This Week

Good morning!  Hope your week is off to a good start!  We are rockin' and rollin' with one sock on, one sock off and our rock hand up.  We had an awesome weekend but it has left me with plenty to do around the house this week.  I am loving staying at home and me and the little miss are starting to get into our own little rhythm, which means this momma can start thinking about more than just the basics. For fun and for the sake of accountability (and because I love a good list), here's what I would like to get done above and beyond the usual grind this week between naps...

1. Unpack from our trip and put up the suitcases
2. Finish baby gift thank you's (we have been blessed with a flood of gifts and I am embarrassingly behind)
3. Finish unpacking china and putting it in our sideboard table
4. Figure out what kind of light bulb we need for our front light and go buy it
5. Change out said front light after bulb has been purchased
6. Pull together a few crafty gifts to send to a few friends and pen pals and get them in the mail  
7. Plant the basil plant I bought two weeks ago in a pot before it get too root bound in its container
8. Paint the frame of the mirror I bought at Trade Days in Behr's Steam White  
9. Hand the above mirror up in its new home
10. Trim out the guest bathroom so it can be rollered
11. Pull weeds from beds and yard

We'll see on Friday if I have been too ambitious. What do you have lined up to get done this week?

Every Place

I am a planner and love dreaming about the future and then setting goals to make it happen.  However, one of my biggest personal and spiritual commitments is to be present in the now.  I once explained it to a friend this way.  My mom was a stay at home mom and when you ask her about being a mother, she used to say every phase was her favorite because there was something fun and exciting and new about each phase her children would go through. 

This is how I have approached my life.  I don't want to spend my days romanticizing or criticizing my past or spending my time thinking the best is yet to come, but live in a memory of the past or an expectation of the future that never existed or arrives.  I want to look back on my life and be able to say "each part of my life was the very best part of my life" but I want to be wise enough to know it and appreciate it at the time. 

For me this is deeply rooted in my faith life and a sense that gratefulness is at the heart of our relationship with ourselves, others and the world.  I want to practice being grateful, to see what is great in each moment, transition and challenge in life. 

I am not saying that challenges have not been a part of my life or will not, but I just don't want to be ungrateful about the other great things that are going on at any given point in my life, for the new opportunities and for the way that each moment in my life whether good or bad has had a way of carrying me to somewhere new and suprising and always wonderful. 

And to that end I want to make sure one of my monthly features on the blog in 2011 includes a "very best list", highlighting the very best of what is going on this year and what I have to be grateful for because this year is going to be full of challenges and adventure and I want to stay present to all the good that is in store.    

A Thankful List

I know that Thanksgiving was last month but in this time of hustle and bustle and shopping and stress I thought I would take a cue from another blogger and take time to list the things that I am thankful for this season. 

1. T, my lovely husband.  I know its seems cheesy or obvious, but this time right before the baby comes has been so much fun.  We are a really great team and I am just enjoying every last minute of our family of two.

2. My really great colleagues.  I don't really talk too much about my work life, but I work with some of the coolest people.  People that I even call my friends. 

3. For T and I's sense of humor which always seems to help lighten the mood

4. For basic human kindness and compassion that people show.  Being pregnant enough that I am now showing and don't jsut look like I've had one too many cheeseburgers I have found people to be very helpful and kind. 

5. For a mid-day skim hot chocolate and a snickerdoodle cookie

6. For being able to feel the baby all the time (whoa is it reassuring!) and being able to share that with T

7. That I only had to go to the mall once this holiday season. 

8. For my two siblings that are two really cool people who always have really sharp insight to troubling situations. 

9. For a season filled with wonderfully cheery mail that are not bills! 

10.  For having some really wonderful family recipies and tradition to look forward to sharing with T on Christmas Day

What are you thankful for this month?