FireSprite

Entirely grateful today for an early morning call with my bestie. She is many states away & has been going through such an awful time. Helping her by simply listening & sharing tools that have worked for me also rebounds back & helps me, every time. I almost always hear or see something differently about myself & my own struggles & sometimes it's something I don't even know I'm thinking or feeling until I literally hear the words come out of my mouth.

I've stopped conversations & said - wait, let me pause, I didn't know I felt that way until I just heard myself say it.....

It is such a beautiful kind of AHA moment, isn't it, when you trip over it while focusing on helping someone else? I'm so grateful to be able to recognize it.

honeypig

This is so wonderful, FS! I've had this sort of thing happen once in a great while too, and it's encouraging to think it might happen more often as I walk farther into my own recovery.

I just began listening to "Carry On, Warrior--Thoughts on Life Unarmed" and I'm grateful for whomever mentioned it here (maybe you, FS?). I'm only on the first disc but I plan to finish it and then re-listen right away b/c there is just so much that I can't take it all in at once...so far seems to be on a Brene Brown sort of track, and I've found BB's writings tremendously useful.

I've said it before but I'll say it again--I am so grateful we have all these resources at our disposal nowadays!

FireSprite

I think it was me - someone reminded me of her blog & I remembered Brene referring to her in her own work.

Her TED talk was really great too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHHPNMIK-fY

I listened to that one twice on audio CD - I know what you mean about taking it all in. I laughed out loud & I cried like a baby, more than a couple of times. A lot of it is compiled from her blogs so I've been hawking her site too. I'm such a stalker!

firebolt

Thats awesome FS.

I have to echo the grateful for time with the bestie- I get a night with mine tonight, and it's always so beneficial to us both.

Wisconsin

Oh, my girls and I had such a fun time last night! The movie theater is always PACKED on Tuesdays, since tickets are so cheap, and everything pretty much sells out. We had ordered our tickets several days in advance, thank goodness. The movie was sweet and funny, and we laughed and laughed and laughed. It was excellent medicine.

honeypig

Glad to hear you had so much fun, Wisconsin!!

Liveitwell

Grateful to have known a little girl for a time and grateful to know her family that is one of the most faithful families I have ever met. They just lost their 11 year old daughter to an incurable disease. My heart aches for them but ever so grateful that she is not in pain anymore. She was a light to all that knew her, and her family inspires me in my own walk with Christ. Grateful more than ever today for my two little girls. Tomorrow is not a promise-grateful for today.

honeypig

Good luck at your 5K on Sunday, Rayn3dr0p! So glad you kicked the cigs to the curb. I quit about 20 years ago, after smoking for about 20 years prior to that, and I'm so glad that's behind me.

Run like the wind!

FireSprite

(((((For))))) I'm jumping on that bandwagon with you. A friend of mine lost her little boy a few years ago & our kids are the same ages. I can't express how much that impacted me then & how much it still stays with me now in the form of gratitude every day.

I will light a candle today for every parent that has lost a child.



Ironically, I'm reading a bunch of books on grief right now to figure out which books are best suited for the small library that we keep on hand to give out to clients when appropriate. I read "Tear Soup" yesterday & it was EXCELLENT for a family dealing with loss - especially if they have other children trying to maneuver through this pain.

It's a hardcover, illustrated book & it is beautifully done:

Tear Soup: A Recipe for Healing After Loss: Pat Schwiebert, Chuck DeKlyen, Taylor Bills: 9780961519766: Amazon.com: Books

https://www.griefwatch.com/tear-soup-home.html

Wisconsin

I have been part of an online mom group since I was pregnant with my DD16. As the forum we posted on was sold, and people grew apart, the larger group splintered into smaller groups and individual friendships. I stayed in touch with roughly 10-12 ladies across the US and Canada.

