Gratitude Journal #9

Apparently, you can train your brain to be happier by keeping a gratitude journal, so I am giving it a go. My goal is post about 100 things I am grateful for over the course of the year. (This should average out to just a little over 2/week.) However, I am going to try and stay away from the standard family/friends/pets. Please know I absolutely am grateful for my family, friends, and pets. I would not have made it through the past couple of year without each of them. But if I am trying to train myself to be happier, then I want to start recognizing the smaller things in life that I am grateful for.

Last week I was sick again. This time with the full on flu – fever, sweats, chills, all of it. It sucked. And, it meant that I did not write a thing. Not a thing. So this is a gratitude journal for last week.

Gratitude Entry #18 – Electric Tea Kettle

I actually went back through my other entries to find out if I had listed this one already, because seriously, I LOVE my electric kettle. Back in 2008, when C and I went to England, most of our hotel rooms did not have clocks, but they all had electric kettles. Here in the States, most hotel rooms have coffee pots, but since neither of us drink coffee, we never cared. However, we do drink tea (and had even brought tea with us). And we fell in love with having an electric kettle. We got home from our vacation and bought ourselves a kettle within the week. It is now one of those appliances that we do not live without. In fact, it is the ONLY small appliance that has a permanent counter-top place in our kitchen. All other small appliances (including the toaster and rice cooker) get put “away” in a cupboard, at least occasionally. For our electric kettle, “away” is the spot on the counter it lives at.
And when I am sick, the electric kettle is even better. Tea, oatmeal, hot water for ramen, etc., it provides in a quick and simple manner. I do not have to remember to turn the burner on or off. I do not have to worry about anything boiling over. And it is quick. I fill the kettle. I flip the switch. I wander off for a few minutes. I come back and there is hot water, for whatever I need it for.
Basically, when I am sick, the electric kettle equals life.

Gratitude Entry #19 – In Home Laundry

Having the washing machine just around the corner, or even down the stairs, is one of those things that we often take for granted. But we should not. I have lived in apartment complexes where there was no in unit laundry. I lived through broken washing machines, where I had to go wash a queen sized comforter at the laundromat. It is no fun. It is a waste of time.
Seriously, at home, you can just throw something in the washing machine and then go do something else. You can come back an hour later, or even three hours later, and move it to the dryer. You can let things sit in the dryer overnight, and they are just there, clean, dry, in your house, until you have time to put them away. Doing a load of laundry (with the exception of putting it away), is a 5 minute task in the middle of whatever else you are doing, instead of an activity where it is all you can do.
And again, when sick, when having the flu, when you wake up and your sheets are soaked because you were sweating all night, when the blanket stinks, and you cannot stand to have your head on that pillowcase one more moment, it can all just go right in the wash. Because seriously, you are going through more than one set of sheets, and the idea of needing to get to the laundromat in order to have something clean is just not one to be lived with.

So basically, last week, while I was sick, I was grateful for the modern conveniences, that made it so much easier to take care of myself.