge, and thankfully I got my card cancelled before any more charges could be made, and thankfully Barnes & Noble was really nice and reversed the charge when I called them and told them the situation. I’m thankful that the whole thing was a minor inconvenience rather than a disaster!

– Turning off the computer early and lighting candles instead. What a difference in atmosphere!

– Coming back to center one day after feeling groundless, defeated, uncertain, needy, lonely, and afraid. Realizing how much my physical state affects my mental state… and acknowledging that. Sometimes just recognizing and acknowledging something is enough to lessen the weight of it.

– Getting moneymaking work done early so that it didn’t hang over me all week long. That felt so great!

– Homegrown potatoes. They taste SO good.

– Homegrown green tomatoes continuing to ripen! It feels incredibly good to still be ‘eating out of the garden.’

– One morning having a delicious breakfast of miso soup made with pastured bone broth, half an avocado, and my all-time favorite snack of cucumbers in cider vinegar with salt & pepper. I have such a new appreciation for food! All of that tasted so, so good.

– Morning sunshine flooding in the windows — and even better, not having to leave it and rush off to work.

– Making amazing Christmas decorations out of fresh greenery with my mom this week. Gosh that was neat!

– Getting whiffs of fresh pine and juniper as I pass my swag in the hallway!

– Our neighbors in the house to the south of us have moved out! This is such fantastic news! With luck, the new neighbors will be a little quieter.

– A dark morning of freezing fog. Oh how I love those cloudy mornings… always hoping it’ll stay cloudy, though it rarely does. I lit candles, turned on soft music, cooked my oatmeal, and revelled in the quietude and coziness. Cloudy days usually feel like a relief as sometimes the sun feels too energizing and blaring and harsh. And then when the sun did come out, the light reflected off all the frozen fog particles and the air was full of sparkly glitter! What a sight!

– Getting lots of errands completed yesterday, and then coming home to our cozy, homey apartment.

-Meeting up serendipitously with Hubby yesterday at the health food store! He’d gone on a bike ride, I’d gone to do errands on my bike. My last stop was the health food store, and when I pulled up to the bike rack, there he was, locking up his bike! The timing was incredible — we couldn’t have done that if we’d tried!

– Putting cold hands into hot dishwater!

– Full moonlight coming through the window.

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What’s on your gratitude list this week?

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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 once again joining Taryn over at Wooly Moss Roots in her Gratitude Sunday tradition.

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*This list is a little belated, but still full of gratitudes!*

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– My strong body. It really is so strong, and I’m so thankful for it. Many times in the past months I’ve been so sick I actually wasn’t sure I would make it through the night, but then the next day I would be a lot better. My body amazes me with how fast it can bounce back from feeling so horrendous. I have a whole new respect for it now.

– Being HOME. Home home home. Geez, what a week. I’ve gone from feeling the absolute worst I’ve felt yet in 19 months, to almost the best I’ve felt in 19 months!! Early in the week, the antibiotics got me into a vicious circle, where the side effects were making me feel so awful that I wasn’t eating or drinking, and then each subsequent dose (with no food and not much water to “pad” it in my stomach) made me feel even worse…and then not having nearly enough fluids to help flush out previous doses…made for a very potent combo. Tuesday I couldn’t keep any liquid down at all, and that night went to the ER for severe dehydration. My resting pulse was 122 when I got there, twice what it normally is, and my body was jerking uncontrollably. They replaced a gallon of fluids through IV; we were chuckling later, because they put the first two liters in simultaneously — two bags dripping full blast, draining into the same line going into my arm! I’ve never seen that. So they kept me overnight and most of the next day too, until I could keep fluids down on my own. And when I went home I was feeling heaps better, and have been feeling a lot better since then! Something seems to have shifted during those intense two weeks on the antibiotics. And they’re definitely powerful drugs, especially in my sensitive body, and now I know my body’s limits with them. If need be, I know I can stop again and take a little break.

And I’m so glad to be HOME!!

– Being able to eat more! For the last few months my stomach has been extremely touchy. But I’m noticing that I’m able to eat more foods and they are settling better! I can’t even tell you how wonderful this is, and I really hope it continues. I can eat avocados again! I’m not sure which way I love them more — with nama shoyu raw soy sauce, or with lemon juice and salt!

– My family. ALWAYS. They are the single most precious thing in my life.

– Receiving more reiki from my friend; what a wonderful gift.

– Being in a hot bath with snow falling outside.

– A steaming bowl of soaked oatmeal on a frigid morning.

– Walking to the health food store! (2 or 3 miles round trip.) I used to walk everywhere, no problem, but haven’t felt well enough to walk even around the block for so many months. What a good feeling to do a long walk & have mostly sufficient energy for it. That is truly huge!!!

– On a bitterly cold night, soaking my feet in hot water while doing some art. Really fun!

– Yesterday. It started out as a very bad day; my illness symptoms were all back and I was feeling really disheartened and trapped in my body and was mentally sinking fast and nothing was helping. So I began antibiotics again (the plan had been to wait till Monday so my body could get firmly back on track). I decided I needed to take action for the health of my spirit, so called my mom and joined in with her plan to go listen to kids sing Christmas songs at a local church, and then go to another church and listen to an adult choir sing for Christmas. It was so great! Then we went back to their house for dinner & had a wonderful evening. It ended up being exactly what I needed. And it was so nice to get out and do things that I wouldn’t normally do. Have new experiences. My mom and I agreed that getting out and making the effort to have different experiences out of your normal everyday life… to get out and do different stuff… is what makes you feel alive. And that’s just what yesterday afternoon did. It made me feel like I still had some control over my circumstances — that I was able to consciously turn my day around. It made me feel like I was out in life, living, doing things that lifted my spirits… rather than just having another day inside the apartment.

