A GARAGE

I love having a garage as a place to store things: tools, bikes, lawnmower, bins of clothes, recycling, garden items, etc.

But in the winter I am so excessively grateful to have a garage for the reason shown in this picture (this is our neighbor's car). While living in apartments, we had several years of having to clear the snow off our car before we could go anywhere. Now, we don't! Hoorah!

SUNLIGHT

No, this is not a picture of my backyard (unfortunately). I wanted a picture of snow and sun and this is way prettier than my own backyard, which features an ugly (but servicable) fence, a hole where the trampoline resides (took the mat down for the winter), a playhouse, some trees and many power lines. It's a great backyard, but this is a better picture for this post.

Moving on...

I forget how dreary and sunlight-lacking winter can be. I would be curious to know how many people in snowy or rainy/overcast winter climates suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder--basically, where you get depressed when you don't get enough light).

So the last five days where I live have been sunny and I am so grateful! Wa-hoo!! Yes, and colder, because of the lack of cloud cover, but it is totally worth it to endure a high of 23 degrees and have the sun shining (actually, that's only 5 degrees colder than normal, so not much difference). I love the sun!

THE POWER OF GRATITUDE

This may be a bit redundant to write a post about gratitude on a blog about gratitude, but here goes. It's weird that even though I blog about and have been trying to be conscious of what I'm grateful for, sometimes I forget to be grateful (usually when I have something hard in my life I'm experiencing).

So it was really good to be reminded of the positive physical, spiritual and emotional power of practicing gratitude. I was having a hard day and was feeling (and probably acting) a bit crabby and sulky. I went to a concert that night and while I was waiting for the concert to start, instead of counting my woes, I decided to use the ten minutes to name everything I could think of that I was grateful for.

It was actually surprisingly hard to get started, but I just looked around me and ended up naming some pretty weird things (rectangles, since the walls of the concert hall were made of brick; beautiful hair; colors; the interesting differences in people; cushioned seats; etc.). I don't know how many I named, but I do know that by the time the concert started I was feeling better, and later that night after the concert, I felt happier as well. True, it could have been the music, or the effect of the people I was with, but I choose to believe it was my focusing on gratitude that was the main thing that turned me around.

I am grateful for the power of gratitude and how recognizing all I've been blessed with can really make me a happier person.

GRIPPY TIRES

I tell you, when it snows here, as it is wont to do, I sure am grateful for some good tires. Ours aren't "snow tires" per se, but they work just as well, since they are new as of last summer.

I woke up this morning to an additional inch and a half of snow (to add to the 2-3 feet that is already there), and even though I don't love to drive on snowy roads, (I've had a few scary slide-offs in my day), it's not bad at all with good grippy tires!

FUNNY RANDOMNESS

"Behold" by James Elston

My five-year-old, Seth, today asked for a Mario coloring page (since he and his four brothers love all things Mario), so I went searching and found this site. I was intrigued by the fact that this man had drawn these pictures for his son, and then shares them on this site. In addition, I am amazed at the fact that some people can draw this well (I admire it all the more since I am not one of these people) and am grateful that this guy uses his talent to share his artwork.

Anyway, just out of curiosity I went to his illustration site and found this gem, which I think is hilarious.

Can't you just hear this big booming voice in the background saying, "BEHOLD!" and the tongues come out and the crowd of little blue guys down below gasp and point. So random and so funny!

WEARING SHOES & WALKING WITHOUT PAIN

Again, it's amazing how many things I take for granted and only remember how grateful I am for them once I don't have them for a time.

Last week I had a weird skin reaction to a cut on my right little toe and it swelled to almost double size. Unable to put any shoes on or even put pressure on that toe without extreme discomfort, I hobbled around all week. Since I was walking weird and compensating to protect my foot, by the end of the week I was sore in muscles I didn't even realize I had!

So this week, I am so grateful and happy that I can wear shoes and walk without pain. What a little thing, but also a huge thing!

17 YEARS

Today, seventeen years ago, I married my sweetheart. What I'm grateful for today is that he is still my sweetheart, and more than ever I love and am grateful for him.

KNOWING WHY

I'm so grateful to be reminded that there is actually a physical reason why I sometimes have INTENSE sugar cravings (chocolate to be exact) and feel a bit snarky for a few days in a row.

Any other women out there ever experience this? Yeah, I'm sure I'm the only one. :0)

MINT

I love...no, adore, mint. When I was young, I would go visit my grandparents in the summer and my grandpa had lots of mint plants in their gargantuan garden. He made this health drink he called his 'green drink' with mint and all sorts of other green leafy things. I tried it once. Nas-ty. But to this day I associate mint with those great memories at my grandparents' home.

And I think I love every mint food I've ever tried (of course, it helps that almost all of those are paired with chocolate or sugar. Kind of hard to go wrong). Unfortunately, I usually cannot eat mint of any kind because of a medication interaction (if you really want to know, you'll have to email me and I will explain).

No mint chocolate chip ice cream (sniff), no Junior Mints (one of my favorite candies...sniff, sniff), and perhaps worst of all...no mint toothpaste (sob sob). It's really weird that toothpaste is the thing that I miss the most. It's something that I totally took for granted before, but now I really miss it. My oldest son contends that no mint gum is the worst, but since I'm not a big gum person, that doesn't hit me too hard.

However, for the next two weeks I can have all the mint I want--hoorah!!

Again, I maintain that the way to really appreciate something that you take for granted, even if it's something as non-essential and seemingly unimportant as mint, is to have it taken away for a while.

But then when you get it back, you love it all the more!!! Hoorah for mint!