Give Me The Grateful Life - Monday

 

I need to be extra grateful this week since I missed last Monday the last two Mondays, has it been three?
Anyway, I hope you'll join me in acknowledging the good and momentarily forgetting the bad and the ugly.
 
And let's get to it!

1. I am grateful for my new favorite show, The United States of Tara.  If you get Showtime and you haven't seen it, SEE IT.  Between Diablo Cody's fabulous, oddball writing and Toni Collette's brilliant acting, you will see your own home life as positively SANE.
2. I am grateful to all of you who answered my musical quest for new tunes.  Thanks to you, I will be exercising with a renewed vigor tomorrow!
3. I am grateful for the longer days (or, rather, I will be when my body clock catches up).
4. I am grateful for the gorgeous California weather.
5. I am unbelievably grateful for my new neighbors, who happen to be old friends, who happen to have a boy my son's age and an adorable girl my daughter can babysit, and a dog my dogs can play with, and who give me the opportunity to scream "DINNER'S READY" from outside my window like my grandparents from Brooklyn did before me.
   
6. Oh, and I'm grateful my daughter is (at least for the moment) over her fear of having a Bat Mitzvah.  I'm crossing my fingers.
   

 What are you grateful for?  It's good therapy, give it a try.

Give Me The Grateful Life - Monday

Hello blogger sisters (and brother(s)). It is Monday. A rainy Monday here in S. Cal. I hope you all had a nice weekend.

I went into a bit of a spontaneous cleaning frenzy - ripping apart my fridge, pantry, and bathroom drawers. I even arranged fresh flowers around the house. I take pleasure in looking at the fruits of my labor, even if no one else around here noticed!

Damn, why don't they notice?!

Anyway, to the gratitude...

1. I am grateful for living in such a close community. Our small town lost three people in three separate accidental deaths this past week (2 fathers and a teenage son). My heart aches for all the loved ones left behind but it makes me feel good knowing they've got a support system to help them through.
2. I am grateful for my family even if they don't notice the clean fridge or organized drawers. (see #1).
   
3. I am grateful for my new writing workshop which simultaneously elates me and scares the shit out of me.
4. I am grateful for Facebook reuniting me with old friends and allowing me to see my high school years from a different, less tortured, perspective.
5. I am grateful for being able to get up early every morning to exercise. It has made a world of difference in so many ways.

What are you grateful for today?

Give Me The Grateful Life - Monday

Wait, I'm not even sure I know how to do this anymore...
Hold on...click on the photo icon, search desktop, add image...
Hey, I think I've got it, I think I remember how to post!

Hello bloggers, I am back.  At least for today, I make no promises I might otherwise break.

I wanted to stop in and share a little WHOLE LOT of gratitude this beautiful, post-election Monday.  I hope you'll join me.

1.   I am grateful for the ability of the American people to recognize a hero when they see one.
2.   I am grateful to be a citizen of what can once again become the powerful and respected nation it has been in the past.
3.   I am grateful for my writing class where I have, so far, written four pieces of which I am proud.
   
4.   I am grateful for the hours (and hours) I have set aside to follow my dream, even though much else has fallen to shit.
5.   I am grateful to my kids for making me laugh.
6.   I am grateful to my husband for putting up with me.
7.   I am grateful to the bloggers who let me get away with starting a contest and never finishing it.  SO SORRY!
   

Oh, who am I kidding trying to stay calm?  I am SHOUTING FROM THE ROOFTOPS grateful that we BARACK-ED the vote!  From all I've read and all I've heard (you must see last night's 60 MINUTES interview of  his campaign staff), if anyone can take us to the promised land from this shit heap we're currently mired in, it's this man.  GO OBAMA!

Give Me The Grateful Life - Monday

Traveling has been a dream of mine since I went to Europe after graduating college. At that point, I hoped one day I could offer my kids an education beyond their classrooms, an opportunity to open their eyes earlier than I did. (Hey, it was 1984 - even Al Gore didn't know the internet was coming.)

