When What You Think Matters Doesn't

Christmas was a little rocky for me this year. No particular reason, just a tad stressful. I think it's fair to have one stressful Christmas every 23 years though. Not to mention that Christmas was topped off by Handsome Aussie's mother being ill and him being very sad and stressed. Then New Years we were both sick. Now, you'd think that this combination of holiday stress and sickness would bother me, make me sad, depress me.

Julia

This year I only asked for one thing for Christmas. Not surprisingly, I received more than one gift, including a Roald Dahl treasury (love!) and some beautiful earrings from my dad (love!). What one thing did I ask for, and receive? Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Childs.

Thoughts on Christmas

1. I love my family, but sometimes they, like any group of people stuffed into a rather small house in the winter, can be exhausting and irritating. The neat thing about my family is that they fluidly switch back and forth between lovable and wonderful and exhausting and irritating. Maybe this is more me than them? Interesting though.

Thinking about Thinking

"What do you do when you can't wrap your head around certain teachings in your religion?"
-SoulPancake, pg.140

So sometimes I can't think of what to blog about, so I've had the brilliant idea to use the fabulous book SoulPancake, by Rainn Wilson, as my inspiration. Just a little background before I get started. I read about this book on one of my favorite blogs, dooce, by Heather Armstrong. I posted a link to her blogpost on B-Lew's Facebook, and my amazing boyfriend, hereby known as Handsome Aussie, saw it and bought it for me. Quite the trail, amazing to me to say the least.

Blessings = Health

A few days ago I read this in Natural Health magazine and posted it to my Facebook.

"People who make simple lists of what they're grateful for are 25% happier, sleep half an hour more per night, and exercise 33% more each week..." Worth it.

I think today is a perfect time to share the blessings that I often think about, but don't bother to write down.


Parents, brothers, grandmothers still living into their '90s, 3 nephews, Brittany, Tamara, Amanda, Brandon, Neil, Chris, my job, my house, my fabulously painted house, a reliable car that's also very fun, good health, books, my gym membership, my friends at work, my other colleagues, my students, yes, all of them, my future dog, my future life, a good paycheck, friends all over the country, my education, and let's not forget - life in general.

There are too many blessings in my life for me to think of before I've consumed an entire cup of coffee. But I encourage you to list your blessings if not every day, at least often.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Lovingly,
Anna

Another Goal

Here we go. Deep breath. I'm setting a goal.
Tomorrow I plan on beginning my 365-photo project. I will take a photo every day for a year. I may choose to upload them here. I may only upload the best. But I will take a photo each day. At the end of the year, I'm going to use those photos to create something super, potentially awesome. I think I'll leave you hanging.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thankful for What Again?

Okay, it's been a while since I learned about the pilgrims and Plymouth Rock and all that jazz, but my understanding is that the pilgrims were escaping religious persecution, right? Yes? At least on some level. So when they arrived at the New World they were thankful for religious freedom, right? Yes? At least on some level. So that essentially makes Thanksgiving a Christian, or otherwise religious, holiday, right? Yes? At least on some level.

My point being, why can we have Thanksgiving break but we can't have Christmas break in schools? Isn't it essentially the same idea? Maybe it's because there is an argument for political and other freedoms when it comes to Thanksgiving, but Christmas is straight up about God. Unless the wise men were escaping political persecution from the sand people. They were in the desert, right? Yes? At least on some level.

Lovingly,
Anna