Once there was a lovely young lady named Lizzi. She’s a Brit, and the chances of this American meeting her would be pretty slim. But thanks to the wonder of the Internet, Lizzi’s blog and my blog met and became friends. Then Lizzi and I became friends, and Lizzi started this blog hop called Ten Things of Thankful. But she does it on the weekends, and I don’t post on the weekends unless I’m participating in some exhausting challenge.
Then this Twitter conversation happened:
Lizzi: My dear, lists are kinda your ‘thing’ – are we ever going to get a Ten Things of Thankful out of you? Or should I beg?
Me: I could post one on a Friday and then link up when you are live- would that work? I’d hate for you to beg.
Lizzi: Sounds perfect, if you’re happy to 🙂 I’d rather not beg, but for a Dana list I would give serious consideration to the matter.
How could I say no to that? So I present my list of ten things I’m thankful for this week.
1. Fall shoes. This week I was still wearing sandals, but I can’t wait to put on socks and boots. And this new pair of wedges:
And since TOMS donates a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair purchased, I helped a child while satisfying my shoe obsession. Win-win!
2. My parents come home today after a two week tour of Southern France. I’ve missed them, although my dad still sent me emails when I had typos in my blog posts. Thanxs Dad, fer alwazs havin my bak.
3. Matt’s canceled lunch meeting on Tuesday. So he had lunch with me instead. Granted, the lunch lasted twenty minutes and was at Qdoba, but it beat eating a bowl of cereal while watching the How I Met Your Mother episode I dvr’ed the night before. I saved that for Wednesday.
4. Although I live in the suburbs where I can get anything I need in less than twenty minutes, I also live close to wide open spaces like this:
See that strip of yellow? Those are sunflowers – rows and rows of them, even more than in that photo. Like this:
Which brings me to
6. My new camera. It’s a big girl camera (Canon 60D), and I love it. I can’t do much with it yet, but I am having fun experimenting and taking crappy photos that are a little less crappy than the ones on my old camera. And I’m thankful for Michelle and Tamara for advising me when I was obsessing over which one to buy.
7. After not making it into the Top 13 in Blogger Idol, my frown was turned upside down when I won Finding Ninee’s first anniversary giveaway. Cold hard cash, baby! I earned it by making my case for why I deserved to win, after reading her story involving a young Kristi, her father, and a conversation that may have scarred them both for life. Check it out if you want a good laugh.
8. Apples. They are my daughter’s favorite food, which is a good thing because we picked 45 pounds of them on Saturday. That’s more than half of James’ body weight. And I’m thankful for dark chocolate peanut butter that is heavenly when paired with those apples.
9. Matt’s private sector job. I know many people who were furloughed this week, and I hope that Congress gets its head out of its ass soon. And that, my friends, is the most political statement you will ever see on this blog.
10. My son’s English teacher. James is ambivalent about school, and English is not his favorite subject. His teacher told him yesterday that he is a good writer, and he should consider participating in a writer’s workshop at school. I know this because he actually told me, and it was the first thing he told his dad when Matt walked in the door. That means that those words of praise and encouragement made a difference for him. Thank you, Mrs. R, for making my son feel like a million bucks.
11.(Bonus item) The Mother of All Meltdowns is now available on Amazon! I’m so thankful to Crystal for inviting me to be a part of such a fabulous book. I hope you’ll check it out!
visiting from ladies only blog… love your list 🙂
Thank you!
I love the concept of a gratitude list, Dana!
I had a good laugh at your copyeditor (Dad)sending his proofreading corrections even while on vacay!
The sunflowers are simply breathtaking! I’d just sit and look at them for 15 minutes each day.
I cosign on your political statement. I nearly put something about the shutdown in today’s post but decided against it. But you expressed our frustrations perfectly.
Kudos to James re: the writers’ workshop.
I’m going to get my copy of “Meltdown”, I promise!
Have a good one, Dana!
Thanks, Alison! It was a great exercise to make the list; I’ll have to do it more often.
