30 days of gratitude finished off

I did mean to post these all daily but life has a habit of happening.  Fortunately things have calmed down a lot. My one follower asked me where the rest were.  I had made a note of them all so I finally got round to typing them all up.

Day 18 what piece of art are you grateful for?

Day 19 What touch are you grateful for today?

For me a hug is always a welcome touch and I love getting a hug from any of my loved ones, today was my youngest son.

Day 20 Who in your life are you grateful for?

My partner in crime and life Gary, all 3 of my children, their partners, my parents, and my wonderful friends.  We all have our ups and downs but we all know we have each others backs no matter what.

Day 21 What song are you most grateful for?

Anyone I am listening to and can understand!

Day 22 What story are you grateful for?

The night before Christmas,  I have loved reading it to my children on Christmas Eve, and for the past 2 years my granddaughters too.

Day 23 What tradition are you grateful for?

Same as yesterdays, and any traditional holiday that has me spend time with my loved ones

Day 24 What challenge are you grateful for?

Hard to pin down one, for the moment it is sewing, I get to use my mind to create some amazing ( well sometimes!) clothes and creations.  It challenges me and helps me unwind and relax

Day 25 What moment this week are you grateful for?

Finally being able to relax after the end of the school year. It has been a stressful one filled with many ARGHHHH moments but it all came to a satisfying end of those stresses on the last day.  Which made us grateful and happy

Day 26 What form of expression are you grateful for?

Cooking, particularly baking.  I do not understand people who find cooking stressful as it calms me like nothing else does. 

Day 27 What small thing that you use daily are you grateful for?

My mobile.  I keep in touch with everyone with it. I would be lost without my daily snapchats with my daughter and keeping in touch with family and friends. Not forgetting to mention pokemon go app, it got me out walking loads this week.

Day 28 What small thing that happened today are you grateful for?

My Dad and his lovely wife visited us today so we had a last minute BBQ.  Relaxed sunny day and a BBQ who could not be grateful

Day 29 What friend/family member are you grateful for today?

Oh I couldn't possibly narrow it down to one.

Day 30 What talent or skill that you have are you most grateful for?

Cooking, sewing, making people laugh or having the knack to find the good in any situation.

Loved doing these, sometimes life gets busy and rushed and we forget to look for the good things in life and this helped me do this during a very hard month at times.  I will repeat this maybe at the start of next year and see if it any difference after a few months.

Take care 

Jules xx 

30 days of gratitude

I am not really behind on this I just haven't posted for 11 days.  Life got to the point I had to stop everything else and focus on one area in life that became like a back hole.  Every aspect of life seemed to get sucked towards this situation as we sat around waiting for an outcome. We eventually sort of got to a stage where life could return back to normal from tomorrow so I have prepared a new sewing project to start sewing up tomorrow.  It feels great to be able to be able to get lost in a sewing project and an audio book again. 

I am listening to The girl with all the gifts by M. R. Carey now.  I saw an advert for the film to this the other night on TV so am vaguely interested in the film after I have heard/read the book. 

Anyway shall we get back to this 30 days of gratitude?

Day 7

What memory are you grateful for?

Hearing my first granddaughters first cries.  As a Mum I had no hearing when all 3 of my children were born.  My daughter asked if I would like to be at the birth of her first daughter.  I had only had my implant for around 5 or 6 weeks so I will always cherish hearing Evers first noises in this world 

Day 8

What book are you most grateful for?

This is a very difficult question because I am a book worm/addict.  All books are like old friends and sometimes I use books to get me through difficult times.  When I had a brain tumour and was recovering from it's removal I went through a stage of dark horror books and supernatural kind of books.  It helped to imagine there was stories worse than mine.  I think though it's more reference books I am so grateful for.  I am always trying to learn something new.  My brain is always on the go so having cooking/sewing/craft/quilting and baking books around are my favourites.  Theres always something to immerse myself in and something new to learn.

Day 9 

What place are you most grateful for?

That is easy, my home.  A place I can be myself and a place my family can feel they can come back to even when they are big enough to leave home. 

Day 10

What taste are you grateful for today?

Mints, I love mints and I always keep a pack around.

Day 11

What holiday are you grateful for?

Christmas holidays, fun and games preparing for the festivities and ready the night before Christmas to the granddaughters on Christmas Eve

Day 12

What texture are you grateful for?

I have no idea at first thought, but then I thought of marshmallows.  I love the texture when eating them. 

Day 13

What abilities are you grateful for?

I  am grateful for my patience, ability to cook, being able to hear again, being able to drive and having the ability to almost mind read my children some days x 

Day 14

What sight are you grateful for today?

emails that were actually a response to ones I had sent

Day 15

What season are you grateful for 

I love Autumn the most.

Day 16

What about your body are you grateful for?

