2012 Thankful November Day 7 - Being a Glass Half Full Girl

Thankful November Day 7

Today I am thankful that most of the time I am a girl that looks at the glass as being half full rather than half empty.

Today is one of those days.  Yesterday's election results may have not gone in the direction I was hoping and praying for, but I am still of the belief that the world will keep spinning and the sun will continue to come up each day.

As I scan my social media outlets today I am saddened by the number of people who only see doom and gloom.  I am not normally political by any means, so maybe others know more than me, but I am thankful that I have the outlook that we will get through this too and be just fine.

Tweet

2012 Thankful November Day 1 - Being Alive

A few years back I was prompted by some friends on an Internet message board I frequent to participate in a blog challenge.  The challenge was to post at least one thing I was thankful for each day of November.  It made me really examine and appreciate both the big things in life that I am thankful for as well as to think about the little things in my life that are to be appreciated that I sometimes tend to overlook, and on days when I wasn't having such a great day it made me dig inside myself to find something, at least one tiny thing, good about that day.

Today as I was on Facebook I noticed a lot of friends starting this challenge again as status update posts, so I am once again prompted to join them each day during the month of November in posting the things in my life for which I give thanks.  Rather than filling up my Facebook page with my daily postings I have decided to post them here on my blog and then link my post to my page.  

I attempted to challenge myself last year, but I admit I wasn't good about keeping up with my daily thankful posts.  I am hopeful that I will meet my goal of daily posting this November.

Thankful November Day 1:

Today I am thankful for life.  I can't express how much I appreciate living, breathing, having a mostly healthy body, and for being here on this earth with my husband, and being able to share my life with him, my parent's, and all of our extended family, friends and loved ones.

Two years ago on this day I was staying at my parent's home, pretty much in solitary confinement, confined to one bedroom and a bathroom after having undergone Radioactive Iodine Therapy treatment for Thyroid Cancer just a few days prior to the first of November.  I was in confinement for 7 days due to being radioactive.  I wasn't allowed to leave home, eat with my family, see my two cats, or be near anyone for more than just a few minutes and even then I had to keep my distance.  This meant not seeing my husband for an entire week.  No daily hugs or kisses from him or anyone else and lots of time spent alone.  It gave me a lot of time to think and to be thankful, even then, when I was so uncertain what my future would hold or if I would even have a future. 

Two years ago I learned a lot about myself, about life, about love, and about being thankful for all I have been given by the good Lord up above.  That time in my life changed me forever, and I hope it made me a better person, a more appreciative one.

I don't just take life for granted anymore, and now I know without a doubt that bad stuff can happen to ANYBODY.  Up until my Thyroid Cancer diagnoses two years ago I lived a pretty charmed life, but I certainly did not always appreciate or realize the value of living such a great life.  I now understand that we never know our fate and what each day may hold.  It doesn't matter what your age or status in life is,  as the saying goes, "sometimes shit happens," and "bad things happen to good people," and we just have to learn to deal with it and be thankful we are here and able to deal with it.

Don't get me wrong, I don't wake up every day with bells on and a smile on my face ready to face the day thinking it is going to be perfect and wonderful.  I still have my moments when I get grumpy, am short with people I love, and I don't always show my most charming side to everyone, but two years later and cancer free, I do try and remember more often than not how very lucky I am to be on this earth and how very lucky I am to be surrounded with so many people who love me and who believe in me.

Tweet

Sunday Stampin' - I spent a little time in my craft room today

I have a wonderful craft room set up in my home.  It is filled with just about every kind of tool, paper and embellishment imaginable to allow me at a moments notice to sit down and scrap, craft, or make a card.  The trouble is that I do not take the time to go in my craft room to enjoy that room and explore my creative side often enough.  

I always find myself doing other things, be it household chores, or spending too much time on the computer, or just plain finding excuses that I don't have the time to go in there and craft.  Lately, one of my excuses has been that my craft room desk was a bit of a cluttered mess from working on a few projects or bringing home projects from my card making group and placing them on my desk, then not putting things back where they belong.

