Gratitude Day 13

Today has been pretty miserable.  The faucet in my head keeps running, so I've got a sore nose from dealing with that.  I stayed home from church today with my daughter and we spent the day watching Christmas movies.  We started with The Santa Clause, moved on to Miracle on 34th Street, then finished up with the Muppets Christmas Carol.  We normally don't watch all that much TV on Sunday, but nobody was feeling very good.  Even my wife took a nap this afternoon, which is practically unheard of.

As for me, I am improving a little bit.  I think yesterday marked the worst day of my illness, so if I measured that day as a 10 out of 10 on a sickness scale, today was probably about a 9.

My Gratitude List today is related to the stuff I was able to do, between blowings of my nose:

1) I'm grateful that I was able to mindless watch these movies with my daughter, and that she seems to be doing a lot better than me in her recovery.  It is a wonderful thing to live in a time when media is so available and that I can share these things with my children.
2) I'm grateful that I was able to sit and read quietly with my youngest son, as it is a very special thing to be able to do.  He is doing very well with his reading, and it is wonderful when he bursts through unfamiliar sentences.  He hasn't taken to reading as voraciously as his siblings, so his progress is heartening.
3) I'm grateful that I was able to make my oldest son work on some of his Duty to God stuff, because I want what is best for him.  The new program seems to not be taking too well anywhere, but at least I can say that I, as a parent, am doing my part to help him succeed in it.

So, that's it for today.  Good night!

Gratitude Day 12 - Paraphernalia to Manage a Cold

My cold, which has kept me home all week giving me false hope that "tomorrow" will be better, has doubled back and walloped me a good one this weekend.  I'm far sicker than I was earlier this week, and the cold has moved into head (well, mostly my throat and nose, which is running incessantly).  Therefore, my Gratitude List tonight is dedicated to the paraphernalia that comforts me when I'm miserable like this:

1) I'm grateful for a warm bath, which I can draw without a second thought as to how the hot water was collected, cleaned, treated, and delivered to my house so that I can soak in it until I finally get warm.
2) I'm grateful for Kleenexes, which I use without reserve as I nurse my ever-running and starting-to-get-sore nose.
3) I'm grateful for warm blankets, which I can throw across me to keep me warm as I lay like a log on the couch staring mindlessly at whatever is on the TV.

This whole gratitude thing is getting pretty easy.  All I have to do is think about the things that made me the least happy in any given day, then look on the bright side and voila! I've got my list ...

Well, 12 days in that's how it is anyway ...  ;)

Most Pointless Sentence Ever

I have to tease my daughter a little bit for this sentence that she constructed on a trip she would like to take to Hawaii.  This sentence followed another sentence that listed a few things she would like to do:

"Those things are things there, but there are things there to do, too."

Awesome.

Gratitude Day 11 - Parties

Okay, so maybe doing this Gratitude List during the Holidays is too darn easy because we're in the midst of parties, shindigs, and all other manner of social events designed to celebrate the Christmas season.  That said, here's my list for tonight:

1) I'm grateful that my wife throws a cookie/ornament exchange party every year because I get to try lots of great cookies while my wife gets some adult female interaction that she so sorely needs.  "Happy wife = happy life."
2) I'm grateful that we have family Christmas traditions so that we can use the time to remember these special times and enjoy their familiar and heartwarming uplift.  While I wouldn't say my little family is overburdened with tradition, we have just enough to suit our needs but not too much that they ever feel like a burden.
3) I'm grateful that Christmas traditions aren't just a family thing, but largely a cultural one as well, that we can feel a kinder bond to our neighbors, friends, and coworkers.  Even my Jewish friends, I think, feel differently at this time of year, even if for other reasons.

So, that's it for tonight!

Gratitude Day 10 - Electronic Entertainment

My list for tonight is related to electronic entertainment:

1) I'm grateful for worthwhile television and movies, because they are a great escape from regular life and I can enjoy them with my family and talk about them with them, which brings me closer to them and provides opportunities to teach my children.  (We've been watching a lot of Star Wars related stuff lately ...)
2) I'm grateful for clean video games, because they allow me to turn my brain off and relax, even though they have no real redeeming qualities.  (You know, I got to thinking that video games are modern man's equivalent to whittling a stick and sitting around singing campfire songs ...)
3) I'm grateful for quality music, which can be soothing to my soul as well as move me emotionally, something that's actually pretty hard to do.  (My phone has some pretty random music on it, which can take me back decades to strange memories as a teenager.)