My eyes, with one blue and one brown I am not unique but I do feel a little different and I think my eyes are brilliant so I am grateful I am not the same as everyone else in that respect

Day 17

What knowledge are you grateful for?

Anything I have learnt in life. Cooking knowledge is something I love having.  I have even been jokingly called Delia now and again! I love having enough culinary knowledge that I can walk into our kitchen I can make a meal up even after everyone one else has declared there's not enough food to cook a meal with.

30 days of gratitude days 5 and 6

I didn't forget this yesterday exactly, just by the time I went to type it out it was 11.55 pm so I decided sleep was needed more.  So 2 posts in one today

Day 5

What sound are you grateful for today?

Anyone who knows me well knows that I spent 19 years Deaf and every sound I hear I am grateful for.  Yesterday though I was really grateful to hear the sound of my sewing machine running and the hiss of the steam iron as I pressed. Sewing while Deaf was a bit more dangerous as if I glanced away I wasn't always aware of the sewing machine running if the children were about. I don't have children around to cause lovely chaos as often now and not in my sewing space, but it does make sewing less frightening :o) 

Day 6

What in nature are you grateful for?

Plants, trees and birds.  They change with the seasons and always something to admire and wonder at if you look close enough to be amazed. Trees fascinate me greatly and are far from boring. I never really noticed the beautiful songs of birds when I was younger but I do now. 

Will be back a little later to show you what else I have been up to today 

Take care

Jules x 

30 days of gratitude day 4

Todays question is what food are you grateful for? Simple answer to this one is the food I get to sit around a table and share with family and friends.  Doesn't matter if it's a simple piece of toast, or a roast dinner with all the trimmings.  Food shared with good company, good conversation and with love is always the food I am grateful for.

Being a fan of cooking it gives me much pleasure to see something I have prepared bring a smile or a look of contentment on someones face as they eat food I have cooked. The eyes that light up when someone realises you baked that cake for them. 

I couldn't pin down one individual type of food. Food and cooking for me is very mood based so it changes daily what I think is a fantastic idea for todays dinner or treat to make. You could say I am a very moody lady in that respect!!  Very often I will start the morning off thinking I am going to cook a certain dish for dinner that night.  By the time the youngest is home from school my mind has usually changed and my mood has dictated a big change. The family are used to it by now though so all is good.  I rarely have complaints about my cooking so I must be doing something right :o) 

Take care 

Jules xx

30 days of gratitude day 3

What colour are you grateful for? That question made me stop and think. I love the colour purple but it isn't the only colour I want around me. I pretty much have a love of most colours as they all have their own beauty and uses. I admit I am not drawn to some shades of green but I do love it in nature.

So in conclusion I am grateful for all colours and having eyesight to see them with.  I sew, quilt, colour, scrapbook and papercut and use a wide variety of colours often.  There is no way I could narrow it down to one colour.  So can I answer rainbow coloured? Yes I think rainbow colour is my final answer.

30 days of gratitude day 2

Todays question is what technology are you grateful for? The list could go on forever for me. The first one that comes to mind is Cochlear implants.  Because of that nifty piece of technology I get to hear family and friends these days. I talked about my 5 years of having an implant not to long ago on the blog.

Another piece of technology is my mobile phone. Even before I could hear better again I always kept a mobile phone, and sometimes 2!, close to hand.  I could text and email people that I needed to contact and others could contact me that way to.  I have an iPhone the technology in them works well with my implant and I love staying in touch with family and friends either by phone or on one of it's many apps. I also listen to audio books on my phone and music.

Both these these pieces of technology I am grateful for as they both have made me feel less isolated at times and given me a much richer quality of life having them.

A few other things would be sewing machines, overlockers/sergers, computers and the internet,  All of which deserve a mention today

Quick post today, but I am hoping to give you a review on a gadget tomorrow and show you what I have been up to. 

Take care

Jules xx

30 days of gratitude day 1

I had this photo come up on a group last month and decided it would be a good idea to go for it this month and do 30 days of gratitude of what things I am grateful for.

So day 1 what smell am I grateful for today? The smell of fresh English strawberries I think would of been today's smell I was grateful for.  We had a hospital appointment for our youngest son.  Just a  general check up and discharging from that department kind of appointment.  The drive up and back to the hospital made me wonder how many people on the roads had been drinking before they got in their cars and vans? I was glad to get out of town and off the motorways.  Popped into our local fruit and veg place on the way home and as we walked in there was this most gorgeous sweet smell of  strawberries. It was so calming and called up memories of strawberry picking and making summer jars of jam ready to perk up dreary days later in the year.  It's amazing how a mere sniff of something can take you on a journey down memory lane and cheer up a day that had been stressing you out a bit. And of course we bought some strawberries home.