Day 19: Health

I am thankful for antibiotics. This one also probably could've gone in the "something you take for granted" category - that it is exceedingly unlikely that I will die this year from any kind of infection that responds to antibiotics. I don't have to worry that much about cuts, bites, or even most bacterial infections. I didn't have to worry that much about post-surgical infections for Josh (and he had many, with metal devices coming of his head right as he was at the handsy stage of late baby / young toddlerhood). All these things were potential killers even for young and healthy people before the discovery of antibiotics. I'm grateful for the way this increased lifespan and decreased suffering. I understand that antibiotic resistance is becoming a problem, and I am grateful that there are smart people working on this problem.

I'm grateful for people who devote their lives to science and medicine, who are right now working towards finding the next big medical breakthrough that will alleviate or eradicate diseases that are plaguing people now.

Day 18: The Weather

 

I am so grateful for the feeling of running in the rain. My first memories of running in the rain are from high school, when during track practice our coach would motivate us to run miles through the freezing rain by saying, "Columbus (a rival high school) isn't running through the rain!", planting the idea that doing a difficult thing would make you a better and stronger competitor. So the first thing I love about it is the idea of facing adversity and running straight into it, head down, with determination. 

Second, and somewhat opposite of that first thought, I love how running through the rain feels like freedom. There's something about rain hitting your face that feels like abandon, like the rules of how things are supposed to be have been removed. It's refreshing and surprising and usually when I get done with running through the rain for a few miles, my face hurts from smiling. Cheers to running in the rain!

Day 17: Something You Take for Granted

 I'm grateful that so far in life, I have not yet had to mourn the loss of someone in my closest circle (such as a parent, sibling, child, partner, or close friend). I do think about this sometimes - when others I know lose someone close to them, when there is a health emergency, when my mind is in an anxiety spiral late at night - but in general, I take for granted that the people I love most are all here. This is uncomfortable to write about and I'm sure it must be uncomfortable / painful for some to read about, but I think at least occasionally acknowledging the reality of death can make me more grateful for what a privilige it is to still have the ability to talk to, hug, buy gifts for, laugh with, have vacations with, experience all the highs and lows of life with, my nearest and dearest.

Day 16: Simple Things in Life

A simple thing in life I'm grateful for is cooking dinner. I'm grateful that we were designed in such a way that we get so much of our health, sustenance, social time, and enjoyment from meals. I'm grateful that cooking can be so many things - a way to zone out and process the day while also being useful; a chance to be bold and creative if you're in that kind of mood, or routine and by the book if you're in that kind of mood; a boredom killer; a memory to do together with your children. I'm grateful for the variety of textures and colors and tastes and the endless ways they can be combined to make a tasty meal. I'm grateful for the smell of simmering onions and garlic. I'm grateful for the provision of a kitchen, cooking utensils, and money to buy groceries week after week. 

Day 15: Things You Like About Spring

I am so thankful for flowers in the spring. I am thankful for the green and the bright pops of color. I'm thankful for the sign of new life, as the plants show they are alive again after the dormant period of winter. I'm thankful for how the world feels so fresh and new and abundant and full of promise in the spring. 

Day 14: A Talent You Have

 https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLAh6R4i2jt/?igsh=dHhnd2N0dWxkeGdt

My talent is the same as the person in this link: car singer. What is lacked in excellent singing voice is made up for in passion. I'm thankful for whoever invented car radios, I'm thankful for music, and I'm grateful for the private traveling space of a car to let out some pent-up energy and emotion.

Day 13: A Challenge You've Overcome

 I'm thankful to have overcome the challenge of going back to work as a lawyer after being a stay at home mom for 13 years. Nobody goes to law school expecting to spend a substantial part of your working years NOT working as a lawyer. I've written in numerous other places on this blog about how I'm grateful for the opportunity to have had so much time with my kids in their young years and grateful for the privilege that it was even an option available to us. The thing I didn't write about was how, as the years stacked up, it felt like an increasingly impossible thing to jump back into the workforce. I wasn't sure if anyone would give me a chance with that kind of gap in work history and I wasn't sure they *should* give me the chance after that long away. I was nervous knowing that, like most professional jobs, you are bearing a pretty good load of trust, responsibility, and expected knowledge right away. After we got into double digits years of my time at home, I honestly didn't know if I'd ever go back to work, at least as a lawyer. Thanks be to God, the perfect opportunity came along that allowed me to use skills I already had and that fit into the life we wanted to keep. Also thanks be to God, He got me through those first few months that only in hindsight can I admit to myself how hard that transition was. I'm thankful to have made it through, to have my lawyer mind and confidence back, to have bridged the gap that for so long felt unbridgeable.

