30 Days of Gratitude - Day 24

Today I want to go a little light and profess my gratitude for puzzles.

I am a huge fan of puzzles and have been for a long time. I love doing crosswod puzzles, especially over breakfast with my parents (they do the ones in the newspaper every morning, just to keep their minds sharp).

I love doing search a words primarily as a way to sort of relax the mind and yet doing these puzzles has trained me to be able to look at things differently when life just isn't quite right.

Ever since I was a little kid I've loved to do jigsaw puzzles and for a while I received one every year for Christmas. I had one that was like 500 pieces and all chocolates and I would challenge myself to see how quickly I could put it back together. Because I put that one together so many times, I think I got my best time under 5 minutes....of course it helps if you don't tear it apart completed.

I have rencently downloaded a jigsaw app on my Kindle Fire, and I am enjoying putting together jigsaw puzzles on that while watching mundane television in the background. The only problem that I find is once in a while, Leo demands that I pet him instead of play....ah the horror!!

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 23

Today, I am grateful that I do not feel the need to shop on Black Friday. In fact, I am grateful that there is such a place as the Internet (see earlier post) where I will be doing ALL of my Christmas shopping. I do not intend to step foot anywhere near a department store or mall for the next 6 weeks...

Instead, I will be spending this day hanging out with my folks for awhile and catching up and maybe doing to quilt designing with my mom...or reading....or working on the crossword puzzles....or just staring off into space and enjoying the quiet of the country.

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 22

Today I am spending time with my family and extended family via my brother-in-law. I am grateful that I have them and that we all live near enough to be able to spend this time together.

I wish each and everyone of you out there a Happy Thanksgiving and hope that you are able to spend this time in the company of people that you love.

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 21

Today, I am grateful to the life sucking entity that is the Internet. Without this amazing thing (Thank you Al Gore), I would not be able to:

• Diagnose my dog's illness
• Identify whether what I'm about to feed my dog will kill him
• See what each of my friends is doing AT THIS VERY MOMENT
• Read and learn about all sorts of fascinating people
• Find recipes for my crockpot, cakes, pork tenderloin, and silly putty
• Find quilt patterns that I will never use
• Find ceramics tutorials that I will forget about
• Do all my Christmas, Birthday, I'm sad and I want something shopping
• Try and find a date
• Create wishlists of books, music, movies, shoes that I want to get
• Reserve my seat on a plane
• Purchase tickets to a fair
• And so many other exciting and/or mundane things.

 Thank you Internet for making my life.... sad and lonely and never experiencing the great outdoors....