gratitude

Hi.  Things have been crazy at my house for the past few weeks, in both good and bad ways.  We seem to be in a lull, so I'm going to be grateful and tell you some of the GOOD that's been happening. 

Second week of school completed.  3rd grade teacher is just adorable.  We're excited to go to school every day, and someone has shown respect and gratitude towards his first and second grade teachers every time he's seen them.  That makes me really happy.

I brought home 400 lbs of new stoneware yesterday.  Met my sweet aunt half-way from Nashville because I couldn't get away from home for an entire weekend or fit a trip during the school day.  While on this trip, all of the ladies in my family went here and wandered around the gardens for hours and hours.  I really wished that I'd remembered my real camera, made do with my phone camera, and came away really wanting a rugosa rose that produced giant, tasty, vitamin-packed hips.  While I was gone, my boys stayed home and worked on projects and cleaned the house (!).

I learned how to use my pressure canner and have 20+ jars of tomato soup, 20+ jars of marinara sauce, 15+ jars of regular quartered tomatoes, and this evening my sister in law came over and we finished my box of tomatoes and put up 17 jars of salsa.  I may or may not have given her the canning bug.  I still want to make this.  And she cleaned up my kitchen (I'm on a roll here)!

I've been running all summer (with two weeks off for an injury), hanging out at 14 minute miles, feeling down about it.  The temps broke and I got back to a 12 minute mile.  Last Sunday was really nice, and I hit 10 for the first time since I was 25.  Today?  9.  Stunned. I'm not doing great distances- I try to keep my time to 30-45 minutes, which puts me at 4 miles, tops, but I'm pretty happy with my progress. 

Finally, today I hosted a group of creative professional women for a meet and greet.  We've been talking online for almost a month, figuring out how we could support one another to be more creative, more proactive, more balanced in pursuing our art/craft/creative consulting as a profession, and getting help with concrete issues like liability insurance, licenses, taxes- all the fun stuff.  I think everyone had a ball, and I realized that I've been standing at the precipice of the next step for me, wondering if I'll jump or not, and I'm almost ready to do it.  I'm very grateful for the insight and inspiration coming from that room.

I hope your week is wonderful and I'll see y'all later on.