Five years ago the larger group reconnected via a Facebook group, after one of the kids (they were then 11 years old, the babies we had when we were originally in the online group) was killed in a house fire. It is horrible, and tragic, and we always remember that boy in late February, on the anniversary of the fire.

I am grateful for that group of moms, and for the fact that today, at least, my children are healthy, happy, and safe.

Liveitwell

Grateful for my crockpot-I realize I have posted this before but its worth repeating knocked out an amazing chicken and corn and tomato dish with green enchilada sauce overnight last night (yay for cooking while sleeping !) and dinner was ridiculously good. I do this twice a week and we have homecooked meals and frozen leftovers for weeks. Helpful so I don't have to fire up the grill and oven every night! Little crockpot-you make my life so much easier

FireSprite

TGIF Friends!

Grateful this morning for Excedrin - there's nothing like waking with a terrible headache that is worsening by the minute.

I'll always be grateful for being able to work from home- especially on a Friday.

I can't wait to take DD to get portraits done later today.... we haven't done this in years & I already *know* that this is going to be *that* picture that catches her moving from Little Girl to Tween.

I have always let her run the show with her photos, she loves posing & modeling & acting a role. Today she is wearing a mint green sparkly dress that is mature...... but she's going barefoot with wild curls. (she's gotten really good with learning how to manage her thick curls!) It'll be lip gloss & giggles folks, I cannot wait!! I just hope that they capture *that* moment..... I tend to go for the oddball, not-so-posed looking ones (belly laughs, etc) & if we get the right photographer (we will) it should just be just plain FUN.

honeypig

Wishing you tons of photographic fun, FS! I feel sure you will catch that magic image in that one particular moment...

FireSprite

I'm right there with you on the crock pot thing For! It is my FAVORITE appliance, hands-down!

Today we are making shredded chicken tacos with black beans, it's a regular around here. DD likes it as a soft taco but RAH & I both prefer it over tortilla chips, a la chicken nachos. (whole grain for me, regular chips for RAH - even simple recipes aren't simple around HERE, lol!!)

vcfanatic

Yes TGIF everyone

Thanks for the reminder about using my crockpot! I'm going to peruse the 3k+ worth of pinterest recipes I've pinned to put that thing to good use. I cringed paying my credit cards this morning- we eat out WAY too much.

Grateful for girlfriends! My friend is hosting lunch at her house today- she just completed her kitchen remodel and I'm dying to see it.

Going to ignore texts from my sister this afternoon who just doesn't want to let something go.

Grateful to have heard this saying recently at a meeting---
"God, when I need your guidance: put your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth"

Today, I have that on repeat

honeypig

I. Love. This. ^^

firebolt

Grateful for Friday as well - sunny weather for the weekend - and plans to spend time walking the fishing pole, and on 2 wheels - have a good one, all!

firebolt

Oh one more...

There is a church on the freeway exit ramp to my apartment that has a billboard that I see every day. It's usually funny and motivational and they change it out often. But the same one has been up for a while now - and I am grateful for that. I'm a lukewarm, fence sitter Christian, and it is always a good message to me

Anywho - the message I've been seeing as I pull into town 5 days a week for the last month or so has been:

"The closer to the shepherd, the further from the wolf."

I love this, and it lingers in my mind from the exit ramp to my home, and I am grateful for that. Every day. <3

Kata

I'm grateful for the beautiful weather today and spending my Friday evening with a close friend.

Wisconsin

This weekend I send up every single bit of gratitude I have for the fact that some beloved former neighbors from my childhood survived a head-on collision on an interstate with a wrong-way driver. 6-8 cars ended up being involved, and the wrong-way driver was killed. By all accounts, my former neighbors are incredibly lucky. Both are hospitalized very far from home. The husband is 68, and has some fractures in his back that should heal fine without surgery. The wife is 67, and her spine is fractured so badly that she is having surgery tomorrow morning. But so very, very lucky to be alive.

Today was their 45th wedding anniversary. The hospital staff brought in a small cake for them to celebrate.