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.
*****
What blessings have you appreciated throughout your week? Leave a comment and let us know!
*****
I <3 bats!
Happy to read your list every week.
Much love.
Glad to know another bat lover, Trish! Aren’t they just the cutest?!
Much love to you too,
Lindsey
Hi Lindsey,
What a lovely Gratitude list this week!
I love Autumn leaves too. The colors fill me with awe.
Fried banana slices sound incredible! Before bed I always seem to have a craving for something sweet.
good job getting your big moneymaking project done! We had a lot of projects “hanging over” us too that we completed. Getting big things finished is such a good feeling! And I love your reward of being on the balcony with a magazine! Good reward. 🙂
I LOVE what you wrote about making your own food. We love saving money, but that’s not why we do it either. It’s so deeply satisfying. I love the way you described it. You are such a beautiful writer.
Love a home full of laughter!
Smells are amazing for bringing back memories and feelings, that’s for sure!
Guessing the length of the grass cracks me up. I would not be good at that game, guessing lengths is definitely not my stong point. haha.
I love bats too. Just not when they are in the house, which is not a fun way to wake up in the night.
Happy Monday!
Thanks for brightening my day!
Love, Taryn
How about all your closet bat-lover friends? I love bats too. If you turn a bat picture upside down, its face looks like a puppy dog, how could you not love it? One time a bat came inside the house, possibly through the chimney. Zippity, my cat, pointed out that it had come to rest on the back side of the decorative barn siding hanging on the wall. We carefully lifted the old wood off the nail and carried it outside. The bat wouldn’t let go and fly away until the wood was lowered from vertical to horizontal. Pretty cool, huh?
Kate,
I love your bat story! I know you’re a bat lover too 🙂 … I thought of you during the bat program. You had one inside the house!! Wow…