It's Been A While. I'm Finding It A Tad More Challenging Than I Expected To Post Regularly - And Now I Have A Log Jam Of Gratitude. It Could Be Worse. I See That.

September 10, 2016 - Day 10 Grateful

I'm grateful J.D. is willing to hang with his mom. When it was just the two of us at home over the weekend, J.D. and I ventured to the Festival Italiano where we dined on sausages and cannoli. We strolled, we laughed, we listened to some jazzy Italian music, and took in the sunshine. He got some new cleats while we were out and I enjoyed a tasty white - so we both felt like winners.

September 11, 2016 - Day 11 Grateful

I'm grateful to not have to spend another evening alone. While Friday night was a glorious evening of self-indulgence, the following Saturday night was filled with uncomfortable moments of too much self-talk and mindless hours of web surfing. Dinner together on Sunday was much appreciated and welcomed.

September 12, 2016 - Day 12 Grateful

I'm grateful that sometimes the family is perfectly happy fending for themselves for dinner. It used to be I felt I needed to always have something ready to serve, but now, if life has been crazy busy, we will occasionally let dinner be every man for himself style. This takes a lot of pressure off of me and I think it fosters creativity and survival skills within our family group.

September 13, 2016 - Day 13 Grateful

I'm grateful I finally made the time to take the clothes we've all purged from our closets to Goodwill. I am a true believer in "thinning the herd" when it comes to our wardrobes - you have to let go of the old or the tired or just plain unfortunate things you've accumulated over the past months. The lightness I feel after releasing those things is palpable. Of course, the purge is not complete if I'm driving around for two weeks with a pile of clothes-filled trash bags in the back of my car so I was pretty darn happy as I pulled away from the drive-thru drop off area and looked in my rear-view mirror to watch the giant bin our our donations rolled into the warehouse and out of my hands.

September 14, 2016 - Day 14 Grateful

I'm grateful I had the day to start cleaning out Eliza's bedroom. After she left for college, I just wasn't emotionally ready to dive into her little space, but I'm over that now. I've broken it into sections because the job is too big for one person in one day - it took her years to achieve this particular level of messiness so I can't expect make things right in just a few hours. It took a while, but the entire floor is clear now. There aren't words for how this truly feels.

September 15, 2016 - Day 15 Grateful

I'm grateful for camo prints. I wore this top today and as I was driving to work, I dribbled coffee onto my chest after gesturing while I sang an Adele song on the radio. Thanks to the camo print, my faux pas went unnoticed. A fashion victory indeed.

Thanks and Love.

I'm Reading In A Quiet House, The Dogs Aren't Expecting Me To Wrestle A Chew Toy From Them, I've A Chardonnay In Hand, And We Have Clean Toilets Thanks To Some Good Old Fashioned Time Management By Yours Truly This Morning. I Think I'm Firing On All Cylinders. Or Something Like That.

September 8, Grateful Day 8

I'm grateful for big cups of tea. At the end of the day, whenever I feel like I need to slow down,  or when I'm just not feeling good, I like a cup of tea. There's something about the warmth that I love. Plus, I have a lot of the Yogi teas and they give you lovely little words of wisdom right there on the tea bag, so it's really almost like therapy. I have such an array of teas I think I could treat any number of symptoms or conditions just right there from the shelf of my pantry. I'm pretty sure it's not covered by your insurance, but if you're feeling a little 'off' and you find yourself in my kitchen, I'm here to help.

September 9, 2016

I'm grateful for a little 'me time'. I don't need or want much; being with my family is truly my greatest joy, but a little time alone, with sole control of the noise level and agenda, really refreshes. The washing machine is full of wet sheets and there are two full loads of unfolded laundry on the laundry holding device chair in our bedroom, but I'm putting little things like that on the back burner and enjoying just being home. I think we all need some time to wallow around in our living spaces by ourselves - even better if it's done in pajamas (which it is right now BTW).

Thanks and Love.

Noting Gratitude Every Day Is Easy. Posting About It Regularly And With Some Level Of Humor And/Or Related Memorable Anecdotes Makes It A Tad Challenging. Plus Sometimes There's Wine. And A Commader-In-Chief Forum To Enjoy, Or Whatever They Call It.

September 6, 2016  Day 6 Grateful

I'm so grateful for Snapchat, FaceTime, Instagram - really all social media. With a child newly deposited at a far away college campus, any and all forms of communication are appreciated to a level I never really could imagine before. Any glimpse into her world, any snippet of her day-to-day life, is such an joy - such a gift.  And to have it coupled with actual words, maybe even spoken live, is like poetry in motion. I cannot express how much I need love this.

September 7,  2016  Day 7 Grateful

I'm grateful for a slower day at the food bank. This means people are getting their food at other places and don't need the service. It picks up later in the month as food stamps run out. I'm grateful for this today, plus MSNBC, and restorative yoga. I'm a hippie.

Thanks and Love.

As If A National Holiday Weren't Enough To Celebrate - How About Some Minutiae? I Present You With The Gratitude Labor Day Edition. Please Keep Your Expectations Low. I'm Still Finding A Rhythm And Better Words.

