Attitude of Gratitude - the cold weather edition

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We are in lock-down right now. The high temps today are in the teens. Suddenly it is winter. Yet this weekend the temps will go into the 30s and possibly, 40s. All that warmth will melt the snow and more importantly, rid the roads of ice. But we will be on our way to Utah so we'll miss the mini warm-up. We will miss the warmest week of the month. I do hope it's warm and sunny in Moab to make up for missing all this.

And so, right now, it is the busy week of getting all work work done in order to get on the road. It's also about getting all the packing done for our trip. I really would like to minimize the amount of gear we take along. Reading this [Choosing Better Work over More Tools] helped me get into the right frame of mind.

Add into this crazy mix the need to get our 2014 photo album done (Xmas presents for the grandparents). I have an enormous amount of photos this year. Every year I think I will do this on a monthly basis yet every November I find myself scrambling to get it done and meet the coupon deadline and at the last minute, pull in all the cell phone photos that Dave took. Anyway, Snapfish has a great deal right now - 60% off photo books. [I wish I got some kick-back from linking but I don't!]

We always take our holiday photo in Moab. It is hard to think of something that would top the awesome photos from the last few years. I turned to the internet last night and found this: 6 Fun Poses for the Holiday Photos. The only one really appealing to me is the family holding a banner. But that would mean I have to put "making a banner" into this week's to-do list. I always think that sending of New Year's cards instead of Christmas cards will buy me more time but that extra relaxed time never materializes.

Let's see. What else? Oh, road trip! I've seen a lot of rest stops because of all of our roadtrips. Here is a beautiful collection of rest area photos.

A cute little joke about Minnesota via pinterest.

8 ways a simple notebook can change your life. I try to journal on a nightly basis but when I get busy I let this habit go, then I get depressed because all those thoughts are jumping around my head creating monkey-havoc. So then I remember that I need to journal and magically everything seems bearable again. Why do I always forget about this mental salve?

OK, so now that mercury has gone direct, as predicted I am back on the path that I have chosen. I will remain in my role on the co-op's board but I'm feeling more confident and finding ways to compartmentalize the energy I put towards this work. That has freed up time to think of my more creative projects. So I've been musing on the creative process. I love that the internet connects me with people all over the world but funny enough, it also connects me to people who live within 10 miles of my home. If you haven't seen the STILL blog, I suggest you get to that asap.

This bedtime calculator has helped me a lot! Now I just have to convince Dave to set his alarm clock differently so that we are not listing to that snooze alarm going off for an hour.

And finally, I can't stop without my usual Frozen link. This one is Idina Menzel, Jimmy Fallon and the Roots doing the song with classroom instruments. And I love it! There was one morning where I played it constantly and then later that day, I pouted when my daughter didn't love it as much as I did. But she likes it now! And I think she's getting a better understanding of how musicians/actors/singers do the voices behind animated movies.

Why is that when I am crazy busy I always make time to do a long post? Because I want to and I enjoy it and I hope you do too!