Last week just as I was leaving my last work meeting and embarking on my long holiday weekend, a song came on Sirius’ 90’s on 9 station that I hadn’t heard…well…since the 90’s: Alanis Morissette’s “Thank U,” a song about gratitude.

Listening to the lyrics, I remembered a friend of mine’s daily practice of stating a gratitude–one simple thing she was thankful for. Every day. If she was having a particularly bad day or hard time, she might have just stated she was thankful for running water or electricity. For years I thought this daily gratitude business was, well…corny. I didn’t quite get it, and I realize now how silly I was, and how there have been instances where I could have given myself a lift had I just remembered to be thankful for something big or very little, or remembering that out of every negative or seemingly despairing situation, existed a small seed of positivity that just needed to be discovered and nourished.

I was very grateful for a long weekend, a weekend where I engaged in a few social events, but was peppered with stretches of welcomed solitude.

It got off to a very patriotic start:

Flags flying high in La Grange, TX.

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I set up my machine in my backyard and I “bikini quilted” (my tongue-in-cheek term for quilting outside).

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I was invited to a 4th of July BBQ and I did something I rarely ever do: I ate meat (…but just a little).

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And I didn’t go to the BBQ without bringing a red-white-and-blue dessert:

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And after eating, I raced to catch some fireworks (which for the most part I caught by my dashboard light…’cuz I got lost):

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And when home that night, I realized how thankful I am for these two little ones.

I hope you all had a nice 4th,