Five things I am grateful for today:

1. Four good home visits.

2. Dinner with my sweetpea, chicken and bean burrito goodness.

3. Good workout with two (yes, I am a junkie!) Grey's Anatomy episodes.

4. Massive sewing productivity tonight as the countdown to Friday's craft fair continues.

5. RAIN! In the desert! Yippee!

Five things I am grateful for today:

1. Last night when I got home from Portland after a long day of flying, E had made the house more homey and also had a scrumptious dinner simmering in the slow cooker. He just gets sweeter all the time. We ate dinner and then lit a fire and snuggled on the couch with the pup. It's so good to be home. (Though I loved every minute of my trip and am glad I am heading back in 3 weeks!)

2. This morning we went on a date to a nearby craft fair/tiny farmer's market that happens to be every Saturday and is less than a mile from our house. The other artists seemed really friendly and welcoming. When I spoke to the woman who runs it she offered me a spot starting next week. Having a table is free, so I have nothing to lose, right? This week will be a busy craft week--Friday is the TMC fair and then Saturday will be the one at Swan and Fort Lowell.

3. Tonight Sande came over for crafts. I love spontaneous plans, yippee! So nice to catch up with her. Plus she helped me cut fabric (my most unfavorite part of sewing) and I was VERY grateful.

4. Four good home visits today.

5. New barrettes on the craft table! Too tired to take pictures tonight. I just realized that I never took pictures of that last set either. Soon, I promise!

Thanksgiving

Mmm, how wonderful that to have a day dedicated to being grateful. I am grateful for that. I am VERY grateful to be home with my family having really good quality time together. I hope that everyone of you has a wonderful day today, that is is joyful and warm and delicious. Much love, Alexandra
p.s. I will be back to posting regularly once I get home to Tucson tomorrow.
p.p.s. Today deserves a 10 item list (really, I would like to write a hundred item list but am heading to the coast in an hour!)
1. This sweet time that I have with my family.
2. That my dad had a few months with no pain. Also that he is such a brave man and is handling this excrutiating situation with such grace.
3. My dad's radiation oncologist, a truly decent human being and a wonderful doctor.
4. This day with my parents, aunt, uncle, cousins and other people I love.
5. Eric, at home making our house cleaner and more comfortable while I am away. And all of his kindness and support and silliness and, and, and...
6. For a few days with Wendy in Seattle, which were so much fun and went far too quickly.
7. All these trees and rivers and lakes and beautiful red, orange and yellow leaves.
8. One of the best meals of the year, impending.
9. I get to come back in three weeks which makes saying goodbye tomorrow a lot easier.
10. For my friends, art, riding my bike, walking RR, camping, mindfulness, yoga and all the other things that make my life as rich as it is.

THANK YOU!

Five things I am grateful for today:

1. Date night with my love.

2. Making some new flower barrettes, pictures soon.

3. Three good home visits.

4. I found a new nice green sweater tonight that is a perfect layer for my trip to the chilly Northwest--perfect with a nice scarf a layer beneath it and a jacket over it! And it only cost 9 bucks! Yippee!

5. Two days til I leave--though I already feel like I am on vacation. Only one more home visit tomorrow and then I just need to pack up. Sure will miss my boys while I am gone... but I can't wait to see my loved ones--I miss them all the time.

Already good

It's 9:03 am and today is already a good day. 1: I think I am getting a cold and this is pretty good timing--I am leaving in a few days for a trip and I think I will be pretty well in time to not infect anyone or sleep through the fun. This may sound silly but I am all excited to have an excuse to get some pho, drink a lot of tea, get a book from the library and do absolutely nothing. Bring on the healing! I am counting on being nearly well by Friday afternoon--just letting you know, Universe.

2. Last night I listened to a talk by Pema Chodron about anger and how we respond to situations of adversity. It's hard to explain but some tight places inside of me seemed to loosen up. And I was reminded in way that reached into me that I have choices. We are never locked into one choice except for when we cling to one way of looking at things. I am grateful for this freedom.

3. I stayed up late working on a secret present for my mom. It is looking LOVELY! Just looking at it now makes me happy.

Five things I am grateful for today:

1. Three great trips coming up! This Friday I leave for the Pacific Northwest (Portland and Seattle) for Thanksgiving. December 10-13 I will be in San Francisco for some long overdue time with Meredith and also my cousin Tiffany! And December 21-28 I will be back in Portland again for more time with my family.

2. Spent the morning hanging around with Eric. He is so much fun.

3. Writing really helps bring me clarity. It used to when I was younger, I used to write all the time. But lately since I started doing morning pages for The Artist's Way I feel reconnected to myself in a really sweet way. I love starting my day by writing just for myself. I read yesterday that it is best to start your day by doing something creative, not by taking in information--checking email, reading the news, etc. I agree with this idea. Mostly my day starts really well when I start it by writing. Sometimes scraw (my word for all things bad) places are unlocked which can be really uncomfortable, but even that is really worthwhile. How are we supposed to heal from our injuries if they aren't given the attention they need?

4. I had the best dinner--a monster sized salad, and cheese and crackers. YUM! Also I got to chat with Wendy on the phone for a long time tonight. It's nice to be so connected even though we are so far apart.

5. I stayed a long while with my last home visit of the day today. She wanted to know all about this dinner that Eric made last night. I also told her about my twice baked potatoes which turned out REALLY good. She made me write down the recipe for her and got very excited. She told me all the good things that she has been eating lately with such enthusiasm. And when I left she gave me the best hug.

Five things I am grateful for today:

1. A walk with Monsieur Roofrauff through the neighborhood at sunset--the crispness in the air was delicious.

2. My four home visits went smoothly today.

3. I feel really healthy after my long workout.

4. And really happy to come home to E's dinner cooking in the slow cooker. He will be home any minute now! Mmm, smells delish!

5. My friend Celeste and I made some plans to play this week. I am looking forward to that!

Five things I am grateful for today:

It's early yet so some of these will be yesterday's.

1. Wonderful day with Eric. It was the first day of our weekend and we spent the whole thing together. We had the best lunch at this cute French place, sat outside, drinking hibiscus iced tea and scheming about going on a trip.

2. Our fridge is full of goodness.

3. My water filter is now attached to the sink, at long last! Hooray!

4. I am happy to be in better touch with my faraway loved ones.

5. It's time for breakfast. I am thinking french toast with some sort of pear goodness and pecans. Oh and some bacon for the beasts. (hmm, that would be us.)

Five things I am grateful for today:

1. Elk burgers with friends. I guess it doesn't get more free range than that. Some days more than others I very much live in Arizona. Surprisingly I liked elk. A lot. And so nice to hang around with our friends.

2. Three good home visits.

3. Eric bought me a caesar salad from Trader Joe's for lunch. Caesar salad remains my favorite. When I was a kid caesar salad was my dad's craft--he was always working like a chemist to perfect his recipe.

4. Our weekend has officially started, yippee! Lots of time to relax and be happy together. I am hoping we play outside.

5. Our sink is fixed, at last!

Things

I am sad to say a lovely human being has left the physical realm of our planet behind. One of my favorite patients died today, quite unexpectedly. I usually try to keep this blog on the warm and fuzzy side, but to not acknowledge his death would be in denial of his importance. I saw him twice a week for 3.5 weeks--not a long time to know someone. But partly because I felt somewhat responsible for him and partly because he was so neat, he became important to me. He is the one a few weeks ago who said, "I enjoyed having you over, and I don't like most people". He is the one who I had the hour of diabetes dietary information "class" with on Halloween who was so receptive. Every visit he would ask if I remembered to bring the cards I make over for him to see. He would offer me everything in their refrigerator at least once per visit. And he always told me that I am a really good kid. He always said, "Honey, are you sure your boyfriend is good enough for you? You are Jewish so I feel like a father to you, so I have to ask..." So here's to my friend, may you eat all the matzoh balls and sweet things you want.

It turns out that in home health you have time to really care for your patients, and I cared for him. And he is gone now.

So I am extra thankful today.

Thankful for: the chance to take care of a kind, really funny man before he left, time to lie on the futon on the front porch in the glorious late morning, yummy Thai lunch with Eric, a job that I am really happy to do, my loved ones, my strong healthy body, my dad having more time feeling good--whole and strong--and the strength of heart to enjoy it. (Good for you Daddy.)

Good night, Worldy.

Five things I am grateful for today:

1. For Eric. He is so gentle with my heart.

2. For Wendy, for many, many things.

3. Tonight we went out to dinner to Rosa's with E's mama, brother and brother's girlfriend. I feel so lucky to be included in his family.

4. Today one of my patients showed me pictures of when he was a young man(late 80's now)--his awesome yacht of a car, his wife, him and his brother at their butcher shop in New York cutting meat and looking very Italian. I am so lucky that these people share their details and stories with me.

5. For the warm sunshine. I love November here. It is perfect. I wish it would last forever.

Five things I am grateful for today:

1. Tonight I went to the All Souls Procession with friends. Feeling very glad that I went.

2. My two home visits went well today.

3. Went on a date with E-Frey for lunch. We ate a zillion delicious tortilla chips. And he sat in the booth next to me. And that is one of my favorite things.

4. Roofrauff went hiking on Mt. Lemmon today with Eric's brother and his girlfriend. Lately E's family has been feeling more like my own family--partially due to his mama asking me over for dinner the last three nights in a row. This is a very sweet thing.

5. Mom and Dad are having an awesome vacation so far in California. So glad for them.

Five things I am grateful for today, in color:

Five things I am grateful for today and Card Drop

1 . A real live stranger bought something from my etsy site! Yes, a real live stranger! She lives in Ohio and she bought a set of my prayer flags! This is the first time that a stranger has bought something from me online. Of course I couldn't resist adding an extra little thing to her package.

2. Our house is clean. Really clean. Again. Bless her heart, I love Sonia.

3. Tonight E and I went to his mama's house for dinner. His bro and bro's girlfriend are visiting from Prescott. Family dinners make me really happy. She made soup and cheese crisps and a big fruit bowl with watermelon, pear and apple slices. I brought brownies with pecans.

4. I love the 4th week of The Artist's Way. This book is helping me make some major progress.

5. And some very lovely news? My crafty inspiration is back with a VENGEANCE. I sewed all the eye pillows for the craft fair today, and got a very good start on the hot packs. It felt so good to be creating again.

Oh, and here is a card drop that I did yesterday outside the library by my house. I had to be kinda sly and wait for the security guard to walk away. Have I mentioned that Eric calls this whole project "Compassionate Littering"?

Five things I am grateful for today:

1. Three magnets and two felt barrettes sold at Popcycle this month. Yay! I am always happy when things sell, even if it is only a card. It always makes me a little fluttery...you like MY work? Enough to buy it? Eeee!

2. I had my first moment of chaos today at work and how did I handle it? Well, nothing was exactly critical so I drove home to figure out what to do over leftovers. Yeah...I drove home. To think about it. And wash my hands. Am I dreaming? It was actually just a matter of scheduling several different things in and everything worked out fine. A new skill that I need to develop is being able to organize my day while driving around. That means remembering the order in which I am planning to do things so when the office calls and throws me a curve ball (or three in this case) I can make a new plan on the fly. I had to do that in the hospital all the time--but in the hospital there are 12 hours for everything to work itself. In home care there are only so many light hours in the day.

3. Nice chat with Wendy tonight. (Have I mentioned that I am SO excited to go to Seattle? Cuz I am. I am also super excited to go home for Thanksgiving!)

4. My parents are leaving for a vacation to Napa Valley and San Francisco in the morning. Good for them!

5. I started the fourth week of The Artist's Way today. It's about integrity, a timely subject.

Five things I am grateful for today and Card Drops

1. I have re-decided to do the TMC craft fair at Eric's prodding. I turned in my registration and now I have to make the hot packs and eye pillows. I think this is a good thing. I think I need a little bit of focus right now and want a reason to start doing crafts despite my lack of inspiration. I am hoping that being with the fabric brings back the goodness.

2. Had one home visit today, it went very well.

3. RR and I walked around the neighborhood at sunset. He peed on everything and I relaxed. It's 89 degrees and felt wonderful.

4. This morning I had a great IM chat with a good friend about loving your body through being healthy. It was inspiring and made me feel pretty happy all day.

Now it is after dinner so I have new things to be grateful for.

5. That very same friend from this morning's instant messaging and I went to Sweet Tomatoes where we gorged ourselves on salad. YUM! We also talked a lot about "important things", it was great. I am so grateful to have good friends. It makes all the difference.

So last week on Kind Over Matter I learned about card drops... whatcha do is write a kind message on a 3x5 card (which I truly to be one of life's great gifts) or a post-it and then put it somewhere. I have decided to make these cards and try to put one somewhere everyday. Today I did two. The first one was so fun that I had to do more! I think I better start carrying my camera around though because the picture quality at sunset left a little to be desired in my close-up shot. Here they are:

The first one I put in a chain link fence in a kinda rough part of town, outside of an auto parts store. It says, "I wish all your heart's wishes come true."

The second one I tucked into a hole in a tree during RR and my sunset walk. He sanctified the moment by peeing on the base of the tree. It looks more precarious in the picture than it was...don't worry, it won't blow away too easily!

Five things I am grateful for today:

I have been writing these in the mornings a lot which is weird because then I am mostly grateful for things that happened the day before. Though obviously they are still fresh in my mind.

1. Love my job.

2. Nice slow start to the day. Lying around and lunch with my EFrey. Yummy grilled cheese sandwiches and tortilla soup. Pear slices and carrots. YUM!

3. I am going to swing by Seattle for a weekend before heading down to Portland in a few weeks. Yippee! A weekend of Wendy. What could be better? I appreciate our friendship more and more. Thank you for all of your patience and everything else. I can't wait to see you!

4. Good workout tonight--again I had to stay for a second episode of Grey's Anatomy. Mmm, crack. It's funny when you are sheepish about your second 45 minutes of cardio.

5. My first patient's wound is healing, despite some bad odds. I am so happy for him.

And darn if I didn't have the best sandwich today. Really good fresh roll from the bakery at Fry's, very lightly buttered, really good ham, dill havarti, lettuce. AH! It was heavenly. So good that I ate the whole thing before even touching my chips. THAT is crazy.

Five things I am grateful for today:

1. Yesterday E played hooky and we got to spend lots of time together. He grilled burgers for us for lunch. We laid around and talked and talked and talked. It was such a sweet day. Then I made us dinner--a pasta with those slow roasted tomatoes, a light pesto cream sauce, and chicken. We also had salad, of course!

2. Also yesterday I talked to my mom twice, two long good conversations. It's so good to be in good touch with her while I am this far away. I do so wish we lived in the same place...and that that place was warm and sunny. Anyway, it was good for my spirit to catch up on all the little details and the big picture.

3. It was a warm beautiful day. Mmm hmm, I love fall!

4. Today I am cleaning my craft space up so that when I want to return to crafting it will be ready for me with no messes. (Inspiration is still on hold.)

5. I went to Trader Joe's last night to get carrots and pistachios and some other things. It was so nice because I hadn't been there in a month or so and two of the employees separately asked where I have been. We joked around like we always do. Even though this isn't a small town, sometimes it still feels like it is.

Five things I am grateful for today:

1. Halloween: Started the evening with apple slices and caramel dip. At sunset I walked RR around the neighborhood and saw a few trick or treaters and all the decorated spookiness that our hood could muster up. Then I went home and handed out candy to trick or treaters. I was starting to dress up as Eric and at the last minute he convinced me to dress up as a zombie hunter with him. He dressed me up in all black, gave me toy guns that he had bought at the military surplus yesterday, strapped a gun to my thigh, gave me a camo hat with a zombie hunter patch on it, and a pair of his boots. Oh and a bandolier (new vocab word for me...and here I just thought it was a park in New Mexico!) filled with shotgun shells. I haven't been dressed up for Halloween since my mom dressed me. It was SO fun. We went to a wedding reception, ate some taquitos, then headed home for a Ghost Hunters marathon, Eric's famous stovetop popcorn and frozen pizza. Mmm hmm. This was a GREAT Halloween.

2. Yesterday I spent an hour sitting with a patient and his wife teaching them about a healthy diabetic diet. We talked a lot about the quality of carbohydrates consumed--it was really rewarding. They were so attentive and willing to learn.

3. Five visits yesterday--on my way!

4. Start of care with a new patient today.

5. I don't have to work til 2:30 so I am rrrrelaxing!