A Year of Gratitude

I am fairly contemplative, but rarely set New Year's resolutions. I usually arrive at the New Year out of breath and ready to sleep for 36 hours straight after the December rush. The kids are home, we are spending time with friends and family, and suddenly, it's January 4. Oh well.

But I would like to start this year with a concentration on Gratitude -- marking and developing a constant awareness of God's blessings and gifts and grace. So I'm joining the Gratitude Community, and will work on listing here my 1000 Gifts.



Here goes, in random-thoughts order .... it's so hard to put aside the need to be perfect even in this.

• a loving husband who keeps me honest with myself
• the chance to raise three daughters who are so amazing
• the thousands of photographs of those girls that I'm sorting through and scanning
• sunshine in January
• a bit of land to grow things
• picking tomatoes and oranges in January
• lovely yarn
• one foot surgery behind me, one to go
• medical insurance
• handmade socks
• my new lavender candle
• a husband who will always get the cricket/spider/lizard/whatever out of the house
• a "Eugene de Beauharnais" rose that blooms nine months of the year and smells like I hope heaven smells
• daughters who invite me to watch movies and knit with them
• clean sheets
• a freezer in the garage, filled with food
  
• coffee
• good black tea
• coffee heath-bar crunch ice cream (the best of the best)
• a Mac, any Mac, but the MacBook Pro is really a joy to use
• Photoshop
• my camera
• canning
• my shower, which is everything I ever wanted in a shower
• forgiveness

there! that's a start.