While we should be thankful all year round, November is definitely a month that reminds me to stop and think about what I'm thankful for. Stephany recently shared these prompts on her blog and it turns out I shared them 6 years ago. It was fun to go back and read my answers - my how life has changed since the fall of 2013. Back then, I was living in Charlotte and dealing with my recent RA diagnosis. Let's just say I am very glad that my life unfolded the way it did! There are 30 questions so I am going to tackle them in 3 different posts! I filled in my answers on Wednesday night so the questions related to my senses are from Wednesday!
1) I’m most thankful for my ability to work in the industry I work in. It's not for everyone as it's very numbers-based and not everyone thrives in a male-dominated environment. But it's a great fit for me and I feel very fairly compensated which is a nice bonus.
2) In this moment, the thing I love most about my family is how kind, caring and supportive they are. My parents are in North Dakota and my siblings are spread across the country from AZ to Chicago to the suburbs Minneapolis to the border of MN/ND. But when we go through highs and lows, I feel their support even though we are separated by many miles.
3) Something that made me smile today was picking Paul up out of his crib when he woke up yesterday morning. He usually wakes up in a cranky mood but this morning he was smiling and happy. He always gives me a big hug when I get him out of his crib.
4) The best thing I smelled today was the latte I purchased at Caribou. I've been treating myself to a lot of lattes lately as our coffee pot/bean grinder are at the new house. I'll nip this latte habit in the bud after we've moved.
5) One of the memories I’m most grateful for is the time I spent with my paternal grandparents growing up. There isn't really a single memory - it's more a collection of memories. We lived just down the road from my grandparents and my grandpa had a shop next to our house where he restored engines with his brothers. I'd visit my grandpa and his brothers nearly every day and they would take me "uptown" for their afternoon coffee gathering with friends. I am sure I talked the ears off my grandpa and his brothers but they never made me feel like a bother! I also spent a lot of time with my grandma. I would bike down to her house and we'd play Up Words or just sit and talk. My grandfather passed away 10 years ago and his presence is so very missed but I am so glad I have so many wonderful memories of time spent with him. My grandmother is still going strong at 96. I hate the thought of losing her but I know I've been lucky to have her in my life as long as I have! I do have memories with my maternal grandparents but they lived an hour away and my grandfather had a terrible stroke when I was young so I sadly don't have many memories of him before the stroke. But I am glad that I got to know all 4 of my grandparents - not everyone has that opportunity. Paul will never know Phil's dad, Don, and that makes me sad for Don and for Paul.
6) Thank goodness someone taught me how to use excel! I use excel so much for my job and I love it so much that I use it a lot in my personal life. For example, when we were working on wedding thank yous, I had a calculation set up to tell us what % of thank yous were done!
7) The strongest part of my body in this moment is probably my brain. I'm not as active as I'd like to be so I can't say I feel all that physically strong but I intend to change that once the move is behind us. My plan is to do strength training/HIIT workouts 3 times/week. But my brain sure is strong these days!
8) Even after a rough day, the things I’m most grateful for at work are my amazing coworkers. One of my colleagues, Paul, is a former mentor/boss. He's one of the nicest people I know and has really helped me in my career. I'm so grateful that I get to work with him again. My other coworker is wonderful, too. We are a 3 person team and Paul travels most weeks so usually the 2 of us are dividing and conquering the work load each week. We each have very different strengths (I'm the excel girl and she's great at writing papers and creating marketing materials) which is a good thing. I like that I can be very real with my colleagues - they know when I'm having a tough time and they know when I'm on top of the world, and everything in between. I also work with a broader team that is wonderful!
9) I’m so grateful that my legs carry me through long walks with Pablito. Taking long stroller walks with him is my favorite thing to do. We haven't been on any recently since it's been bitterly cold but hopefully we'll get some milder weather soon!
10) I felt a little burst of energy today when I went for an afternoon walk through the skyway. I try to take a 20-30 minute walk each day as it's good to get a break from work and get some steps in. It always gives me a little burst of energy which I badly need in the afternoons!
It's your turn - pick a question to answer or answer them on your blog!
It's your turn - pick a question to answer or answer them on your blog!
9 comments:
Love these posts!
It is great to have memories of our grandparents. My paternal grandparents lived in a little house on our farm, so we spent countless hours sitting at their feet. My grandma died when I was only five, but Grandpa lived for quite awhile after that, and my favorite memories was him telling us stories about the seven children they lost, some only babies. They had five surviving children, but I will never forget those stories. I remember my dear sweet Grandma always warming our hands between hers in the winter when we visited, and she always fed us graham crackers slathered with butter. My maternal grandfather also died when I was around 5, so my memories of him are scant, but dear to my memory. My Grandma was a strong influence on my life and my favorite memories are staying overnight with her and she always used her good china to serve us meals, and insisted we have a cup of coffee in the morning. I hated it, but drank it and felt so grown up! She loved to play the piano and sing, and was an amazing cook! When she visited our house, she would help make bread & doughnuts, and used some of the homemade bread dough to make fried bread for a snack. It was covered with sugar and was so warm and delicious! Fond memories!
It's amazing how different our answers are from six years ago - some of my answers make me cringe so much, haha, so I can only imagine how I'll feel if I do these prompts six years from NOW. ;)
I think I will be a stealer and answer all of these on my blog! ;) The strongest part of my body I think right now would be by boobs. All that milk production and tugging on them and they are hardy pair. :) ha ha!
Aw, those are so good. Love that your work situation is so rewarding. You had your fair share of tougher times, and I'm happy that those are behind you.
These are great questions! And how fun you can look back on your answers from 6 years ago. Crazy to think how much life can - and has - changed for you in 6 years.
So awesome you work with such a great team and love your coworkers so much! I have not really felt like that since I worked at United Way and I miss that kind of camaraderie with a team. I think my new team it could be like that but it's hard to build those kinds of relationships when you work remotely from the rest of the team.
I love this and find that you were able to go back and review and see how things had changed. That's pretty cool. I think I AM going to do this on my blog. Thanks for a great idea!
I’ve been really lucky with my grandparents too. Both my grandmothers are still alive and my grandfather didn’t die until I was in my mid-20s and he was in his mid-90s. My other grandfather died before I was born though.
Unfortunately it’s already not looking as good for my kids since my mom died several years ago (a year after my grandfather actually), and my father-in-Law died a couple of weeks ago. I think Kaylee will be old enough to have some memories of him, but we’ll see. :(
These might be my favourite type of posts (and the financial ones). I think I will answer these on my blog.
Time with grandparents is so precious. I am very grateful that I was close with my maternal grandparents, and spent time cooking with my grandma and going on adventures with my grandpa when I was little.
I loved reading your answers. You're definitely lucky to have gotten to know both sets of grandparents, that is not a given. (My maternal grandmother died before my sister and I were born and my paternal grandmother died when we were six. While I do have some memories about her, I would have loved to know her when I was older! Luckily, her sister - our greataunt - stepped into her role.)
I love Excel, too! It's really so useful (most people are intimdated by it and I definitely have a lot to learn, too, but there is so much it can do!).
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