Omg Dana number 2 had me cracking up. Sunflowers have to be one of the most beautiful flowers to photograph! I love them! So happy for you concerning you winning that giveaway and your book! I have read your story and I’m looking forward to expressing my thoughts in a review very soon! 🙂
Oh, thank you so much, Brittnei! I’m glad you liked my meltdown story – not my most stellar moment in parenting, but we all survived 🙂
agh, just tried to post something and it timed out. yay for incredible high school teachers.
Sorry, Catherine. The commenting system is acting wonky. Can you let me know what browser you are using – Bluehost said that may be the problem. Thanks for trying again!
i use chrome. no big deal. it has happened with a few other blogs as well. it’s random. i’m sure it happens with my own sometimes as well.
You are the second person who had comments disappear using Chrome. Just checking – the guy at Bluehost told me they may be able to do something if the issue was with a specific browser. Thanks for letting me know, Catherine.
I’m SO glad that you won the contest over at my place. Your comment did really kick some @ass. And now that I see how the kickers are adorned, even happier. I love TOMS. A total win win.
So um yeah, gov’t furlough. My husband works for DOD and has been furloughed but deemed essential. Which means that he’s been working like 70 hour weeks. And we don’t know when he gets paid for them. Okay stopping that now…
I think #10 is my favorite. My son’s teacher is facing some health issues right now and really makes me realize how lucky we are.
Also? #11? EEEEEP and squee. So cool.
Sucks about your husband’s job – hope this dumb shutdown ends soon. And thanks for my TOMS 🙂
HA you are very welcome 😉
You earned them. And well the part about how explaining that they presided over your kid’s therapy later is on you, m’kay?
What great post! I love the things you listed! Congrats on the book! I really enjoyed it! Very nice to meet you, I am following you on social media 🙂 I love your writing style!
Thank you Jodi – for visiting, for reading and reviewing the book, and for the follows. It’s so nice to meet you too!
I am freaking out because I WAS JUST AT LIZZIE’S BLOG RIGHT BEFORE I CAME HERE. Literally, just left a comment there 2 minutes ago!! It’s a small world!!
I love your list. I can’t wait for boot weather. Whoo Hoo!! Those sunflowers are just happiness making. Awesome. Most of all, thank goodness for Mrs. R. She sounds exactly like the kind of teacher we all dream of for our kids! So glad she’s in your life!! –Lisa
So am I, Lisa!
Fall shoes? YES! One of the best things about changes of seasons for sure. I love your farm photos!!! Best on the list? I think the praise and encouragement your son received from his teacher. I love hearing stories like that! Good for him.
Well I have to say I love this post, I love you and I love Lizzi. I might have to post one of these lists as well and do it on a Friday since I do not post on weekends either. Gotta get my thinking hat on though. Such a fun list!
You should do it, Shae! I’m not going to do it every week, but it is a great exercise to remind us of all we have.
Love your list of thankful – so positive and uplifting!!!
I’m thankful that this finally showed up in my BlogLovin – not sure why I just got it today but happy to see it!!!
So exciting about your son and his English teacher – hooray for teachers who go the extra mile!!!
Yay – you got your camera! And that’s a good one too!! So excited for you! And excited you won the giveaway!! And excited for shoes…I love shoes too. Really, I just love your list. I’d have the same types of things on mine! Hope your weekend was great, my friend!
Thanks, Michelle – and thank you for your camera help. I am going to peruse your blog for photo tips, and I have to figure out how I’m going to save all my photos beyond my hard drive. One more thing to add to the list!
Great list Dana, and beautiful pictures! So glad your son has a great teacher, that is a great story. And congrats on the book!
Thank you Sarah! It was a good week.
Beautiful photos! If I do say so, myself. (yeah, look at me giving credit to myself as if I took those photos!)
1. Yes. More fall shoes.
2. Laughing.
6. Honored to have helped you!
7. I was a judge. And I loved that you won.
8. My daughter just ate two apples with her lunch! She’s only four.
11. Squeal.
I wish your daughter was here to help my daughter munch through all the apples. That big bowl in the photo is now half empty, but that was only about 1/3 of the total we picked. Now if only the weather would cool off a bit so I could wear those shoes!
