Saturday, October 17, 2009

Day 7

This is what a nasty sinus infection/cold/hacking cough will do to you. Make you take days and days off from posting to your blog because you are laying in bed and think you are dying. Oky, well, maybe not dying, but in pretty bad shape. Today is the first day in 5 days that I got out of bed and came over to the computer. During those 5 days I truly couldn't think of one thing to be thankful for, and that is no lie.

So today, I am thankful for the full Z-Pack that I had in my cabinet. It has truly saved me from my misery. While looking for Sudafed (which I didn't have), I found a Z-Pack which I must have filled a prescription for a long while ago and never taken. So now, good riddance to the sinus infection, my nose is no longer stuffy or runny and the hacking cough is dissipating. Slowly.

I will be better this week. And more thankful.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Days 4, 5 & 6

I guess I skipped this little project because it was the weekend. So this post will include 3 things I am thankful for.

#1 - The Weekends My how times have changed. As a kid, I loved the weekends because there was no school. After college, I loved the weekends because I was off from work. After I had kids, I loved the weekend because I was home with the kid(s) and not rushing all over the place to work. But now that I'm home with the kids every day, working, taking care of the house, etc. I love the weekends because my husband is home which means at some points, he can take over.

#2 - My Parents I love the town I grew up in. I love it so much that when we were looking to buy our house, I wanted to buy a house in that town. As a matter of fact, most of the people I graduated high school with live in that town. My husband didn't want to live in that town so we compromised. We live in the town next door. Literally next door. Like we could spit on the town we grew up in, that's how close it is. One of the best things about that town is that my parents still live there. Yes, 5 minutes 7 minutes away. Aside from seeing them alot, which of course is great, my kids have their grandparents so close that they can see them almost every day. I never had that - one set of my grandparents lived in Florida and the other grandmother, well, let's just say that she was less than interested. My parents LOVE being with my kids and are fantastic babysitters. This weekend, while we were at a wedding more than two hours away, my parents had the kids. And they went to Target and bought fall clothes and sneakers. And they went to the arts & crafts store and made projects when they came home. And they went to the supermarket and got snacks. And they went out for pizza for dinner. And ice cream for dessert. And slept over. And then they didn't want to come home. Can you blame them?

#3 - Our Friends I love the fact that so many of my/our friends have been our friends for years. And when I say years, I mean like 30 years. I can name probably a dozen people we still talk to and hang out with that I have known since I'm 5 years old. Last night we went to a wedding of a friend we've known since high school. We sat at a table with a 5 other couples and out of the two that we knew, I have known both guys since kindergarten. At another table sat another 4 - 5 guys we know since middle school or high school. It's great to have friends who know you forever. Or to just be able to reconnect with people once in awhile in person, as opposed to on Facebook.

So that was it, I had three things to be thankful for in this post because I slacked this weekend. But while I was slacking, I was absolutely having fun. And starting to come out of this funk....

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Day 3

Why is this hard at day 3? Shouldn't it be hard at day 30? I mean, day 3? Really. Technically yesterday was day 3, but it was my birthday so I am allowed one day off from this crazy project. Oh, and from work because I definitely took the day off from work yesterday.

When my son went to nursery school, I had visions of him meeting his best friend for life and whoever the mom was becoming my best friend for life. I had visions of him having a group of boys that he would go through school with and go through life with. And that I would be automatic best friends with the moms forever. And the dads would automatically be best friends forever. And that didn't happen. Oh, that SO didn't happen.

What I found, in the midst of a school that was running itself into the ground, was a few genuine moms but more of the stab-you-in-the-back-talk-about-you-every-time-you-turn-around moms. You know, the kind of moms who think that their kids can't do anything wrong even though you know that are the devil incarnate.

However, out of this school that shouldn't be standing, came a few really super great moms. The kind that although you don't see them that often because the kids all go to different schools, every time you see them feels like you just saw them yesterday. The kind that still invite all the kids to the birthday parties. The kind that take time out of their day to take you out to lunch for your 35th birthday and bring you candy and balloons to celebrate.

