gratitude part 5

October 2010

Taylor, 

       This notebook contains 200+ opportunities to hold everyday, ordinary expressions of gratitude for gifts from God. Your challenge these next 3 days is to recognize and pen (1 per page) at least 100 gifts for which you're grateful.

Love,

Mom

grapes off the vine - fun fact that you might already know: sweet wines are made from grapes that taste kind of sour/bitter off the vine; dry wines' grapes are pretty sweet off the vine. My favorite in both grapes and wine is merlot. mmm.

Panera cinnamon crunch bagel - haven't had one of these in awhile! That needs to be remedied. Who's with me for a trip to the nearest Panera (which is probably like 45 minutes away)?

soccer - so at that time in my life, I was regularly playing pick-up games with only one other female, and the other players were Hispanic males. My game definitely improved! These days, I'm too old for all that, but I'm quite the enthusiastic cheerleader at the local U11 league games.

my sweet, beautiful, kind, caring, young mom - *ahem* and why am I still not your favorite, mama?

Nanny Mee Maw - this makes me smile :) My mom's best friend since the 1st grade, my "nanny mee maw" has been a second mom to me my whole life. I just love her.

my sister Megan - my younger cousin, Megan, and I are only 14 months apart. Our moms are sisters. We're like sisters. She's now an attorney and lives in a big city so I sometimes live vicariously through her...she's the best!

Chapel Hill - I could not care less about sports, by the way. Megan was at UNC when I turned 23, so I would visit her, and LOVED walking around Chapel Hill. I should probably make my family go along with me to enjoy the town again.

my little brother Brooksie -  aww. He had recently joined the Air Force at the time, and was stationed at Lakenheath in the UK. Now he's stationed in San Antonio, but currently deployed. I miss him like crazy. He can be kind of a pill (no offense, baby brother!) but is always sweet to me...and he's pretty cute as an uncle now!

hard-working dad - yep. The man is 58 and has no plans of retiring anytime soon. Throughout my life he's always held at least one job, many times two, to enable my mom to stay home with us, and help us through school, etc. And he's the best grandpa!

cheerwine - and we end the day on a sad note :( I can no longer have caffeine, and since I especially loved Cheerwine in the glass bottles, that's out for me. There is a such thing as caffeine-free NOT DIET Cheerwine, but it's hard to find. Usually I have to settle for caffeine-free diet, which is not the same, and I can't even get it as a fountain drink.

So that last one doesn't seem too grateful. Ooops. I am so glad I got to have 28 years with the pleasure that is glass bottle Cheerwine, and I long for heaven where it will surely be served in much larger glass bottles and running through fountains to load up on at will. I hope you'll be there with me, so if you're not sure, ask me about Jesus.