With Gratitude

Day 9

Years ago, I think I was still in high school, I heard something on Oprah that stuck with me. She had Gwenyth Paltrow on and they were discussing gratitude journals. I was struck by what the Gwenster shared. She said that she wrote a list of at least 10 things each night that she was grateful for. Sometimes her list had the big things like life, career, family.......and sometimes she recognized the little things like the crinkle of someones nose when they smile. I loved that. Annie has the most adorable crinkle in her nose when she smiles. Even when she is driving me so crazy I want to hang her from her toe nails ( kidding..I would never do that.....really...) she will smile and that crinkle will just kill me. It is defiantly on my list of things to be grateful for.

It has been a full week. Here are ten things that have made my gratitude list.

1. Annie's starbucks dance. As I have shared before, we...I, spend way too much time in starbucks. So much so that Annie now  has a dance reserved especially for this establishment. She refuses to do it anywhere else. It is priceless. The girl has moves.
2. Lulu's new tricks. She has two of them. The first is the head shake. Basically she looks like she is saying no but it is more of a dance that she gets a kick out of. The second is the funny face she now does on command. Her bottom lip goes up over the top one and her chin is in the air. She finishes it off with some kissing/lip smacking noises. We probably make her do this 80-100 times a day...no joke.
3. Eliza's best friend. Eliza has a BFF. Watching this friendship grow is heart warming for me. They truly care for one another and laugh all the time. I know what it means to have good girlfriends. My BFF is Eileen. She has been since about the same age Eliza is now. Eileen is still a constant in my life even though she lives on the other side of the country. One day, after Eliza's BFF left our house, she turned to me and said ,"I think she is my Eileen." Is that not the sweetest thing ever???!!
4. New friends. We all made out with Eliza's new friendship. Turns out I get along extremely well with her mom. Even better, the families really like each other. We all have new friends. How cool is that? New friends, good new friends that you can laugh with and be real with, totally rock.
5. Andy's landscapingg. My husband has a passion. She loves to landscape. He didn't know this until we bought this house. Thank God he does or we might be living in a house surrounded my nothing but dirt. NOT my forte. He has done a magnificent job. I sit out in my yard every morning in the midst of the beauty he created. It is a peaceful, serene, beautiful oasis.
6. Following through. I followed through this week on things that I said I wanted to do. I crossed big things off my list. Examples, We are teaching an intenSati class at the Lululemon store at Roosevelt Field Mall, and I created a Long Island intenSati facebook page........yes!
7. My Wednesday night class is growing!
8. Exercise and Meditation. They are both amazing but even better together. I have been doing the aahh meditation after my jog in the morning. I'm so much more calm and open after a workout. It is a good combo, it is working for me. Speaking of working for me.....this manifesting meditation works people! I will post about this soon. Try it and see for yourself though. You can download it off itunes or find it on YouTube. Wayne Dyer's Meditation for Manifesting.
9. My girl's love. Being a mommy all day, especially on long hot days, can be exhausting. I can, at times, be very .....very low on patience. I snap when I don't want to and don't listen the way I want to. I was feeling it tonight. I was secretly thinking that I couldn't wait for bed time for the girls. Plain and simple....they were driving me nuts and I was reacting.
Then at dinner both Annie and Eliza wanted to sit next to me. Not to annoy me. Not to hang on me. Just sit with me. Sit with me and love me. I took a deep breath and loved them back.
10.This blog. I am so so so enjoying writing. I am glad I took this challenge on. I am curious and excited to see where it takes me.

Asking for help....
I would really like to grow this blog. I would love to get sponsors for the blog. I am not sure how it all works but I am trying to learn. One thing I know would help and I would just  love is for you folks who are reading, to leave a comment here on the blog if you feel moved to for any reason. I would love to hear from you guys.

I am incredibly grateful to anyone who is reading and for all the kind and thoughtful messages you have been sending me.

Have a fabulous night!