So that's what I'm thankful for today. The good moms and true friends that do exist and that I found in the sea of all of the craziness. So big thanks to my girls for having a great birthday celebration, even when it wasn't something I wanted to celebrate.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Day 2

This weekend, I worked with another business and ran a program where, one morning, families can come and donate their kids gently used Halloween costumes from previous years and exchange them for one that will fit them this year. In the end, the remaining costumes are donated to a local non-profit day care center that serves an extremely poor community. The concept is fantastic and implementing it isn't that hard, but as with everything, one bad apple can spoil the bunch. Obviously the process described above is not foolproof. Here are some hypothetical situations that can arise. Note again that these may be are hypothetical situations.
  • If 25 people show up and donate costumes sized for one year olds, chances are that the one person that shows up with a 9 year old will not find anything in his size.
  • I'm sorry if your child is afraid of our clown.
  • If the event is advertised as starting at 10am and you show up at 930am, that doesn't mean that everyone else is late.
  • If the event is advertised as taking place at 11am sharp and you show up at 1130am, I apologize if there isn't anything left for you to choose from. Please don't send me hate e-mail.
  • Although all of the costumes are being donated by my company to a non-profit organization, I can not give you a receipt to write your donation off on your taxes because I am not a qualifying non-profit organization. Please don't spend 10 minutes arguing with me about this, after you show up 15 minutes late.
  • If you go to an event and start an argument with the person running the event for any of the reasons described above, please do not take 5 of our goody bags with you as you storm out the door.
Because this is a gratitude journal, there is some good that I can find. The people that came to the event, had fun, got costumes and were happy to make donations made it all worth it. The non-profit day care center that will now have 20 extra costumes for their kids to wear in their Halloween parade made it all worth it. The fact that I was able to organize an event to bring people together to show that even if they can do something small, it helps - that's what made it all worth it. And I was glad to have been able to do so.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Day 1

Things haven't been so great lately. It's not because of one event, or two or even three, but lately I've been feeling more of the negative and less of the positive. It seems that, in my life, the happy and good things make me feel happy and good for less time than the bad and sad things make me feel bad and sad. I have two amazing kids and I don't want to ever look back on this time in their lives and feel that I missed because I was constantly rushing through it. Every day we seem to be in a rush, but I'm not sure where we're rushing to. I was speaking to a woman the other night who has no kids of her own but she stated a very simple observation, from an "outsider" perspective - parents generally don't seem to enjoy their children. As I thought about it, I realized that it's both sad and true. I had kids because I love them, and although I do truly love my children, I can honestly say that most of the time, I'm not actively enjoying them. Which really sucks.

I also have to say that in many aspects of my life, I am constantly wanting them to be different. It's really a big giant pity party over here. Which also really sucks.

Recently my friend Jen's mom suggested that instead of holding her daily pity parties, she should started a Gratitude Journal. Each day for 75 days, she is going to write one thing that she is thankful for in the hopes that by Thanksgiving, she'll be out of her funk. Ever since I read her first post, I thought that it made sense. Focus on the positive, write it all down and put it in perspective. So this is what I'm going to do. On the happy days, it will be easy, but I hope that even on the sad days I can find one thing, even though it might be something silly.

I'm starting today and going to go through Thanksgiving, which is 52 days away. If it works, I'll continue. Only time will tell, but today is day 1.

Today I am thankful for the fact that the sun is shining and it's quiet. After a rainy Saturday and a weekend of running around, I'm glad that I have an opportunity today where the sun is shining, kids are in school, husband is at work, dog is quiet, phone is not ringing and I can think. I can concentrate on getting work done or do no work at all. I can do the laundry, empty the dishwasher, think about making dinner tonight. Or I can do none of those things and just revel in the quiet for a little while. I think that's exactly what I'm going to do.
 
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