Day 49: Things You Like About Winter

Two of my favorite things about winter - Christmas and skiing - have been written about multiple times on the blog. But an additional thing I'm so grateful for about winter is the feeling of coziness. I love putting on warm socks and sweaters, of lighting candles to brighten up the early evenings, of snuggling up under a warm blanket and settling in to read a book or watch a snow. I love sitting by a crackling fire. I especially love when it's a snowy day - you might go outside for awhile, either for fun or for shoveling - and then that feeling of coming back into the warmth of the house.

This concludes my thankfulness series for 2025. Thanks for following along! It's always a pleasure for me to go through this exercise and I'm grateful to those of you who humor me putting this all up on a blog :).

Day 48: Your Job

I'm grateful that my job involves regular court hearings. Court is fun because it's unpredictable and you have to be sharp and it's the work equivalent of competition for athletes. It's a good day if important decisions go in favor of your client. (Though this is very much determined by the facts more than the lawyers' advocacy.) It's disappointing when things don't go your client's way. Through both experiences, you learn how to be a better advocate. 

Day 47: Opportunities You've Been Given

I am grateful for the gift, through the homeschool lifestyle, of extra time with my kids. I'm grateful for all the extra meals, extra shopping trips, and extra adventures that we've been able to do together during these homeschool years. I'm grateful especially for slow mornings together. As the years roll by and I'm increasingly aware that kids dont keep, Im grateful for all the extra moments afforded ny these years of kids schooling at home.

Day 46: Technology

 

I am grateful that we are heading towards the technology of self driving cars. I'm grateful for what this will mean for the population of people who can't drive and who live in towns like Reno, Nevada and Lincoln, Nebraska - towns that are expansive but don't have great public transportation. I'm grateful for how this can potentially help the elderly and disabled be more independent and able to do things they want and need to do. I'm grateful that, as this technology gets better, it could potentially make things like the transportation of goods and getting around in inclement weather much safer. I'm grateful that on long road trips, I might soon have the ability to read my book for awhile even if I am the driver. In this time of rapid technological advancement, where so much is unknown and some of it feels kind of scary, I'm grateful for how much potential and hope is also there for improving people's lives.

(This picture is not a self driving car, just seemed like a good opportunity to throw in a picture of a Tesla truck.)

Day 45: What You Do For Fun

I am grateful for the karaoke machine that we have in the corner of our dining room. Ivy got it as a Christmas gift last year, and she enjoys it, but honestly I might enjoy it more.

Most of the things I do for fun should really have finger quotes around the word - I like to run and read in my free time, and while they both provide huge benefit, they are not really fun in the traditional sense of the word.

But i also *love* singing karaoke with the kids, and that is 100% fun in the traditional sense of the word. Singing is free and passionate and all-consuming. The variety of songs you can do, heck the variety of songs available even in the Taylor Swift catalogue alone, can span the range of human emotions. 

Home karaoke is my favorite fun activity right now and I'm super grateful for it. 

Day 44: Your Favorite Holiday

My favorite holiday is Christmas, which has been well documented on this blog, but today I want to give a shout-out to all the summer holidays that give us several 4-day work weeks through the summer. I want to note, these holidays of course all have a much deeper meaning than the way I'm writing about them here and I don't intend any disrespect towards the real things they celebrate. But as someone who is relatively recently back in the Monday to Friday work force, today I want to show some gratitude for what these breaks give to workers.

Memorial Day kicks things off, Juneteenth and 4th of July offer extra holidays in the middle of summer, and Labor Day provides one last long weekend before we head into the hustle bustle of fall. For workers, having three days off instead of two means you have more opportunity to get out of town, get to the lake, throw a barbeque, or do other fun summer events without having to figure out how to squeeze this around the demands of the work schedule and the home chores that are waiting on the weekend. It gives more time to spend with family, to enjoy a little bit of the kick back and relax that you don't understand how good you have it as a kid on school break, and to get to your body of water of choice and cool off.

Here's to you, summer holidays!

Day 43: A Mentor / Teacher

I am grateful for the mentors I had in my first job as a lawyer. There were two women who were in senior positions in the office who showed me what it looked like to practice law at a high level, be kind and thoughtful towards others in the office, and maintain a good work life balance (both of them had very young kids at the time). I saw that it was possible to have a meaningful career and also be an involved parent. They showed me how to put together the best possible complaints, motions, and legislative advocacy; how to give an effective presentation and nail a cross examination; but also that it's important to be a human being and get to know others in the office, participate in things like potluck soup day, and incorporate fun into the mix of work. I am grateful for a really healthy, balanced office environment in my first professional work experience, and I'm especially grateful for these two mentors who I was able to learn from and continue to admire. 