Day 12: Your Favorite Personality Trait

 Okay, I admittedly skipped "5 things you like about you" because that is just not the purpose for which I'm doing this challenge, however I'll participate with one. This year, I'm grateful that there's an adventurous streak in me. It's wrapped up in a bundle with other traits like shyness, protective mother, and cautious lawyer, so that sometimes it gets overruled and often it surprises people. But it totally lights me up to get to see a new place, try a new activity, have a new experience -- and if there's some element of challenge to it, all the better. It is absolutely part of the fun of things if you're checking out a new lake and this includes driving down an extremely bumpy road and going out of cell service; if your vacation involves navigating public transportation in a different language; if your race involves a 2 am leg out in the middle of nowhere. That makes the thing MORE appealing, not less. I'm thankful that this streak helps me overcome some of the aforementioned things that I don't love as much about myself.

Day 11: Someone Who Inspires You

 The savvy readers among you will notice that I skipped a few days -- this challenge has 52 prompts, so I'm going to skip some here and there, but will try to mostly skip those that don't work as well for a blog post rather than taking this as a free ticket to avoid everything that makes me uncomfortable.

Back to today's prompt: someone who inspires you. The first person that pops into my head is a foster care provider who focuses specifically on providing housing for youth who are likely going to age out of the foster care system. This person and his staff provide not just a room and some meals, but he really invests himself in these youth. He provides them with structure, guidance, and support. He helps prepare them with the soft and hard skills they will need as they move into the adult world. He encourages them to take their education seriously, helps prepare them for how to get a job, and encourages them in all hobbies and interests that go beyond video games. He advocates for these kids with the different adults in their lives. This is an extremely needed, extremely underserved, extremely important role, and it's not an easy one to do day in and day out. I'm inspired by and thankful for this person. 

Day 7: A Friend #1

 

I am grateful for my friend Monica. Monica is a friend I met in a Bible study for special needs parents, when both of our oldest kids were in early elementary school. It's always so nice to form a friendship with someone else who understands the special needs life, knowing what it's like to attend all the appointments, research supplements and therapies and treatments, and try to figure out the right educational situation. Who deals every day with sleep, eating, and behavior concerns. Who understands if you're late or if you have to cancel last minute or if you arrive to a get together in a state of falling apart. That alone is enough to make me really value this friendship. But on top of that, Monica is also really funny and caring and smart, and has interesting opinions and ideas about all sorts of things - she's fun to talk to. We share the same faith. She's always up for adventures. And she's not afraid to be honest and vulnerable. I'm so grateful for this friendship.

Day 6: The City You Live In

I am so grateful for the high desert climate of Reno. I love how we get all four seasons, very distinctly - we get the flowers in spring, blazing hot days in summer, autumn leaves, and snow in winter. But it's also very moderated - even on the hottest summer days, you can get very comfortable temperatures if you go outside in the early morning or evening. And on the coldest summer days, you can usually still get some warmth and sunshine going out right in the middle of the day. This is nothing like how the Midwest and East Coast experience the extreme parts of the year. It's dry, which especially in the summer means you're not dripping with sweat starting the moment you roll out of bed, and mosquitoes don't do nearly as well here as in other climates. It's sunny like 300 days a year. It's beautiful with mountains all around. For all these reasons, people love to get outside all year round, and I am also grateful for that about Reno. 

