30 Days of Thankful: Day 27

I was reminded again today of how very fortunate I am to have my health. I know a few folks around my age, or younger, dealing with some pretty serious health issues and I am so very blessed. A person’s health is perhaps the easiest thing to take for granted. But the unthinkable can happen in an instant and suddenly your life is filled with doctor’s appointments and surgeries and a whole lot of “what ifs” about the future. In the last 17 months, to the day actually, I’ve watched my grandpa die of cancer and my MIL lose her battle with MS. And now I see people my age, and some younger than me, needing surgeries and chemotherapy and it’s just…too much to comprehend. I put myself in their shoes and it’s devastating. I can’t imagine it. I hope I never have to.

Good health doesn’t last forever. We all get old and bad things happen, but if there’s one thing I’m truly thankful for this year – more than anything else – it’s my health and the health of my family.

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30 Days of Thankful: Day 26

As I see news of bad storms hitting the mid-Atlantic and east coast regions this weekend, I’m thankful for decent traveling weather for my family. I’m thankful none of us have to set foot in an airport. And I’m thankful that the road conditions will be relatively safe for driving in our areas. I can’t imagine how many Thanksgiving celebrations this weather is ruining.

If you’re traveling for the holiday, drive/fly safely please!

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30 Days of Thankful: Day 25

Really happy that this is a short work week. AND that I get Black Friday off. There were times, in high school and in college, when I had to work holidays because I had the tremendous foresight to pick jobs at places like Walgreens, the movie theater, and a hospital. i.e. Places that never close on holidays. Perhaps it was my experience working holidays at those jobs, or stories of relatives who wanted to work holidays for the extra pay, but I find myself conflicted about more and more retailers being open on Thanksgiving. There were times when I didn’t want to work on Thanksgiving, or Christmas Eve, or even Christmas morning, but I was the low man on the totem pole and it was either come in or take a “no show” and get written up or possibly fired. I tried to take those days off, or trade schedules with people, but it didn’t work. I had no choice. And sometimes it meant rearranging celebrations or missing them altogether. It sucked. So no doubt there will be people working on Thanksgiving – not just in the retail world, but everywhere – that really, REALLY didn’t want to.

Then again, my husband tells me stories about how his dad always jumped at the chance to take the holiday shifts at his factory job because it meant time and a half. How else was he going to afford giving his three kids the “Best Christmas EVER!” if he didn’t have that extra income? Even if that meant he had to leave by 10am Christmas morning to go back to work.

So while I don’t intend to go shopping on Thanksgiving Day, I don’t think it’s wrong for people to do so. Maybe they have to work all weekend and they’ve picked up extra hours for the holiday season, so Thanksgiving day is the only time they’ll be able to get their shopping done? There are all sorts of “what if” scenarios and it’s impossible to know everyone’s situation. Or maybe they just want to. And that’s okay too.

So if you’re going shopping on Thanksgiving, be extra nice to the workers, and to the other shoppers. And if you’re staying home, just be thankful that you have that luxury and be glad you’re neither fighting crowds or working that day. I know I am!

 

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30 Days of Thankful: Day 23

Oh so much to be thankful for today. Thankful my mac and cheese (from The Pioneer Woman’s recipe) turned out ok.

Thankful for the friends I’ve made in my little mom’s group. It’s so nice to be going through the various stages of baby and toddlerhood with those women.

Lastly, I came home from the “First Toddler Thanksgiving” play date to find that the hubs had rearranged the living room to accommodate the extra 9 people we’ll be hosting for Thanksgiving and it looks GREAT! I may even keep it like this after the holidays. Pics to come once I do some finishing touches.

Edited to Add: To see pics of the awesomeness that was the first Toddler Thanksgiving playdate, hosted by my friend Alyssa and her daughter, AR, check it out: http://myhusbandswatchingtv.blogspot.com/2013/11/toddler-thanksgiving.html

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30 Days of Thankful: Day 14

This week, I’ve been fortunate enough to come home from work to a house with clean floors, a freshly groomed dog, the smell of dinner already in the oven, and the best looking husband and baby in the world. This doesn’t happen every day, and none of those things all happened on the same day, but they did happen this week and that’s better than usual. Well, except the handsome hubby and baby. That’s a daily occurrence. ;)

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30 Days of Thankful: Day 13

One of the easiest things to take for granted is one’s job. Very few people LOVE to go to work. I mean, it’s why they pay you to do it. No one will do it for free. But I love my job for more than just the paycheck and insurance benefits that come with it. I get to work on some pretty incredible brands, alongside some of the smartest people I’ve ever met. That’s not to say my office environment has always been puppies and rainbows. Everyone has their fair share of “toxic personalities” in their office and if you’re fortunate, they only stick around for a couple of years at most. But last night, as I was looking around the room during a work happy hour, I didn’t see a single person I didn’t like. And that’s refreshing. After working for the same company for what will be 10 years come January, it’s frankly unheard of. I know it won’t always be this way, but I’m going to enjoy the happiness and harmony while it lasts.