September 3, 2016 - Day 3 Grateful

I'm grateful for mornings on the patio with a huge stack of books. And a laptop, because hello, it is the 21st century and I have a serious Google addiction. I like to read lots of things simultaneously. This is weird because I try to limit multi-tasking my activities as much as possible. I've heard that kind of behavior takes us out of the present moment and doesn't really lead to increased productivity - but I turn a deaf ear to those lessons when it comes to my reading time. Let me explain my stack as I'm sure you're dying to know.  From the top and working down we have Jacques Pépin's new and trés adorable cookbook, Poulet et Legumes. It's basically a bunch of chicken and veggie recipes but we eat a lot of those things and I need some new material. Plus, he's French so it's instantly more wonderful. Next up, A Course In Miracles Made Easy, by Alan Cohen. Because I always have to have something from the Spirituality/Self-Help category. And finally, Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom. The sequel to The Kitchen House - just fantastic. Read them both if you have not.

September 4, 2016 - Day 4 Grateful

I'm grateful for these chimes.  When we vacationed as a family this summer in Santa Barbara (one of my spiritual homes), chimes like these hung on the patio outside the door of the master bedroom in the little VRBO cottage we rented. It was such a fantastic time for the four of us, so we bought our very own set. The chimes serve as a constant auditory reminder of all that vacationy goodness. Of course, when I hear them I want to immediately drop whatever I'm doing, pour myself a glass of wine, and sit on the patio. I fight the urge constantly with varying degrees of success.

September 5, 2016 - Day 5 Grateful

I'm grateful for my morning coffee and taste of sweet. This is how I start every day. After a lemon water, I jump right into a cup of joe and a little nummie.  I love the routine of it and I find the little bit of sweet in the morning makes me feel like I've already treated myself to something special.  Today I had a chocolate chip cookie my mother-on-law brought us. But I've used a sliver of pumpkin pie as a taste of sweet, a Christmas cookie, a Reece's Peanut Butter Egg, and a spoonful of rhubarb crisp throughout the year with equal enjoyment. Because it's important to eat foods that are in season.

Happy Labor Day!!

Thanks and Love.

And Just When You Thought It Was Gone For Good. Minutiae Returns With A Roar. Well, Not Really With A Roar, More A Light Hum And Some Gratitude And Debatable Humor.

I decided it was time for a creative outlet. So my blog got the nod again. This time around Gratitude gets to ride shotgun. Humor is joining us, sitting on the hump in the middle of the backseat and talking over our shoulders. I've been inspired by the movement and website 365grateful and Dr. Christiane Northrup's Instagramming of her own 365 days of gratitude.

I like this 365 days of gratitude format because it gives me some structure. First of all, I always have something to write about and the 365 days guarantees gives me hope I'll be able to keep this up for an entire calendar year. Dear God, it's not a leap year is it?!

I hoped to start yesterday - I'd heard something about a new moon in Virgo - or some sort of cosmic portal opening, plus it was the 1st of the month, but I chickened out. Not today, my friends, not today. It's go time.

We begin with a two-fer - due to my aforementioned wimpy behavior.

September 1, 2016 - Day 1 Grateful

I was grateful I could do yoga in the morning with the door open and not have construction noise interrupt my vibe.  For whatever reason, all action on the house they're building up the street was halted yesterday so it was a truly peaceful morning. Later someone came to empty the two Port-O-Potties on-site and I was grateful that was not my job. That afternoon I cleaned our toilets and was grateful for Playtex gloves and long-handled scrub brushes.


September 2, 2016 - Day 2 Grateful

I am grateful for Fall colors and the upcoming, seasonal shift.  Because Fall is beautiful and I like eating pumpkin pie and wearing booties.

Thanks and Love.

Last Week I Left The Grocery Store And Hadn't Forgotten Where I'd Parked, I Couldn't Remember Driving There In The First Place. Granted, I Go To The Grocery Store About Every 36 Hours, But Come On! I Was Seriously Checked Out. I Blamed It On The Fact Sinead O'Connor's Old Song, Nothing Compares 2 U, Was On The Radio And Any Woman Who Spent Her Young Adult Life In The Early '90s Cannot Avoid Singing At The Top Of Her Lungs When She Hears It. It's Pavlovian, Really.

Our trip to Costa Rica is just around the corner! I am out of my mind excited about our family getaway. I have worked out three times in the last month, so I should be good to go in the bikini department. Or not. Actually, I think my self-tanner errors will keep people from noticing I'm not exactly a Victoria's Secret model. They'll be too consumed with the incredibly orange color of my right ankle. As am I.

Anyway, vacations are on my mind. Don't you feel just getting away from your regular routine helps make you more conscious of life in general? I do. There is something about being somewhere else that makes even the mundane seem richer - like I seem to not only notice the smell of the air in a new place, but the weight of it too. Even the sounds of the rental car or taxi driving on the road seem louder or more pronounced to me. It's awesome. Vacations turn on parts of our brains that we tend to let go a little dull in our day-to-day lives.

