30 Days of Gratitude - Day 11 - Beautiful

It isn't really that beautiful now -- the rose is about four days old -- but the sentiment is. Bob came home with it on Saturday night. He said, "I realized that I hadn't brought you a flower in a long time, and that's unacceptable!" So, a single red rose in a bud vase. It has to sit in the kitchen or bathroom since Dinah would knock it over if it was on a table, but that's okay. It's fine in the kitchen.

I'm very grateful for Bob and for our marriage. I don't talk about it a lot, because I don't want to brag, but we really do have a great marriage. It takes work, of course, we don't take it for granted. We thank each other for the little things that we do every day -- I thank him for taking out the trash, and he thanks me for cooking dinner, things like that. It may sound silly, but it really does make a difference.

Going out to dinner is kind of a rare occurrence lately, given the state of the economy, but we do things like go out for ice cream, or go for a drive, or make a late-night run to the grocery store together, or just watch a movie. It's something we can do together. We don't actually spend a lot of time together at home--I'm usually either downstairs watching television or in the bedroom reading, and he spends most of his free time t home in his office on the computer or watching television (since we seldom want to watch the same things), but we've always said that that was one of the keys to the longevity of our relationship. We always say it jokingly, but it's probably true. We don't want TOO much togetherness, but I guess we have enough.

Photo: 9/11: Beautiful

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 10 - Work

I came back from a meeting this afternoon to find three dogs waiting for me. I know it wasn't for love (except maybe for Jojo), it was for treats, and the two inside the office were actually probably trapped and afraid to try to get by Jojo, but it did make a nice welcome. She doesn't ever do anything except growl, but she is the old grumpy lady of the office (like me!), and she is very intimidating, apparently.

I'm very grateful for work, for the fact that both Bob and I have good, well-paying jobs that we enjoy. It's a terrible time to be out of a job, and to be looking for work, so I'm very thankful that we have jobs to go to. And obviously, mine has the added bonus of dogs!

It also comes with the bonus of working with friends--people I actually like to spend time with, many of whom have been my friends for over a decade--and of doing work that I love. Not everyone gets that advantage, and it's one that I'm very grateful for.

Photo: 9/10 - Work. Waiting for me.

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 9 - Reading

I read an entire book today, not in one sitting, but in three or four. I read for awhile in the morning, then got dressed and went to the grocery store, came home and read some more, had dinner, read through the evening until I went to sleep. The book doesn't really matter (although it was "The Survivor," by Greg Hurwitz), just the fact that I was able to spend so much time reading, and how enjoyable it was.

I had this book on my Amazon wish list, but it just came out, and was a little expensive ($12.99), so when I heard it was coming out, I got on the hold list at the library, and my number came up this weekend.

I don't get a lot of books from the library any more, since I prefer to read on the iPad--it's more comfortable, I can read in the dark with minimal light, etc., but I still do love the library. I enjoy going there on the weekends and browsing through the new books, and I love being able to reserve books that I want to read, but may not want to buy.

I'm grateful both for the library, and for the abundance of wonderful books that are available for me to read, in whatever format.

Photo: 9/9 - Lunch. (I forgot to take a photo of my lunch, so this is a picture of the view outside my office window. I'll do "lunch" later.)

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 8 - Warm

Every night when I come home, when it's 100 degrees outside and the air conditioning is keeping the house cool, I am thankful. I am thankful for clean running water to take long showers or relaxing baths, to cook with, to drink. I am thankful for electricity to power the lamps and televisions and computers and all the various things we have to make our lives easier and more comfortable, and for the natural gas that heats the water.

When the weather is a bit cooler, like it is now, I am grateful to be able to open the windows and feel the cool night air. It makes Dinah a little bit nervous, I think--there was a little bird sitting on the windowsill the other morning, chattering at her, and she didn't quite know what to think. It made us remember Doña catching a bird on the balcony of our old apartment and begging to bring it in. She did get in with one bird one time, and we chased it around the apartment until Bob was able to catch it and throw it out the window.

We remind Dinah that not every kitty gets to live a life of luxury, that some cats have to stay outside, or in the garage on an old dirty blanket and eat generic cat food. I don't think she understands, but if she did, she would be grateful.

Photo: 9/8 - Warm. Dinah basking in the heat from the lamp.

30 Days of Gratitude - Day 7 - Creativity

My mother sewed, but she didn't do any needlework--her eyesight was too bad, I think. She sewed and read using a magnifier. Both of my grandmothers crocheted, and my Grandma Scott--my mother's mother--also tatted. She taught me to crochet and tat, but the tatting didn't stick. I don't think I ever actually made anything, but she made some beautiful tatted doilies.

I learned how to knit in Girl Scouts, but when I was in high school I did a lot of crocheting. That was the height of the hippie movement, I guess, and magazines like Family Circle and Woman's Day had a lot of crochet patterns. I remember making a bunch of Irish crochet purses using rug yarn. I also went through a phase of thread crochet u sing a tiny steel hook, buying intricate doily patterns and all kinds of colors of crochet thread. During that time I made a few Barbie doll outfits from thread as well. My grandmother had crocheted a whole wardrobe for my dolls, but I must have sold it at a garage sale at some point, or at least it's all gone missing.

My knitting hobby really exploded when self-striping sock yarn came out. I've always loved variegated yarn, and although I had no idea whether I would ever be able to accomplish knitting on tiny needles with such small yarn, I wanted to try. I made my first sock in 2003, and that's really all I've been knitting since then. The photo above is the one I'm currently working on. I'm not very fast, but it doesn't really matter. I'm more of a "process" knitter, i.e., I enjoy the process as much as, or more than, the actual end product.

I learned how to sew and follow a sewing pattern in Home Ec classes at school. I remember making a suit--shorts, jacket and hat--for a fashion show that we put on at the end of the year, whatever year that was.

I'm so glad that I learned to do these things, and for the creativity that pushes me to knit and sew, and make things. It's kind of amazing, really, to create something like a pair of socks out of a ball of yarn, and I'm thankful that I can do it.

Photo: 9/7 - My hobby