Habits Planners

Gratitude Etc

October 8, 2020

✅ Flu shot

✅ Tdap shot (my employer claimed I was due? I actually think I may have had one ~3 years ago, but had no proof and am terrified of pertussis, so I just went for it.

❏ Today: kids’ flu shots.

The life admin burden centered around appointments is significant. And my kids are (knock on some hard wood!) overall very healthy!

An Incomplete List:

pediatrician / PCP / OBGYN

dentist (kid + adult)

(coming soon . . . aghghghgh!) orthodontist

eyes (kid + adult)

derm

hair (okay, this is sort of in a different category but — still important! At least Josh can cut C’s and his own hair 🙂 )

I am really grateful my job comes with good insurance.

Speaking of grateful . . . I don’t know how long I’ve been doing it now, but a new section of my daily planning pages is Gratitude, where I list 3 random things I am grateful for. I realized that this daily act multiplied by a year would be over 1000 statements of gratitude!

Here are a few randomly selected statements from the past 2 weeks:

“Listening to Annabel on Best Laid Plans!”

“Getting my notes done.”

“Viva hasn’t been too sick” (this was when she had a runny nose)

“Libraries. Love that they exist.”

“Planners coming in the mail!”

“Getting to wake up and feel healthy + energetic” (this was after feeling ridiculously tired for a few days)

“Having generally great residents”

“Finishing my run 10 minutes before it started pouring”

“Kids sleeping past 7”

“Josh being off this weekend” (sadly not referring to this weekend!)

I am trying not to repeat myself but in reality I’m sure I will.

I don’t know if this is the reason but I really have felt very centered and grateful lately.

PS: I did not see the fly. But I also went to sleep ~40 minutes into the debate. I was impressed and excited by Kamala Harris!

10 Comments

  • Reply gwinne October 8, 2020 at 7:55 am

    I listened to the last half of the debate so I did not SEE the fly but I have now thanks to Twitter. Hilarious. And yes, Harris was brilliant.

    This is also our week of all the appointments (flu shots for all, a bone density scan for me, therapy for Tiny Boy) and finally finishing taxes and life stuff…..sandwiched between a work-intensive week. Oh well.

  • Reply Amy D October 8, 2020 at 8:41 am

    You definitely had your tdap-you have to get it every pregnancy!

  • Reply Jen October 8, 2020 at 9:22 am

    I love your gratitude list. I have been doing it in a notebook – not too frequently but enough just to stop and think about it. But because you’re into planners i am also really excited because I just got Plum Paper’s gratitude journal and i am excited to try it out (also super excited for my customized 2021 planner – squeeee – such a fun treat to get!)

  • Reply Grateful Kae October 8, 2020 at 10:35 am

    Well, I think you already know I’m a huge advocate for gratitude practice 🙂 So, I love seeing other people’s gratitude lists. Thank you for sharing. I think the key IS to do it often (ideally daily!), so you are “forced” to go a little deeper, beyond the cliche “family, friends and health” items. I love the ones like your “libraries” item, or “listening to Annabel on BLP!”. Those are the ones that I think really get at the nitty gritty of what gratitude is, for me, anyway.

    I record what I’m grateful for each morning on the back of a tear off daily calendar page and then store them all in my drawer in the calendar box. I have a stack of 3 years worth in there now! I also always pick at least one to share at the bottom of my blog post each day. I repeat myself sometimes, but not too often. When you really look, we have LOTS to be grateful for. Somedays they are easier to see than others. 🙂

    One final thought.. I think some people might feel gratitude practice is dorky or something. Or fake. For me, it’s a constant work in progress. There are days I literally write my daily gratitude, and then within 10 minutes I’m barking at my kids about something. Oops! I mean, it’s not magic. But the key is to just keep coming back to it. Like with meditation and returning to the breath. Just bc your mind wanders, doesn’t mean you failed…same with gratitude practice. You just have to keep coming back to it again and again and again and slowly I think we start seeing things to be grateful for where we maybe didn’t before.

  • Reply CBS October 8, 2020 at 11:11 am

    I’ve been trying to work on gratitude too, I’ve got such a lovely life and need to stop getting bogged down in the frustrations. I’ve just been adding a little line on my habit tracker and when I remember, we do good thing/bad things/looking forward to with my 3 year old at dinner time. He always has the loveliest good things, cuddles with his favourite teacher or a croissant (said with an adorable French Scottish accent) and it reminds me that I should be looking for the nice things.

  • Reply Lisa of Lisa's Yarns October 8, 2020 at 1:05 pm

    Yep, I agree that you definitely had your TDAP during your 3rd trimester of pregnancy!! Annoying to have to get it again but oh well. So it goes!

    I did not watch the debate because I just can’t handle another minute of the Trump campaign rhetoric. I find it funny that trump is refusing to participate in a virtual debate w/ Biden. What a wimp. It was decided by the debate commission, not Biden. Buck up, buddy. Nobody wants your germs or your non-masking family’s germs, you super spreaders.

    I should be more intentional about gratitude. I’m in the final 8 weeks of pregnancy and between having a lot of painful RA flares and struggling w/ the GDM protocol (I have to eat soooo few carbs – like 1/2 what they recommend – as prednisone makes me so sensitive to carbs), I’m not the most positive, upbeat person right now… but there are good things in life and it might help my mood to focus more on them.

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger October 9, 2020 at 5:47 am

      You should celebrate your delivery with a giant muffin 🙂 Low carb during pregnancy has got to be hard – it’s when I tended to crave them the most!!!

  • Reply Ann October 8, 2020 at 2:23 pm

    Rather than a structured gratitude list, I try to reframe my frustrations. Not “I have to go into work tomorrow” but I GET to go into work tomorrow” (and this works because I like my job!). “I GET to take kid to the dentist…because we have insurance/means to do this regularly and keep up with his dental health.” This slight change has a pretty powerful impact on my mood in the moment. ymmv

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger October 9, 2020 at 5:46 am

      yes that is so true!!!

  • Reply Jen October 9, 2020 at 1:13 am

    As someone who got whooping cough as an adult a few years ago definitely get the booster whenever you can! It was horrible!

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