Our travels began last summer with a trip to NY, London, and Paris. Despite my kids being awake when they should have been asleep and asleep when they should have been awake, and in spite of their constant whining and complaining, they came back changed, their purview of the world a little broader. For the few months that followed, instead of illustrating footballs, soccer balls, and dogs on his school projects, my son drew pictures of the London Bridge, the Empire State Building, and wrote stories about a really, bad man he learned about in a Paris museum named Hitler.

So, now that I'm past the procrastination and the palpitations of last week (sorry if I left a few of you short of breath), it's time for Give Me The Grateful Life - Monday. Here's what this bitch is showing gratitude for this week...

1. I am grateful that we are embarking on an amazing, family adventure and hopeful we can hold our bladders long enough to skip those "traditional Japanese toilets". Ewwww.
2. I am grateful for (unfat) Deb who is a godsend sent from above Jenn@Juggling life. TY.
3. I am grateful that JCK walked away from a frightening, multiple car collision on Saturday night (and hope that she's still feeling okay).
4. I am grateful that my kids are no longer in camp and we can all sleep in this week.
5. I am grateful for professional carpet cleaners (yes, again).

What are you grateful for? Please tell me in your comments...
(I love that you comment people but this gratitude thing is supposed to benefit everyone . So tell me what your grateful for and we can all be the better for it. Dammit!)

*photo courtesy of pc.org

Give Me The Grateful Life - Monday

Give Me The Grateful Life - Monday was a bit delayed today because, frankly, I am having a hard time finding things to be grateful for.

Nothing is seriously wrong (there's something to be grateful for right there - see how well this works?), I'm just cranky and completely non-productive, after a frustrating, non-restful weekend.

I spent three hours this morning buying groceries, unloading them, and throwing out rotten food to make room for the new food that next week I will throw out to make room for the new, new food.

I spent $200 at Trader Joes. I should have suspected it because people kept passing me, taking stock of the contents in my wagon: three boxes of Mighty Bites cereal, 4 bins of cookies, two trays of frozen hash browns, 5 boxes of Mac and Cheese, and much, much more. More than a few of them made drive-by comments like, "Wow, you must have a big family," "Sure is a lot of food you got there." The checkout guy asked me if all my groceries would last a week.

Here's the thing: I have no idea.

My kids get obsessed with food, like Mighty Bites and TJ's frozen hash browns, so I buy a ton of them just so I don't run out and have to listen to them whine drive back to get more (because TJ's means getting on the freeway which on any day in LA is a risk to my sanity).

But Murphy's Law has it that whenever I do get my shit together enough to think ahead, stock up, be a doting mom to my precious, little kiddies, the damn rugrats decide they don't like those particular goodies anymore and now they "HAVE TO HAVE" something else. Something that I was not clairvoyant enough to have bought. Something I have to get back on the freeway to buy.

The most frustrating thing...when I try to fight back, buy only one or two of their current obsessions, they're eaten within a day and for the rest of the week all I hear is "We don't have ANYTHING to eat."

So we come full circle to me throwing out the rotten food to make way for the new. It's a vicious cycle I tell you, vicious. Particularly for someone who recycles and gives scraps to the dogs just so I can feel good about not wasting it.

So, with that said, I will attempt to come up with the bright side of my past week despite my less than enthusiastic state because isn't that what gratitude journals are for???

1. I am grateful that we have the $$ to spend at Trader Joe's.
2. I am grateful that I have an extra freezer in the garage (however dirty and sticky) to house all the food I bought with all the $$ I spent at Trader Joe's.
3. I am grateful that Peanut has not yet licked the electrical outlets.
4. I am grateful my life is not as dark as Batman: The Dark Knight (and that my voice isn't annoying like his either - WTF?).
   
5. I am grateful for swimming laps in my heated pool which saved me from murdering everyone in my family this weekend.
   

I feel better already. Yup.

What are you grateful for this Monday?