Happy Thursday!

I worked the first two days of the week.  On Tuesday, I had to be there at 7:15 AM. As one who much prefers leisurely mornings, this is a bit early! Not much time for leisure when you need to be somewhere by 7:15. However, a beautiful sunrise is a great reward for leaving the house in the predawn hours.  

Yes, I took the photo while driving (do as I say and not as I do. Don’t take photos while driving!). And through a somewhat dirty windshield. Seemed like a perfect start to my gratitude list for the week.

Gratitude For Beautiful Mornings

1.  Being awake to see such an amazing sunrise 
2. Having time to take my “shortcut” through the park to enjoy my moment of nature
3. A peaceful, quiet drive so I could safely take the photos (later in the morning, my “shortcut” gets a bit busy)
4. Seeing a second gorgeous sunrise from own front door again yesterday! 
5. Time to grab the “real” camera and play with the settings.

Bright, Sunshine-y Days (Sing along with me?)

1. Spring flowers springing up every where!  Every year in the middle of the yard. However, I’ve made my peace with the little blue flowers and random crocus heralding the start of the season. 
2. The return of my peonies. Every year, I think it’s a goner. And every year, it surprises me. 
3. A little gray cat who makes me laugh as she stretches in the sunshine and teases the Airedale next door (from a safe distance). 
   

   Are you barking at me??!!

4. The start of baseball season!
5. Living in a city with this beautiful stadium. And knowing everywhere I go today, I’ll likely see most people dressed in blue. (Yes, I’m wearing my Royals tee-shirt for opening day) 

A Few Random Items Of Gratitude To End My Post

Or I guess I could title this sub heading, I didn’t take any night photos? Ha!

1. Being included!
2. The wonderful laugh this college flyer gave me. Came for my high school senior in Saturday’s mail.  They’ve apparently achieved time travel! Check the date on the photo up there. Proofreading matters.
3. Blog readers who forgive my grammar errors (I do proofread but I’m sure I miss things).
4. Amazon adding season 2 of my all-time favorite show (Fringe) to Prime! Season 2 contains one of the best episodes of the series entitled White Tulip. 
5. Spring break! Abbreviated because of our one million (felt like it) snow days. However, it’s still a break!

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What things did you put on your gratitude list this week?

Be sure to hop on over to the Not Afraid Of Color blog where LeeAnna hosts the I Like Thursdays blog link up party each week.

If you follow the blog, you didn’t see a Happy Homemaker Monday post from me this week.  Unfortunately, my husband’s grandfather passed away Friday evening.  My husband was already in Oklahoma to support his family.

The services were Monday and Tuesday in Oklahoma. The boys and I packed up and traveled down there on Sunday morning.  

Even in grief, I found a little time for gratitude. I kept a running tally in my head. The first six items, I threw in a draft folder on Friday evening. The rest popped into my head during the weekend and early part of the week.

Before We Left Items:

1. My boys getting a chance to know one of their great-grandfather. He lived 99 years!  Only in the past 2-3 years did his health quickly decline. How many 14 and 17 year-old kids are lucky enough to have known their great-grandfathers for so much of their lives?
2. Liz Claiborne for making stylish plus sized clothing
   

   Full disclaimer: I opted not wear this after to the services after all as it felt a little too informal once I arrived down there. Still happy with my purchase and will wear it for other more casual occasions.

3. Not being sick this weekend with a million things to do
4. A kind friend willing to look after our little gray cat on a moment’s notice
5. Payday!
6. Seeing more birds at the bird feeders each day

Items From The Rest Of The Weekend/Week:

1. Safe travels to and from Oklahoma for all of us
   

   So glad they did their range-burning on one of our non-travel days!

2. Caring middle school teachers (I had to e-mail each teacher regarding missing parent-teacher conferences regarding a different matter)
3. Good weather, both here and in Oklahoma
4. A good breakfast each morning at our hotel (normally, we stay with family but opted to get a hotel room this time because of the number of people in town)
5. Minimal family drama (Honestly, this concerned me. Prayers for healing of some on-going family rifts appreciated)
6. Mostly avoiding family drama (Extra prayers my husband and I continue to avoid it.)
7. Family
8. Grandpa’s faith.
9. My kind, generous husband and children
10. Good friends
11. Sleeping in my own bed last night!
12. Coffee, especially at home coffee. While I love Starbucks and the fancy creamers of the hotel lobbies, nothing beats being able to just get up and fix yourself a cup of your own coffee to start the day.
13. My plants in the windowsill (mostly) surviving as I forgot about them
14. Today being an absolutely beautiful first day of spring!

What things are you grateful for this week?

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Joining the I Like Thursdays over at the Not Afraid Of Color blog. Be sure to go check it out and say hello to LeeAnna and the other wonderful bloggers joining in today,

For this week and maybe going forward (still trying to decide), I’ve decided to combine my gratitude post with my I like Thursday post.

This week started out kind of hectic so this may be brief as I’m still playing catch up after being down all weekend with a nasty virus. Thought it was the flu but now I’ve decided perhaps just a nasty cold virus.

Straight to the gratitude list (and I also like all these things!)

1. Feeling healthy!
2. Medicine that works or has the placebo effect. Don’t care, better now. Shout out to Elderberry syrup.
3. My happy little phone game where I can make it spring right now! 
4.  Kids smart enough to do this while saying it’s all just numbers. (His grandfather gave him the card, I like it as well!)
5. All the signs of spring I see around me: lots of birds including robins “fighting”, geese flying north, and rain with warmer weather.
6. Dark chocolate (Trying to do no sugar in March is tough, I’m allowing myself a little dark chocolate here and there as a treat to keep from giving up completely)
7. Unexpected poetry hidden in my chocolate bar wrapper
8. Showing up to work on the wrong day yesterday (oops!) and getting to stay, they needed me after all.
9. Green plants, can’t wait until I can see some outside
10. Having older kids so I could sleep when sick and not worry (too much).

What things are you grateful for this week?

Linking up with LeeAnna over at Not Afraid of Color for I Like Thursdays. Go check it out!

(Apologies for not visiting anyone last week, thanks to all who stopped by the blog. Hopefully, I’ll be a bit more social this week though I don’t look to have lots of blogging time again until Saturday.)