gratitude day#21

Today is the final day of the gratitude challenge. I hope that you attempted it and found it helpful. I honestly am going to keep it up on paper, because I've noticed how great I feel at the end of each day recapping the best moments- it really helps you reframe how you think of things. It honestly makes me feel really lucky for all the quality people I am continuously surrounded by.

Here's today's top three standout moments for me:

• Seeing this little face wave at me when I pull into the driveway and throw herself into my arms. Best greeter ever.
• breaking bad - we've almost caught up - only two episodes left- I think I've been dragging it out because I don't want it to end.  The episode we saw tonight, was some of the most brilliantly acted television I've ever seen. Bryan Cranston is a genius in tighty whities.
• time to exercise - the endorphin rush at the end is worth every drop of sweat.

gratitude day#20

Hello friends! I hope you had a great day! One more day to go, and then this will stop being the gratitude blog it has become lately. Here are three things I'm grateful for today:

• A friend finally receiving the great news we've all been hoping for. I'm so excited for the next chapter in her life.
• My hubby walking through the door with a beautiful bouquet of flowers just when I needed them.
• making my daughter laugh

gratitude day#19

Today I got some sad news - my parent's dog passed away. His original owners didn't give him any attention, and he definitely got adopted by two people who truly showed him a great life. I know my dog will be blue next time she is over at their place and discovers that her beloved buddy is gone. He was a giant sweetheart who will be missed.

Today I am grateful for:

• knowing Mowgli for over 13 years and seeing how remarkably gentle he was - especially with children
• having a beautiful walk in the sun with my friend and our old dogs
• having the day off: private time to grieve and to spend the afternoon with my family was just what was needed today

gratitude day#18 - It's working

Hi friends! I don't know if you've been keeping up with a daily gratitude list of your own, but I'm here to tell you, it works. I have never been so consistently happy/content than I have for the past few weeks. I had one blah-ish day, but it was just pms hormones (my wonderful period tracker app confirmed). (Sorry, is that too much sharing?) I just want you to know, that by looking for the standout moments from your day, you gain such perspective. The little things that used to bug you go unnoticed, and the small, amazing moments, that may have gone overlooked in your hurried, busy life, now get accounted for.
Here are three things I'm grateful for today:

• Having a delicious dinner and amazing conversation with two dear friends
• An impromptu play date with one of my favourite mommas
• the gift of time - working part time has a financial cost obviously, but I never, ever, regret my decision - my days feel so full and fun just watching my daughter explore her world. 

gratitude day#17

It's late, so I'm going to keep this short and sweet - but I hope you found some great moments interspersed throughout your day! Here's my top 3 of the day:

• Spending the morning in the autumn sun running through a park with my loves. (These crisp, sunny days mixed with trees ablaze in colour are my absolute favourites.)
• Coming home from grocery shopping to find that my hubby had cleaned up the house, including washing the floors. Seriously amazeballs.
• Dinner with my in-laws. I am particularly grateful that I love the company of my in-laws because I know, from chatting with friends, that this can be a rare thing.

rad gratitude day#16

Well today was definitely the most fun I've ever had running. It was a 5km run, put on by Color Me Rad  and I can't wait to do it again next year. As you're running you get cheered along, blasted with colour, motivated by high fives and when you cross the finish line the field turns into a giant dance party where colour rains upon you. It was a giant love fest and so much fun that it felt like the easiest 5 km I've ever run. I'm still wearing my rad tattoo because that's just how I roll.

Three things I'm grateful for today would be:

• Having such a fun time running with my amazing friend Tricia - who I was so proud of for clocking in 5 km in 31 minutes when she hardly ever runs! How rad is that?
• wonderful messages of friendship from my little work family
• my daughter having her most consistently happy day from start to finish that we've ever witnessed

gratitude day#14

Hello friends! Did you get out to enjoy the sun? It was one of those gorgeous autumn days: sunny, crisp and the crunch of leaves underfoot.
Here are three things I found myself grateful for today:

• The sun. After a drizzly dark week, the sun's triumphant return felt, well, triumphant
• The crew I work with - I would not hesitate one second to say I work in the best department in our company: a bright, funny, cohesive team who get the job done and make it enjoyable
• the fact that my little one walked up to me, plugging her nose, waving her hand furiously back and forth, telling me something stinks....when in actuality it was her (diaper)

gratitude day#13

It's not surprising that this is day 13, it felt like a #13 kind of day - rainy...nearly two hours stuck in traffic because some buddy, whilst rubbernecking at a film crew shooting a movie roadside, (who would have ever thought that would be distracting along a highway?) steered his car in the direction of his eyeballs, right into a ditch. But I digress - these posts are supposed to be about silver linings:

