Adventures in Gratitude: Turkey-Lent II

Last year I blogged about what I like to call Turkey-Lent. Much how Christians show penance before Easter through Lent, I have decided to show my own penance of gratitude for all of the wonderful things that have surrounded me. Each November, I show my appreciation for all of the things I have by giving up (or greatly reduced my use and/or consumption of) something I love. I believe in gratitude. I believe that we, as both individuals and as a society, should be thankful for all of the wonderful bounty that surrounds us. Food to nourish us. Shelter to protect us. Friends and family to care for us. Because of this, I always appreciate Thanksgiving. But I don't think it is enough. I don't think there should only be one day a year when we decide it is okay to tell everyone what we are thankful for. We should be doing it every day, as often as we can.

Unable to think of anything to give-up that I hadn't already tried (or not concentrating that hard!) last year I decided to show my gratitude through random acts of appreciation. I used Facebook and twitter to show the world what I was thankful for, in hopes that other people will be inspired to share their own gratefulness. My goal was to use my status update and/or twitter update to share at least one thing I was thankful for. My goal was to do it once a day, from November 1 - Thanksgiving.

This year I have decided to continue with my goal of public displays of appreciation, nay make it a tradition!

I would like to go one step further and continually update this blog with each day's appreciation.

But doing the same thing I did last year just doesn't seem like enough. Therefore I will also add personal notes of appreciation -- a minimum of one per week. I hope to do this through written communication (old school snail-mail letters rock, but email will suffice in a pinch!) because I always like going back to read things where people wrote me a little note of appreciation. Also, in an effort to go above and beyond, I hope to perform one act of random kindness to a stranger, per week.

Random Thoughts of Appreciation 2011

1. Today I am thankful for the smell of freshly baked cookies. Having a loving husband to help me to bake them makes them smell that much better. ♥ 
2. Today I am thankful for kitties. Purring, loving, hissing, kitties. ♥ 
3. Today I am thankful for my husband. Happy Two Month-a-Versary, Aaron Plattner. ♥ 
4. Today I am thankful for my bestest friends with whom I love to share laughter and good times. ♥ 
5. Today I am thankful for Saturdays. ♥ 
6. Today I am thankful for getting to "fall back" to an extra hour of sleep AND for Sunday afternoon naps. ♥ 
7. Today I am thankful for NOT sneezing or having a headache. ♥ 
8. Today I am thankful for everything and nothing all at once. ♥
9. Today I am thankful for anticipation. I am so lucky to have many wonderful things to look forward to. (And yes, I am including the pending three day weekend!) ♥ 
10. Today I am thankful for my best girlfriends and our girl trips to TAHOE! ♥
11. Today I am thankful for everyone who has served our country. ♥
12. Today I am thankful to be surrounded by beauty. ♥ 
13. Today I am thankful for a quiet night at home with my hubby (before the storm that is Parent/Teacher Conferences!) ♥
14.  Today I am thankful people who listen, or read, to my little rants and raves -- Such as with my blog --today I have had 2,000 blog page views.  :) Love the fact that 20% of those views are from outside of the United States. ♥
15.  Today I am thankful for days that I come home from work feeling both happy and appreciated. Happy -- that I have positively affected the lives of children. Appreciated -- by the children and their parents. Finished 11 of 30 conferences today, and it was one of the happiest, most successful days of the school year! ♥
16.  Today I am thankful for making students cry. Today one of my parents cried in happiness... of course that made me cry, and then it made my student cry... but they were tears of happiness, so it was all good.  ♥
17.  Today I am thankful for the internet. And for Peet's coffee at Raley's. And for Round Table Pizza's Wombo Combo. And, of course, Diet Pepsi! ♥ 
18.  
19.  
20.  
21.  
22.  
23.  
24.