Thankful Things

It's times like this when things aren't going exactly the way I wish they would that I need to remember to be thankful.


I'm thankful for movies.  I haven't been able to leave the house all weekend. We've been watching some movies to try and keep us entertained.  So far we have watched "Fatal Attraction" (I will not be ignored, Dan), "Marley and Me" (can you believe I've never seen this?  Totally bawling at the end of this one), "The Day the Earth Stood Still"(Meh.  Joe chose this one).  Today we are going to watch 500 days of Summer".  I heard it was good.

I'm thankful to be feeling a little better today.  The fever and chills are gone.  The hacking cough and the achy muscles remain.  I feel like I've been hit with a baseball bat.

I'm thankful for books.  I go through phases where I either read a lot or not at all.  The last month I have been reading a lot.

I finished the thankful book I talked about in this post.

It has helped me so much.  I wake up everyday thankful for something.  Sometimes it's just that I woke up at all.  I express gratitude to people as much as I can.  The other day I made someone important to me cry because she was so touched by my outpouring of gratitude to her.  It feels good to let other people know how they are impacting your life.  It also helps me put the focus back on the things I have instead of the things I don't.  I'm not saying every day is sunshiny and I never feel negative.  I do.  But I try very hard to steer my negative thinking back to reasons I am lucky.

I also just finished this book and I loved it so much. You know how some books are so good you never want them to end?  That's how this book was for me.

It's called "Eternal on the Water" by Joseph Monninger.  I have never read his books before.  I'm hoping to find some more of his stuff at the library.

P.S. I plan on donating this one to the library so if there is anyone that wants it, drop me an e-mail.  scrappermg(at)att.net

I have also been re-reading "The Lovely Bones".  This is one of my favorite books. I read it while I was on the plane(and bus, train and taxi) in China.  I'm sad that I lost that copy of it because I had written some things in the back of it about my experiences there.

I have been going to bed a half hour early so I can get some good reading in.  That's kind of significant for me because on the nights I don't work I am in bed between 9:15 and 9:45.  That means some nights I am in bed before 9:00!

We have nothing going on today, aside from trying to feel better.

Thankful Thursday

--I know I say this all the time, but I am thankful for my husband.  Today during our walk he said something I found to be so funny that I laughed until I cried.  I love that we still have that much fun after all these years.

--I am thankful my leg is starting to feel better. It's not %100 yet, and we took a very slow walk tonight and I am quite sore now but it is slowly healing.  I'm hoping it feels better this weekend.  I am having serious withdrawals here!  As an added bonus, I have started to see a more significant weight loss from the exercise.

--I am thankful for the beautiful weather we have been having.  It was in the low 80's today.  We're supposed to have rain again early next week again, so I am sucking as much joy out of this weather as I can.

--Tomorrow is Friday.  Woo Hoo!

Thankful Things

I’m thankful to be attending Good Friday services tonight, and I’m thankful that Joe has agreed to go with me. I’ll be attending the old church I used to go to, because my new church doesn’t have Good Friday services. Tomorrow night I will attend the Easter service at the church I went to last week. I know it’s not the same as going to church on Easter but I can’t handle the crowds.




I am thankful that we have found so many cool places to go hiking. Yesterday we hiked a four mile trail and half of it was uphill. It was hard! But I did it. I can’t believe how much better shape I am in since I started walking just three weeks ago. There is no way I would been able to hike that trail then.



I am thankful that Joe has embraced my newfound fitness goals so completely. After he drops me off at work he has been scoping out new trails for us to hike on his way home. It might not be what he necessarily wants to be doing every day in the evenings but because it is important to me, it is important to him.



Happy Easter, or Happy Weekend for my friends who don’t celebrate Easter.

Thankful

I am thankful for the beautiful full moon we had last night. Joe and I went for a walk in it. It was stunning.




I am thankful for Sudafed. I have come down with a horrible head cold (immediately after getting over a kidney infection-blech). I could not function without something to help with my sinus pain and swelling.



I am thankful that I have continued to have the energy to carry on with my walking, despite my illnesses. I can feel my body changing and it feels good.



I’m thankful that we don’t owe any money on our taxes this year. Our income went down so much that we are actually getting some money back. Not a lot. But at least we don’t have to pay.



Putting a positive spin on something negative:
I mentioned that I am sick. I feel crummy. I can’t afford to take off of work(I don’t get sick days), so I have been sucking it up. BUT, tomorrow I have off during the day and for the second week in a row I don’t have any appointments planned so I can stay home in my pajamas and try to get better. And it’s going to rain. I love P.J. days when it rains!

Thankful Things

Things I am thankful for today:

--I am thankful I get to spend so much quality time with my husband.  He is my best friend.  I lost sight of that for a while. 

--I am thankful to have a job.  Today my job is crappy. My boss is a jerk.   Some days are like that.  But at least I have a job, right?

-I am thankful it is Friday!


Putting a spin on something negative: (This is my least favorite part of this)

I have a kidney infection.  It hurts.  A lot.  Thankfully I don't get these very often, but because of my kidney issues, whenever I get  a Urinary Tract Infection it almost always turns into a kidney infection as well.
Blech.

Anyway, I have been taking antibiotics and am feeling slightly better today and it's Friday so I can rest this wekend if I don't feel well.

