More Appreciation #1

On New Year's Day, Mama Pea posted about having more appreciation.  With the stresses and anxiety I've been having lately, I thought it might be a good thing for me to do, too.  I didn't want to add yet another stress by making it a Have To Do! kind of thing, but I thought it would be apropos when I was either having a particularly down day or couldn't focus on what needed to be done due to the anxiety clouding up my brain.  Since yesterday was one of those (latter) days, I grabbed a notebook and started.  And, you know, thinking about the things I'm so appreciative of filled those clouded, buzzing areas of my brain right up until there wasn't room for the anxiety!  So, mission accomplished!

In no particular order then (well, it was the order in which I wrote them down), here was yesterday's appreciation list:

• Sunshine (to charge the electrical system) so I can vacuum.
• Sunshine and pristine snow to I can photograph hats.
•  An ex-husband who unexpectedly presses a check of (what I call) guilt money into my hands.  (He spent the evening with the dogs on Tuesday night.)

• My ex-husband's girlfriend (oddly enough!) who is a genuinely nice, lovely, warm woman.  That also makes me worried for her.  (But, she invited me to stay for dinner when I dropped the dogs off at their house!  [I graciously declined.])
• Audio books.  (I might need a 12-step program.)
• The fact that I have to wear a belt to hold up my everyday-at-home work pants . . . and this was wearing a pair of old running pants underneath (for warmth), too!

I can't even believe that I'm posting this here!

• Mom sharing some wonderful, soft, homemade cheese with me (that they buy & freeze from a large dairy farm in the southern part of the state).
• The sweet kindness of a young international worker friend who I said goodbye to when I was in town on Tuesday and who's in the air somewhere right now between here and her home in Kazakhstan .  She gifted me (completely unexpectedly!) with a little black leather clutch purse when we said goodbye.  Since I will probably never ever see her again in my life, I will treasure it because it came from her (and I'll have to find somewhere fancy enough to wear it to some time!).  By the way, how long does it take to fly from here to Temirtau?  THREE DAYS!!!  First, a 2-hour drive to the airport followed by a flight to Detroit.  Then, from Detroit to New York.  New York to the Ukraine.  A 9-hour layover (ugh!!!) in the Ukraine (and, as you might imagine, it's NOT a large terminal where there are things to "do") and then the final flight to her home in Kazakhstan.  She left last night and will arrive Saturday morning (although they are 12 hours ahead of us).

 

• Stairs to my upstairs office that make my glutes sing each time I have to climb up them (multiple times a day).  If I didn't have those stairs, my rear and legs wouldn't be getting that shaping work-out!
• The fact that I've kept (at least) the foyer clean now for 3 days in a row!

 

• New batteries from Mom and Dad for X-mas for my portable (audio book) cassette player.
• That Jinx (baby cat) let me rub his/her belly for just a few seconds for the very first time today.  This is still (!) the most s/he's let me touch her.
• The hot water bottle on loan from Mom (so I can go to bed with THAT at night instead of the takes-too-much-energy heating pad).
• The cats eating up two small dishes of plain yogurt yesterday.  (As prescribed by all you friends-in-the-know for clearing up / preventing UTIs.)  Look:  they licked it CLEAN!

 

• Getting this corner of the kitchen clean.  Well, as clean as it gets right now.

 

• The sunset out the kitchen window . . . and that it happened just before FIVE O'CLOCK!  The days are lengthening - whoo-hoooo!  (And it's kinda funny that Mama Pea posted about this very same sunset today!)

 

• That even though I want one right now, I will be able to buy some fixings for a cocktail on Monday with some of my X-mas gift certificates!
• And, finally, that I've had a well-stocked pantry and freezers full of food on which to live these last few (financially-taxing) months!

Have a great Thursday!