thanksgiving by the numbers

$8.10………….was the cost of my self-serving frozen yogurt

$4.50……………was the cost of the rest of my family’s self-serving frozen yogurt

 18…………..hours of riding in the car between Wednesday and Friday

11……………pancakes I ate within those 2 days

2,309………..times I looked down at my thighs and thought to myself, “there is no way those are yours.”

0…………..times that stopped me from eating pancakes and/or anything else in my sight

173………..times I chased my nephew down the hall of our hotel.

0………….naps he took while on our trip

89………..times my parents stopped at rest stations between Meridian and Memphis

20………….hours of studying anatomy despite being on “vacation”.

26………..times I said out loud how thankful I am that I don’t have children

8,4670………kisses I gave to my nephew

0………..hours of exercise attempted or accomplished

3……..hours I studied the paleo diet while riding in the car all whilst eating

copious amounts of candy

5……..times I was told how good the extra curves look on me

25…….times I was told that I “glowed”….and that I was more peaceful and content than people had seen me in years

36…….times I laughed while hanging out with Josh, Theresa and the kiddos

78……..times I laughed while hanging out with Patrick and Eric

89…….times I laughed hanging out with Krilecia, Lee, and Stacey.

3792 …….times I thought about how awesome and hilarious my friends are.

2738……….times I laughed while re-calling adventures of the past

6……….hours of visiting with my 89 year old grandmother

10,0000………times I thought to myself how lucky I am and how grateful I am for this wild and precious life.

This has been the longest I’ve been gone from my little home and routine since our week long break in August. I enjoyed every minute of it but I must say that it feels so good to be home. I missed my little apartment.

Not having to work Black Friday feels amazing. I am so glad I picked a career that will not require that I  work Black Fridays.

In exactly two weeks from today I will be finished with this long-stressful semester of school. However, that means, within the next 14 days…the amount of studying that needs will be done is going to be insane. Please remember my classmates and me as we prep for our upcoming comprehensive finals.

I must get off the pancake-diet and onto the paleo- diet before I bust out of my “fat” jeans. Oh how much fun aging is. My poor little metabolism is shot to hell. Time to jump start and get a move on it. My 30^th birthday is approaching rather quickly!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are fully embracing the Christmas season that is officially upon us!

I hope everyone will Shop Local and Shop Small this holiday season.

Blessings to you and yours,

Jen

 (and although i'm slacking in the pic department these days, here are a few of our "community baby")

BE GRATEFUL TO EVERYONE

Without others, we would have no chance at all to develop beyond ego. So the idea here is to feel grateful that others are presenting us with tremendous obstacles -- even threats or challenges. The point is to appreciate that. Without them, we could not follow the path at all. Walking on the path of the dharma is connected with dealing with our neurosis. But if there were no neuros-ees, we couldn't develop any neuros-is. Therefore, we should feel very grateful to such persons. They are actually the ones who are pushing us onto the path of dharma.

~ Chogyam Trungpa, from "Transformation of Bad Circumstances," in Training the Mind and Cultivating Loving Kindness, page 92.

This is a basic tenet of psychological growth -- that we can only make so much progress on our own, then we need to be in relationship with others to see our shadow stuff reflected in our relationships.


This is something I have been thinking about a lot lately--friendship and relationships. I'm working on a post dedicated to just the term Friendship and what it means to me.


But I found this tonight while researching and thought it was too good to not pass along. 


I have not been grateful to everyone in my life lately. and the above paragraph reminded me why I should to so. 


Always room for improvement in this girl's life;) 


Thank goodness Monday is almost over!