Gratitudes in March-

I have some gratitudes to share with you.

1. coffee
2. pain patches for my back- and thinking to use an ace bandage wrapped around me to keep it in place
3. time to read- nice light reading, Grave Secret, by Charlaine Harris
4. the rain stopped, and the sun is shining, and hopefully my very wet basement will dry out
5. Daylight Saving Time- it is so nice to have it light later on

The other nice thing  is that the air is warming up, and the sun is shining. I am volunteering at Cait’s school this afternoon, or I would be outside picking up sticks and acorns. But if  the weather is like this tomorrow, I am gonna get outside and get muddy

Starting off March with Gratitude!

Today I am grateful for 5 things in my life. Those five things are

1. Coffee
2. The sun is shining- again!
3. My dear friend Sally’s, Miracle Baby Lillian, turns 8 today.
4. My kids’ love
5. Being able to work from home

Gratitudes in February???

It seems that the worse I feel, the less I do gratitudes, but it is when I need them the most. Why is that? And how the hell do I change it? My motivation has just about disappeared completely. Maybe if I focus on some good stuff happening, I’ll feel more motivated.

Let’s see…..

• The downstairs of my house is relatively clean. I worked most of yesterday dusting, vacuuming, mopping. It isn’t perfect, but it needed to get done. And it gave me a sense of accomplishment.
• Mmm, Scott’s English Muffin smells good, and I think I might have to make one for lunch today.
• Tacos for dinner last night- made by my fabulous brother!
• We didn’t get any snow yesterday- that is always good news!
• One day closer to Spring……

Gratitudes

As anyone who knows me can attest, I really hate this weather. Winter/cold/grey skies- all of these things bum me out. So I think it is even more important for me to focus on the good. Otherwise, I might watch a commercial for Jamaica or the Bahamas and decide to run away somewhere warm.

So for this week I am grateful for:

1. The Fulfilled Soul and Ashalee Wall. What a phenomenal job Ashalee is doing with this group. Its taking me a while to get into the swing of it- or rather to stay consistent, but I am trying. She is completely supportive and is just so positive and helpful too.
2. Heat packs! My back and hip are  in a lot of pain, and it is so nice to be able to microwave my heat pack. Ahhh!
3. Gary was able to enroll into a Medicare Rx Plan without too much difficulty. It took us several days to figure it all out. I really don’t understand how seniors can make sense of it all!
4. Scott had a great day with the tutor. She works so well with him. She even brings him penguin stuff, which is definitely a motivator for him.
5. My crazy O-Fam. Heleh H started the insanity by showing off her tanned Aussie toes whole at the beach. All of us in the Northern hemisphere retaliated by taking pictures of out feet in fuzzy socks! Ok, it isn’t much of a retaliation-Helen wins hands (toes??) down.

Gratitudes!

It has been a while for gratitudes. I have been feeling really sick the last couple of days. When I focus on some good things- even if they are really small- it helps to make me feel better. It might only be a temporary lift, but I’ll take what I can get.

1. Every day brings me one step closer to spring!
2. Warm fuzzy socks,  my hobo couture,  and my super soft blanket
3. Hugs from my family
4. Being able to take a nap and not have to worry abou getting fired. I love being able to work from home.

What 5 things am I grateful for today?

Today is a special day for me to start my gratitude blogging. It is my baby girl’s 11th birthday! In honor of that I am going to make all 5 of my gratitudes relate to her.

I am grateful:

1. that on this day 11 years ago I was given the best gift a mom could wish for, a healthy baby girl.
2. that even though we might have our up and downs (and all a rounds some days!!), we are still very close and have a strong relationship.
3. that she considers me to be a good friend, and I feel the same.
4. that she knows how to make me smile, to laugh, to cry, to scream! She makes me feel- good or bad, it is a good thing.
5. for her wit, her attitude and her strength. I see the woman inside that she will become some day and I know how proud I am going to be – as well as how proud of her I already am.

I love you sweetheart!!

Gratitude bloggin’ 2009!

My friend Sally, who has the blog Sally’s Pondering’s, is running another Gratitude Challenge. Sally is an inspiration to me. She has the best attitude and just oozes enthusiasm and love. Sally lives in Texas, and I was so fortunate to meet her, her wonderful husband and their oldest daughter Cora last year.

I hope that things work out for my family (and hers) and we’ll be able to meet up again next year at our gorgeous friend Cyn’s place in Cozumel.

Anyway, enough about Sally- I wouldn’t want her to get all stuck up or anything (I can so hear her laughing at that one!!). But gratitude is an amazing way to live. I find when I can focus on things that make me grateful, I can start my day in a better frame of mind.  Sometimes, the things I am grateful for seem small and somewhat silly (however, do not ever make the assumption that coffee is small or silly to me!).  Others will be much more personal and thoughtful. Both types, and everything in between, are important.

I am looking forward to starting this 40 day journey with Sally and many of my friends at Oscraps. I hope that you enjoy reading these, and maybe you’ll even like to take this journey with us!

Do you ever wonder why….

…. when you need to do your Gratitude blogging  the most, that is when it becomes the hardest to do it?

My last post was almost a full month ago. And boy- a lot has happened in that month. Unfortunately, a lot of it was not all that good. BUT! Some of it was and I need to be able to focus on that. So here I am, trying my best to blog about all of the good that I can find. I don’t care if I need to use a microscope or binoculars, I am going to look for the good.

