Sleeplessness...

often leads to restlessness. Normally when I'm restless I make lists... lists of things I need to do for the wedding, lists of people to call or email, lists of groceries I need to get... tonight, however, I feel like making a different kind of list. A list I should make more often, I suppose. Tonight I feel moved to count my blessings, to list the things on my mind that have made me smile, even if just for a moment. Tonight I am thankful for...

1. the avocado sandwich at Mellow Mushroom... the perfect *almost* midnight snack.

2. my fiance, who continues to be my best pal, who understands that the season premiere of Top Chef is more important (to me) than the World Cup will ever be, that running out of coffee is in fact an emergency, and who, day after day, reminds me in thousands of small ways why I am marrying him.

3. people who shush their own chatty friends in movie theaters, so the rest of us don't have to miss the dialogue in a movie we paid $9 to see, but also don't have to turn around and shush them ourselves and feel like crotchety old geezers.

4. my wonderful friends, who are travelling to the great white North for my wedding, with no complaints or hesitation, the utmost enthusiasm, and who have questioned only whether or not they need mittens and gloves.

5. my adorable little brother, who says the funniest things, who keeps me young, who asks me what the world was like before the internet, and who has the cutest freckles across his nose in the summer.

Learning Lessons in Thankfulness...

As often happens when my plans are foiled, my hair is frizzy, I forget to make time to eat breakfast (and lunch), I was in a fairly surly mood one day this past week. Not much was going my way and I was feeling particularly sorry for myself...and then, a song got into my head. and I couldn't get it out. It turned my mood around, made me smile, and helped me stop and count my blessings... and it is sung by a delightful little Asparagus. That's right, Asparagus.

In one of the countless Veggie Tales videos I have seen in my lifetime, there is a song that Junior Asparagus sings about thankfulness, and the verse I always get stuck in my head is as follows:

"I thank God for this day, for the sun in the sky, for my mom and my dad, and my piece of apple pie...for our home on the ground, for His love that's all around, that's why I saw thanks everyday."

Yep. That's right. Right in the middle of my pity-party I was so enthusiastically throwing for myself, I was put in my place. By a fictional singing asparagus.

So now, whenever I'm starting to feel whiney, I just think to myself, "I thank God for this day, for the sun in the sky..."