Posts tagged grateful

• for peach season. it smells and tastes like favorite childhood memories and reminds me how much i enjoy harvest; which, it turns out, applies to so much more than food
• for patience and kindness. things i’m terrible at that tim is good at and daily shows me the value of. did i just wake him up in the middle of the night to check under the couch for a spider nest i dreamed about? yep. did he do it? with a smile and a kiss.
• for community. after a long year of complaining that i was lonely, i looked up one day and realized it was only because of me. i’m surrounded by people who love me and are gracious enough to wait until i stopped complaining and could see them. then we eat some chips and take breaks in the day to share some life together.
• for home. the constant change that is life is so much easier to deal with when i know that, come night time, i will be snuggled in bed with a man i love and ridiculous dog that thinks it is a person and all will be right in the world.
• for change. life is really exciting, amiright?!

happy friday! love <3

in a list form

• for family who is close in both geography and relationship. it’s incredible how often i get to see them and how i never get tired of it and really just want more.
• for friends who are very much like family and who, as a result, end every conversation with “i love you!”
• for the loving way Tim deals with my nightmares. where someone else might blow them off as a small thing, he holds me close and makes me feel safe and prays for me before we go back to sleep. no matter how tired he is or the hour of the night. it’s the best.
• for learning to like things. in a generation that most enjoys sarcasm and hating on things, liking is always more fun and generally a better choice. i still get too cynical but i’m learning to just like what i like and not worry about being cool enough. (almost 30 years old. just letting go of my need to be cool. yep.)
  

Thank you so very much for this unexpected heat wave. Seeing the 50s at the end of December is my weather dream.

I’ve loved walking the dog in the warm evenings with light drizzle and am certain that this sweet reprieve will help me get through the coming months of cold.

While I know this weather can’t last and we’ll be back to cold days and freezing nights sooner than I would like, I appreciate this break more than you’ll ever know.

All my best,

Jenn

while the list of things to thank you for has no end, today i am really grateful for the way you are with me about Christmas.

thanks for driving around with me to look for awesome Christmas lights while we listen to cheesy Christmas music. i know there is no chance you enjoy this activity as much as i do and the fact that you love me enough to enjoy it with me makes it twice as fun. you’re the best.

love,

jenn

p.s. i like how you get so excited about each present you’ve wrapped that you require me to stop, inspect the wrapping job and compliment your abilities. it’s hilarious and adorable. good job.

• i ate oatmeal out of a coffee mug at my desk, courtesy of Rachel who is staying with me and i wish could be here permanently
• i’m trying to become as smart as my iphone. or, at least, smart enough to know how to use it.
• i’m looking forward to Christmas with family- especially the time to unplug a bit, chill out and try to mentally get life in order

• i’m grateful for good friends and the ways they love me- this is a constant but this week has been full: rachel, tracey, denece, micki, susan, a note from kelly. i’m really blessed by the people in my life. 
• i’m grateful for so much one on one time with rachel- i’ve missed you!
• i’m so thankful today for simple things: oatmeal, coffee, a heater under my desk, slippers at home

sometimes it’s the small things and my love for lists. today is one of those times. :)

We raised $1,908!

That means clean drinking water for 95 people. Woo!!!

Thanks everyone.

xoxoxoxo

the ability to customize. yeah, i feel like a total jerk ordering my triple-grande-soy-skinny-peppermint-mocha.but! it’s delicious, they don’t seem to mind and i walk away with a perfect friday morning treat. thanks for that, starbucks. i appreciate it.

For being so awesome at living.

I just started back to the gym (people can read more about my gym and food life here. I write about it a lot.) and wow, body. You are amazing. The way you love to exercise, how you get stronger and can do more than I expect- you blow my mind. 

I am so grateful that you are healthy. And will keep working to make you more that way because I appreciate the benefits in more ways than just feeling physically great.

Love,

Jenn

this week has been hard, i’ll be honest.

but here’s the thing about hard weeks- there is so much to be grateful for in the middle of hard days. 

-grateful for a job that is constantly growing and changing

-grateful for friends who make me laugh and are lavish in their encouragements

-grateful for my sweet husband who puts up with all of my crazy with a hug, a kiss and a silly joke

-grateful for early grey tea lattes (sugar free, of course) and the comfort of really simple things like a delicious fall beverage

-grateful for my little dog who matches fall and loves to go jogging with me

-grateful for all of the reminders that a hard week for me isn’t that hard at all. i have a home, a family, a job, friends and a really great life. i’m a lucky girl.my world is unimaginably full of love.

-most of all, grateful for the ways i’m growing. the places where i’m learning again what it looks like to trust God with myself and my future. the places where i’m realizing that my approach now is very different from my approach before, hopefully more honest, more sincere and much more mature.

my sweet friend ali posted this on her blog (you should read the whole post), such a great verse from an amazing hymn:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.