Day 5: Something Someone Gave You

I am thankful for my daughters' Mother's Day gifts this year. For the first two weeks in May this year, we travelled to Paris. A month ahead of time, the girls realized that this trip would include Mother's Day and planned ahead enough to order an Eiffel tower necklace and blanket and then bring them in their suitcases to Paris so that they could give them to me on Mother's Day. (To be fully accurate, I didn't let Zoey bring the blanket because (without knowing what it was for) I saw that it was taking up like half of her suitcase and vetoed it, but she had fully intended to use half her suitcase to bring me a gift.) I am so grateful at their thoughtfulness and kindness to put this level of planning into getting a gift so far ahead of time, which was on theme for what was happening that month, and then thinking to transport it halfway around the world.

Day 4: Family Member

 One of the things about doing the gratitude challenge year after is that it turns into somewhat of a time capsule - so even though I repeat certain things year after year, the details of it can really change over time. So for this prompt, I'm going to write something I'm grateful about for each of my 3 kids in their current age / stage.

Josh: I'm grateful for his curiosity. I love when I ask him a question, like what would happen if the moon crashes into the earth, thinking it will totally blow his mind. And then he answers me in such a way that it's clear he's already given this tons of thought and here are theories A, B, and C - and blows my mind. Josh has a really searching, probing mind - he loves to learn - and it's so fun to watch this take shape as he goes through the teenage years.

Zoey: I'm grateful for how thoughtful she is becoming. It's not easy being a sensitive person whose natural tendency is to be in your own head, thinking and overthinking (i say because i know this tendency well). But I love how I see her noticing things that other miss, writing a note to someone that makes them feel really seen, providing a kindness that others may not have noticed was needed. Relatedly, I'm grateful for what a good writer she is, and I'm grateful that writing is an outlet for so many feelings.

Ivy: I'm grateful for her playfulness. She is always up for a silly moment, a dance party, or a wrestling match. She tends to say goodbye to her friends sumo style, hugging them and then lifting them off the ground. She loves parties and holidays and get togethers with friends. I'm grateful for our most social family member (although Josh is gaining rapidly in this area and also loves all these things).

Day 3: Family

 I love how this challenge gives a day to the concept of family, as well as then giving additional days for you to be thankful for particular family members. I'm very very thankful for my family of 5, for the family I grew up in, and for the family I married into, but today I want to have a more general concept-of-family thankfulness in two areas.

First, my work gives me reason all the time to be thankful for the way people step up in order to create a safe, dependable, loving family for a child who has been removed from their home. The parents who go through treatment and break the gripping addiction for the sake of their kids. The aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins who  are willing to completely alter their life plans to make sure a child in their extended family has a safe and loving home. The foster families who open up their home and make the child a part of their family, not knowing whether the child will be with them short-term or long-term. There's a lot more to say about all of these situations, but for today, I'm thankful for everyone in all of these categories.

Second, I am thankful for the way that God has included us into His family - that when we believe, we are described as adopted children. What a thing!! To be known and loved that intimately by the King of the Universe. To have the kind of relationship that time and difficulty and changed circumstances does not break. To be in a family with God for all of eternity - my mind can't even wrap around it.

Day 2: Spouse

 

I am thankful for many things about Kenny, but the one I want to focus on today is his desire to focus on the things that matter, in what he thinks about, what we talk about, and in how he spends his time and energy. He doesn't like to waste time on small talk, preferring to go in depth but able to do so in a wide variety of topics. He inspires me to think better, and in particular to think about things more deeply. He's good at bringing up challenging questions or thought provoking ideas, whether it's for a group discussion or one-on-one. I really enjoy and admire this, and I'm so grateful for this quality of Kenny's.

Gratitude 2025 Day 1: Why Start this Challenge

I'm starting up another round of seasonal Gratitude Challenge, and as usual, I invite any of you to participate along with me! I'm starting this challenge now for two reasons. The first is very practical - we will be finishing our 3rd year of homeschool next week (whoop whoop!), and summer is typically the time where I have a little more margin in the day to do things like write a blog post. So I'm hoping to get through much of this over the summer.

Second, I can tell my heart is in need of a reorientation towards gratitude. I'm doing too much comparing, too much looking for my identity and worth in the wrong kinds of things, and not enough appreciating all the abundant goodness that exists in my life already. This kind of challenge, where you go through day by day, category by category, is such a good way to try to get the reminder in deep that there is so very much to be thankful for. So for day 1, I'm thankful for this challenge as a tool to promote gratitude!