Lissssstesses

I'm on Day 6 of the writing every day for a month thing and I have yet to use one of the daily writing prompts that are available, well basically anywhere you care to look all over the internet. This is not to say that I won't use one sometime before the end of the month, but for now, I'm still able to babble for days at a time without any help. (awesome)
I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm a list maker (see: yesterday's post). I make to-do lists, grocery lists, lists of presents I want to buy everyone for Christmas. I firmly believe there are two different kinds of people in life: list makers and those whose sole survival depends on list makers because they didn't think to bring toilet paper on a road trip (but YOU CAN BE SURE I HAD IT ON MY LIST). Now, I'll be honest, sometimes I make lists as a way of procrastinating actually doing anything on the list, I won't lie. But more often than not, lists help me get through my work week and my days off and the trips I take where I'm packing my stuff and the boys' stuff into one suitcase while Sam will pack a backpack with 4 books and a pair of underwear.
But, and here's where it might veer into list weirdo territory, I make lists about things that do not exist. For example, I will make a list of how I'm going to redecorate my bedroom on a $500 budget. I will make a list of the foreign countries I want to visit before my passport expires (in 7 years, I've got time). I make lists of the kinds of trees I would grow in our backyard if we could actually grow anything besides weeds back there.It actually pleases me to see other people make lists because it makes me understand their thought processes a little better. (Unless they put stupid things on their list and then we have issues).
I actually enjoy everyone's Gratitude Lists that they do every year around Thanksgiving, I do. And I don't even usually do one, I just like to read everyone else's.  But I suppose there's nothing stopping me from doing a Gratitude List, right? Like maybe not every day. Yall don't need to hear that I'm grateful for my alarm clock or the volume control on my kids' ipads (though I am extremely, seriously grateful for not only the volume control, but that even the 4 year old knows how to work it). So, maybe just a once a week thing? on Saturdays when I'm trying to avoid using a prompt that tells me: "Describe Your Perfect Rainy Day.."  (it's a short post:  Nap til the rain ends. Fin.)
Ok, twist my pinky, here's a start:

Things I'm Grateful For (2015)

1). That after two years of swim lessons, my kid no longer sinks to the bottom of the pool immediately as if his swimsuit were lined with plutonium. I know I joke about it a lot, but having little kids around water is one of those things that has always made me nervous. Maybe it's because I didn't learn how to swim until I was 10 years old. I remember being at the lake one day before I could swim and stepping off into a deep spot. I can still remember being underwater and looking up and seeing blue sky but not being able to get to it and swallowing lots of water. It was one of the scariest things that ever happened to me. So yeah, I don't mind the swim lessons and I am extremely grateful for every little bit of progress they make (however sloooooowwww).

2). That we have the resources to provide things for the boys, like swim lessons and going to the movies and ipads and costumes for dressup (even if they won't wear the Panda one I bought on clearance, but it is SO cute, yall, it kills me, yet it stays on the hanger). I know that the point of gratitude lists is that you're not supposed to focus on the material things and that's fine, but I think it's ok to acknowledge that it's a good feeling to be able to give things to your kids sometimes.

3) Here's a non material thing for you that I'm super grateful for (and I'm not going to write a big post about this because it's not my story to tell), but A Really Wonderful Thing happened for a dear friend of mine this last week. She and her husband were finally able to adopt a baby after waiting a really, really long time for it to happen. They went through a LOT to get to this point and it was years of heartache, so to be able to see pictures of her holding this tiny gorgeous newborn in her arms making her family complete... just chokes me up with so much happy.

That was a good one to stop on, can we just stop at three for now? I gotta go look at tiny baby pictures and cry some more. More next week, yeah?