Friday night grateful moment

id that feel like a short week to you too? Just one extra day tagged on to the weekend, and whoosh, the rest just zooms on by. You'd think all this rain and strange weather would make things go oh-so-slooowly, but alas, it does not. Time still keeps on ticking, ticking, into the future...

So, onward to the weekly gratitude round-up.

Grateful for sleep. Always and ever. Even those 10-minute power naps, they do me well. But a good solid 8 hours? OK, well, probably more like 7... still, good stuff, that.

Thankful for girlfriends and lunches and good chats and catching up.

I'm grateful for the rain. Even as I whine and moan about it occasionally, I am in love with the green in the yard and on the hills, in love with the fact that I am not yet having to worry about watering, and very in love with the knowledge that summer WILL come, and it will probably come like a freight train with its 100-degree days and we'll all go: "Wow, that happened really fast!" like we do. Every. Single. Year.

Once again, I am reminded how good it is that people have people. I'm extremely grateful for community. A friend from long ago days is going through a dark patch, and knowing that she has a fiercely loyal group of friends who will help her through this time is just so good. I know she'll make it, it's just a matter of going through it to get to the other side. One foot in front of the other, baby.

 Seth helping make pizzas for supper tonight.

I'm grateful for my men. For our routines and rituals, our little family discussions and debates, our meals together, our morning rush out the door... all these little things that make my days so rich with love. I'm blessed.

Grateful for chia. Don't laugh. I think I've discovered the fountain of youth. Really. If I come at you with a pyramid scheme for how we'll all get rich selling chia, just run the other way. Ha ha. Seriously, though, I have been eating chia for a week and think it's pretty darn cool. Check out the nutrition content. Tell me those Aztec folk weren't on to something. (And who doesn't want to walk around the house going "ch ch ch chia" like those old chia pet ads?!)

My pizza on its way into the oven tonight. It was delicious.

I'm thankful for cheese. For the fragrant brick of parmesan I grated over my salad last night. For the fresh, soft mozzarella I crumbled over my pizza tonight. For goat cheese and cheddar and brie and all the lovely kinds in between. I could go on  and on about cheese for some time...

I'm grateful for all the birds we have around the house and yard right now. From a precious few hummingbirds to the house finches and gold finches, barn swallows, pheasants, California quail, magpies, red wing blackbirds, starlings, English sparrows, white crown sparrows, flickers, meadowlarks, red tailed hawks, sparrow hawks, mourning doves, great horned owls, even the occasional great blue heron... the list goes on (thanks to husband for helping me with that list! He knows the varieties better than I.). I love all their tweets and chirps and songs. Even super early in the morning!

Grateful as ever for words--written and spoken--and for our ability to make ourselves known (or at least try to!) to our fellow humans. That universal desire to be understood; isn't it amazing? I am also grateful every day for the ability to take information in, process it and learn and/or discard as needed. It's a wild world of information anymore, and filters are so necessary... otherwise you're just bopping along on the surface of it all. I read a fascinating article in Wired (can't find a url to link to, which is ironic, since the evil of hyperlinks were a focus of the article...) about how the internet is changing how we learn, how our brains are even changing in their wiring based on the internet and vast flow of information. A little scary, a lot interesting.

And of course, must close with a little visual (something really deep, as befitting my earlier comment about bopping along on the surface of it all... ha ha!). Does it get any cuter than this? Why can't I get over my bunny "thing?" You would think by now I might have, but it appears not... So, I'm grateful for bunnies and their cuteness, and that I have yet to succumb to the desire to actually own one again.



I hope your weekend is lovely and relaxing, filled with all the beauty and peace that only a weekend can bring. What will we do with it only being two days, not three? Sigh.