The Gratitude Challenge – Day 17
Day 17: Write about something you feel grateful for in your life today.
Since day 17 was yesterday and yesterday has come and gone, I will write about something I am grateful for today.
Well, let’s see. I am still grateful for Lucy from Attic24 because she exists in the world with all her lovely, colorful crochet hooky fun and inspiration. I am still grateful for my friend Tatum because she shares my GLEE for all things crochet and Mexican. I am still grateful for my family and for the lack of drama in my life. It’s nice to be calm and live quietly.
So what am I grateful for today specifically; apples, apple sauce, baking, carpools when it’s not my turn, the anticipation of a day off, knowing good friends are coming to visit, looking forward to visiting family, not being sick (that should be first), the ability to connect with other people; friends, strangers…discovering someone via social media, a perfect stranger, that when they describe themselves they sound like a mirror image of yourself…knowing that there are people in the world that are similar to you in many ways…it’s exciting. I am grateful for the ability to feel excitement for something and to be happy and healthy. What are you grateful for today?
PEACE!
The Gratitude Challenge – Day 15
Since Day 15 suggests to take the time to focus on yourself. Appreciate and give thanks for your unique personality, skills and talents. I thought I would share something I started over the weekend. This is a scarf I am making for myself and it is more than half-way completed. Until this weekend, I did not know how to make a ripple stitch, which is the stitch shown in the scarf below. I am thankful for the skill and talent it required to create this scarf.
But, I also want to give thanks to a total stranger who helped me to learn this new stitch. Her name is Lucy and she lives in England. She has the most lovely blog called Attic24. She is immensely talented and creative and her blog is to die for with color. All the colors on her blog have inspired me. There are not enough hours in the day, nor do I have the talents necessary to create all the things that I have in my mind as a result of visiting her blog.
Lucy’s ripple stitch pattern was so well written and easy to follow. I was able to learn this pattern within an hour and was well on my way to creating my first ever ripple scarf. Lucy has many other patterns and pieces of inspiration on her site, so it’s a must see for anyone who likes all things crochet, crafty, and colorful.
Thanks again Lucy. I am very grateful for your help and look forward to being inspired by you for a long time to come. PEACE!
Fruit Loop Scarf - Ripple Stitch courtesy of Lucy from Attic24
The Gratitude Challenge – Day 9
Day 9: Enjoy the people around you. Take a moment to appreciate their unique talents, abilities, and personalities:
I thought I would use Day 9 of The Gratitude Challenge to write about one person specifically. My friend Tatum.
If had to pick two words that described Tatum, they would be; fiercely devoted. She is a devoted wife, daughter, sister, friend, and cat owner. Everything Tatum does with respect to all of her roles in life; she does with 150% zeal. She loves with all her heart ♥ and anyone who is close to her knows just exactly how she feels about them.
She is by far the most committed and dedicated cat lover I have ever known. Besides having 2 cats of her own she cares for more than 5 stray cats that live in her yard year round and when one of those stray cats had kittens, she brought the litter of kittens inside and mothered them until they were ready for adoption, which included around the clock bottle feedings and feeding them dry food by hand. She also captured the mother and the father of the litter and brought them to the clinic to be spayed and neutered and then released them back into the yard. She fell in love with one of those kittens and decided to adopt one herself. She brought the other kitties to a shelter where she now volunteers her time helping with their mobile adoption shelter. And she loves every minute of it. I often say that she should be Sainted for her love of cats. Saint Kitty would be her name.
But Tatum’s devotion doesn’t stop there; whether it’s her love of:
Signing Karaoke with her friends; she will get up and sing anything anywhere, anytime. No joke!
To her love of 80’s music; including: Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson, and NKOTB…
To her love of:
- Cooking: challenging friends to Throwdowns more than once.
- Crocheting: making beautiful baby blankets for everyone she knows; not to mention a bunch of scarves too. And with such care and attention to detail.
- Guitar Hero: being completely obsessed with beating everyone…she is so competitive too!
It doesn’t matter what the topic is; what the plan is; Tatum is probably really passionate about it and if she isn’t she will be. She will drop whatever it is she is doing to help a friend, a cat, and even a stranger. I really admire her in so many ways and I am so happy to call her my friend.
P.S. Did I mentioned that isn’t half bad looking either? LOL!
♥ her!
The Gratitude Challenge – Day 4
Day 4: Write a short message of thanks for some of the “negative” things in your life.
I honestly can’t think of anything in my life that is “negative” besides that my mother-in-law was recently diagnosed with Stage IV Breast Cancer and I can’t and I won’t ever be thankful for that. So many people have loved ones that are battling cancer and you never know how they feel until it happens to you. I understand now.
I know I should be very thankful that I don’t have more “negative” things in my life. I almost hate to say it for fear I will jinx myself, but I have been very fortunate and for that I am grateful. Truly. ♥
The Gratitude Challenge – Day 3
Day 3: Write about something you feel grateful for in your life today.
Today, I am grateful for LIFE. 
♥ me
The Gratitude Challenge – Day 2
Day 2: Use the alphabet as a fun and quick format for making a list of things for which you feel grateful.
This activity reminded me of something I would have done with my friends back in Junior High (remember when it was called that?). Initially, I thought it was going to be very difficult to come up with a substantial list of things I feel grateful for using this concept, but once I got started, it came easily to me. Enjoy!
