Grateful for a Beautiful Christmas: Day 26

Posted on December 26, 2013 by Cheryl Harris

christmasWe’re home. Yahoo! We had a lovely Christmas up in Rochester. There was snow. A lot of snow. I can’t say how grateful I am that we don’t have that kind of snow here…I remember that cold gray stuff, and not fondly. It’s lovely from a window for just about 60 seconds, and then the charm is lost on me.

It was great to spend a few days kicking back, relaxing and eating copious quantities of chocolate. Mr. Dude got to spend quality time with his family, and I got to learn how to play Chinese Checkers.

To be honest, the best part of our trips is generally coming home to our loving feline brigade. Although trips have gotten easier, 8 hours in a car X2 is still a LONG ride, and there’s nothing like having a good time, and COMING HOME.

So I’m grateful for a great trip and that we’re home safe and sound with our snuggle bunnies. Mission accomplished!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Drop by for the December Sanity Retreat! This week’s hostess is Valerie of City Life Eats and she posted on getting more present with reflection and breathwork. Hop on over to comment on her post and be entered to win a Nuts.come $50 gift cert!

Posts so far:

My 30 days of gratitude:

I’m delighted to be joined by wonderful hostesses with likeminded blogs:

Posted in cheryl's musings, December Sanity Challenge, self care carnival | 2 Comments

Grateful for peaceful moments: Day 25

Posted on December 25, 2013 by Cheryl Harris

I’m grateful for meditation. I find that even a short time meditating re-charges my batteries and makes me feel more centered and grounded.

I started meditating about 10 years ago. I find that the bigger the challenge, the more I receive from having the discipline to meditate. My habit is to avoid problems by eating chocolate, sleeping, or playing games/looking at cat pictures or picking fights with my big orange flutterfavorite husband. But as you all know really well, when we ignore problems, they hang around until I take the time to figure out what’s wrong, and what I need.

I go through cycles of what kinds of meditation I use most. Lately, I’ve found silent mediation most rewarding and necessary. But especially when I started, I found that active meditating or following scripts was much more useful. A bunch of my favorites are here, from guided imagery to self-compassion to loving kindness mediation and more.

I also absolutely adore my little Sansa recorder. Not only do I use it to record my own meditations for myself and for clients, but I also have a bunch of meditations and songs that are awesome for keeping my calm at the dentist, in waiting rooms, or when I’m traveling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Drop by for the December Sanity Retreat! This week’s hostess is Valerie of City Life Eats and she posted on getting more present with reflection and breathwork. Hop on over to comment on her post and be entered to win a Nuts.come $50 gift cert!

Posts so far:

My 30 days of gratitude:

I’m delighted to be joined by wonderful hostesses with likeminded blogs:

Posted in cheryl's musings, December Sanity Challenge, self care carnival | Leave a comment

Grateful for Hou: Day 23

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Cheryl Harris

hou1We’ve got 2 cats: Genghis, who is my baby, and Houdinihappy hou, who is Mr. Dude’s darling. In truth, Hou is the sweetest cat imaginable. He’s almost good natured beyond belief; even the vet has expressed astonishment at how good tempered he is, even when he was sick. He’s really a dog trapped in a cat’s body (or a dog who looks like a cat and is litter-trained). Meaning, he sits by the door and eagerly waits for us, he lives for snuggles, he’d choose a head scratch over food. Really. AND he loves Mr. Dude so much that when he gets near him, Hou will start licking his cheek. Hou also starts purring when he hears Mr. Dude’s car pull into the garage.

At our old house, Hou was a Q-tip bandit, and he’d pull the and hem out of the garbage and squirrel them away somewhere until we stopped using Q-tips in that bathroom. But we never did find his hidey-hole. One day I was sick, and curled up on the floor. So Hou raided his stash, and brought me a Q-tip. When that didn’t have the desired result, he brought me a second. It definitely made me feel loved!

So I’m grateful for Hou. He’s definitely the mellowest and most chill of the four of us. He has a calming influence on all of us, and we’re so lucky to have him in our lives. He brings balance to our family.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Drop by for the December Sanity Retreat! This week’s hostess is Valerie of City Life Eats and she posted on getting more present with reflection and breathwork. Hop on over to comment on her post and be entered to win a Nuts.come $50 gift cert!

