Gratitude or Thankfulness

I just had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving. Grant and I drove with Alchemy out to my parents house in Damon where we got to spend time with them, my sisters Lisa and Gina, and my niece Sarah. It was so good getting family time all together for the first time in a long long time. Lisa and Sarah finally got to meet Alchemy.  Now as we are driving home from their house back to Austin, I find myself thinking about a practice I have seen a lot of lately where people listed one thing they were thankful for each day leading up to Thanksgiving. I did something similar a few years ago for a month and I found it to be a very useful and nourishing daily practice for me. As I thought about it, I realized that I hear people using "thankful" and "grateful" pretty interchangeably. Discussing it with Grant, we decided that the difference between the two words was more about whether it involved another person or their actions (i.e. I am thankful to Gina for the baby clothes and gifts she bought Alchemy) where grateful could be for things not pertaining to a person but that I feel gratitude for (i.e. I am grateful for the rain we had yesterday that watered our garden so well). I am not sure if this is how it works for everyone else or what the proper definition of each is. I suppose if I was not in the car between cities and had Internet access I could look them up and be much more clear on it, but for now we will stick with my reasoning, although I suspect that I will still use them interchangeably as well.  I ponder all this and share it with you because I am considering taking up that practice again, but instead of just a month, trying to journal one thing I am grateful/thankful for a day. If it involves someone else, I may write a thank you card to go with it and mail it to them. What better day to start this practice than the day after Thanksgiving when I just came off of a week full of wonderful family time that I am so grateful for. 

Things that make me happy.

I love this season. Today we are having the perfect weather- beautiful, sunny, breezy 62 degree weather. Alchemy and I took a walk to our garden to water all the new plants. Alchemy was awake for the trip there and my time caring for our garden, but once we started exploring, she was fast asleep.

One of my favorite things being grown by one of our neighbor gardeners is this ginormous pumpkin. The first day I saw it I almost had Grant back the car up so I could figure out what it was sticking out from all the green surrounding it, because I had never seen a pumpkin so large. Today I had a moment to walk up and inspect it more. It looks like something out of a fairy tale, perhaps the pumpkin that becomes Cinderella's coach. I keep wondering how much larger it will get and hope that it stays alive in our cooling weather.

 There is also this beautiful area of garden lush and full of plants that is what I hope our garden will look like once it is more established and fills in- this particular area of one garden has a gorgeous Morning Glory growing full and tall surrounded by many other lower plants. I keep hoping for a multi-level garden like this. We have two big metal fence structures that we are going to sink into the ground somewhere in our plot- I am hoping we can use them both as structures of support for plants, dividers of the different beds, but also to grow things up as well, perhaps even a Morning Glory of our own. We used to have one in our old garden, I would love to have one again.

Our garden is also looking good at the moment. The summer took it's toll on it for sure, killing off many of our plants. We were okay with it and basically abandoned it to the heat, preferring to let it go dormant for a while rather than waste water trying to keep it alive in such a bad drought. Grant has been working really hard to get things going for our Fall/Winter garden. I am finally physically feeling like I can join in again in the gardening although I think I will have to take it slow until my muscles regain strength, and of course gardening with Alchemy is still hard unless she sleeps through it. 

Our plot from the back entrance

Keyhole bed with our artichoke from last year, a blue daze, and shallots, plus a clump of wild onions.

Same keyhole bed, soon to have lots of green beans!

Back corner bed with our Pride of Barbados, a new artichoke, the Mexican marigold mint from spring about to bloom, oregano and mint coming back up slowly, and new beds of spinach and carrots.

Love this bed- all our new greens with a bamboo and snap dragon border.

This greens bed has our kale, brussell sprouts, cauliflower, and tatsoi.

Our front bottle lined herb bed has our artemesia, a pepper and our basil from the spring still alive, plus new plantings of skull cap, St. John's wort, pansies that are starting to bloom, and nasturtiums, plus one bean that is only now sprouting from our spring plantings!

 Not only is this weather perfect for all this gardening, but it also gave us a wonderful Samhain night to go trick or treating with Alchemy. She couldn't actually trick or treat of course, but we wanted a good excuse to dress her up in the bee outfit my mom got her and walk around the neighborhood.

 As you can see, she makes a super cute bumblebee with her lovely little striped socks and the booties my mom made her. This outfit is also a little big, so we are hoping it will fit her in the springtime so she can wear it to the garden!

Our calavera pumpkin I spent hours carving!

Last night I had the pleasure of doing my first henna session since Alchemy was born. Friends of ours are heading to Puerto Rico to have their wedding vows renewed in a ceremony, and so the lovely lady of that pair wanted to have her hands done. She asked me to incorporate flowers, leaves and stars and so, I did. It was tons of fun to do, not to mention just getting time to hang out with them and catch up a bit since we haven't seen them in a while. I also had the opportunity to try out my new henna glitter that I am excited to use on more clients, it gives a nice finish to the paste you have to leave on for so many hours and dresses it up a bit. I think it will be especially good at festivals should I ever henna at one. Soon for our Totocon happening in about a week at the lodge, I will have an opportunity to vend some henna for folks should anyone want some. I am hoping to do another party or two and may have another lined up at the Knitting Nest again in the spring. I am also just hoping to take more private clients- I love doing the henna in the comfort of my home for folks where I can easily still take care of Alchemy.

This week I developed a new addiction. Pinterest. Crazy awesome website that serves as a virtual pinboard where you can "pin" images of things you love onto different boards to organize them and then share them out with folks, or see other folks awesome boards and repin things to your own. I am loving it!! Anything that allows me to organize visually is perfect. I have a board for things I love, one for favorite recipes, one for my dream home- all the things I would want in the perfect house. I have a board for beautiful garden ideas, one full of things I either have or want for Alchemy, and a board full of crafty things I want to make. I even added a "follow me on Pinterest" button to this blog so folks who read this can follow me, and a "pin it" button in case someone likes this blog enough to pin it!! Come check it all out, I promise you will love it. Just don't blame me if you get completely addicted too.