Multitude Monday #15

Well. It has been a long day, and a long week. Time dragged and time flew. I feel like I missed twenty gazillion hours of work (and lost that much PTO), but I was really gone for only a day (Friday, the day of my mom's surgery).

And the weekend? Crazy scheduling, four house guests Friday night, a business/pleasure trip for Dan, and my sister's daughter with strep throat. Sigh.

Thanks to my dear friend eArThworm, I have a great little notebook for writing gratitude lists. It's small and light enough that I can carry it just about anywhere. So, while I was waiting for my mom's surgery to be over, or getting ready to go to sleep at 1 a.m., or taking a "mommy break" while Anne read books to herself, I would steal a few minutes to write down the blessings I could count at the moment.

And there were quite a few!

235. a baby's snaggletoothed smile

236. solitude, even at the office

237. hiking trails

238. stirrings of an old dream I thought had long died

239. possibility

240. a dryer rack full of clean dishes

241. finding the other sock

242. brown-mottled bananas

243. everyday items that have meaning--the mixer, a gift from my brother; a hand towel, a gift from Mrs. Shirley from more than a decade ago

244. a hand-print picture on the fridge, a gift from Ella

245. a handful of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal

246. the sound of coffee dripping

247. being the only one awake in the morning

248. generosity

249. parents who model unconditional love

240. knowing that, if anything happens to my mom in surgery, she knows I love her

241. a two-year-old's prayers for her grandmother

242. seeing my mom's eyes open after they wheeled her back from surgery

243. long talks with my dad

244. steel-cut oats

245. apples

246. old friends visiting, talking trail

247. seeing bleuets and violets outside my office building this morning

248. SPRING!

249. REBIRTH!

250. being Anne's mom