Posts so far:

My 30 days of gratitude:

I’m delighted to be joined by wonderful hostesses with likeminded blogs:

Posted in cat pictures, cheryl's musings, December Sanity Challenge, self care carnival | 1 Comment

Grateful for tomorrows: Day 22

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Cheryl Harris

Hmmm…well, I planned on blogging across the holiday, and writing them up this weekend, but I’m having one of those funny nerve thingies so typing isn’t so easy right now. So I may or may not post the next few days…I’m actually surprised to realize that I want to post because there are so many things I’m grateful for that I don’t want to skip any.

I AM grateful l won’t need to type when I’m away!

I’m also grateful that for the most part, my physical “quirks” don’t keep me from doing what I love. I’ve gotten more piggy back rides from strangers and more arms to hold from friends than the average 8 or 80 year old.

I’m grateful that I know this is temporary. It’s one of the benefits of doing this for a while—you start to know and trust that the waves come, and the waves will go.

I’m grateful that I’m able to do tons more than I could 3 years ago, 5 years ago, 8 years ago.

I’m grateful that I have so many people to help me, and a legitimate reason to hope that this shooting pain thingie will be gone tomorrow.

Fingers crossed!

Drop by for the December Sanity Retreat! This week’s hostess is Valerie of City Life Eats OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAand she posted on getting more present with reflection and breathwork. Hop on over to comment on her post and be entered to win a Nuts.come $50 gift cert!

Posts so far:

My 30 days of gratitude:

I’m delighted to be joined by wonderful hostesses with likeminded blogs:

Posted in cheryl's musings, December Sanity Challenge, self care carnival | Leave a comment

Beautiful day & tree gratefuls: Day 21

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Cheryl Harris

treesWe’re having amazingly, unseasonably warm weather here, and I’m definitely not complaining! One of my favorite things is to go out at night, wrap myself in a snuggly blanket and watch the trees at night. We’ve got incredible trees, as you can see (obviously taken earlier today, not tonight!)

Between the sound of the wind and the wind rustling through the few remaining leaves, it’s so peaceful to be out and just feel the earth beneath me. So I’m grateful to have this evening to just absorb the stillness and the beauty around me.

Drop by for the December Sanity Retreat! This week’s hostess is Valerie of City Life Eats OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAand she posted on getting more present with reflection and breathwork. Hop on over to comment on her post and be entered to win a Nuts.come $50 gift cert!

Posts so far:

My 30 days of gratitude:

I’m delighted to be joined by wonderful hostesses with likeminded blogs:

 

Posted in cheryl's musings, December Sanity Challenge, self care carnival | Leave a comment

Grateful for Chocolate!! Day 20

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Cheryl Harris

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAWhat else is there to say? I’ve been loving the Alter Eco Chocolate bar with Cacao nibs but OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAthe Whole Foods and MOM’s near me doesn’t have them anymore. So… I am “forced” to expand to other chocolates, AND play with making my own! Since I avoid all soy, it’s a little difficult to find chocolate I can eat, but I’ve got a whole slew of new candidates that I will thoroughly enjoy interviewing. Who knew there were so many out there?

——————

Drop by for the December Sanity Retreat! This week’s hostess is Carrie of Ginger Lemon OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAGirl and she posted on Seeking Joy Every Day. Hop on over to comment on her post and be entered to win a Nuts.come $50 gift cert!

Posts so far:

My 30 days of gratitude:

I’m delighted to be joined by wonderful hostesses with likeminded blogs:

Posted in cheryl's musings, December Sanity Challenge | 2 Comments

Grateful for Beauty: Day 19

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Cheryl Harris

su's pic

Beauty comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Sometimes an encouraging email, sometimes a hug, sometimes a sunset, sometimes *gasp* a real live letter. Or even a letter with stickers!

I am absolutely loving this gorgeous drawing done by a friend. It’s wonderful to have tangible reminders of goodness to make me smile, and I’m grateful to have wonderfully loving people in my life.

————————————–

Drop by for the December Sanity Retreat! This week’s hostess is Carrie of Ginger Lemon Girl and she posted on Seeking Joy Every Day. Hop on over to comment on her post and be entered to win a Nuts.come $50 gift cert!