My Silly Cat Lily

So, I vowed that I would never post a funny cat video.  Ever.

I lied.  I can't resist because it was so silly and it made me laugh.

Gratitude Day 9

So, remember yesterday I posted about being healthy?  Well, I'm more sick today than I was yesterday.  I don't think I'm going to work tomorrow.

1) I'm grateful that I have sick leave at work so that when I am sick, I can stay home.
2) I'm grateful that, at work, we are well-practiced in the art of teleconferencing so that I can dial in for the important stuff.
3) I'm grateful for my cat, Lily, because she makes me feel paternal because I'm her favorite person.  You'll see why in a minute when I post a video about her ...

Gratitude Day 8 - FHE

Tonight was Family Home Evening, where we spend some time talking about a Gospel topic or do an activity or have a treat (or all 3!) ... basically just being together, which is great.  Tonight, I shared with the kids the story of when Alma met the sons of Mosiah after their 14 year mission to the Lamanites, and how happy they were to be reunited after all that time and to find that they were all still faithful in the Gospel.  We likened this to the importance of keeping the commandments and always doing what is right, even when it is hard, which it most certainly was for Alma and the others.

Afterwards, I took my oldest son and we went to deliver some cookies that I had made (thanks, wife, for the recipe!) to the families that I home teach.  I didn't get out to actually teach my families this month, so this was my penance.

Today, too, I was home with a cold, which is never fun, and worked roughly 3/4 of the work day.

So, with all this, my Gratitude List goes as follows:

1) I'm grateful for my health.  Even though I have a cold right now, I am usually quite healthy, free of disease and long-term illnesses, and have been blessed with a strong body that enables me to do the things I really want to do.
2) I'm grateful for Family Home Evening, where we can have time to weekly remind the kids about Gospel topics that we need to cover to help our children be more respectable individuals.
3) I'm grateful for The Book of Mormon, because not only does it contain the fullness of the Gospel and is a second testament of Jesus Christ, but it has awesome stories in it that I enjoy reading.

Gratitude Day 7 - Church

As I've reported in this space before, I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  We worship on Sundays, and so this morning I went to church with my family and some of my in-laws.  It was a great day, and so my Gratitude List is related to that:

1) I'm grateful for my faith that God exists and that He is concerned about me individually and all of us collectively.  This gives me confidence that what I do actually matters and that there is a purpose in life.
2) I'm grateful for my faith that God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to Earth to make it possible for all of us to be forgiven of our all the sins (i.e. all that stupid stuff we so easily do to offend God and those around us) we commit throughout our lives.  This gives me confidence that even though I'm not perfect, I can look forward to a better future with so much more cool stuff to do!
3) I'm grateful for the church, which is God's own church upon this Earth designed to strengthen and uplift us and to teach us better ways to enjoy life here and to prepare for life beyond this mortal existence.  This gives me the tools I need to try to be a better person, so that I need to utilize that whole repentance thing even less.  Yeah, it's a cool system.

So there you have it for today.  Good night!

Gratitude Day 6 - Extended Family

So quite a few of my wife's family members have been staying with us for the last three days, which was crazy, noisy, busy, and downright wonderful.  We live very far away from most of them and so whenever we see them it is a great experience and always seems to end too soon -- it's made even better by them coming to visit us instead of the other way around.

That said, my Gratitude List tonight includes the following:

1) I'm grateful for my in-laws who not only tolerate me, but actually seem to like me!  This helps me feel like a worthwhile person and that my wife wasn't totally off her rocker when she married me.
2) I'm grateful for the space program.  This morning, the next rover to be sent to Mars, the Mars Science Laboratory (or Curiosity) launched successfully and this bodes well for us at work.  Successes like this (well, there's still a long way to go and a lot could still go wrong) make my personal career move forward and ensure my continued employment in the field I love.
3) I'm grateful for the internet because I "know" practically everything when I have a browser in front of me.  I like being smart.

Well, that's it.  A little random, but that's the way it is sometimes.