A good laugh
Baking for loved ones
Caring people
Dreams
Earth
Family & friends
Good health
Humor
Internet 
Juicing
Kissing
Love to give/share
Music
Nature & Nieces
Open-mindedness
Parents
Quiet time
Raising a man
Siblings
Teachers
Understanding
Visiting with family who live far away
Wisdom
Xtra time with family and friends
You for reading my words
Zzzzzzz (when I get some)
See you on Day 3
The Gratitude Challenge – Day 1
The Gratitude Challenge is a 21-day challenge created to help all of us take note of the brighter side of life. Sponsored by Tiny Prints who is “inviting everyone to spend a few minutes of each day appreciating all of life’s little blessings.”
So for the next 21 days I will spend a few minutes every day completing one of the tasks assigned to this challenge and I will do this via my blog. Let’s get started.
Day 1: Today you start The Gratitude Challenge. Sign the contract (yes!) and make a commitment to take note and give thanks for the next 21 days. Express why you accepted this challenge and what you hope to achieve from it.
I accepted this challenge because although I am a pretty positive person; I too have moments where I lose sight of the important things and I know from experience that taking some time out of my day to think about what I have to be grateful for is a very powerful tool in creating and maintaining positive energy in my life. And as a side note, I think this challenge is a great motivator to get me blogging again.
At the end of the 21 day challenge I hope to have taken a really honest look at my life and all the goodness in it. I hope to have shared that goodness with others in a way that they can enjoy and be enriched from. I also hope to have revealed to myself how important of a role I play in all that goodness. Sometimes it is easy to forget your own value in life and how you impact others. I think part of being grateful for life’s little blessings is first being grateful for yourself. And since I do not always do that; I am going to start today.
Let The Gratitude Challenge begin…
P.S. I feel grateful already.
Sunday in the Kitchen!!
- Woke up at 9:00am went into the kitchen to make coffee. Coffee made. Drinking coffee. Yum!
- 10:00am: making a pound of bacon in the oven and preparing the batter for french toast.
- 10:30am: making french toast using Sami’s Millet & Flax bread. Batter is made of organic eggs, heavy cream, and vanilla, cinnamon. Yum!
- 11:00am: eating french toast with fresh strawberries with Vermont maple syrup, bacon, and orange juice. Double Yum!
- 11:30am: cleaning up from breakfast…clean, clean, clean.
- 12:00pm: sparkling clean kitchen. Yeah!
- 1:00pm: chopping parsley and grating cheese for the meatballs.
- 12:30pm: making fresh brewed decaf iced tea for the week.
- 1:30pm: making meatballs…all 29 of them. Yum!
- 1:45pm: starting the sauce for pasta in which the meatballs will live for a few hours. Super Yum!
- 2:30pm: 28 meatballs make their way into the sauce and the cooking begins.
- 2:35pm: preparing tomatoes with basil and mozzarella for an afternoon snack. Very yummy!
- 3:00pm: making peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies.
- 4:00pm: testing the peanut butter, chocolate chip cookies. Triple Yum!
- 5:30pm: making pasta for the sauce.
- 5:30pm: open wine (Santa Christina) and pour a small glass. First glass since last Saturday. I have issues.
- 6:00pm: sitting down to eat pasta with sauce and meatballs and another small glass of wine. See?
- 6:45pm: husband is cleaning up
and I am OUT of the kitchen for now. - 8:30pm cup of decaf coffee while playing scrabble. I lost by 14 points.
- 10:00pm preparing veggies for juicing in the morning and making lunch for my son; organic peanut butter sandwich on Sami’s Millet & Flax bread, small bag of red grapes, three peanut butter, chocolate chips cookies, and homemade decaf iced tea sweetened with agave nectar.
- 10:25pm loading up the coffee pot and setting the timer for 7:00am
- 10:30pm I am finally out of the kitchen for the day.
Sunday in the Kitchen is over! Woo Hoo!
Cornucopia
Over the past several months I have been awakened to a new way of life. I have been forced to reevaluate what I eat, drink, and even how I viewed the world around me. Wow was I shocked to find out most of this information.
It all started after watching the movie The Beautiful Truth, which is a documentary about a natural cure for cancer developed by Dr. Max Gerson in the 1920’s called The Gerson Therapy. Everyone should see this movie to get an understanding about how diet can play an important role in healing your body from diseases and even prevent sickness.
After seeing The Beautiful Truth I watched another eye opening movie called The World According to Monsanto, which introduced me to GMO’s and Round-Up Ready Soybeans and enlighten me to the realization that Soy, which is touted as a ”Health Food” is not very good for us at all. Infact, in the way American’s consume Soy, it is bad for us. (More on this later.)
As if that wasn’t enough, I found out the horrors of MSG and how even though we think we are avoiding MSG by reading labels and intentionally staying away from products that contain MSG, we are not really able to because there is so much hidden MSG in everything we eat and drink. We truly need to educate ourselves on the ingredients that should be avoided and read labels thoughly. If we think we are eating healthy because the front of the package says “All Natural” but we have not turned the product over and read ALL the ingredients we cannot be 100% sure we are eating healthy. We must read labels and know what unhealthy ingredients to look for.
It’s about knowing and in the past several weeks I have been sharing this information with every friend and family member I know via e-mail. I have been sharing it with friends and even strangers on Facebook and on Twitter trying to get the word out. Trying to share what I have learned. When I found out all this new information; I asked myself, “how is it that I didn’t know any of this?” and the answer is; because no one told me. So I was left to think that there are plenty of people out there that do not know either.
This blog is a way for me to share information and awarness about healthy organic food and recipes, links to information and news, but overall it’s a place to share knowledge with others. Because if there is one thing I learned recently is that old cliche saying that “Knowledge is Power”…it is not so cliche. It’s the truth! I only wish I had found out sooner.
I welcome questions and comments galore. I hope you find something on this page that will help you live a better, healthier life. PEACE!