Posts so far:

My 30 days of gratitude:

I’m delighted to be joined by wonderful hostesses with likeminded blogs:

Posted in cheryl's musings, December Sanity Challenge, self care carnival | Leave a comment

Grateful for Flowers & Fun: Day 18

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Cheryl Harris

g rosesI’m very fond of violet roses, and so I got some for myself today.  I rarely find the purple ones, so I was super grateful that not only did TJ’s have them, but they were just $5! I know they look pink in the pic, but they’re violet. And, of course, G had to inspect because he’s intrusive inquisitive that way.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I’m also grateful for fun food projects. I made these Christmas trees…they were super easy. I wanted to make something fruit based, and looked at all these Pintrest boards for inspiration. While the strawberry grinches are cute, they didn’t get me excited. As soon as these popped in my head, I thought they would be fun. They were! I got these long toothpics with stars from Amazon (still time to get them, maybe?) Top is the top of a strawberry, then a piece of honeydew, a wider piece of strawberry and more honeydew. Couldn’t be easier or cuter. We’ll see how they hold up in transit.

And, of course, that makes me feel like things are a bit more balanced. I made the Chocolate Covered Orange Peels tonight too, which are Mr. Dude’s favorites, and those are almost ready to go.

Drop by for the December Sanity Retreat! This week’s hostess is Carrie of Ginger Lemon Girl and she posted on Seeking Joy Every Day. Hop on over to comment on her post and be entered to win a Nuts.come $50 gift cert!

Posts so far:

My 30 days of gratitude:

 

 

 

 

Posted in cat pictures, cheryl's musings, December Sanity Challenge, dessert | Leave a comment

Grateful for Crackers! Day 17

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Cheryl Harris

amigofoods_2046_10366782Part of having tons of food restrictions is that my default is that processed foods are out. Meaning, I can count the # of foods I can eat on my fingers without even having to go to my toes. One of the very few exceptions were Casabi Cassava crackers, because the ingredients are dehydrated organic cassava fiber. Period. I’ve been ordering cases for the last 8 or 9 years, and then…just like that, I found out last week they were discontinued.

Nope, that’s not what I’m grateful for. I’m grateful I tracked down the distributor and should be able to get a few more cases…and it seems, there’s the potential that they’ll sell the line to someone. Because seriously, there MUST be a market for a gluten-free, organic, vegan, paleo friendly product, right? And they ARE delicious.

I never think to be grateful that we have such an amazing food supply that I can get crackers from the Dominican Republic that are distributed through Canada…just like that. I can’t even bear to think about what it was like 10, 20, 30 years ago for people with food restrictions.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Drop by for the December Sanity Retreat! This week’s hostess is Carrie of Ginger Lemon Girl and she posted on Seeking Joy Every Day. Hop on over to comment on her post and be entered to win a Nuts.come $50 gift cert!

Posts so far:

My 30 days of gratitude:

Posted in cheryl's musings, December Sanity Challenge, self care carnival | 1 Comment

Grateful for Snuggle Time: Day 16

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Cheryl Harris

peace love and kittehsA few years ago, we instituted snuggle time at Casa de Harris. When I first get home,I’ll go to the futon, call the dudes (feline and human) and relax for a while. For the record, the cats come when called. Mr. Dude does not always show up as promptly. Free will is definitely overrated, I tell ya!

I love snuggle time. It gives me a nice transition from the crazy of driving or working into more peaceful moments, and helps me unload whatever I don’t need. Sometimes I share what I’m grateful for and not-so-gently nudge Mr. Dude to do the same, but that’s more hit or miss.

I feel so much better if I take 10 minutes to give and receive love, and it makes my day brighter. It really helps me regroup, and clearly the furry dudes value it as well.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Drop by for the December Sanity Retreat! This week’s hostess is Carrie of Ginger Lemon Girl and she posted on Seeking Joy Every Day. Hop on over to comment on her post and be entered to win a Nuts.come $50 gift cert!

Posts so far:

My 30 days of gratitude:

Posted in cat pictures, cheryl's musings, December Sanity Challenge, self care carnival | 3 Comments