Happy Thanksgiving!

For Family Home Evening on Monday, we each filled out a list of 100 things we were grateful for. I was trying for some shock value, and thought the kids would freak out at the idea of 100 things, but they said, "OK, and started writing. I had to stop them. "Wait!" I said. "There are categories!"
We really only had to think of 10 things in each category.

I got the idea at the Red Headed Hostess, though I changed several of the categories. Here are the ones we used:

1. Things (Items) you are thankful for
2. People you are thankfrul for
3. Things people have made that you are thankful for
      *This was hard to explain, but I meant books, movies, songs, art...stuff like that
4. Memories you are thankful for, distilled into a word or two
5. Things about yourself that you are thankful for
 6. People who have gone before you that you are thankful for
7. Things you have a testimony of that you are thankful for (things you know)
8. Things that have happened this week that you are thankful for
9. Things about today that you are thankful for
10. Things about your family that you are thankful for

The Red Headed Hostess has a very cute paper you can print out for your 100 things.

I had thought of sharing some of the highlights from the 600+ things we came up with, but I changed my mind. Instead, I want to tell you how grateful I am for my family, and the great attitude they have when  I try out silly projects like this. I am incredibly blessed by their goodness every single day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Long Beach, California, Part 4

I got home late last night, and let me tell you, my trip to California already seems like it happened ages ago. So quick! Before it fades completely, here are the highlights from the last two days.

1. Roger's conference ended at noon, and I knew that whatever we decided to do, it would involve a lot of walking, so I didn't do much...a little hot tubbing, a doomed-from-the-start search for something to watch on TV, a few minutes of reading. And boy did I call it.

Our day went like this: Roger wanted to go to Huntington Beach, which was 1.5 hours away by bus, with one transfer. The concierge gave us one set of directions, but the bus driver told us he was wrong and gave us different directions. She was wrong, and we found ourselves stranded. I knew exactly what to do--wait for the next bus and continue on our merry way. Or take the route the bus driver thought we wanted, and see what happened next. But this was Roger's one chance for some fun, so, knowing exactly what he would decide, I let him take over. We walked. It was an adventure--a "let's see where this bike road takes us", "let's see where what's over this next hill," "darn it's too late for lunch, but here's a granola bar to tide you over until we find a place to eat dinner" kind of an adventure. We ended up on Seal Beach, and even found the delicious Crema Cafe again (it was closed. Sigh).

My favorite part of the adventure was watching a huge group of pelicans dive into the water over and over again. Plus the beach was awesome, although a cold wind was blowing. My least favorite part of the adventure was a muscle spasm in my left calf for the first leg of the journey. Luckily it went away before our walk home. 

2. Halloween in CA. From what I saw of Halloween in CA, it consisted of children going from store to store with their parents, and getting candy if any happened to be left. Then they all went out to dinner at a restaurant. Those poor kids--I wondered if they had any inkling of the bounties my own children were getting here in Maine.  Speaking of which--it was harder than I'd thought it would be to be away from my kids for Halloween. I MISSED THEM. It sounds like they had a ball though.

3. The next day we had to be up at 4:00 so we could get to the airport. We got on the plane without incident, and it wasn't until we landed in Chicago that we found out that shortly after our plane took off there was a shooting at the airport and the whole thing had to be evacuated. So glad I missed that, and so glad that we were able to make our connection and get home on time. I was terribly anxious to see my family, and although of course we could have survived without seeing each other for awhile, I'm more grateful than I could say that we got home a little earlier than I'd even expected. And you know what? I think they missed me too.

The End of the Challenge

This 31 Day Challenge has been awesome for me. Granted, I only did maybe, um, 10 of the posts, but I learned a lot of great things from it. Here's a few:

 1. I want to write to my kids, but this blog isn't the way to go. I couldn't even get them to look at it! And a lot of the things I wanted to say were not really "Hey World! Listen-to-me-talk-to-my-kids" things. They were Write It-In-My-Journal things. So, because of this post, I've begun writing in my journal again. I only give myself about 2 minutes a night to write, and I don't allow myself to go over. This gives me 3-6 lines a night of thoughts about my day. For 2 weeks now, I've been at 100%. It's a whole different format than the old "Write 10 pages once a year" that has been so successful for over a decade now.

 2. I still want to keep this blog. In that very first challenge post  I made a list of things I wanted to write about in this blog. Here they are:

• I'm shelving any writing projects that aren't already well underway. The ones that I truly care about will get my attention until they are finished. 
• I'm making my health a priority. 
• I'm going to turn my house into a home. 
• I'm going to strengthen the relationships with the most important people in my life--my family. 
• I'm going to find joy in the things I love to do.

I thought about doing it the way I see so many people blog--you know what I'm talking about Mojo Monday, Top Ten Tuesday, Works For Me Wednesday...but that isn't me. OK, cute titles for the days of the week might be me, but sticking that tightly to a schedule can't be me. Not if I'm going to be busy doing all the things on that list up there. Two or three random days a week is more my style.

3. I do want to be part of the IWSG. It's a great group, and I don't post on The Prosers on Wednesdays. But I CAN DO IT HERE!

Ta Da! 

Stay tuned for my first "Making My Health A Priority" post.