What a great list of things to be thankful for! Love it, especially bonus item # 11!!
That’s my favorite one, Nicole 🙂
Lizzi is nothing if not persuasive, but I’m so glad she used her powers of persuasion to get you to join our blog hop! I love Toms. And sunflowers. And apples. And teachers who are able to reach difficult-to-reach kids. Qdoba – meh. I’m a Moe’s girl. And congratulations on the big girl camera! I’ve been thinking of getting one, but then I’d have to read the instruction book and learn to use it and keep it charged and know where it is, and I’m not sure I’m up for the challenge.
I’ve never been to Moe’s; I don’t think there is one near me. And I know what you mean about the camera – I really haven’t read up enough on how to use it, but I’ll get there eventually.
Man, I hate it when I spend 10 minutes writing a comment, only hit “submit” and have it disappear!
Short version: I so enjoy Dads who are sensitive to typos, fields of sunflowers, big girl cameras, people who are brilliant with brand-new big girl cameras, and positive stories about teachers.
So glad Lizzi talked you into joining us. Now that you are hooked and see for yourself what a great exercise in link-ups this is, I look forward to seeing you again next week. 🙂
I’m sorry, Christine. My commenting has been acting weird, but it’s inconsistent so I can’t do anything about it. Thanks for being persistent and commenting again 🙂
Glad you joined the hop!
Thanks, Kristi!
Wow, 45lbs of apples.. That’s a whole lot of apple pies!! Speaking of which, a craving establishes itself..
Congrats on the big girl camera. I got one as a long-term loan from my coworker, and really, REALLY get to practicing some more (and read the book he gave me). Have fun playing with your new toy!
Love spontaneous dates, and 20mins at Qdoba sounds perfectly fine for a lunch date.
Congrats on your book, and have a great weekend!
Thank you Stephanie – you too!
Dana, I adore this list. Such sweet things to be thankful for and see the good in all around. And congrats on winning Kristi’s giveaway! I adore that skank! (Don’t worry; she’ll get it. It’s a blogger thing we have. Haha)
Oh, I know – I read all about when she called someone else a skank thinking it was you, and it wasn’t. Ha! I love to run in circles where “skank” is a term of endearment 🙂
Yum Qdoba!
And you do have a nice camera!
Thank you Amber – I love it!
that is some beautiful countryside! I would love to live out in the middle of nowhere.
I couldn’t live in the middle of nowhere, but fortunately I only live 20 minutes from that kind of scenery. And thanks for testing my comments – let me know if you want me to delete it 🙂
no, leave the comment. I would have commented either way.
Thanks, Mike.
I’m thankful that I made it into your list of thankfulness a few times.
I was going to write about being thankful that you’re going to finish sanding the front door this weekend – bet you wouldn’t have been thankful then!
I figured since you posted your 10 things early, I could too 🙂 Love the new shoes and hope lots and lots of people buy your book so you can get more.
Thanks, Kate – I appreciate that! Posting today was the only way I’d be able to participate; FTSF was a little too heavy for me today.
I’m sad that peach season is over but apple picking time is good also! Congrats on the book!!! I’m so excited for everyone in it!
Thanks, Angela – I’m really excited too!
Wow! Let me just pick myself up from the bus you threw me under there! But seriously, I’m so glad you’re part of this hop. It suits you down to the ground, and your list is absolutely fantastic (you have no idea how much I love that your dad rings you to correct your typos – what an awesome guy)
The photos are beautiful, and glad you had such expert advice to support your decision getting your Big Girl Camera. It’s done a smashing job.
Hugely pleased about your shoes (always shoes) and your win on the KristiComp (are judges allowed to say that they voted for their friend Dana on the basis of her awesome entry? I doubt it. I won’t say that).
And as for those slender chances, believe me, once the earning kicks in, I’m making a savings pot marked ‘USA Tour’ and getting my heinie over there.
Love this. Looking forward to seeing you in the link-up later when it goes live. *MWAH*