Crazy Full of Gratitude

My good pal, Jote, started a most wonderful series on her blog recently called 30 Days With a Grateful Heart. Each day, she's sharing something for which she's grateful, ranging from deep and meaningful family memories and relationships to something as simple as a pair of comfortable shoes. What's been really fun about the series is how a substantial group of our mom friends have started playing along and are sharing their daily gratitude. It's been nice to see everyone's posts especially over on Facebook where we can easily catch up each day.

I've not been able to keep up each day, because our lives are pretty darn hectic right now. I don't think I've mentioned it here yet, but our family is in the process of selling our house and moving. We're leaving Austin (sigh ... don't get me started on how hard that is) and are moving to Houston for a great job opportunity for the husband. More on that later (especially if we get the house we're hoping for ... there will be some great blogging on updating the house ....)



While I haven't had time to blog my gratitude each day, I have been feeling it - and in a very big way. The last 4-5 weeks have been some of the most emotionally tumultuous of my life, not to mention just flat out full of incredibly hard work on top of the regular day-to-day work, all while single-moming it since the husband has already moved to Houston.

The gratitude is what has been getting me through. One day in particular a little more than a week ago, I was feeling insanely overwhelmed with some of the house stuff I was having to do. I woke up with my stomach in knots, thinking about everything I needed to get done that day. I fired up my computer and was pleasantly greeted with two really sweet and thoughtful posts about my Moon embroidery from my pal, Paul at Dude Craft, and one of my embroidery mentors, Mary at Needle 'n Thread. Several other friends blogged and shared links for voting via Facebook and Twitter, and I found that my overwhelm of gratitude was kicking my overwhelm of stress square in the face. So nice. (I'll be blogging more thanks about the folks who helped spread the word for voting in another post. My Moon made it to the finals! Hurrah!)



Two days ago, as real estate stress was once again pushing me to my very outer limit (and a bit beyond) I came home to two big boxes on my front porch. I saw that they were from two of my favorite people on the planet, Diane and Pam. They are my adopted sister and mom, and though we rarely get to see each other, I love them dearly. There are many things for which I'm grateful in the blogging world, but these two people and the relationship we've developed over the past few years is at the very top of my list.

My daughter helped me open and unpack the boxes, and what we found left me in a huge puddle of tears. I'd mentioned in a post on CRAFT about Diane's awesome plastic canvas gingerbread house that I didn't think I'd be able to do homemade gingerbread houses this year since I'm so preoccupied with house-selling/buying/moving stuff. In these two boxes from Diane and Pam were all the things we needed to spark up our holiday spirit - something that was completely missing around here.



They sent two gingerbread house kits, holiday craft supplies and coloring pages for the kids, and fabulous teas for me. They also sent several packages of delicious holiday cookies and treats. If you've read Pam's blog for any time at all, you know that she makes the most awesome Christmas cookies and treats, and getting to have some of those yummy homemade goodies just made my heart so happy (not to mention, I was in total awe of their packing techniques. Not a single cookie was broken - it was amazing!)

As I went through each of the things Diane and Pam so lovingly packed up and sent, I just started sobbing uncontrollably. I actually kind of freaked my daughter out. She said, "Stop crying! This isn't sad! This is great!" I used the opportunity to explain "happy tears" to her. It was one of those moments when you are emotionally and physically exhausted and then you get the most wonderful, thoughtful surprise you could ever imagine. The gratitude just slayed me. Flat. Out. Slayed. Me.

Even though I've had almost unbearable amounts of stress the last month or so (and surely more to come) it is insane amounts of gratitude for friends and their overwhelming kindness that are carrying me through every little bit of it. So ... THANK YOU. All of you.

Photos:
Thank you by vistamommy
Gratitude by kateausburn
Thank you by RobeRt Vega
Thank You SEW Much by Heidi Elliott