Gratitute journal

Thought I would start this last night - seems I am better at doing thing in the morning.  Always have been, probably always will be.  Within a half hour of getting up I can get the bed made, a load of laundry done, vacuum the living room and water the plants.  In the evening in a half hour I can get done - well, nothing usually.  Which is why I usually wake up and have a messy kitchen because I am too tired to clean it at night.  However, I love waking up to a clean kitchen so it is a constant inner struggle.  Today, it was not clean.

What I am grateful for today. (I will try to do a few a day - no set number)

My washing machine.  Yes, I know that is silly, but not that long ago woman had to do laundry by hand and it took all day.  I will get mine done in about three hours this morning and it isn't a constant three hours.  I just load this miracle machine and push a button.  30 minutes later my clothes are clean.  Additionally, I am grateful for MY washing machine.  A few years ago my washer went out.  I shopped around and found a new machine at Best Buy that was the front loader I wanted, but was hugely marked down as it had been a display (and had some sticky stuff on the side - which came off with a bit of goo gone).  I was able to get a front loader machine for the price of a traditional low end top loader.  It uses so little water, which now that I bought a home on a septic system has to be better as it isn't dumping as much water into the septic.  I feel like the clothes come out cleaner in my washer, and they also come out dryer so that when I use my dryer less.  Which saves money.  Less water bill, less electricity, less waste in my septic.  I say it is something to be grateful for.

My back deck.  I lived in a duplex that had this tiny deck with no stairs leading down to it for the last four summers.  It had no cover, no trees nearby, and overlooked a corn field with a freeway in the distance.  It was blazing hot and the neighbors were so close that you had no privacy at all.  I sat out that about three times in four years.  My new deck (which I just painted and is looking even more fabulous) is a "normal" size deck.  I can put several sitting areas and best of all it is covered and I have tons and tons of trees in the backyard.  My neighbors are appropriate distances away and I can sit on my deck every day now and enjoy the backyard. It has steps and isn't like an apartment deck! The trees keep my yard cool and I can watch the horses in the pasture behind me.  It is paradise.