– Being sung to by a group of carollers; there was no one else around, so they asked if mom and I had a song request. I chose Carol of the Bells and felt bathed in their angelic voices as they sang to us! How special.

– Having a warm house. Tonight’s supposed to be -5°. It’s so nice to be warm inside!

– Baking a seasonal treat of challah bread, and how incredible it makes the house smell!

– Going outside last night at my parents’ house; it had begun to snow again, and outside there was just silence. Total silence. It was bitterly cold, and no one was out. A couple houses on the block had Christmas lights on. Winter nights like that just feel like a whole other world; those are some of my very favorite moments of the entire year. They touch a spot deep in my soul that nothing else does. I sure do love winter. Here’s a picture:

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What blessings have you counted this week?

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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:

– That this awful illness is treatable and that I’m finally getting treated. That is so huge. To think I might eventually feel better again and get to have my life back. I was afraid that would never happen.

– Grateful for memories. During difficult times in bed where I’m feeling more awful than I ever have in my life, I can disappear into my mind and memories, and instantly transport myself in time!

– Four reiki sessions from a friend. The most wonderful, useful, healing gift!

– That the drugs make me nauseous and tired, rather than nauseous with insomnia! Now that would be really bad, hah. So at least I’m sleeping well! And in my opinion (as I learned while healing from past surgeries), sleep is the absolute hands-down best healer there is. Period.

– Raw, fresh pomegranate juice. Mmmmmm!

– A wonderful care package from my sister — a bath bomb and soap to treat myself to a hot bath! Thank you Julie!!! I loved that!!

– My hubby, F. He makes me laugh and showers me with love, and I am so lucky that he is a part of my life!

– A relaxing, wonderful Thanksgiving! And feeling well enough to eat little bits of the delicious homemade food ~~ it tasted so good.

– Watching our annual Thanksgiving-night movie, A Christmas Story. I just love that movie!

– The Christmas season. There’s so much that’s beautiful and special at this time of year.

– My family, who are all so good to me and take such good care of me.

– Nothing to do yesterday except lie around and watch cooking shows and rest and heal. It’s easier to relax when you don’t have anything hanging over you.

– Today, going with my mom to a local garden center for their holiday open house. Seeing all the Christmas decorations and a sea of pointsettias, while drinking hot mulled apple cider. Feeling so sick, but being so glad to be out — in life — in the pretty weather, with my mom, doing something fun!

– Soaking up the sun on a bench in the local park today while my parents took a walk on the path.

– Feeling peaceful and accepting on the days when I’m still sick in bed at 2:30pm. Knowing that I’m healing and this will not last forever. And meanwhile enjoying the sun flooding through the windows, the quiet of the house, and watching our neighbor squirrels chasing around the catalpa tree outside the window.

– Our space heater. I’m really grateful for it.

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What has made you feel blessed this week?

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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 blue light of dusk outside…seeing it from inside a warm and cozy house. I love dusk, especially in the autumn and winter!

– Crossing things off my to-do list — there was a lot on it this week. Somehow writing down to-do lists helps me accomplish those things …something about how they’re in front of me on a piece of paper motivates me to do them. Then, it’s so satisfying to cross them off!

– Transcendant words from a sweet former coworker who I met up with by chance. She delivered words I needed to hear at that moment, and it was so nice to talk to her again.

– Trusting myself.

– Feeling lighthearted this week, for the most part!

– Pretty weather (shorts and t-shirt weather a couple days this week!) and how it makes it so much easier to get around on my bike. I love the snow, but was grateful for dry streets and warm weather this week in particular.

– This ultra-low-key weekend to recuperate from an exhausting week. No “have-tos” feels great!

– That the flat tire on my bike mercifully held out long enough to get me all the way home before going completely kaput right in front of our house!!

– Getting both flats repaired (both bikes had a flat! I seem to be a magnet for flat tires…), and my moneymaking work completed, on Thursday night in preparation for a Friday meeting, and then having the meeting get cancelled on Friday morning — so suddenly, I had a free day! I called up my Hubby and met him and his coworker for lunch near where he works; that was so nice!!! And the weather was gorgeous — it unexpectedly got up to 71°!

– These cookies I made; they’re so good, and are gentle on my stomach.

– Laughing hysterically with my hubby!

– Watching Thanksgiving-themed cooking shows yesterday afternoon when I didn’t feel well enough to do anything else. I loved looking at the food; at least if I can’t eat it, I can enjoy it vicariously by drooling at it!

– The food that I can eat. I’m so grateful for it. And when I’m well enough to get back to eating whatever I want, I will have an incredible new appreciation for that, too.

– Reading other peoples’ gratitude lists! They’re so uplifting!

– Our space heater. That when I’m feeling especially sick, I can curl up next to it on the carpet and have it keep me warm all evening long.

– That it’s Sunday night and I don’t have to get up and go to a job tomorrow morning. I cannot tell you how good this feels. And how many years of Sunday nights I would dream of this! I am totally appreciating every second of it.

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

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