• having an amazing conversation with someone full of those "AHA!" moments
• buying a coffee and a trashy magazine - because sometimes you just need a good dose of crappola - my personal favourite is the magazine's candid photos of stars behaving "just like us" - Look! Katie Holmes is carrying her own groceries! And can it be? Gwyneth Paltrow pumps her own gas? Well would you look at that, they really are just. like. us.  Do you ever notice that you never see a photo of their bank statement in the "just like us" section?
• Of course my favourite moment of the day is walking through the door (not superman style, actually opening the door first) - and hearing little legs sprinting towards me and tiny(yet powerful) arms thrown at full speed around my neck....the best.  

gratitude day#12

Hello friends! Have you kept up with your own gratitude challenge? We're more than halfway through it, so you can add that to your list! Here's three things I'm grateful for today:

• hearing my daughter say three new words today: Bear, car and outside. (Just to let you know,  I did triple check outside and there was no bear in my car. )
• having an afternoon visit with dear friends
• my hubby doing the nighttime routine with our gal so that I can go on a wonderful walk in the rain 

gratitude day#11

Hi friends! I'm going to keep this short and sweet because it's late, but I wanted to keep the gratitude love going. Here's today's recap of three things I was grateful for:

• thoroughly enjoying my first creative writing assignment for class -felt inspired 
• I loved the fact that while everyone was sitting in a circle singing during my daughter's first music class, she stood in the middle dancing. 
• I'm grateful that I got to visit with my friend this morning and we spotted a whale splashing around close to our vantage point. 

getting there....gratitude day #10

Hello friends! A few weeks ago, I was in my element, shooting photos of dear friends with their sweet little babies, in a gorgeous, sunny, park setting. I just wanted to do a little something to serve as keepsakes for them and their daughters because they have extended so much kindness to Stella and I. One of my friends grabbed my camera, and offered to snap a few photos of me since I am always behind the lens. When I was editing all of their photos, I came across the ones that had been snapped of me, and the tears rolled down my cheeks.  I always feel radiantly happy with my little girl, beautiful on the inside, but when I saw the photos - I was saddened that my outward appearance didn't reflect how I felt- I looked bloated and tired. Becoming a mom, I had viewed my body as more utilitarian - (breastfeeding attempts, carrying my baby everywhere, pushing strollers, scarfing down quick meals between caring for others, sleepless nights) - my focus was so outward, that I had stopped taking stock of the toll it was taking on me. (It's kind of like that SNL parody ad for "Mom Jeans" - "I'm not a woman anymore, I'm a mom!")
When relaying my photo reaction to one of my friends recently, she said, "Don't be silly the camera adds 10 pounds!" My response: "Well then, there must have been two cameras on me."
Don't get me wrong - I've never put appearance high up on any parameter - give me smart/funny/interesting any day. But I was sad that my appearance no longer reflected how I felt - and I wanted to take charge of that.
So, I'm only two weeks in, but have made some big changes - ramping up my exercise regimens to almost daily (even half hour stints when she is napping) - to boost my energy levels and get the endorphins flowing. I save the sips of vino for special nights out and have embraced seafood and salads (as much as one can get amped over lettuce). I haven't hopped on a scale yet to see if anything has shifted, because it's too early to expect much and I don't want numbers to deflate my progress.
I posted the photo above, because for the first time in a year, I got dressed up for a night out and felt like I was seeing my happy self coming through again.
Today's top three on my gratitude list are:

• Being able to cook at a leisurely pace - with delicious results
• running to a great song list and feeling the rain on my face
• watching my hubby try to teach my little girl how to dance - so awesome/endearing, but his dance moves couldn't be whiter

gratitude day #9

Goodnight sweet friends, I hope you had a cozy day. Well despite what the song would lead you to believe, it didn't rain men. It didn't even rain cats or dogs. It just rained like a sonofabitch.

Three things I'm grateful for today are:

• jumping in puddles together
• having a lot of laughs over a delicious dinner with a great mix of women
• watching how deliriously happy my little girl was leaping around a bouncy castle

gratitude day #8

Happy weekend friends! What's on your weekend line-up? Here's Friday's top three on my gratitude challenge:

• Having a great catch up with the girls while our friend was up from Portland. I love it how easy it is to pick up right where we left off. 
• buying a new notebook for my writing class and feeling inspired to fill it up
• getting home in time to read my daughter a new book and tuck her into bed

gratitude day #7

Hello friends! Well, we're one week in to the gratitude challenge - have you kept at it? Discipline is something I am striving for these days - with gratitude, parenting, exercise, and my writing class, which requires us to write daily.
Today was pretty much full of awesomeness, so I am actually going to have to limit myself to keep it to three:

