Thanksgiving Gratitude

Every day in November, I forced myself to sit down and find something to be grateful for.  It's been a good exercise, although a bit exhausting at times.

1. My health - In these times, I feel like I can't take it for granted.

2. My husband - He's so supportive and it's got to be a challenge when he's dealing with a neurotic mess like me. He makes me tea in the morning, laughs when I lock him out of the house instead of getting angry, and warms up my side of the bed at night when I come to bed later than him.  It's truly an honor to be married to him.

3. Our girls - Zelda the Cat and Hannah the Dog are such daily comforts. It's difficult for me to believe that I ever lived without them.

4. My job - I do not always love working (who does?), but I'm grateful that I have a job and that I kept my job through the entirety of the last two years. I know not everyone was as lucky as I was.

5. The library - I read every day and most days I'm reading something from the library, either a physical book or an ebook. I couldn't afford to buy all these books and I feel so lucky to live somewhere that has a great library system.

6. My mom - She randomly texts me photos of her garden (not doing great since they've had snow once or twice) and her craft projects. I not-so-secretly love these texts.

7. Our house - We've built a home that we love, full of comfort and coziness, and we scrimped and saved for it for many years and I'm so happy it's everything we wanted.

8. Afternoon walks - Sometimes I'm envious of my friends who live in fabulous cities, have intriguing jobs, and somehow manage to have their shit together. But then I get to walk Hannah the Dog in the afternoon and it seems like I'm doing okay.

9. My bestest friends - I have two friends who both live in the Columbus, Ohio area and I just love that I can text them at any time about anything and they'll know exactly what I mean.  There's not enough joy in my heart when I think about how awesome they are.

10.  Book club - Generally speaking, our meetings are the highlight of my month.  I just adore everything about our meetings from the discussion to the food to the time with friends.

11. Hedwig the VW - We got a new car about a week before we adopted Hannah the Dog (so I guess it's more than two years old now, but we still call it the "new" car) and I'm surprised every time I drive how much more I like driving when I'm in it than when I drive the "old" car.

12. Fall colors - The leaves were spectacular on the maples on our street this year.  So many glorious dog walks though a crinkling carpet.

13. New sports bras - One of my quarterly goals was to buy more sports bras and I did it and it's so nice to have enough for the entire week and the new bras really are more supportive and make high impact workouts so much more comfortable. 

14. Taskmaster and Taskmaster the Podcast - Look, I'm obsessed with this show and  I find myself regularly just watching clips of it on YouTube to brighten my day.  Here are some of my favorites. 

15. Hand cream - I think we can all agree that the last two years of handwashing and hand sanitizing have left our hands in need of a little TLC.  I love L'Occitane's almond hand cream and Lush's Helping Hands. They don't irritate my eczema, they smell good, and they absorb relatively quickly.  Such a huge help in my day-to-day.

16. My accountability buddy - She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three kids and her life is so different from mine, but I get a thrill every single time she Facebook messages me that she did some sort of exercise.  I just know she's doing it (partly) to motivate me, just like I'm exercise (partly) to motivate her.

17. Hershey's seasonal Kisses are available at the store - Candy cane Kisses are my favorite, but the cherry ones are also delicious, and Dr. BB has already finished a bag of the mint truffle ones. Yes, it's probably too early for these treats, but I don't care!

18. Veterinary specialists - I took the dog to the neurologist today and I am so happy that we have these types of specialized veterinary experts so close to us. Hannah's health woes are intense, but having experts reassure us that we're doing everything right for her helps us get through the hard days.

19.  Patient co-workers - My team has to submit a quarterly report and Every Single Time we do this, we get multiple error reports. I have a co-worker who spends a great deal of time every quarter going through our report trying to figure out the errors. Today it was just hours and hours of this and she never lost her good spirit.  

20. Perfect autumn weather - I went for a run today and the weather was perfect - just chilly enough that I wore a hat and gloves, but sunny and windless - and it was just everything you could hope for on a November weekend.

21. Lazy Sunday mornings - I didn't set the alarm last night and it was glorious to wake up on my own. I just lazed about in bed and it was absolutely delightful.

22.  Today was a day. There was water in the basement that required plumbers in our house.  Meanwhile, I'm trying to hold the dog back from attacking the workers when the vet called with some bad news.  BUT, at the end of the day, my husband was belting out an Elton John song that had been in his head all day and we laughed and all the stress just sort of melted away.

23. The idea of a five day break - I took the day before and the day after Thanksgiving off - just because I could - and the idea of a long break really got me through the first two days of the week.

24. Coupon codes for prescriptions - Hannah requires a new prescription and it was quoted at over $200 for a 30-day supply at my local pharmacy. A quick Google and coupon and I found it in Madison (at Costco, where you can use the pharmacy even if you're not a member) for less than $40.  

25. A peaceful day - We spend the morning reading on the couch, petting the girls, and having no plans more ambitious than making a pie this afternoon.