Becoming Something: 20 things for which I'm thankful on Canadian Thanksgiving

Monday, October 12, 2009

20 things for which I'm thankful on Canadian Thanksgiving

It's Canadian Thanksgiving. With snow. *eyeroll*

Jude and I went out for Indian food tonight which reminded me of my friends in Wales and just before we left the car to enter the restaurant, CBC radio was doing a piece on the Celtic genes of the Welsh, Irish and Scottish. I got all sentimental and my eyes teared up.

I am thankful for Indian food. I am thankful for money to eat at restaurants. I am thankful to be able to afford to travel.

Furthermore, in no particular order I'm thankful...

... to have a babysitter who is trustworthy, enthusiastic, and who loves to talk with and play with our children. I have never once wondered if she snoops through my stuff like I did when I babysat as a teen. I don't worry that she's stealing anything or yelling at our kids. Our kids listen to her because they are exceptionally well-behaved kids (I attribute most of that to LUCK) but also because they love and respect her. Tears are literally coming to my eyes thinking of how grateful I am for her.

...for the love of a good man who exemplifies this scripture from Doctrine & Covenants 121:

41 No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;

42 By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile--

I'm thankful that he walks the dog and takes such good care of us all.

...to have a son and one so gifted and sensitive. I would have had a very difficult time handling a hyper boy like a lot of little boys seem to be. I'm thankful God didn't challenge me on that. I love that Montana is developing a sense of humour that can hopefully weather some storms of the heart. I think we're going to be good friends when he grows up.

...for three daughters who are thoughtful, sweet, smart, assertive, and fun. I'm looking forward to my kids being teenagers.

...for some of the loveliest people on earth as my friends. I can think of five people who have loved me intensely and pretty much unconditionally, teaching me that I can love that way too. Three of these people, in particular, have loved me despite evidence of craziness, impatience, neediness, hypocrisy, lostness, made up wordage, and have changed me for the better. I would be a lesser person were it not for their forgiveness and patience and gushy love.

...for available health care. I keep hearing stories of people who were denied health insurance for the stupidest, evilest reasons and I love that I have never had much by way of complaint of our health care system. I never give it a thought or a care! One woman emailed me a story today about how she was without health care for 18 months, for no good reason, and how she had to opt for a $10,000 deductible at another point, just so she could afford any coverage. I get to spend my money on hair dye and super expensive health food and overpriced international shipping because I don't spend thousands a month on health care. After reading her story I felt like should never complain about anything ever again.

...for hair conditioner because without it, I'd just have pixie hair.

...for friends who send me music they think I'll love and I usually do.

...to have television and to occasionally get lost in a show or movie. What a luxury.

...for loud rain storms.

...for a fireplace on a cold day.

...for handmade gifts.

...for being a better person, overall, than I was five years ago.

...for a digital camera. It's not great but it does the job and it's such a luxury.

...artsy people who care about near-lost arts: embroidery, letter writing, beautiful handwriting, knitting.

...for people who take the time to learn acoustic guitar so people like me can have something beautiful and soulful and relaxing to listen to.

...for not having to shower everyday because my hair is dry and I don't sweat much and usually when I do, I don't smell.

...also, for flushable wet wipes. One of the best inventions of the past ten years.

...for reliable vehicles that we own outright and will drive to the death.

...for little tools like nail cutters and tweezers and band-aids and pony tail holders and other such small inventions that make life easier and cleaner.

Oh, and I dyed my hair darker because the bleaching has caused major breakage. I'm thankful that it turned out not bad for $15. What a great era in which to live. Never has vanity been easier.

Natasha at 10:13 PM in A.D.D. Friendly, Mothering, People I Love, Stuff to ♥ | Permalink

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Nice list - and flushable wipes, I hear you. I love your hair this colour! It suits you - and shows off your eyes and eyebrows. Also I love seeing so many of your "to do list" items being stroked off.

Posted by: Jane W. | Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 11:57 AM

Well, when you put easy things down, they're easy to stroke off. :-D

Today the hair looks too green. Bleh. But I was waxing loverly about my eyebrows too. They're my favourite part. Because they're my own handiwork, you know. ;-p

Thanks, Jane.

Posted by: Natasha | Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 12:54 PM

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Things I Want to Do Before I'm Dead/Crazy

1. Learn to play the freakin' guitar already.
2. ~~Taste black truffles.~~
3. Meet Oprah and thank her.
4. Go white water rafting again. Maybe a girlfriend getaway.
5. Visit New York City for two weeks.
6. Build a self-sustaining healthy house on a plot of land large enough to have a big, gorgeous dog that never poops close to home, some sheep, a big garden, and fruit trees but close enough to other people that if someone came to murder us, there would be people to hear the gunshots. Yes, I think of these things. Often.
7. Publish a work of mostly fiction. Change the names and details of people I know such that they really have no idea I'm writing about them, the fools.
8. Go to art school.
9. Own a log cabin on a lake where you're allowed to shoot people if they seadoo. Because that's two sports in one: Cottaging and Target Practice. Equally stress relieving, I'd imagine.
10. Compost with worms.
11. Finish knitting Montana's baby blanket.
12. Travel Europe and Russia with Jude.
13. Throw a neighborhood carnival block party, raising money for a family in need or other worthy cause.
14. Somehow make international adoption easier. Get airlines to give free airfare to people who are picking up their international adoptive children.
15. Learn pottery.
16. Maybe do a mini-marathon. Note the hesitation.
17. Get nearly all my body hair lasered off. Celebrate with a naked stroll in a park. (Yes, that's a joke but I shouldn't have to say so.)
18. Learn to really sing.
19. Go scuba diving somewhere really colourful and take photos. And live to develop them.
20. Go horseback riding again.
21. Make pesto from scratch.
22. Make a stuffed salmon encased in pastry that's cut to look like a salmon.
23. Learn to really, properly swim.
24. Have an all-girlfriend canoeing-camping trip with someone who can play guitar. Woman with the longest leg hair the next day doesn't have to paddle back.
25. Memorize all the best Scrabble words and tactics.
26. Send my boy on a mission abroad and have him come home a man, in one piece.
27. Lead some kind of teen counseling sessions-- maybe for sexually abused girls?
28. Develop all my online photos with journaling comments before Facebook experiences a server failure or some equally horrific turn of events.
29. Live in Venice, Italy for a few months.
30. Grow peonies.
31. Learn to can my own fruits and veggies and then actually do it.
32. ~~Visit Vancouver.~~
33. Visit the Salt Lake Temple.
34. Roll down grassy green hills in Ireland. Leave before I fall in love with some rogueish Irishman with THAT ACCENT! See how thoughtful I am, Jude?
35. Catch some fireflies again. Then let them go.
36. ~~Catch some frogs. Then let them go.~~
37. ~~Get my braces off. Celebrate by rubbing bread and carrots and salmon all over my teeth and then making out with Jude.~~
38. Get into really fantastic shape. Feel strong and healthy.
39. Become buddies with Julia Roberts and Jennifer Garner. We would totally mesh.
40. Replace my husband's suits and successfully condition him to iron his clothes and enjoy piecing together stylish outfits.
41. Write a song and sing it/play it for Jude.
42. Be in the chorus of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
43. Finish reading War and Peace by Tolstoy.
44. Read The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.
45. Have a house of mine appear in Canadian House & Home Magazine.
46. See a ghost or an angel. Anyone from another realm will do.
47. See Prairie Home Companion live.
48. See Jack Johnson play from the front row someplace intimate.
49. See Cathy achieve her dreams, however that happens.
50. Be so rich that I can give away money and help all the time to people who both need it and deserve it. Teach a man to fish and all that.
51. Buy a much nicer camera.
52. See Les Miserables live.
53. Learn Photoshop.
54. ~~Get this house finished.~~
55. ~~Enjoy grass and tree ownership again.~~
56. Visit the Great Wall of China and leave my name on it somewhere.
57. Become fluent in French.
58. Learn basic Italian.
59. Become fluent in sign language.
60. Become a pretty good chess player.
61. Memorize more jokes.
62. Remember history studied and study more.
63. ~~Become more charitable in my heart.~~
64. Have an Etsy store.
65. ~~Visit London~~, bump into Jude Law and have him quickly fall in love with me then turn him away because I'm married and Mormon enough to care that I'm married, which will only make him love me all the more, of course.
66. Design my own house blueprints.
67. ~~Teach Daisy to read and watch her silently devour books.~~
68. Be in a musical/play with Daisy.
69. Take a hot air balloon ride only for a mile and only about 100 feet in the air because that's just crazy to risk your life like that.
70. Never visit Disneyland or Disneyworld. Ha!
71. Make healthy cookies I actually love. For my grandkids.
72. Learn how to break dance. Or at least do that move where you support your body just on your hands tucked under your belly? That move.
73. Hold a hand stand for at least five seconds.
74. Do a backflip. With a belt on. Tied to the ceiling.
75. Hear James Taylor play live.
76. Become friends with Rosie O'Donnell.
77. Be able to roll in a kayak.
78. Adopt some older children when my kids are older or be a foster parent.
79. Have some of my poetry published. Under a different name.
80. Have a butler's pantry right off my kitchen and have it extremely organized at all times.
81. Raise my children to be nonjudgmental, kind, good, humble, open-minded but critical thinkers. And happy.
82. See Jude write his book. Have it published.
83. Swim in an Italian grotto.
84. Host a dinner under a large canopy-like tree, with candle lanterns.
85. Be able to do one pull-up.
86. Meet Thomas S. Monson.
87. See my sister happy and well-off in B.C. 88. Meet my all of my virtual friends.
89. ~~Teach my girls hand clapping games.~~
90. Sleep in a hammock in Hawaii with mellow island beat music playing and with the waves splashing in the background.
91. Go seashell hunting near the Bay of Fundy.
92. Take a cottage vacation alone where I can read, and paint, and write and sleep for 13 hours straight.
93. Be mortgage and debt-free.
94. Get Lasik eye surgery.
95. Hire a housecleaner and have her over twice a week FOREVER.
96. Since my house will be so clean: Have fresh flowers year-round.
97. Learn to juggle.
98. Join Toastmasters.
99. Learn to cook Indian.

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