Monday Musings: 152 Things I’m Thankful For

Happy Monday! Here’s to a wonderful Thanksgiving and wishing everyone safe travels whatever your plans may be. If you are traveling, drive, fly, or ride safely.  Enjoy those who you are sharing your holiday with and be thankful for all that you have – not only on Thursday, but all year long. A few years ago, I was at an event and a speaker gave some poignant thoughts on being grateful every day. I often think of the things he said and try to remind myself to be thankful…for my circumstances, my surroundings, my experiences, the lessons I have learned, and the opportunities I am given. In light of the holiday, here are just a few things I’m thankful for (in no particular order):

1. Waking up every morning.
2. My parents: I would be lost without the skills, guidance, love, support, and now that I’m older, friendship, that they have provided these 32.9 years I have existed (because of them).
3. My brother, Silla, and my adorable (which is an understatement) 6 month old niece, sweet Viv. Cutest darn family, I tell you.
4. AH-MAYZ-HING friends. My Framily. Amazing, amazing, amazing. I am thankful every day for the wonderful people in my life. Makes me misty. You know who you are.
5. The smell of salt air.
6. The smell of winter.
7. The way the sun setting casts an orange glow on everything. My blood runneth orange.
8. Diet Dr. Pepper
9. Smart phones.
10. The ability to turn off smart phones.
11. That you can see the Blue Ridge on a clear day driving down Clemson Blvd. in Anderson, SC.
12. Clemson Sunsets
13. Murrells inlet sunsets.
14. A cold beer on a hot day.
15. Mary Engelbreit calendars (since 1990)
16. That I have a good job that (most of the time) I’m happy to go to, pays my bills, and challenges me.
17. The invention of the camera.
18. The invention of the light bulb.
19. Ever evolving technology.
20. Wine.
21. Cheese. Cheddar, Brie, Gouda, Gorgonzola, ‘Merican, Edam, Pepper Jack… I love cheese.
22. That wine and cheese (and olives) go together so stinkin’ nicely.
23. My bed.
24. Down pillows.
25. Waking up before your alarm goes off.
26. Waking up and knowing exactly by the way the sun is shining on the curtains in my bedroom what time it is.
27. A hot shower.
28. The fact that I can afford my water and power bills to be able to take said hot shower – and rent, internet, and phone bills too…
29. Pandora – oh how I love thee
30. Mumford and Sons – those amazing gentlemen helped me survive some really tough times. Really tough.
31. The Avett Brothers
32. The Beatles
33. Dave Matthews
34. Counting Crows
35. Katy Perry
36. CAKE
37. Ray LaMontagne
38. The Lumineers
39. Lake Street Dive
40. Sister Hazel
41. Music in general, it calms me, motivates me, sooths me, lulls me to sleep, wakes me up, keeps me company, comforts me in sad times, celebrates with me in good ones.
42. How I Met Your Mother
43. Friends
44. Dawson’s Creek
45. Felicity
46. Sex and the City
47. Love Actually
48. Shag: The Movie
49. The Goonies
50. Willow
51. Grease
52. Labyrinth
53. Almost Famous
54. Die Hard – All of them.
55. and for that matter, Bruce Willis. Thanks for being born!
56. The feeling of sand between my toes.
57. Murrells Inlet, the Point, the memories, the relaxation, the wonder
58. Old friends, new friends, forever friends
59. Life.
60. Flip flops.
61. Ballet flats.
62. Wedges.
63. The smell of fresh cut grass.
64. The smell of fresh laundry.
65. Laughing so hard that it hurts.
66. Cinnamon
67. A good cup of coffee
68. The way a Christmas tree looks when you lie underneath it and look up
69. Scrooge, the Musical
70. The way the sun feels on a warm day when you walk out of an air conditioned building.
71. Air conditioning
72. The smell of snow
73. The silhouette of the Blue Ridge mountains against the skyline on a clear day
74. The Internet
75. Google
76. My iPhone
77. The smell of pumpkin chocolate chip bread baking.
78. Christmas music on the radio in early November…
79. The ability to change the radio station
80. Santa Claus cookies
81. Baby Ruth Bars
82. Strawberry Fluff
83. My life in ornaments on my Christmas tree. It’s a reminder every year as I decorate of how daggon lucky I am
84. Ice cubes
85. Crystal light lemonade
86. The opportunity to have dinner with a good friend to just catch up
87. The color orange
88. The color purple
89. The fact that neither color rhyme with anything; it highlights their uniqueness.
90. Mom’s Chicken-Pot-Pie
91. Clemson: the town, the lessons I learned as a student there, the road my experiences paved for me as an adult and human being
92. The richness of friendship.
93. The value of childhood friends that know who you are at the core
94. The value of choosing friends later in life that know you as you grew up
95. Santa Claus
96. For that matter, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy too.
97. The stress relief I get from painting
98. My ability to see things in an artistic light
99. My ability to see, period.
100. Along with being able to see, my ability to touch, taste, smell, and hear.
101. My love of texture.
102. The most exciting 27 seconds in college football.
103. Pixar animation
104. Skiing
105. Believing in the impossible.
106. My love for cooking.
107. Grocery stores
108. Sloppy Joe Casserole
109. Wednesday Friendsdays
110. Shopping
111. Wine stoppers
112. Friends that you can call any time of day
113. Being able to spend hours on end talking about nothing, laughing about everything, and having the time of your life with people that just “get” you
114. Mastering potato salad.
115. Rosemary
116. The smell of onions and mushrooms cooking on the stove
117. Friendsgiving
118. Occasions to dress up
119. Knowing what real, hard, work means
120. The ability to work hard
121. Wi-Fi
122. Grapefruit
123. Orange juice
124. My craft room
125. A love of painting
126. My Nikon camera – a gift from Drew, Lauren, Mom and Dad
127. Blue jeans
128. Comfy sweaters
129. My ability to recognize value in the little things, cherish every-day moments, and distinguish worth in common regularities of life
130. The Eiffel Tower
131. Clemson Football
132. My collection of Christmas children’s books
133. Lake Days
134. Tailgating days
135. I said lake days, but did I mention lake nights?
136. A good run.
137. Walk-n-talks
138. A good kitchen
139. My sense of humor
140. Interesting trees
141. The inexplicable beauty of leaves changing in the fall
142. The moment you notice that winter has ending and spring is invading the earth
143. Christmas lights lighting up homes in small neighborhoods
144. A place to call home
145. Lilies
146. Daisies
147. Daffodils
148. The smell of mint
149. Faith
150. Hope
151. Love.
152. The hope of real, true, forever love.

Lauren is a Sr. Designer of Product Graphics for an international manufacturing company by day and a creativity crusader, designer, planner extraordinaire, artist and blogger in her “free” time. Follow her and The Olive Shoe on Twitter, Pinterest or Instagram! Please subscribe to receive emails, of course, come back and visit again soon!