The Monday Five on Tuesday

Happy One-Eleven-Eleven! (1/11/11)

I've been remiss regarding my Monday Five Countdown; I haven't done one in a month.  Oops.  And yesterday was Nate's eight month birthday, so that took priority, naturally. 

So today?  Today is Monday, err, for countdown purposes.

Five Things I'm Grateful For

1. The winter weather - I love seeing snow outside.  Sure, it's a bit much to take on those super windy bitter cold days when I have to walk Buster at 7am, but I'll take that over summer heat any day.  I think winter is so beautiful and inspiring.

2. The Barnes and Noble gift cards I got for Christmas from work.  These days, I literally do not have the money to buy myself a single book and if I got a Target gift card, I know I would have used it sensibly, buying formula or groceries.  The B&N gift cards let me get a few things for myself.

3. Our home.  I can't imagine how I would feel these days if we were still in our old, cramped apartment with Nate the Explorer and the two dogs.  I would quite possibly be losing my mind (or would have lost it by now and would be completely fried).  I really like our new place.  It isn't perfect, but it's good and it gives Nate a safe, open place to grow and move.

4. The hubby.  Things aren't easy right now.  We both have work schedules that change weekly and jobs that are stressing us out and making us tired.  Then whoever's home takes care of Nate, so neither one of us has very much down time, if any at all.  It's hard not to be snippy and annoyed often and sometimes I fail at forcing myself to be cheery for his sake so I'm grateful that he has much, much more patience than I do. 

5. Cheese.  I'm grateful that cheese exists and can be eaten in so many ways.  Hallelujah.

Four Things I Can't Stop Thinking About

1. Cooking.  I have a new cookbook and another new one on the way and I can't wait to make some things from there.

2. The life list I want to write.  As I think of things I want on there, I jot them down in my journal.  I won't be posting the list until the fall, after I conclude my 101 in 1001, so I'm taking my time coming up with ideas.

3. A project I want to do that I don't really want to talk about because I'm that excited about it, if that makes any sense what-so-ever.  But every day I get at least one idea for this project and, yup, jot it down in my journal.

4. Cleaning.  There are things at home I need to move to my parents' house and then our bedroom needs a major attacking.  I hate waking up to mess.

Three Things I Want To Accomplish This Week

1. Move those aforementioned things to my parents' house (things include a big box of mementos and a couple of boxes of Christmas decorations).

2. Write something in my journal that isn't a part of any projects I'm working on.

3. Blog about recent cooking adventures.  I have a few recipes to catch up on!

Two Things I Am Working To Be Positive About

1. Money.  Friggin, fraggin, freakin money.  We are barely able to buy groceries right now, that's how tight things are.  And did I mention that our dryer died and we have to replace it?  But there is a light at the end of this tunnel - things WILL pick up; it's just not going to be for a few weeks so until then we just have to hang tight.

2. My job.  It's gotten quite stressful, for reasons I do not want to go into online.  But I used to be able to count on my job as a minimally stressing part of my life and now I can't say that anymore.  But it's a job and I do still like my job, which makes me feel lucky.

One Random Thing

1. I just knew that not long after I got a new phone, the iPhone would come to Verizon.  Gah.  So now I have 16 months until I'm eligible for an upgrade.  I guess that will give VZ time to work out the bugs, though.  Maybe next year I'll get an iPhone.  I'm eligible for my upgrade in May of 2012, which is when I should finish my current Ed.M. program (before moving on to the EdD or PhD program) so maybe it'll make a nice "second master's degree completed" gift to myself.  Or I'm just daydreaming.  But the iPhone is a fun thing to dream about.

So, what's going on with your five this week?  Please share - I really love to see other people's lists!