1. Imagine...a gratitude journal on Thanksgiving Day! I am thankful for so much. Gratitude has indeed become my pattern of thought over the past few months of keeping a daily gratitude journal. For that I am thankful. I ran into a woman the other day who has had a long term relationship with my mother-in-law who is a very controlling woman. They are not getting along at the moment, and she was expressing her frustration to me. Instead of jumping on the bandwagon, I was able to tell her that I have learned to focus on the good, and when it comes to my mother-in-law, I focus on the fact that she is the most generous woman I know. Does that mean I bury my head in the sand when she tries to control me and brainwash my children...no! But when unsettling obsessive thoughts come into my mind about her, I am now able to replace them with thoughts of how generous she is. There are many examples in my head of her donating truckloads of food to the City Mission, cooking dinner for grieving church members, taking her neighbor to his doctor appointments, etc. This is a skill I'm grateful for, for my sanity's sake.
2. I was pleasantly surprised that my sister's family came into town to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. Not knowing we were going to have company, we had planned on a special meal with everyone's favorites rather than the traditional Thanksgiving dinner because we don't enjoy those foods so much. So, whey they heard we were having spaghetti, garlic bread, chicken fried rice, cut vegetables, raw cranberries, water, and cheesecake for dinner, they opted to have the holiday meal with my dad and step-mother. So, my step-mother threw together a last minute dinner party with her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren and told us all to bring what we were already going to cook since her kitchen is under construction. They have a big room that they added on to their home for such occasions, and we all filled the room. Mike made 5 loaves of bread, and I made 6 dozen of my very popular chocolate chip cookies. We also brought the vegetable tray we had planned on. It was a big success...and we had our spaghetti later with my sister and twins for supper at my house. We had such a good time playing with Aunt Linda and the twins. Uncle Alan camped out upstairs watching the Dallas Cowboys. It was good to see all of them.
3. I'm grateful for Valerian root. I usually experience anxiety attacks when I'm around a lot of people at once. My nervous system seems OK today, and I attribute it to the Valerian root. I don't need to use it often, but when I do, I thank God for it.
4. I took Philip to get new bedding to go with his new/used bed we found at an estate sale last weekend. We found something very nice at Target that was extremely reasonably priced. I was very impressed and pleased that he chose the more traditional bedding rather than the Spiderman ensemble which would have cost three times as much. That left some money over from what I budgeted to get Heather a new comforter for her bed as well. She also made an economical choice. I'm pleased that our upstairs is coming along, and that our bedrooms will be in order soon...but that should be #5 on my gratitude list. Tomorrow, I'm going to see if Uncle Alan will help me carry Philip's bed upstairs. Mike's back has been troubling him, and I don't want to take a chance on making matters worse for him.
5. I'm most grateful for my improved physical and mental health. I'm grateful for every new clue we get about how to improve my quality of life. As I look over this past year, and past decade, I can see improvement as we've uncovered different aspects of my health and made adjustments to compensate or improve my overall function. When I catch myself getting frustrated over things that I think I should be able to do, I think back to where I was before, and count my blessings. My hope becomes restored.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment