Five (plus one) things I am grateful for today

1. Last night when E came home from work he was carrying a big, beautiful, orange pumpkin.
2. Our clean house
3. Salad
4. Rest
5. The way Roofrauff sighs
6. My mom is having a great time with her college buddy Annie. It's so good to hear her laughing.

Five things I am grateful for today

1. Late night date with E watching Geronimo last night and eating honeycrisp apples, cheese and crackers
2. Acupuncture from Gabrielle
3. A nice nap
4. A little walk
5. Having Gabrielle as a next door neighbor/friend

Five things I am very grateful for today

1. Holy smokes, 11 hours of sleep. Hooray!
2. A quiet walk with my baby dog Pickles
3. Dinner at the Create Cafe with Mead
4. Stress relief kava tea with orange milano cookies
5. Four more days off after today

Five things I am very grateful for today

1. Last night I had the opportunity to take care of a patient in much the same situation as my dad was in, with death impending. His wife and two early-thirties children were at his bedside all night. I cared for them with my whole heart and all of my effort. They were receptive and grateful. It was deeply rewarding, and in a way that is difficult to explain, healing for me on a personal level. I realized that I am no longer in the stage of acute loss. My father is no longer dying. That time, those last days were so precious, and so excruciating. And now they are behind me. To give the family clear expectations about what to expect in the coming days, to clarify the doctor's progress notes and bring them the information, to get the patient in a comfortable position and actually have him sleep for two consecutive hours, to convince his wife that peanut butter and crackers and a glass of milk could really make her feel just a little bit better, those are the things that make it worth it. I did my best and I feel good about what I gave. So often I think, I should have done this or that, but not today, I feel satisfied with the care that I gave. It was the best of what I have inside me.

2. Seven glorious hours of sleep. (I usually only sleep four or five right after a shift.)

3. Sunset walk with RR, Gabrielle and Rico.

4. Date with my love: sushi and home to eat popcorn with garlic salt, butter and nutritional yeast and watch episodes of The Shield.

5. Rene is doing a really good job in her orientation. I feel really proud of her and the quality of her work.

Five (x2) things I am grateful for today

1. Last night E and I stayed up watching episodes of his favorite show. I thought I would hate it because it's a show about cops and corruption, but NO! I loved it! I am now positively addicted to The Shield. What a fun night we had, drinking tea, I ate some quinoa with pistachios, tomatoes, shallots and cheese mixed in. He had a pear with laughing cow cheese and seed/multigrain crackers. Mmm hmm. Can't wait until the second disc of season one arrives.

2. Sunset walk with my neighbor Gabrielle, her dog-friend Rico, and RR.

3. Then we ate tacos. God, I love tacos.

4. My mom's willingness to share her heart with me, even when it is hurting.

5. Gabrielle lent me a book about Chinese medicine that I have started am and already enjoying.

6. Three weeks straight of doing yoga more days than not. My back and hamstrings are starting to feel glad.

7. Clouds

8. Green tea

9. I just noticed that Eric cleaned the bathroom mirror.

10. A heavenly massage at the massage school

Mmm, my heart is so full today. Good night Worldy, I love you.

Five things I am grateful for today

1. Enough of everything
2. Mead coming over to play
3. Crisp fall day
4. Quinoa black bean bowls with cashew cheese sauce, sun dried tomatoes, carrots, shallots and kale chips
5. How much Roofrauff loves his friend Lucy, watching him chew on her ears makes me so happy.

Five things I am grateful for today

1. My work week is OVER.
2. An unexpected grilled cheese sandwich with tomato slices at work last night
3. A hug from a very sweet 96 year old patient
4. Rain!
5. Coming home to a clean kitchen. Thank you, Eric.

Five things I am grateful for today

1. Leftover pizza (which turned out to be one of the most delicious things I have ever made) and strawberry crumble for breakfast
2. Being close to my mom
3. Spending time outside with E today
4. Yoga
5. Open windows

A good night

Tonight has been full of cooking! First I made kale chips thanks to this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Kale chips? Before today Kale and I have kept a respectful distance, I do my best to not talk about her behind her back. But I am a sucker for all things crispy and crunchy, and while I was walking Roo today I thought, I really need to eat more dark leafies. So when I saw this recipe today I thought, okay Kale, maybe we can have dinner and see if we have grown since we last saw each other. But the chips didn't make it to dinner. I scarfed them right off the cooling rack. Kale, maybe you are okay in certain situations... And yes, they really ARE crispy!



Remember the other night when Regina made that vegan pizza with cashew cheese? Well it was AMAZING and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. So I made my own. I didn't make my crust from scratch though, I just bought a whole wheat one from Sunflower Market. Anyway, here it is right before I put it in the oven. It is currently smelling up the house in the most drool provoking way!



Since when can you buy strawberries in October? While I am pro-eating-seasonally in theory I sold out and bought a couple of containers because they smelled so awesome and looked so lovely. Here is the strawberry crumble before I put the top layer of crumble on. Yes, it has two layers of crumbly goodness. As my dear love would say, "Hells yeah, Muthabitches!"

Five things I am grateful for today

1. Glorious sleep. All day long sleep. 8 hours straight of sleep from 9am to 4pm.
2. Sunset walk with RR on the Rillito. There was a big javelina at the end of the walk which was pretty neat to see, and not get charged by.
3. No work tonight or tomorrow
4. Inspiration to do some healthy cooking
5. Pink and purple sunset

Five things I am grateful for today

1. Yesterday I was the only one to show up for the yoga class I went to. It was rainy and stormy outside which made a great background.
2. After yoga E, RR and I went for a walk on the Rillito at sunset.
3. E and I went on a date--it was delicious and super fun.
4. Pineapple orange raspberry sherbet with cookies
5. Cooler fall weather

Five things I am grateful for today

1. A long walk
2. Dinner at Sweet Tomatoes
3. Deep conversations with my friend/next door neighbor
4. Quiet
5. My job and all of the flexibility it allows me

Five (x2) things I am grateful for today

1. A good night at work last night.
2. That my grad school interview is over.
3. A massage at the massage school today.
4. Eric being supportive. And I would just like to take a moment to say: I barely ever look around, but when I do, holy crud do I thank my lucky stars for him.
5. Dinner at Regina's house--YUM! She made vegan pesto with an avocado in it--wow! Delicious! And she made a salad and pizza with veggies and cashew cheese on it. I love going to Regina's house. She is the best cook and such a kindred spirit.
6. For my parents.
7. And my sweet PickleDog, Roofrauff.
8. The love of crafts.
9. The neat jewelry that Mead made for me. It made me feel lovely all day long.
10. Yoga

Five things I am grateful for today

1. On Friday two of my patients needed some heart felt care and that is by far my favorite part of the job. They were both appreciative which made it even sweeter.
2. Yesterday I spent 2.5 hours researching my grad school program because my interview is on Wednesday and I needed some clarity and additional information. I read every syllabus for every class that I would take and looked at many of the required texts on Amazon. I feel really inspired and hopeful about the material and the assignments.
3. Today I went swimming with Gabrielle at her mom's house. We had a great time. We also had a picnic of rice chips, chicken salad, salsa, grape juice, and apples.
4. Sunset walk with Roofrauff, Gabrielle and her dog, Rico.
5. E is coming home soon and our weekend is beginning.

Five things I am grateful for today

1. Fresh, healthy ingredients in our kitchen
2. Homemade chicken salad and chili for my work week
3. My next door neighbor Gabrielle came over to hang out with me while I cooked. She is so inspiring. I have such neat friends.
4. A sunset walk with Roofrauff
5. Clean teeth

Five plus four things I am grateful for today

1. When I was feeling under the weather and climbed into bed for a nap it started to rain and E brought me a flower from our yard in a jar.
2. Good timing for feeling bad, it being a day off and all.
3. Big thunderstorm with a lot of rain.
4. I tried my new yoga class and loved it. It felt so good to be doing yoga again and I adored the teacher.
5. After yoga I went over to Mead's for dinner and it was all made, healthy and delicious. Squid ink pasta with turkey bolognese and sauteed zucchinis. Yum.
6. After dinner we went for a long walk in the cool damp night.
7. I no longer feel sick.
8. The last few days have been really good. We had a birthday party for E's brother Jim and a bunch of their friends came over. It was GREAT.
9. Tomorrow I am cooking something neat. I am not sure what yet, but it will be full of veggies and good!

Peace Out

Thirty day vacation from any mandatory crafty productivity starting today. October is dedicated to doing things for all the right reasons. What are those reasons? 1. For fun. 2. To relax. 3. Out of generosity. 4. For their own sake. 5. To be healthy. Why? Because work is work enough. And fun is supposed to be fun.

So October, whatcha wanna do? I have this really comfy chair in my studio, I would love to lie there, drink sun tea and read the new Elizabeth Gilbert book. I would like to walk Roofrauff and hold hands with Eric. I wouldn't mind planting a few plants. I would like to write more. Do some yoga. Cook some veggies. And be quiet. Be still.

October, I love you already.