Sunday, January 19th: Hope

Today I am grateful for hope. The power of looking forward, of believing things will get better, of knowing there is something wonderful out there waiting just for me.
Hope

Tuesday, January 14: My Bed

Today I am not feeling very well so I am super grateful for my big comfy bed, which I spent most of the day in.

Sometimes you just have to bury yourself under the covers and among the pillows and sleep.

Monday, January 13: Resilience

Today I am grateful for my own resilience. Some days it is really hard to be the only one upon whose shoulders all of the responsibility lies in this house. Paying all of the bills, making all of the decisions. There are days when you feel like you can't possibly roll with another punch, field another $200 water bill, or another dentist bill or another call from the school. But over the years I have also come to see how lucky I am. Yes, there are times when I wish I wasn't alone in all of the decision making, but often I have been grateful that I don't have to cave to someone else's opinion on rules for my daughter, or fight with anyone else on whether or not to let her dye her hair again or get a nose ring. It was always up to me. I have wonderfully supportive friends and family I could always talk to when there were problems and often I would implement their advice (with my own twist of course), but in the end the final decision was mine. I see so many couples fight over these issues, and from past relationship experience I have learned that for me things are not necessarily improved when sharing stresses and fears. I tend to want to relieve my partner's burdens so if we are both worried about money, that stress is magnified for me by also worry about the effect it is having on my partner, not just my own normal worry. Thank goodness I am resilient! Even though sometimes it feels like I couldn't possibly handle one more thing, I do. Even if sometimes that means retreating into my home life, or becoming a little bit more short-tempered. And lately I just keep reasoning out that I always make it through somehow, so I know that I will still be standing tomorrow.

Sunday, January 12: Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven???? Warm, gooey, chocolately. And these are not cheater cookies from a tub or tube at the grocery store (which I do often buy and make). These are from scratch. I have had a craving for days and today I had plenty of free time and all of the ingredients (thanks to a love of baking in my house).
I suppose what I am really grateful for today is that I got off of my fanny and actually made them instead of wishing the cookie fairy (or my daughter) would magically bring me homemade chocolate chip cookies. Trying a new trick and freezing extra cookie dough to bring out in small batches later in the month to extend the cookie loving experience.

And yes, these suckers are bigger than average- I fit 6 on the cookie sheet. If I am going to enjoy some cookies I might as well go big :-)

Friday, January 10: Perseverance

Today I am grateful for a quality I possess: perseverance. Without it I would have never finished my latest project; my own pair of knitted socks. The pattern I chose turned out to be a bit more advanced than I was ready for and the author made quite a few assumptions about the knitter's understanding of sock vocabulary (seriously, I learned new words and new stitches) and level of understanding on how to carry out some of the steps. Plus there were some errors in the instructions which did not help matters. I am also super grateful for the internet and all of the people who posted YouTube videos and blogs on how to do certain steps. Without those resources I might have been forced to give up on the project. But I am stubborn and strong-willed (but for the purposes of this blog I have chosen to spin these qualities in a positive light and call them perseverance...) so even though I had to pull that first stupid sock apart about 3 times, watch numerous videos and rely on some Knitting for Dummies blog posts- I finally made my first sock. The second sock felt like it came together with divine intervention, it went so well compared to experience #1. Now I love making socks and am thinking each of my family members needs to have some homemade socks- I hope they will be grateful for my perseverance ;-)

Thursday, January 9th: My Book Lovers

Today I am grateful for my kids in Book Club. These kids are awesome! I enjoy their excited conversations about books and characters, their over-the-top, jump-up-and-down joy at a new book in a series, the way they have made our school library their personal place. These guys are why I do what I do and I am so grateful for a personal reminder of why I matter as a librarian <3
When we all returned form Winter Break this year Hanniyah came in to see me on Monday morning and greeted me with a hug and told me that she missed me and the library over break. How rad is that????

Wednesday, January 8th: Cousins

Today I am grateful for my cousins. I am so fortunate to have grown up with many cousins on each side of my family. My summers were filled with playing in backyards with whoever we were visiting, marathon monopoly games, haircuts gone wrong from older cousins, that later grew into much better hair-cutting experiences as an adult (thank goodness), treasure hunts, hide and seek, etc, etc. If you have cousins you aren't lonely as a child. Cousins understand your particular family dynamic and can reminisce with you  about the "good old days." This week I was happily surprised by a visit from my cousin Serena. She had to come out to the west coast for work and we were able to meet up for dinner. We had such a lovely, relaxing catch-up visit and a yummy dinner. Thank you for being my cousin, Serena and for coming to see me!

I cheated on this picture and used the one we took on her last visit out here in February.