blogging · Gratitude · just plain fun

Gift No. 12

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Finding great stuff online is what I’m grateful for today. Like these 10 easy tips on improving your life. What did we do before the World Wide Web? Without it I’d have never heard of these wonderful people:

The Pioneer Woman – Hilarious urbanite turned country girl shares recipes and stories of life on the ranch

Instapundit – Libertarian lawyer collates news and commentary from across the blogosphere

Seraphic Single  – One woman’s sharing how to stop worrying and enjoy the single life

Every one of these authors is worth a read – hop over and take a look!

Accentuate the Positive! · Gratitude · Toastmasters

Blessing 10 – a chore-free evening

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Today’s gift: not having to do laundry tonight! I’m so glad that everything got done this weekend – and I actually have time to think about something besides chores. Between chores, working, club activities and running errands, sometimes I feel like the proverbial hamster on the wheel.

But’s that really another blessing (No. 11) – having so much to keep me busy. As often as I get stressed over my schedule, it’s so much better than not having anything to do at all. Lots of great stuff is happening this week. I’m getting together with the girls tomorrow for Singles Awareness Day (that’s how we’re cheerfully dealing with it.) Dinner and a movie! Wednesday, I’m meeting with representatives from a local college about starting a community Toastmasters club on their campus. When that happens, I’ll get club sponsoring credit. And we’ll be spreading lots of Toastmasters enthusiasm to a whole new group.

Accentuate the Positive! · Gratitude

The joys of a free weekend… blessing no. 9

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It is wonderful to NOT have to go into work today. Quite a few of my coworkers are implementing a major project code release today – and they’re at the office. One woman told me she’d be there from 8 to 4, another said she was supposed to be there from 10 to 6, but it would probably be more like 6 to 10! I’m so grateful I have this Saturday to take care of my stuff. Not that I have an entirely free day to loll around as I wish – not at all! The minute I quit typing and press enter I’ve got to start moving, list in hand. But it’s my stuff getting done and not the man’s – hurrah!

(And one thing on that list is coming back to my blog today and explaining what I mean by my list of gifts in my last post. All will be explained later today!)

Gratitude

Blessings upon blessings….

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…and not enough time to write about them. I’ll catch up Saturday but for now a short list:

No. 6 – flannel sheets on my bed, so comfy when the temps drop to the 30s

No. 7 – a new flat screen monitor!

No. 8 – the Pesach Seder – no, I’m not converting. We had an educational event at our church, and it was beautiful.

Gratitude

Gift No. 5

AuntGem1 Comment

Helpful and enthusiastic sales clerks at Best Buy … and the Geek Squad! More to come ….

Gratitude · just plain fun · me

Gift no. 4 – Sweet Tea

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My sore throat, the remnant of my cold from last week, demanded I pull in to the drive-thru this morning. I knew the moment I took that first sip what I was grateful for today. What would I do without a Route 44 Sweet Tea from Sonic? The house wine of the South. Nectar of the gods. Sweet elixir. Think I want another….

Gratitude

A Second Blessing, and a Third

AuntGem3 Comments

Today I’m grateful for an in-house gym at work. All I have to do is ride the elevator to “B” and card-swipe my way in to the gym. No extra driving, no finding a parking spot. 

This year the company is pushing physical fitness like never before: they’re lowering the price of the gym memberships which were already a ridiculous $10 per pay period ($260 a year.) This year it’s $8 a pay period. And if you manage to make it 10 times in a four week period, then you get 50 percent off the price for the next month.

I’ve been to the gym 15 times this year. That’s roughly 14 times more than I’ve been in the past five years.

No. 3: Driving home from work (after working out) the sunset was the color of peach slices laid against a baby blue and white background.

Accentuate the Positive! · blogging · Books · Introspection · Something wonderful

Gratitude, no. 1

AuntGem4 Comments

Since Thanksgiving I’ve been wondering what I want to do with this blog. (You’re sure to have noticed I haven’t posted since … early November.) Most blogs focus on a theme, something more narrow than a general catch-all web diary, which this one has been. Over Christmas I read the book One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp. A friend dared Ann to capture one thousand blessings, one thousand things she was thankful for, in her journal. The experience changed the way she saw thanksgiving – eucharisteo.

That’s what I’m going to be doing now with Notes from Aunt Jim. Maybe I’ll even change the name one day. But I’m going to start documenting at least one blessing, one gift, per day. From simple to profound. From a clean pair of slacks that didn’t need ironing on a day when I was rushing out the door, to … who knows where this will lead. But I do expect it to change my attitude, and so my life.

Today, my gift was being able to hear Beth Greer. She spoke and sang at our church tonight for the Ladies’ Night Out. Her passion for Jesus revitalized my flagging spirit.

just plain fun · me · Uncategorized

On Slippers….

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This writer has plumbed the depths of slipper-wearing psychology and come to his own conclusions. According to him,  I say I love my bedroom slippers because they’re comfy; ergo, I have a “sense of entitlement.”

Well, p’shaw to all that. I’m staying in my slippers all winter. And confidential to Mom, size 7-8 please.

blogging

Time flies….

AuntGem2 Comments

Time flies when you’re having fun, they say.

I say it flies when you’re so busy you have to stop and ask yourself: is this Tuesday? Or Wednesday? And when you remark to someone at the work cafeteria that you can’t believe it’s noon already, that person says “I can’t believe it’s November already!”