Year 2/Day 54

Ode to Green Eggs and Ham

I did not like my peeps tonight
Everyone itching for a fight
I did not like them here or there
I did not like them anywhere.

I escaped into my book
Without a single backward look!

But I still love them in my house
Yes, I still love them with a mouse
I do so love them here and there
I do so love them everywhere.

I'm grateful for perspective. Middle age has its benefits.

Year 2/Day 53

This afternoon M and I sat on the couch with her horse magazines and compared favorites and dreamed dreams of owning horses and farms. I'm grateful for these interludes, however brief, in which she and I can connect.

Year 2/Day 52

This is M's first season of playing girls basketball and today we had a parents' meeting. I'm grateful she has caring, encouraging coaches and that she's having a good experience with the other girls. We can't wait to go to the games and cheer her team on!

Year 2/Day 51

It's something we do to get us through the winter, my friends from the 'hood and I. On Fridays, as we're able, we go to a matinee--"Rachel Getting Married" today. I'm grateful for the opportunity to slip into another world on a cold winter's day before the kids get out of school, before the house has to be cleaned and the week's menus planned.

Year 2/Day 50

I knew my cell was somewhere in the library--or at least it had been several hours before: I'd texted L from there to tell her where I'd be sitting. But when I reached into my backpack at lunch, it wasn't there, nor was it in any of my coat pockets. Sometime during the morning, I'd lost it. I stopped at the front desk on our way out of the building. "Did anyone turn in a cell phone?" I asked. The young woman's face lit up. "Yes!" she said. (She's a college student--one of those who feels others' pain when they lose an electronic appendage, e.g., a cell phone or an iPod.) I'm grateful that whoever found my phone turned it in.

And, in what turned out to be a "three-fer" day, I'm also grateful J and J added a dog to the family, and that M was online just when I needed her.

Year 2/Day 49

I'm grateful I can go to bed early tonight. I'm exhausted!

Year 2/Day 48

I'd been a supporter of Barack Obama since January 2007, when I read his book, Dreams from my Father, for book club. I held my breath through every primary and caucus that followed. And when I learned about the Republican VP nominee late last summer, I got off my butt and volunteered for the Obama campaign. Today it became official and I feel like I can finally exhale. I'm grateful for a new president who has made me believe in America again.

Year 2/Day 47

One of my happiest memories from childhood has to do with cold winter nights. My parents didn't heat our bedrooms back then (or ever, come to think of it), so it was mighty cold going to bed at night. Sometimes my mom would put my blanket in the dryer for a few minutes and wrap me up in it before sending me upstairs. Now on cold winter nights like tonight, I turn on a heating pad and slip it between my sheets so they can warm up while I get ready for bed. I'm grateful for my heating pad. The end effect is almost the same--the only thing missing is motherly love.

Year 2/Day 46

Today I learned that in the early 90s, in my church people representing opposite views about homosexuality in the church met regularly for a time of discernment. Their goal was not to change someone else's mind. Instead, their goal was to understand "the other side's" point of view well enough to articulate it. I'm grateful to be part of a community that is open, thoughtful, and willing to discuss tough issues.

Year 2/Day 45

To say I cleaned my house today would be overstating things by a good bit. But I cleaned parts of it and when I was finished with those parts, the difference was noticeable. I'm grateful for the satisfaction of a job well done.

Year 2/Day 44

Hockey players wear a lot of protective gear, but players still get hurt. Today a guy who used to play with C's team had a freak thing happen to him on the ice. He collided with another kid on the ice, that kid's fiberglass hockey stick broke and the sharp end ended up deep in C's former teammate's thigh. I'm grateful the stick miraculoulsy missed the bone and major arteries. He likely will be able to play again in just a couple of weeks.

Year 2/Day 43

I didn't know the gate was open when I let Maisy out in the back yard to do her business. I figured she'd be quick, since it's about 8 degrees here and the windchill is -100 (only a slight exaggeration). Heck, I didn't even know the Bad Puppy was missing! I was calling her name out the back door (you didn't think I'd actually go into the yard, did you?) when C took a phone call from a neighbor across the street who said they had Maisy. So Maisy had a short but big adventure and then M braved the cold to retrieve her. I'm grateful to have Doggers back--and that M went out into the tundra so I didn't have to. Thanks, M!

