A Thankful Wet, Grey Saturday

Very early this morning when Emrys' alarm went off I wasn't motivated to do much more than peek out the sky-light in our bedroom, pull a pillow over my head and wander back to the Land of Nod.    The mostly-grey sky with a pink hue that filtered through the window sent my mind directly to the saying I'd heard as a child - "Red sky in morning, sailors take warning..." - that usually was foreboding of a poor day of weather.  Today was no exception.  Later when my body emerged from Nod, it was steely grey and raining.  

Days like this bring little motivation to get things done but my list of projects not finished this week nags at me that I need to get to work.  The fact that Emrys is working all day and that I

 know I could be done with the list in 3 hours tops if ambition came to visit, provides little urgency to actually get started on the list.

Urgency was provided by a little hunger pang in my tummy.  I switched screens on my computer from the to-do list to the recipes web searches.  I had planned on making a batch of cranberry-orange chex mix today, (hey, it's on the to-do list, and if the recipe interests you, e-mail me for modifications).  I started to get up and the hunger pang hit again - or maybe it was The Kid - either way, I knew I needed to think about breakfast.  My breakfast-of-the-week of eggs and toast just didn't fit with the drab day and cranberry-orange in any form sounded good.  So I decided to make muffins.  I found this recipe .  

As I mixed up the muffins I reminisced of days in Pasadena.  On the occasional Friday to celebrate the end of the work week, and more often as our time in Pasadena came to an end, I would stop at Il Fornaio for one of their cranberry-orange muffins and a mocha latte. Both were wonderful

 and would send me into my day with a little encouragement that I was less than 9 hours from a weekend.  

Now my life looks very different than it did during that time in Pasadena.  Then my Friday projects to finish usually included rent-increase letters, collection calls, filing and phone calls. Now my week end projects to finish are cleaning, labeling a small batch of candles poured earlier this week, making snacks for the coming week, some household accounting, skimming the fridge for leftovers to see what will become dinner tonight and maybe some TV and knitting when the "chores" are done.  I am so thankful for the change of tasks, the change in lifestyle and the more relaxed person that I've become.  

I'm thankful that in January I can bring a child home to a home where I will live and work and

 not have to think about juggling a job and mom-hood.  I'm thankful that my mom taught me  budgeting, meal-planning and home-economics skills that have helped to make this possible.  I'm thankful that we have the space to have had a fruitful garden that has filled our chest freezer for winter.  I'm thankful that my husband has a job that he enjoys (mostly).  I'm thankful.  Right

 now I'm especially thankful that the timer is going off for the muffins :D.  

What are you thankful for today?   

~sjt