Strummer

I am grateful for this silly, loving, smart, goofy beast. It's a cliche, but I hope to someday be the person he thinks I am. Today he and I took a 90 minute walk through Northeast Austin together, and my ass is better for it.

Bringing Home the Bacon

I'm very lucky to work at a job I enjoy that enables me to provide for my family everything that we need, and many things we want. I'm grateful every day that I work for Dell. I honestly didn't know how I would like working there. I'd heard some things, and I was not even a little bit interested in working in a negative, competitive environment. But I've been very, very lucky and have always worked with smart, supportive, funny people who work well together and play well together, too.
I also had concerns about being in a big ol' corporate environment, but it turns out those stuffed shirts need me, and they know it. The benefits are beyond fair, and I can tell you that when you're being treated for a serious health condition like breast cancer it is a relief to work for a company that has big corporate resources, and big corporate benefits. They took very, very good care of me while I was taking care of myself, and I am grateful for that as well.

Day One. Join us!

4 years ago (this will be year 5!) my friend Jote encouraged us all to establish a habit of gratitude, by taking a moment every day, as the year comes to a close, to make a note of something we are grateful for. I joined her challenge a couple year ago, and I've been so grateful ever since for Jote's encouragement. So today, as I end another year by counting my blessings, I want to start by thanking Jote. She's a blessing to me in so many ways. Her gentle spirit and loving ways remind me to be my best self, and approach every one with kindness. Plus, she's an amazing baker, and I do love a baker. Thank you Jote for leading us all in this amazing practice every year. I'm grateful for YOU. 

This Little Light of Mine - well, all of ours.

I have been struggling this winter. I think the struggle is good. I think it would be scarier, more worrisome, if I just quietly settled into this pull to do nothing. To just sit. To mope. But instead, I am struggling to move, to dance, to write, to cook, to bake, to wrap, to walk, to skip and most of all, to be grateful. And by remembering to be grateful, I am remembering to be. To be present. To be active. To be as much myself as I am able right now. Today I am so very grateful to my friend Jote for reminding me and so many others the of the importance of gratitude in our lives. And I am so grateful to our entire community for placing gratitude in my path this year, even when I can't find it for myself every day. I love you, Jote, so much. Thank you for your sweet smile and your ability to inspire.

Gratitude Day 5: Rain!

I owe you two posts, right? Days 3 and 4. So really, right now you're in the middle of a posting drought. A deficit of posting. I'll catch up over the next few days, but just a quick post for tonight.
The drought in Texas has been so severe. You hear about droughts, but this one you could see and feel. This summer, when it was 112, we couldn't swim. Water levels were so low and the water was so warm that all of the good swimming holes and rivers, etc., were full of bacteria.  Crops were dying. Livestock was being abandoned. It's a natural disaster of an alarming magnitude, and you can feel it, I mean really feel it, when you are outside.
And really, truly, despite the mud and the gloom, I am so grateful for several consecutive days of rain. It's glorious. It's wet and soaking and miraculous and good. Welcome, rain, welcome. Stay as long as you'd like. We've missed you.

Day Two; If I name it, I can claim it

Today I am grateful for inspiration. I have some great ideas for a few key projects I'd like to get done for Christmas, for some of the people in my family. I love the ideas. Now I just have to find the energy to get them done. I'm hoping by acknowledging the inspiration, I can also claim the motivation to get it all done. Starting now.

Finding gratitude, and hopefully, my spark.

It's December again! Here comes another 31 days of gratitude - I hope!
My goal is to remember all the things I am grateful for, of course, but also to get back in the blogging habit. I seem to have lost most of my motivation to do anything lately. I don't cook. I don't blog about cooking. I don't sew.  I'm still recovering from surgery but I am ready to do stuff again. It's time. So I'm starting with some gratitude.
I am grateful to have such amazing friends who do things like this and encourage me to join them. Especially you, Jote, you rabble rouser.