Today I am NOT grateful for:

• a heel that I raked painfully down a nail sticking out on our top step - throbbbbbbbing.
• a vacuum cleaner that "isn't worth fixing" and would take at least a 60.00 new motor in the head, and that doesn't even begin to fix it, but it's all I had, and I can't afford a new vacuum and there is dog hair all over my house. My house needs to be vacuumed daily. What to do.
• puppy pee and puppy poop all over the house - why does she refuse to poo outside???
• having to take the Jeep in tomorrow for an estimate on the front end damage I did a couple of weeks ago - the deductible is $1,000.00 and I don't HAVE that. Not even close.
• a son who is 20 and who is totally financially irresponsible, still
• a daughter who is 18 and who is, I swear, bi-polar. Certainly miserable to be around at best much of the time.
• a son who is 16 who can help everyone else in the world, and who LIVES at the local volunteer fire department, but can't mow the lawn, go to the dump for me, or complete any of the few other chores he is nagged to do here
• a 14 year old daughter who has spent LOADS of my money on concert tickets this summer with the promise of doing 2 hours worth of laundry folding and other chores for me in return, who has yet to do much of ANYTHING.
• the bee stings I have received trying to turn over my compost pile. They HURT. So my hand is throbbing from bee stings, and my heel is throbbing from the nail. Ouch.

BUT........... this is suppose to be an opportunity to think of things I am GRATEFUL for, so, however anemic that might be today, I DO have an obligation to attempt that. I am grateful for

• a husband who took me along on his errands today as I was getting rather stir crazy at home
• a husband who cooked italian sausage with peppers and onions for dinner for me tonight
• an 20 year old son who is GREAT company, and who dared to drive through NYC today on his own to visit a friend on Long Island. I would not have been so brave at 20.
• an 18 year old daughter who curled up in my lap to watch TV last night and who was silly and loud and made me laugh
• a 16 year old who is in Cuba tonight playing "Fireman Games" with the department because it is the Countywide Fire Department weekend, and who attempted to rescue a dog this past weekend that a neighbor had left tied out with no food and water when he moved away
• a 14 year old who is generally sunny and happy and cheerful and who will do ALMOST anything I ask with minimal fuss (except, apparently, folding laundry?)
• looking forward to a week at the beach with all of these goofy kids AND their friends, 10 of us in all for a week
• looking forward to getting to see a friend from far away for a day or two in August
• a good book to read when I go crawl into bed in a few minutes!

There is ALWAYS much to be grateful for. It's easier to see the dark side sometimes, but that's why I know it is important to LOOK for the good. They're there!