• Taking my little love on her first professional photo shoot for a friend's children's apparel line: Stonz. (testimonial: Our little girl has a pair of their yellow rubber rain boots, which are her favourite things to run around in.)
• Perfect autumn weather - all day it was gorgeous outside - 20 degrees of glorious sun - we spent as much time soaking in all the Vitamin D that we could.
• Running 5 km and feeling motivated/energized thanks to Strava Run, Songza and a delicious halibut dinner.

gratitude day#6

Good evening friends! I hope you've successfully been scanning your environment for the little standout moments that make each day feel uniquely yours. You'll definitely experience days where the lists easily write themselves, and days where you are scanning....and scanning....and thinking....well, that flower is kind of pretty, maybe I better lock that in as one of my things...

Today, the three things that stirred up feelings of gratitude were:

• Having a laugh with friends over appies (sidenote: just to clarify, we weren't laughing AT the appies.)
• my mom - for being amazing: taking care of my little one and feeding both of my loves dinner.
• kisses from my family

gratitude day#5

The day is still young, but I want to seize this opportunity while my little gal is sleeping to write my three gratitude entries:

• The fact that my view on our walk, is of this little adventurous girl who loves to be one step ahead, excitedly finding pine cones, sticks and rocks to show me--keeping me in the moment.
• We're house-sitting and have been sleeping in a king sized bed. Is it wrong that I want to buy a bigger home now just to house a new bed? I have slept so well - there's something magical about being able to sleep with your arms and legs spread out like a starfish if you want, without disturbing your partner.
• grabbing something from my dad's garage and being hit by the faint smell of cologne and engine oil - and being flooded in that moment with amazing memories of my grandpa, and the time I used to spend in his garage, watching him work.

gratitude day #4

Goodnight friends! What little silver linings did you pull from your day?
Today I'm grateful for:

• running into friends at my little one's drop in class.
• having enough time during my daughter's nap to workout and start my creative writing class.
• the return of the Voice, and the goosebumps I get from watching so many talented artists-- and Adam Levine. Okay, I was mostly excited for the return of Adam Levine. 

Happy Autumn Equinox! Gratitude Challenge Day #3

Break out your Cosby sweaters (fresh reference) and start admiring your local foliage, Fall is upon us.

Three things I am grateful for today:

• Driving home from work with a delicious coffee, listening to great music and singing at the top of my lungs (amazingly, might I add - you really missed quite the concert)
• the little arms that wrap around me as soon as I walk in the front door.
• Having a bath in a luxurious tub while we housesit - instead of my "dear god did you remember to keep the shower curtain closed so no one gets a glimpse of our tub?" tub. 

gratitude day #2

As you go through the gratitude challenge, you'll find your list of things you are grateful for increases as time goes on because you start seeing the good stuff everywhere.

Today I am grateful for:

• Going for a 5km run in our beautiful city (I snapped the photo above with my phone during my run). (what is not captured in my photo - myself wheezing). 
• Having friends invite us over for dinner. (seeing them, not having to meal plan, meeting new people at their place - WINNING!).
• Enjoying a free bottle of J. Lohr Cabernet Sauvignon for helping a friend out with her dog

gratitude

Hi Friends! Happy Friday! What have you got lined up for your weekend? I'm working, so there's that.
But I am also looking forward to squeezing in some visits with friends.
(My friend Tricia sent me these photos of our little girls - to me they epitomize what friendship is all about: Sharing time and space together and falling over laughing. I love those delicious moments.)
Tonight one of my friends suggested we try a gratitude challenge: 21 days of noting three things each day you're grateful for. By the end of it, you should be in a more positive mindset as you scan your days for the brighter moments. As the weather shifts into darker, drizzly days, I feel like her challenge is perfectly timed - I could use a sunnier disposition. And nothing is too big or small to make your list.
Will you join us in the challenge?
I'm going to focus my gratitude lists on the little things - because I am already acutely aware that I could easily rollover a big list each day that includes: my amazing little gal, my loving and super supportive husband, my extraordinary group of bright and hilarious friends, my incredible - I would do anything for them- parents and in-laws, the fact that everyone I love is healthy, that I have a great job, a roof over my head, food in my fridge.....and on it can go.
But sometimes I think you need to look into the smallest details of your day, to really take notice of what is happening around you to see what makes each day unique:

Day 1:
Three things I am grateful for today:

• Starbucks baristas handing out free samples of their chocolate chai lattes. You had me at free. And chocolate.
• Having a spare moment after work to enjoy a beer (and laughs) with friends.
• My hubby putting our (cranky? independently minded?) little girl to bed and letting me relax