Some of the stuff that has happened in this past month was that Gary and I both went through horrible, horrid excruciating withdrawals. Opana is an evil medicine!!!  There were times that I thought I was never going to make it through with my sanity intact. I never felt so sick, even with the worst of my herxes. The more we read about this medicine, the scarier it was- its abuse potential is either equal to or over heroin! It has been a month and Gary is still experiencing some symptoms, and I have very, very little left. But, yes, it took a month- and we were using  “as prescribed,”  in no way was this recreational.

So the silver lining to this:

1. The worst of it is over, we are starting to feel physically and mentally more stable. We know we won’t use that medication ever again.
2. I don’t think my kids are going to use drugs casually. After seeing what we went through, I think it freaked them out quite a bit. We discussed how this can happen with some drugs with the first use.

Another thing that happened is that I was supposed to get a PICC Line in for IV Rocephin. I was rejected, approved and then rejected again by my insurance company, who decided- over my drs recommendations- that it was  not medically necessary. *eye roll* I just loooove how insurance companies can do that.

My silver lining:

1. We have a new insurance company as of last week. So far they seem very helpful and know what they are talking about. We go back to out llmd today, so I am going to find out my next step in possibly getting this PICC done.

Another issue was this economy hurting my PT jobs. I helped my MIL with her quilting business, but since she isn’t doing as much as she had previously, she doesn’t need me as much. That hurts us both!  Then my other PT job, working from home for ACDsee, also got cut by half. OUCH! being that I am the “breadwinner” (buhahahahahahah!!!!!!) I had freaked out!

Silver lining:

1. This is giving me good incentive to get my butt in gear and get promoting my Faery-Wings Business. I started a Facebook Page, a PlumDrop Page, and I am working on an eCrater.com store. A friend also ordered a basket from me, and I realized how much I enjoy- truly enjoy- making these. Here’s what it came out like:

I love it and I hope that my friend and her SIL do too!

So that has been my life in a nutshell – except add in a few more issues with Scott and his school— but it has not been an easy month. Here is to hoping that April is much better!

This is a quote I have taped my computer, so I can it every day:

Everyday that we wake up is a good day. Every breath we take is filled with hope for a better day. Every word we speak is a chance to change what is bad into something good. ~ Walter Mosley

I love it!

I hope you do too.

Gratitudes March 9-10

In spite of some really disaterous insomnia  on my part and major restless leg/full body twitching on Gary’s part- leading to two extremely restless nights of sleep, I am feeling surprisingly well! I think it has to do with two key points:

1. the weather it is still quite cold and damp, but it is not as bad as that frigid cold and snow we had been dealing with. Something about waking up and not shivering as you try to jump into the hot shower just gets my day started a bit better.
2. Gary is experimenting with coming off some of his pain meds. He has unfortunately and unsurprisingly gotten caught in the cycles of tolerance and intolerance and dosages and withdrawals. To add to the difficulties, our new HMO will not cover our one main pain medication. That was the push he needed to try to get himself off of them. I had stopped into our local health Food Store (shout out to Harvest Moon in West Milford!!!) and the owner, John, did a whole consult with him to help him use natural herbs, fermented foods, and mushroom extract to help calm the body systems, reduce pain and inflamation. This could very well help his constant nausea too. This makes me very reived becasue I truly hate the amount of meds we both take, but especially him, since he is so chemically sensitive.

So I have some grats:

• I am feeling hopeful for him- that perhaps this is the direction he needs to take to get better.
• So grateful that we have an *amazing* and knowledgeable herbalist in town.  They don’t have a website but here is their local info. Harvest Moon
• I saw green in my gardenthe other day- yup a teeny bit of lily coming up!
• A really fun week planned at Oscraps next week. Psst, I hear there is going to be a big birthday party there…..*wink*

Have a wonderful day!

Gratitudes March 7 and 8

Oh man! I am feeling so much better than I was earlier this week. That herx was a killer – and since I literally thought I was dying -  I am glad it wasn’t truly a killer

When I am having a herx, I have to keep n mind- the worse I feel, the bigger the die off- so that was a good one. And when the herx is over there is usually a time period when ya feel pretty darn good!

I have a good list of grats here:

• feeling better!!
• the weather- we had an awesome spring day here yesterday. 60* and sunny. We had the windows open and the outdoors called to me. There is not much I can do yard work wise, but I spent the hour just picking up sticks in the yard. There were a lot! But to be outside, getting fresh air was just fabulous!
• Cait had a great time at the quilt show with her Nana and cousin
• A yummy dinner last night- My brother makes the *best* turkey chili and we all chowed down. I make it the same — his recipe — but for some reason everyone likes his better. I like that I don’t have to cook it!
• Lots of coupons- I know how corny can that be? But My MIL brought over stacks of coupons- makes shopping a challenge and i like that!
• re-reading Harry Potter. Yup, starting from the beginning. They just don’t get old or boring. I am picking up little bits and pieces of info that will become important later on. She is a master!
• Yesterday Gary and I played a military wii game that we borrowed from my FIL- Ghosts Hunters? Ghost Fighters? I don’t know,*shrugs* it was fun to play, just the two of us- and neither of us had a clue what to do;)
• DST! As much as I ahte the lose th ehour of sleep, I love that feeling of the longer days! Spring is coming closer!

Enjoy your weekend- there is still quite a bit of it left!