Luckiest Girl in the World ...

Ever have one of those days when you feel like you are the luckiest girl/guy in the world? It is a fabulous, marvelous, wonderful high.

I wouldn't have thought that my Monday - complete with a lengthy pile of things listed on my trusty 'To Do' list would be the day. I am leaving for Colorado on Thursday morning and need to have a bunch of things done by Sunday - thus stuff done by Wednesday for me - too much stuff for me.

I was sitting up in my craft room making a quilt square on my embroidery machine ... for no reason whatsoever ... when it hit me - what a wonderful place to spend time, and I spend way to little time in there.

It is my room, and my room alone - not many people get an extra room in their house and I am truly grateful to have it. My room houses in this photo: my embroidery machine, a serger (both huge luxuries since I rarely sew any more), more thread than my little niece thinks any one person ought to have (I didn't tell her about the stash of more in the cupboard), a TV and DVD player to keep me company, some beautiful photography of my fathers, some hand made ceramics I made in junior high, and most every accoutrement for sewing known to man ...

In this photo I have my leather recliner where I can read, crochet or just talk on the phone, my black and white photography reminding me of my home in Norway, some other photos, my crochet supplies, a craft container of Gary's mothers which I was able to bring home from her house after her funeral, a bose speaker for my ipod that I got for my birthday a few years back - it was downstairs until we installed a sound system in the speakers in the wall that has an ipod jack, thus now I have tunes while I sew, crochet, play ...

And hiding behind the door are all my treasures that don't have a home anywhere else (or actually belong there): my doll house from Bergen - complete with copper pots and pans, an entire china set from Germany and a beautiful doll from Sweden. I have some of Gary's mothers dolls - she collected - we split them up after the funeral (isn't that buggy to die for?), some of my white statue collection - containing my favorite - the little girl walking between her mother and father (this means a lot to me - Jessie taking forever to learn how to walk), a pewter candle holder from Norway, my craft books (or some of them!) ...

But the highlight of this room for me is the closet:

It has almost every craft item known to man. I am a craft wanna be so I purchase something, then rarely make what I had purchased the supplies for. Now, that everything is neatly arranged in drawers, I find that I need many of these items for this or that, and can just walk upstairs and get it. My 'I'm such an incredibly lucky girl' thoughts were centered on the fact that I have space in my house for such a room and that it is big enough to house all my craft 'junk'. I've been to multiple houses of true seamstresses - they sew all the time - and they are using their dining room, or busting out of a corner somewhere. It just doesn't seem fair.

I love it in my craft room, but spend so little time there! Truly a mystery, but changing - now that I have non-Jessie days. That I can store all my 'stuff' where I can get to it easily is a luxury- and I know it - and I am grateful.

So, sitting in my beautiful craft room (that smells divine since I store my candles in there), my gratitude about who I am and where I am at in my life started snowballing. I know I am spoiled, have too many material items, buy what ever I want ... but being grateful for what I have hopefully keeps me in check, and I am truly grateful. Some times I don't think about it and it is just the way it is, but today - I felt very grateful - for our home, our cars, our ability to travel, that I have an account labeled 'fun money' with the rule that Gary can't say anything about what I buy with it (that right there is enough to be enormously grateful for - what a nice thing to have!), and so many other things ... I am truly 'materially blessed'.

It is nice to feel lucky, and blessed. I have a wonderful, understanding husband that is not phased that I am batshit crazy (or that I say batshit), I have two beautiful children - Jessie who, although it is hard to let go, has opened up a new world for me - another thing I have been grateful for today - I would not have been able to do a tenth of what I did had Jessie been here. I have a son who's heart is so big I don't know how it fits in his chest. Wonderful family, beautiful home, good friends ... so many things - so lucky.

Liz said something in a comment on my 'Thank You Mom and Dad' post, and have not thought of it the way she was thinking about it: "I sat right behind y'all in church and could not stop staring at your parents and Jessie and Gary and all of their sweet interactions and thinking, man, if those four people being sent here to love Lori aren't proof enough that she is amazing, I don't know what is!" I don't know about the me being 'amazing' part, but yeah - how lucky can a girl get?


So today was a good day - my heart was happy and grateful and so thankful ... just to be me.