As some of you know, I recently found out that I have thyroid cancer.  While the end outcome of my diagnosis should be positive and leave me thyroid cancer free (I go for surgery this week), finding out at 36 years of age that I have cancer really has made me reevaluate many aspects of my life and how I choose to live it.  One of those areas is putting myself first and participating in activities I enjoy more often.

Because of that I have decided that I need to make some personal enrichment changes in my life and spend more time using all of my tools and supplies that I have spent so much money purchasing.  I need to stop at least one day each week and just enjoy time doing something I absolutely love without feeling guilty that I should be doing something else.

SU Countryside Stamp Set

I decided that today would be a great day to get started on my new personal enrichment goal.  What better time to get my craft room organized and ready to easily use than right before my surgery?  I figure that as I'm recovering I will probably start to feel well enough that I will want to do more than just lay around or sleep, but I might not be up to full speed right away.  What a perfect time this upcoming recovery will be for me to get in there and spend some time being creative.

So, I spent the afternoon cleaning and organizing my craft desk.  I even finished cleaning in time to spend a few hours making a card using my new Stampin' Up stamp set, Countryside.  Here are some before and after pictures of my clean up job, as well the card I made today.  I absolutely love the way it turned out.  I think this new stamp set is definitely going to be on of my favorites.

My craft room before the cleanup today.  With my helpers Bella and Gigi doing a pre-cleanup inspection.

My craft room after the cleanup today.  It looks so much better and it is so nice to have everything reorganized and my desk clear so I can just go in my room and create.

The card I made today using my new set of SU Countryside stamps, and an older SU Stitched background stamp.

Tweet

I'm a few days late, but Happy New Year. Goals for 2009

Here is to saying goodbye to 2008 and welcome 2009.

I have great hope and confidence that 2009 is going to be an improvement from the year that just passed. It's up to me to make it that way. It's up to me to see my life's cup as half full rather than half empty, as I did much of this past year. Yes, the economy is in the dumpster and things might not be easy. However, I am vowing to take what God has given my husband and I and learn how to make it work for us, both financial and otherwise.

I know this will not be an easy goal for me, but I have to give it a valiant effort. I've spent way to much time the past year feeling sorry for myself and all the things I don't have rather than embracing all the wonderful blessings in my life. I'm making it a goal this year to recognize daily that I cannot change the actions and thoughts of others, but what I can change is how I react to those actions and thoughts.

There were a lot of events that didn't go as I would have liked or planned for this past year. I've decided looking back that a lot of what went wrong in 2008 in my life, really wasn't as bad as I felt it was at the time. Yes, a lot went wrong and not as planned, but it was the way I chose to look at each of those events that made them seem so much worse.

I chose the negative view rather than seeing the positive in each situation. Believe me there were some events that took place in my life this past year that it would have been hard to find positive aspects in them, but I know each and every one of them had some sort of positive learning experience mixed in with the negative. I can see that I have changed as a person because of those events and my view on them. I don't like many of the ways I've seen myself change. I don't care for this person I have become in the past year. I know there is a much better person inside this body, and I haven't exactly let that person shine through in the past year. I've been a difficult person for my husband to live with and my family to be around.

I know all the things I don't like about myself are mind over matter. It's up to me to make changes to become the person I want to be. So this year I am focusing on myself. I'm going to focus on taking care of myself and my health. Unless it is my husband, I want to come to realize that other people's problems and issues are not my own. As far as my physical health goes, I don't have any great schemes to loose a ton of weight and start exercising 5 days a week. I know better. I just want to better take care of this body God has put me in. I want to know I am doing the best I possibly can with my body to reach my ultimate life's goals. I'm going to allow myself time for weekly self-enrichment without guilt. I now have a craft/scrap room and I plan to put it to good use. I want to learn to simplify my surroundings, to schedule errands and tasks daily and be able to get things done and find important papers, etc. without stress and worry. Most of all, my goal is to be a better wife to my husband, to do my part to make his life more enjoyable too!

So, raise your glass and toast me as I make 2009 the year of improving and liking myself more than I do right now!

Tweet