1. A beautiful 50-degree day
2. Hiking with Julie & Elle
3. Chickadees landing on our hands (they’re used to hikers with birdseed)
4. Cardinals, Blue Jays, woodpeckers, oh my!
5. My feet got thoroughly soaked, and the feeling of thick, warm socks after I came home was bliss
6. Laughing woth my husband
7. The way babies always lose socks- it’s like a great game to see how long they’ll stay on
8. Letting my body speak and trusting it
9. Deep breaths
10. This

1. Early starts

2. Early finishes

3. Doing your best

4. Getting crafty

5. Having your own parking space

6. Random smiley faces

7. Weeping willow trees

8. Really good sushi

9. Silky slippers

10. Soft skin

As much as I dislike to admit it, today was a “typical” Monday – boys were late to school (no worse than usual at least), didn’t get as much done around the house as I’d wanted to, and both boys had a not-the-greatest day at school. It was a rough Monday indeed. But, now it’s bedtime, the day is done and behind us and a fresh start will come with the morning :-) Oh, and tonight I finally managed to take a fairly decent picture of the surprise from Friday night so that will be the final thing on my list tonight!

Today I Am Grateful:

1) That the weather took care of clearing the ice off of both vehicles overnight so neither hubby nor I had to deal with a bunch of scraping and running of vehicles to clear windows

2) For taking a small leap of faith today regarding one of the places I’m waiting to hear back from about a job and getting the feeling that it was absolutely the right thing to do

3) That no matter how rough of a day my kid or kids may have had, I can always hug them close at the end of the day and remind them “No matter what, I Love You!” before I tuck them into bed

4) For a peaceful ending to the day after all the Monday weirdness

5) That they boys are still loving the surprise Daddy put together for them back on Friday – it’s their very own “tent” to pull around part of their bed (they currently share a large futon by choice) – it gives them their own little world and it’s been so many things already – a command center, a cave, a private movie theatre, a private library and so much more I can’t even keep up! Here’s the pic I managed to take tonight. (Yes the sheet is a jungle style print which they also get a huge kick out of). I’m so thrilled to see them enjoy something so simple yet it fuels their imaginations so much! Thank You Daddy for putting it together! (it’s actually not quite done, we have to put the “roof” on yet but for now they still love it as is)

Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.
~ Albert Einstein

1. Talking it out

2. Study groups

3. Not taking it personally

4. Feeling prepared

5. Contributing

6. Staying organized

7. Handmade tamales

8. Love notes

9. Purple and turquoise

10. Finding an easier and better way to do something

1. Doing things that make me flinch
2. The victory in pushing through
3. Finding the exact right resource at the right time
4. Sunflower yellow
5. Giving myself the opportunity to be awesome
6. Owning my attachments
7. Technology
8. Community
9. The incredible power of women getting together
10. This

Very Grateful for ~

God’s lessons

The first full moon of the year

Serendipity, especially the serendipity of finding WLG!

Rainbow eucalyptus trees…wow!

A 25 degree temperature drop

Smiles

Memories

Book recommendations from my online students

A Pride and Prejudice movie and mini-series marathon

The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret ~Henri Frederic Amiel

• Remembering the unconditional love of a few of fun and interesting pets of family and friends
• “Wally” .. a Pigeon who walked along with the kids on their way to school and greeted them when they returned..small town USA many years ago :)
• GPa’s sister’s raccoon, skunk (yep, really), “Coy” dog, half coyote and half husky…
• …and the time she had a belt wrapped around the neck of a horse and said, “Look what followed me home..”
• Birds: African Grey…Canaries
• “Tom” and  “Angel”, fluffy, sweet, huge cats
• “Penny” puppy, a Dachshund
• A friend’s two gold fish…”Hono” and “Lulu” :)
• Sunny, a yellow lab; Scout, a black lab
• Beautiful black cat: “No name”  
• Our 15 yr. dogs: “Gretel” our Schnauzer and “Buffy” PoodlePom 

The boys were up bright and early again this AM too, but once again they snuggled up in my room with me for a little while so it made it a little nicer at least. The rest of the day went pretty well, the boys played again most of the day. Daddy came home with a free movie rental from redbox for them and they were excited to be able to sit and watch it with their own bag of popcorn and everything. I still haven’t been able to take a decent picture of their surprise, but my hands are getting steadier so perhaps tomorrow I can get it done :-)

Today I Am Grateful:

1) For snuggle time with my boys. As they get older I cherish every moment I can get!!

2) For the weekend spent recuperating and slowly feeling better for it.

3) For getting back to some of the things I love doing.

4) For the sound of my boys’ laughter – especially when it’s pure, absolute from the belly laughter or shrieks of delight as they have fun with something of their own doing – beautiful sounds and moments I store in my heart with gratitude & Love

5) For telling myself it’s okay if I give myself one more day to heal tomorrow and then go back to the gym with my Dad on Tuesday instead. I know he’ll understand – I’m so proud of the way he’s been taking care of himself this year and helping me as well ♥

The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind. ~ Caroline Myss

1. Being here
2. Ava’s amazing smiles
3. Love
4. The ebb and flow of life
5. Appreciating each part of it
6. Joy
7. Simplicity
8. Coming back to now
9. And now
10. And now

1. Sense of smell

2. The way opening hands opens hearts

3. Smiling anyway

4. Strong spine

5. Blobs of fresh goat cheese

6. Putting a lot of time into a simple gift, imbuing it with complexity

7. Sidewalks

8. “Lazy Countryside” performed by Dinah Shore

9. Memories casually strolling up beside you

10. New socks