Gratitude Challenge Day 2

1) It is Friday!

2) My neck and shoulder are 80% better!

3) Today is the beginning of my "birthday week," which for me means spending tonight eating chinese food and watching a Wes Anderson movie with SB. I will be 30(!) on Monday.

4) A homebuying community education class I took this week to begin wrapping my mind around what the process entails and might possibly look like for us (probably in two years or so). $35 class for hours of information that was completely new to me and great food for thought. LOVE community ed.

5) My mindfulness professional development class is drawing to a close, and yesterday was my last small-group session. In those sessions over the past 6 months three other women and I shared with each other the most profoundly human experiences - the challenges and successes that touched feelings at the core of who we want to be in the world. So grateful to have the experience of learning from and with those women.

6) My local farmer's market. Can't wait to go again tomorrow and see the lines of overflowing baskets of colorful produce. And the flowers! And the direct connection to the families that grow the food. It is my favorite place to be.

7) Emails from my parents who are currently in Peru and soon on their way to the Galapagos Islands. They just sent the most breathtaking and adorable photo of themselves in sun hats at Machu Picchu.

7) This song by JD McPherson:

Ouch

I've always been a fairly tense person - a nail-biter, a nighttime teeth grinder, a bad sleeper, and a long-time worrier. As a result, I have come to learn to function with muscle tension and headaches as part of my routine. At least by massaging the knots, stretching, drinking lots of water, taking anti-inflammatories, etc. I can feel confident that it will pass.

Last week I felt tension mounting in my right shoulder and neck. It wasn't unusual until I was so stiff that I couldn't turn my head. The pain started keeping me up at night. I couldn't get comfortable. Ever. I decided that I needed real help, so I got a massage for the first time in my life. While the 60 minutes were absolutely wonderful, I still felt stiff afterwards. In bed that night I stretched my arms above my head and instantly felt my neck spasm. HOLY SMOKES. I have been in extreme pain ever since. Last night I woke up at 4am with shooting pains and simultaneous tingling/numbness from the base of my skull down to my elbow that no amount of pills or ice packs could extinguish. It was insane. It truly took my breath away. I have never broken a bone or given birth to a baby, but on my continuum of pain it was a 9 out of 10.

I counted down the minutes until I could call for a doctor's appointment this morning and was grateful for a 9am appointment. I was a bit worried that I might have a pinched nerve, but fortunately my nerves were all fully functional. As I had predicted, there was little that the doctor could do for me besides give me a muscle relaxant and a slightly stronger anti-inflammatory than the over-the-counter that I was taking (acknowledging that neither would fix the problem but may give me minor relief), along with some neck exercises. The doctor also said that it could take weeks to fully heal the tiny tears in my muscles, the nerve irritation, and the extreme tightness. All I can say (besides "OW") is WOW. I had no idea. Once I'm past this I think I'll have to take up yoga to prevent this from happening again!

In Memoriam

Yesterday was my Grandpa's birthday and next week will be the anniversary of his death. He was one of my favorite people in the whole world and I always really admired his incredible talent as a watercolor artist. He was first major loss that I experienced in my life. I miss him greatly and think of him often in Autumn in particular. His life was filled with loving and long-lasting companionship in family and friends; bountiful wit and good humor; pastimes including world travel, painting and other creative pursuits, golf, sailing, and teaching his grandchildren to fish; and public service as a veteran, an optometrist, and a leader in general in the small-town community that he called home. He cared about others and it really showed. He used to call me "punkin"(like pumpkin) or "punkin' head" - which I loved. :)

Gratitude Challenge #1

I've been reading a  lot of "gratitude challenge" postings on Facebook lately - for three days at a time, a few friends of mine have been posting small lists of things for which they feel grateful. Some choices are obvious - family and friends, etc., but I was most surprised and delighted to hear the simplest pleasures that my friends treasure. I thought it was time to share a few of the things that I am most grateful for, and I wanted to do it on this blog as an ongoing series of posts. Like others I have to start with the most "cliche" selections, but will mix it up a bit more next time. ;)

Gratitude Challenge - Day 1

• SB - the person who knows me better than I know myself, who makes me laugh and who processes the tough stuff with me ever so patiently, whose knowledge is ridiculously extensive and blows me away, who loves British TV and speaks French with a terrible accent in the most endearing way possible, and who I can't wait to see every.single.day. when I leave work.
• My family - the people who made me who I am today, who loved me at my worst as much as at my best, who listen to me talk and talk and talk, and the reason I will never move out of this state because they will always be home to me. Not to mention that the new additions to the family have been the cutest and most fun yet!
• My two best friends, who have been my two best friends for nearly 20 years, who threw me the most thoughtful and memorable bachelorette party ever, who I am honored to call friends because they are such incredibly awesome human beings, who live far away but are always kindred no matter how long it has been since our last phone call or email exchange.
• My mentors - I've been incredibly fortunate to have so many mentors, from middle school teachers to college professors to bosses that became friends to formal mentors to kindred spirits that I've found in unexpected places. These people showed me kindness out of the goodness of their own hearts, out of their hope for the future, with no expectation of something in return.
• My senses - while I'm no super-taster and have "selective hearing" as my family likes to call it, I am so incredibly grateful to be able to see, hear, smell, taste, touch. I get so much pleasure from sensory experiences and associate so many memories with those experiences. I work in a building where several staff members are deaf and one is blind, and it prevents me from taking for granted how all of these senses are incredible connections to the world and to other people.
• Cricket - I have to admit that I'm not quite the animal lover that many are, but I so appreciate having a pet because it literally gives you another set of eyes from which to view the world. I love to watch Cricket experience her environment - what catches her eye, how she responds to different smells, where she likes to sit when she's hot or cold, what sounds from the alley send her running into the closet out of fear. Fascinating and so lovable.

A Word to the Wise

As it turns out, sometimes DIY projects fall short of fun. Like when I made spaghetti sauce from scratch on Monday night - which entailed peeling and coring a dozen tomatoes, chopping most of a bulb of garlic, roasting two peppers, and then putting it all together and letting it cook down. Let's just say it took HOURS, and in a tiny hot kitchen to boot.

By the time we finally ate (at nearly 8pm), my enthusiasm for the whole thing had reduced much like the ingredients of the meal - from bright and plentiful to a nondescript puddle. I was so ready to sit down and eat that I didn't even take a picture of my end result. In short, while it was pretty delicious, you won't find me doing that again anytime soon. Especially on a weeknight.

It's a luxury to cook from scratch and to can for pleasure - both are more time-consuming and frequently less cost-effective (considering that we don't have a garden and are buying all of our ingredients). It is a lot of fun and rewarding, but you certainly have to pick your DIY battles. Sometimes it can feel pretty absurd - like when we worked all day to process pounds and pounds of tomatoes last year... and we ended up with 5 pints of crushed tomatoes. Now when I look at the cans of crushed tomatoes at Cub Foods for less than a dollar apiece I just have to laugh!

Happy Labor Day!

We spent most of our labor day weekend canning. It took most of Sunday to make a tomato and apple chutney, but it was SO worthwhile. One of our jars didn't seal, so we already snuck a first taste of it with a rutabaga curry leftover from the fridge - yum. After a handful of unsuccessful canning efforts over the past few years, it feels like we are finally in a good groove. We also made a few quarts of dill pickles, along with a spicy quart for good measure. I'm not sure what is next on our canning agenda, but I'm looking forward to a few more experiments this year.