I think it's fun and psychologically beneficial (like having a glass of wine on the patio) to try to live as if I was on vacation every day. To bring that same sense of consciousness and gratitude to my daily existence. It's not always possible, I mean no one would schedule a mammogram on vacation, but for most of what we do each day, we could likely stand to turn on our awareness and appreciation a bit more. Try to treat things as new to us or different each time we hear, see, smell or do them.

This is such a cool way to really get into the present moment. When you step inside your house, imagine you're entering a beautiful vacation home you'll be spending a couple weeks in over the summer. Or when you're driving to the grocery store, try to capture that feeling you get when you're driving to the local grocery on a vacation trip to grab some muffins and juice because eating breakfast out every day costs more than a plane ticket. You can find a million ways to live every day with the curiosity and joy of a vacation.

If you want to get really trippy with it, each moment is a new one so it really is like we're in a new place all the time. Right? Anyway, give it a go. If anything, even just a few moments of living with a vacation vibe is helpful.

I'm wearing this.

A stretchy, black, cotton shift is the Swiss Army knife of a wardrobe. This one is doing laundry, cleaning toilets, running to the bank, and going out to dinner. See what I mean?

gratitude: the word Aloha, black bikinis, backyard progress, family time

thank and love.

My Requests To The Personal Shopping Service, Stitch Fix, Have Been "Neutrals Only, Please" As Of Late. The Stylists Are Always So Nice About It, But I Can Imagine It's A Real Buzz Kill When You Work On My Fix. I Worry They Play Rock, Scissors, Paper To See Who Gets The Fun Job Of Pulling Clothes For That Fashion Daredevil In Colorado.

I feel I should have explained in my requests to Stitch Fix that I was sliding my way toward a "capsule wardrobe" lifestyle in recent months. That might have clued them into my very un-exciting requests. But regardless, the stylists at Stitch Fix have managed to provide me with nearly 50% of my simplified closet selections. And, as is the case with capsules, I love every piece and can use them each in multiple ways. Here are the goods.

First up, the Messi Lattice Neckline Top.

Oh, this is a gem! So comfy! So sexy! So able to hide wine stains! I love the way this fits and it's such a soft knit. I'd have worn it even more lately, but Colorado is now Seattle and I'm cold and wet.

Next we have this cute white, lace peasant top by Brixon Ivy.

I love this top because it looks super delicate, but it's machine-washable. I kid you not. I'm wearing it with the same pants I had on in the black tank photo. They are the Patrick Cropped Chino Pant by Level 99. They are one of the big splashes of color in my capsule wardrobe. Wheee! I know! I really feel I'm living on the edge when I wear them. Love the ankle length so shoes have their day in the sun too. These pants play well with everything.

Moving on to the gray t-shirt by Market & Spruce. This is one of my favorite pieces because it's a basic with a twist. Love the longer back! It makes me feel artsy and funky while I load the dishwasher. Which is much appreciated.

Now we have it paired with the Austen Utility Jacket.

I have wanted a piece like this ever since I read on a fashion blog that this type of jacket is one 'every stylish woman should own.' I have felt diminished until now. Thank you, Stitch Fix.

And now we've paired up our gray T/white jean look with a black blazer. The blazer by Kensie, to be exact.

The kind people at Stitch Fix met my request for a structured black blazer that wasn't overly stiff looking. I love this piece and have yet to find anything that it doesn't work with - I've even done it over a dressy sweat pant and met with success. Or so I choose to believe.

Now on to a couple of skirts, because I like to look like a girl from time to time, and I choose to believe that soon it will once again be warm enough in Colorado to wear something that doesn't fully cover the leg.  Here is the first one - the Evelin Printed Pencil Skirt.

It's a nice, clingy skirt that kind of sucks you in so you look better than normal -  like Spanx you can wear out to lunch with just a t-shirt.

Andy now the Raegan Floral Printed Swing Skirt.

Look at me! I'm wearing a pattern! I love this skirt. From heels to slip on sneakers, this skirt can go any direction you ask it to. I've paired it with a black T, peep-toe booties and a jean jacket because I'm hoping Geoff will ask me to go to dinner or shopping or to France (but we really don't have time for France right now. #goals).

And finally. The bag. Note the pictures of the gray t-shirt and jacket pairings. With the utility jacket, the bag is black. Yet in the blazer photo, the bag is brown. You are not seeing things. It is the same bag. I know, right? It's an awesome reversible tote bag from Stitch Fix. I can't remember who it's by, but it's wonderful and as long as I don't set it down in a spilled beer at a professional sporting event I will continue to revel in its versatility.

This really gives you an idea of the explosion of neutrals that have arrived on my doorstep in recent months. And you can kind of see how my capsule wardrobe works. Basically, everything in these pictures can, has, and/or will be paired with each other. And because I love each and every piece I will feel good and happy and joyous when I put them on.

Here's a link to get started on Stitch Fix yourself. I may even get a little discount if you use it which means more money available for youth sports. So, thank you.

Your patience is much appreciated, Stitch Fix.

gratitude: simplicity, eggs, candles from Target (eucalyptus and lemongrass), rainstorms while you're sleeping

thanks and love.