Year 2/Day 42

Statistics show that most boys stop reading for pleasure around age 14, especially fiction. This morning, like many mornings, C thudded into the kitchen with a novel tucked under his arm--not great literature (I think it's a James Patterson), but fiction, none-the-less. And not long ago he suggested I read Area 7, a military thriller. All of which is to say, he might not seek out fiction on his own, but if a novel appears in front of him (say, because of a mother who peruses library shelves for books he might like), he will likely as not pick it up and read it. I'm grateful that when it comes to reading for pleasure, my boy is not like most boys.

Year 2/Day 41

American Idol is a guilty pleasure, but it's also something the whole family enjoys, and these things are harder and harder to come by. I'm grateful for a new season--and for a new judge. Simon may have met his match!

Year 2/Day 40

I'm grateful for a clean Doggers. She was getting stiiiiiinky!

Year 2/Day 39

My DH has always been the good sleeper. In the morning, after the alarm goes off, he has no trouble slipping back into sleep. ("Someone has to keep the bed warm," he says.) I'm just the opposite. I wake and the details of the day rush into my head like water bursting through a dam and there's no holding the water back. But sometimes if I nestle into him like I did this morning, those waters will calm and I can sneak in a few more minutes not of sleep, but of peace. That's what I'm grateful for today.

Year 2/Day 38

C wasn't feeling well and he asked me if I would read to him. I was delighted, but could only do it for half an hour because B and I were going to some friends' house for dinner. "Would you like M to read to you now?" I asked. "That would be great," he moaned from under his blankets. M was surprised when I told her C would like it if she'd read, but also a little pleased, I think. As I passed by his bedroom now and again, getting ready to go, I saw M perched on the Equa chair HMI gave us when he was born, reading quietly as C lay listening in his blanket cocoon. I'm grateful my children are staying open to each other, caring for each other in their own ways.

Year 2/Day 37

I'm grateful L. was available to meet for lunch today at the very last minute. I had been missing her.

Year 2/Day 36

It's a hectic week. I'm grateful for an evening at home with no responsibilities.

Year 2/Day 35

It's a snowy, slippery evening and I'm tired from paying attention for eight hours straight (how do folks who work all day every day do it?!). I'm grateful that my DH took C to his hockey game tonight and I can just stay in, snuggle up under a blanket, and read. Or watch TV. Just remembered Scrubs is on!

Year 2/Day 34

Today was the first day of a three-day meeting. I didn't know most of the members of the team I'd been assigned to, and the project is three months long so I was understandably anxious. In these situations, you get what you get and you do the best you can. I'm grateful that my team seems pretty functional--and even fun. All signs point to our being able to do good work together.

Year 2/Day 33

The tree is down
The house is bare
The dog looks forlorn
My waist has a spare.

While I enjoyed the languid pace of our holidays, I'm grateful for our return to normalcy today. You can only be a slug for so long. . .

Year 2/Day 32

I don't think of myself as religious, but I love communion at our church. Sometimes we stay in the pews and pass the bread and wine to whomever we're sitting next to, saying, "The blood of Christ for you" and "The body of Christ for you." I like the intimacy of that way, although I have to work hard not to cry when saying the words to either of my children. Other times we all file down to the front of the sanctuary, where a minister or elder offers us communion. I like that way, too, because it's a vivid reminder that this is my community. These are my peeps.

Regardless of the format, the minister always leads up to communion by saying: The Lord be with you.

Then we say: And also with you.

Then he says: Lift up your hearts.

And we say: We lift them up to the Lord.

Him: Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God.

Us: It is good and right so to do.

Him: It is truly good and right that we should at all times and in all places give you thanks, O Lord, holy Father, almighty and everlasting God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord who promised that wherever two or three come together in his name, there he is with them to shepherd his flock till he comes again in glory. Therefore, with all the saints on earth and hosts of heaven, we praise your holy name and join their glorious song.

I love that part.

I'm grateful for my church community and for communion. Now excuse me while I revive my parents, both of whom probably just fainted.

Year 2/Day 31

For the first time in 16 days, I was home alone--for about an hour. I'm grateful for a few moments of solitude.

Year 2/Day 30

We went to K&D's for dinner, to see their major house renovation, and to play cards. Much hilarity ensued. At the height of it, K drew a picture (on a paper plate) of what she insisted was a cherub. To the rest of us, the "cherub" looked like a tick. More raucousness. I'm grateful for laughter, the kind that makes you happy you're precisely where you are. Meanwhile, M was with A and B. Uncle A trounced everyone at Horseopoly and beat M three times at checkers, but M reports there was much hilarity there, as well.

Year 2/Day 29

I'm grateful for new beginnings, and that I long ago gave up on New Year's resolutions. For me, it's all about baby steps and just moving in the right direction.