 

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30 Days of Thankful: Day 12

There was frost on all the cars when I got up this morning, so today I am thankful for seat warmers. A toasty butt is underrated. And you can quote me on that.

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30 Days of Thankful: Day 11

I’m always thankful to our veterans, particularly on Veterans Day. But Veterans Day is also the day my mom and step-dad got married so I’m thankful for TWO things today! (As a veteran, my step-dad wanted to get married on Veterans Day so he’d always remember their anniversary. So far, it’s worked.)

Here’s a photo of my parents on their wedding day in 1996.

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Quote of the Day

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

– Melody Beattie

I read this quote on another blog earlier today and just had to share it.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been doing the “30 Days of Thankful” posts, something I’ve done for a couple of years now, but I never really talked about why. Now that everyone on Facebook has also decided to do this, it’s easy to roll your eyes and say, “Oh here we go. Another Internet meme. Something else to fill my Facebook and blog feed.” But for me, it’s a bit more cathartic. It forces me to look at my life and the many blessings within it. Things I sometimes take for granted or often wish I could change.  True, I don’t necessarily need to share those things with the World Wide Web. I could just as easily jot them down in a gratitude journal, like I did around 2010. But paper journals aren’t my thing anymore and I’ve embraced all things digital instead, so putting it all out there on the blog is just what I do these days.

It’s human nature to never be satisfied; to always want more. But for a few moments each day I force myself to stop and think about something good that day. Sometimes it’s something completely superficial, and sometimes it’s something completely schmoopy. Doesn’t matter what it is, really. Just that for a few moments, I’m grateful and completely content. And if I’m lucky, that feeling of contentedness lasts more than a few moments, and I suddenly forget about our bank account that isn’t big enough, our house that isn’t clean enough, our cars that aren’t new enough, and all the other things that I often feel aren’t “enough.” But they are. In fact, they’re all more than enough. I just forget that sometimes.

So I hope you don’t mind the posts. They’re just my way of sending little reminders to myself.

 

 

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30 Days of Thankful: Day 5

Today was my 20 week prenatal appointment and I am SO VERY THANKFUL that everything is checking out A-OK with baby boy #2.

Some details:

• I’m up about 10 or 11 lbs from my 8 week appointment so my OB says my weight gain is “perfect”.
• Baby is measuring about 13oz right now, or 59%, so growth is right where it should be.
• Baby’s heart rate was 152 bpm.
• Normal blood pressure. (120/70 I think?)
• Baby was positioned head down, feet up, and facing up so the u/s tech couldn’t get all the pics she needed. From the shots she did get, everything looked great. My OB ran through the list of things she looks for and while it’s terrifying to think that so many things could go wrong, hearing her rule them out one by one was so reassuring. I’ll need to get another u/s when I come back for my glucose test in 6 weeks to double check his spine and his feet. They also couldn’t get a good shot of his “goods” so I’m glad we already found out the gender because I would’ve been sorely disappointed to not find out today.
• Speaking of my glucose test, some of you may remember that I failed my first one during my first pregnancy and ended up as “borderline gestational diabetic” after the 3 hour test. I asked my OB if should I fail the first test this time, I could just skip the 3 hour test and be deemed “gestational diabetic” instead. She laughed but said yes. It would be fantastic if I didn’t fail my one hour, but I’m a realist and I’ve already made up my mind that I’m going to fail it. And I DO NOT want to go through the torture that was the 3 hour test ever again. Time to start researching low-carb meal options.
• While we didn’t schedule my c-section just yet (she likes to wait until after 25 weeks) I’m fairly certain I know exactly what date it will be, based on my OB’s schedule. Now I just have to pray that baby boy cooperates and doesn’t decide to make an early debut.
• I think that’s about it. So now that most of the health/development concerns are out of the way, I can finally relax and let my mind be consumed with frivolous things like maternity clothes and nursery ideas. And baby names. We should probably figure that out at some point.

Side note: if anyone has a recommendation on the most awesome nursery chair, please let me know. We currently have a glider in D’s room but I hate it. Every time I get up, it slides back on our wood floors and ends up hitting the wall. So my wall has tons of scuff marks on top of the already annoying loud noise it makes whenever anyone gets out of it. I’m looking for something that is a) comfortable b) quiet c) affordable and d) easy to get out of since I’ll be recovering from major abdominal surgery those first 6 weeks. Please and thanks!

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