Day 42: Your Favorite Possession

I am grateful for our dog, Bear. I'm grateful for his enthusiasm about walks. I'm grateful for how zealously he tries to guard our house, even with zero capability to execute. I'm grateful for his sweet cuddles. I'm grateful for his eyes that convey so much intense emotion. Dogs are the best and I'm very grateful for this guy.

Day 41: Hobbies

 

I am grateful for my hobby of running. I've posted about this so many times that I'm not sure I have anything new or original to say about it today, but this mess that necklaces are in gives a good illustration of one of my favorite aspects of running. When I go out, my mind often feels like it's in a big knotted tangle, whether it's an emotional issue or a work question or just overwhelm from the many demands of adult life. Somehow, over the course of a run, the knot loosens up. Sometimes new ideas pop in your head, sometimes the extra negative feelings burn away - usually the situation has not changed by the end of the run, but a measure of perspective (or dopamine?) helps relativize my feelings. The messy knot is gone. Now if only it worked so well on my real life necklaces :).

Day 39: Your Heritage

 

When I think about my heritage, I usually think about being Irish, as my Irish grandparent was the one who was most vocal about and celebratory of her ancestry. Also, the Irish are the ones who have their own American holiday.

But at this prompt, I did just a tiny bit of research into the less discussed parts of my heritage: German, Scottish, and Swedish. I think it's fascinating to find out about other people that some of their personality traits are as much cultural norms passed down from a certain line of ancestry as they are genetic.

And as I look at many of the norms that AI sums up about Swedish culture - reserved and private; egalitarian; value social harmony; loyal friends - I realize that a lot of who I am (and who that branch of my family has been) relates to the Swedish ancestry. That's pretty cool, I'm grateful for that new piece of knowledge gathered from this challenge, and it definitely makes me want to dive deeper into learning about Swedish and Scandinavian culutre as a means of learning more about myself and my family. 

Day 38: Music You Love

 The song I'm most grateful for right now is "Salt and Light" by Lauren Daigle. This is one of those songs that helps me answer the questions, "Why am I here and what do I want my life to be about?" It's so easy to get caught up in the rush of the day and let your mind primarily be overtaken by work tasks and meal planning and driving to kid activities and calling doctors and homeschool planning, that the deeper questions of life are so easily crowded out. 

That's why I'm so grateful for songs that give a central message that helps me think about, in the midst of life's hustle bustle, what should be the north star, and this chorus says it so beautifully:

"Let my eyes see Your kingdom shine all around
Let my heart overflow with passion for Your name
Let my life be a song, revealing who You are
For You are salt and light."

This is it! The North Star to aim for in all my different roles, tasks, and priorities - going for this in all of it. 

(Also - this must be at least the 4th or 5th time I've blogged about a Lauren Daigle song - I am profoundly grateful for her whole catalogue of music and the way it helps me to see and connect with God.)

Day 37: Something You Created

I'm grateful for this blog! At this point, it's been going for 12 years and it's got a little over 500 posts. I'm grateful for the time capsule that this creates for me as far as what I was going through and thinking about for much of my adult life. I'm grateful for the connection that it's created with friends and relatives. I'm grateful for how writing helps me process and organize an idea that's tumbling around my head like clothes in a dryer. I'm grateful that these gratitude series are always a helpful reset towards remembering the good. And I'm grateful for those of you who read my posts!

Day 36: Your Home

 

I'm grateful for the layout of our house. When we first moved in, this picture to the left is how the main area looked. Not the walls, curtains, flooring, or light fixtures I would've chosen. But those things can all be changed, and over time we have changed much of it. Meanwhile, from day one, we had a big common open space with lots of light in the front for hanging out; bedrooms separated and upstairs; a somewhat separated kitchen (to hide a mess while cooking) and family room (to allow for some separation of noise); and a loop the kids could run through all the rooms in the downstairs to get out some energy. Everything about this layout has worked out exactly how I hoped and I'm grateful for it. 

Day 35: Your Neighborhood

 

This picture doesn't capture it the best, but one thing I'm grateful for about our neighborhood is that all our immediate neighbors have embraced the string lights phenomenon. It makes our chunk of the neighborhood backyards feel more festive and more like a continuation of the living space rather than a hassle that needs to be water, weeded, and otherwise ignored. I'm grateful that it's so relatively simple and affordable to brighten up the space, and that so many in our neighborhood have jumped on board.