20 Things I Am Grateful For

1. Chaperoning Relay for Life
2. Warm, freshly-baked gluten-free cookies
3. A healthy child
4. Blogging progress and success!
5. Grading progress!
6. Talking about art to people who "get it"
7. Dr. Who
8. My husband--just 'cause
9. A clean car
10. Making it to church in time to hear the end of a really great talk
11. A cute, cheery nursery classroom
12. An amazingly helpful child (he has started clearing AND rinsing his own dishes)
13. Working with students and teachers who can step-up in a crisis
14. Knowing I make a difference
15. Spring flowers
16. A beautiful, think green yard
17. Fresh flowers on my dining table
18. Awesome, funny in-laws
19. Birthday money!
20. Knowing that, at 30, I have a life I can be proud of

20 Things I Am Grateful For

I know this is a bit late--life (pleasantly) got in the way!

1. Delicious gluten-free birthday cake
2. Nearly equally delicious gluten-free pizza
3. Lots of family and friends to celebrate with
4. Ultimate acceptance of and loss of fear from entering "that decade" of my life
5. A stress-free way of feeding an undetermined yet definitely large group of people
6. A beautiful family (meaning me, my husband, and son) who daily prove that the past 30 years have not been wasted
7. Gift cards!
8. Birthday wishes from family, friends (online and in real-life), co-workers, and even students
9. The most thoughtful instructional aide EVER
10. Recognizing getting older as something to be proud of--a privilege rather than a punishment
11. Faith in myself, my husband, and the future
12. A new nightlight for my son
13. The presence of my father and one of my two Best Friends at my birthday party
14. My mother's kind heart
15. My niece, Rui
16. Coworkers I can depend on
17. The continuance of a tradition--Indian food on my birthday
18. Friends I can count on--even if it is just for help decorating for a party
19. Clever ideas & people who are amused by them
20. My son who lights up my world every day

20 Things I Am Grateful For This Week

1. Antibiotics
2. Sick days
3. Immediate Care at Dearing Family Medicine
4. Kleenex
5. Cough drops
6. Understanding work superiors
7. The absence of flies (long story)
8. My favorite gluten-free cornbread recipe
9. My pint-size sous chef
10. A husband who still remembers my favorite flower
11. Family
12. Putting paint on canvas!
13. My artistic abilities
14. The Freedom Writers (the people, not just the movie)
15. Hand sanitizer
16. Children's Mucinex
17. Allergy medicine
18. Google+ Communities
19. A clean house
20. Plenty of clean underwear

Sick Day #2 To-Do List

I am feeling much better today, yet I am spending even more time in front of the computer than I did yesterday. Unacceptable! Here is another to-do list to give me some direction.

1. Clean toilets & sinks
2. Do laundry...again
3. Sweep floors
4. Mop floors?
5. Change pillowcases
6. Disinfect and make Brannon's bed
7. Disinfect kitchen...again
8. Work on my fish sketch
9. Read

Three things to note:

• Some of these items were carried over from my last to-do list. I'm okay with that.
• Occasionally, my to-do lists function more as a "have you thought about doing" list than anything else--inspiration rather than obligation. This is definitely that type of to-do list.
• I love this picture of Brannon, even if it is 2-3 years old. It always reminds me of our great times in the old neighborhood park.

Finding a brighter perspective

My Current Dark Cloud

1. Laryngitis
2. Bronchitis
3. Sinusitis
4. Conjunctivitis
5. Senioritis

The Silver Lining

• Two days of fluids and rest instead of work
• Direct orders to take care of myself and the time to actually obey that command
• Quiet solitude while hubby and Brannon are at school
• A requisite to whisper instead of yell--and enough practice to get good at it
• Enough leisure and motivation to make dinner for the first time in weeks
• The right to skip alarm clocks for a few days
• Leisure for a few extra blog posts

P.S.

I love this picture of me at the beach. The scenery is beautiful, and it reminds me of the awesome time my husband and I had in La Jolla back when we were newlyweds.

20 Things I Am Grateful For This Week

1. Memories
2. Good health
3. Decongestants
4. Clean drinking water
5. Facebook (never thought I'd say that)
6. General Conference
7. the Gospel
8. Fly swatters
9. Opportunities to bear my testimony
10. Knowing I made a difference
11. Parents who care
12. A high-quality marriage
13. Effective communication with my husband
14. One angel of a son
15. To-do lists (trust me--they're effective)
16. My laptop
17. A vehicle for sharing my photography weekly (yep, its all mine)
18. Being smarter than Facebook (at least this one time)
19. My growing knowledge of HTML code
20. The future

P.S.

The amazing thing about adopting an "attitude of gratitude" is that it gets easier as you go. I cranked out this list in about two minutes flat, and there were plenty of ideas I had but didn't use. Makes my face smile!

Also, the photograph isn't fuzzy--the plant is.

My Saturday To-Do List

This is supposed to be a "cleaning frenzy" weekend, but I am having a little trouble getting started (it is nearly 1pm on Saturday, after all). I thought I would give myself a kick-start by publishing my to-do list:

1. Fold & put away laundry
2. Change sheets & make beds
3. Empty & reload dishwasher
4. Wipe tabletops & counters
5. Sweep and mop floors
6. Clean toilets & sinks
7. Vacuum rug
8. Blog post for GF2: The Everyday Celiac
9. Update "20 Things" blog posts pictures

When life makes you LOL

Happy April Fools Day!

To celebrate this funniest of days, I thought it would be appropriate to share a slide show of how my photo shoots generally go around here. Enjoy!

Hmm. I thought I had a left eye and forehead (guess I was mistaken)

Camera hog, you say? Quite--he is his mother's son.

PS: 

Doesn't it just figure that I inadvertently deleted the one picture that captured my entire face head and didn't have a little helper leaning into the background? Yep--that poor snapshot didn't even make it onto to my laptop.

Check out more of my photographic silliness on this style blog, Work Your Wardrobe (A young woman's guide to affordable fashion):

Work it!