Stress Reliever

I have been having a hard time the last week or so.  We have been working through some very heavy stuff around here and it has left me feeling sad and stressed out and at times a little bit gloom and doomish.  As I have written here before, I tend to bottle things up inside until they burst out of me like an explosion. Someone close to me suggested I try to find things to do that will help me deal with some of this stress in an appropriate way so I don't bottle it up like that.  The first thing I did was start exercising again.  This has helped me immensely.  I have walked every day for the last 4 days and I intend to continue.  The physical release of some of those emotions has been cathartic.

The other way I (used to) deal with stress was to be creative.  Scrapbooking, making cards or frames or otherwise using my hands in some way. I haven't been doing much of that lately.

I wanted to make something for some people who have helped us in the last couple of months but I didn't want to spend a lot of money.  Everything I came up with I realized I needed one or more supplies that I was out of.

Then I was cleaning out the freezer and I found a bag of white sugar(we had an ant problem a month or so ago), and a bag of chocolate chips.  A quick search of the fridge and pantry revealed that I had the ingredients to make a batch(or ten)  of cookies.

That's it!(I thought to myself)  Cookies it is.

Now baking probably seems like a perfectly normal thing for most people to do.

It's not normal for me. To begin with, I hate to bake.  Secondly, I don't even particularly  like chocolate chip cookies.  Before you think I'm a freak for not liking chocolate chip cookies, it has something to do with hormones.  After  I had my hysterectomy I couldn't eat chocolate.  I mean I can eat it.  But I just don't enjoy it like I used to and I can only eat it in small amounts or I feel sick to my stomach.  I can't explain it.  It just is.

O.K. that does make me sound like a freak.  I swear I'm not.  :)

Anyway, back to the baking.

 I started some cookies on Friday night.  My first 2 batches I made off of the recipe on the back of the T ol l  h o u s e   bag.

These turned out so-so.  They tasted good, but didn't have the look or feel I was going for.  I wanted them to be like a chocolate chip cookie you buy at the bakery.

I packaged them up and gave them away on Saturday anyway :)

So yesterday I went on the internet searching for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I found a whole bunch and started reading the reviews on each recipe.  After reading twenty a few, I decided on one and hit the kitchen again  to try them out.

Today I made 6 dozen of them.  And they are so much better than the last batches.

As I was baking I noticed something.  I started to feel more relaxed.  Less stressed out.  The more I felt relaxed and less stressed out, the more I started to actually enjoy it.

There was something about measuring out the ingredients and  pouring them into the bowl, mixing the ingredients by hand(I don't have an electric mixer), and lining them up in neat little rows on the cookie sheets that made me start to feel so much better. Like I was in control of something when I feel out of control in so many other parts of my life right now.

It was very therapeutic.

So therapeutic in fact, that I made 6 more dozen cookies.

That brings the total up to 11 dozen cookies people.  We're pretty much drowning in chocolate chip cookies over here.  I don't eat them, so this is a problem.  Because Joe does eat them.  So I have to get them out of the house.

They are being packaged up to be dropped off at different places tomorrow.  I hope they bring a fraction of the joy to the recipients that they did to me when I made them.

I'm going to have to find another way to relieve stress though  :)


If you could send some good thoughts our way regarding the gloom and doom stuff, I would appreciate it.


And also, anyone want some cookies?

I had a couple requests on FB for the recipe, so here it is. I got it off of AllRecipes.com.  I read all of the reviews and used a few suggestions from each one.  They really turned out yummy!

I doubled my recipe.

Ingredients
    •    2 cups all-purpose flour
    •    1/2 teaspoon baking soda
    •    1/2 teaspoon salt
    •    3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
    •    1 cup packed brown sugar
    •    1/2 cup white sugar
    •    1 tablespoon vanilla extract
    •    1 egg
    •    1 egg yolk
    •    2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Directions
    •    Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
    •    Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
    •    In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon.
    •    Refrigerate dough until chilled. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
    •    Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. 

I have found that these should be taken out when the edges are brown but the middles look not quite done.  Let them cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet until they set.

Thankful Thursday

It has been awhile since I did one of these.  How easy it is to forget to give thanks. 

After a day like today, when I have been feeling down and focusing far too much on all the things I don't have, it is important for me to take the time to give thanks for what I do have.

I am thankful that 21 years ago I went to a New Year's Eve party and met my best friend.  We have been inseparable ever since.  21 years.  Sheesh.  Now I feel old :) Happy Anniversary Joe!

I am thankful for my family.

I am thankful for our health.  My husband is healthy.  My sister and family are healthy.  My Dad and brother are healthy.  My kidney disease has been in remission for over three years.  My nephrologist tells me this in itself is remarkable.  I am so thankful.

I am thankful to have a job.

I am thankful for my husband.

On Monday when we were in Chinatown we did a lot of window shopping. No buying.  Just looking.  While we were browsing in Old St. Mary's church giftshop there were a couple of things that I was admiring.  While I wasn't looking, Joe purchased two of them for me(he's sneaky, because I had no idea).  He said they were for my birthday, since he wasn't able to get me a present this year.
The first was this wooden church.  (I collect churches).   I had been admiring this one for several minutes before setting it down and moving on to something else.

It's a prayer box.   The bottom comes out and you write your prayers on a small piece of paper and roll it up and put it inside.  I love it!

The second item was this glass ornament.  Traditionally, we buy a Christmas ornament every year.  This year, since we lost our tree and I wasn't feeling much of the Christmas spirit, we didn't purchase one.  Joe saw me looking at this one and he decided we should keep up our tradition.  And it was 50 percent off because it was after Christmas.  Awesome!  I think it's the perfect ornament for us this year.

Lastly, I am thankful that the year 2009 is coming to and end.  It wasn't a great year for us.

2010 will bring better things.