10 Things I Have to Be Thankful For

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Happy Tuesday lovelies! With everything going on lately, I feel like it’s been easy to get down in the dumps. I’ve honestly been getting a little down myself lately, especially since the shelter-in-place was announced yesterday for Travis County. Austin, a city once filled with fun and music and love, seems desolate now as businesses close their doors and turn off their seemingly ever-illuminated open signs.

As I freely drove down the road for the last time for a while, I found myself feeling a little down. So I did the one thing I thought might be able to help. I started thinking of all the things I had to be happy about, all the things I had to feel thankful for. I even started saying them out loud to myself and after a few minutes… I felt better. I started to feel grateful instead of sad, hopeful instead of scared, and I immediately new I wanted to share this feeling with all of you.

So here’s a different kind of post on here today to get you thinking of the good we all have in our lives right now. Here are 10 things I have in my life right now that I am so very, extremely thankful for.

 

 

1. I have Jordan.

First and foremost, I am most thankful that I have Jordan in my life, especially at a time like this. My heart goes out to all the people out there who are facing this thing alone and who are having to self-isolate at their homes by themselves. Today, a shelter-in-place was announced for Travis County, where we are located. We were really already self-isolating and staying in the house to begin with, but I know so many people who live alone were still trying to soak up the last bit of family time they could before having to stay in place by themselves. I am thankful everyday for Jordan, that he is in my life and that I’m in his, but I’m especially thankful for him at this time because he is an example of strength and bravery. I’m great with being prepared and making sure we are prepared for whatever comes next with this, but he is really the one who keeps my mind from going crazy during everything that’s going on. He is someone who is always able to keep calm in times of panic or high-anxiety, (I am the high anxiety in times of panic lol) so having him around to keep me grounded (and stop me from digging too much into the news haha!) has been so helpful during all of this and I couldn’t be more thankful for him.

2. I have a job.

My heart goes out to the people right now who are being laid-off due to what’s happening. This time is so stressful for everyone, but I can’t imagine what it’s like for the people who have to go home from work, knowing they won’t be able to come back the next day. I can’t imagine my paycheck coming in and knowing it will be my last for an indefinite time, due to the fact that so many places aren’t hiring right now. My work is deemed an “essential business” so I will continue going to work and helping out my company anyway I can; however, thankfully we do have measures that have recently been implemented to help limit the amount of people who are in the office at once to help slow the spread. Still, I wished at first we were a company that would be able to fully work from home during this scary and uncertain time. I wanted to be able to be at home, tucked away safe and sound from everything that was going on in our community, our country, our world. However, as I step back and take a look around, I realize how truly lucky I am to have a job where I am promised tomorrow. I’m thankful and I am blessed to be promised another day at work. At least I have the security to know I’ll be able to go to work tomorrow and at least I can count on a paycheck to come in so that I can take care of myself and the ones I care about. Not everyone is given that promise right now and to them, my heart truly goes. I’m keeping each and every person in my prayers who is in a position of uncertainty right now and want you to know that you have someone thinking of you.

3. My grandparents are together and safe.

For those who know me, they know my grandparents are my world. I love them so so much and can’t even bear the thought of something happening to them. I’m so thankful that they are both safe and that they are together. They are extremely social people (seriously, I don’t know a single person in my hometown that doesn’t know them) and are out and about in the town every single day, so the fact that they are having to stay inside right now and not go walking with their friends, not have their friends over for coffee, not go to the mall to shop and poke around is really so sad. I know they love going out and interacting with people, but they also know that they are extremely susceptible to the virus and need to stay inside. I am so very thankful that they are at least able to both be there together and that they are safe and have all that they need. I can’t even honestly explain how thankful I am for this!!

4. We have food and supplies.

My aunt is someone who is ALWAYS prepared for every situation. She actually sent a text to our family group chat weeks before everything even started to get crazy here and gave us a list of things we possibly might want to stock up on so we would have enough to last a 2-week quarantine period, if needed. Jordan and I went ahead and bought all of our stuff when everything still seemed fine here and when stores weren’t crowded or crazy at all. We put it all together in a bag and labeled it as our Emergency Supplies so we wouldn’t be tempted to tap into it before. Then we just kept living normally and purchasing groceries for the week as we normally do. When everything started to get crazy with the stores, we were lucky enough to already have all that we would need so we didn’t have to worry about anything. Now, let me just say, we definitely don’t have enough toilet paper to last 3 months or 150 lbs of dried beans and pasta lying around or stacked up on 30 cases of water… But I am thankful that we have enough supplies for both of us so that we are covered in case we have to be quarantined for a couple weeks and aren’t able to get groceries.

5. Our patio plants are growing.

Okay if you saw my Instagram stories a few weeks ago, you’ll know that I set out on a mission to grow plants and start a little garden on our patio. I love plants and it makes me happy to see things growing, however… I do not have the best track record with growing plants. Up until last year, the only plant I was ever able to grow was a cactus (whom I named Richard) and even he ended up dying in the end. BUT I was given hope when last year, one of my coworkers at my old job in Houston gave me a small stem off a plant that she had. I tried REALLY HARD and made sure I paid attention to it and did everything I could think of to make it live… and IT DID. Not only did the stem she gave me grow, but it even sprouted a little baby beside it in the pot that began to grow and flourish as well! I was so freaking happy, I decided I wanted to try to plant more things and give it a go with different kinds of plants. Fast forward a few weeks to now and they are doing SO WELL!! It’s so refreshing to look at something and know that you grew that and helped give it life. After this is all over, we are planning to go back to the store to get more planters and seeds to plant!

6. I can exercise at home.

I have never been someone who is exactly crazy about working out. I always feel really productive and proud of myself when I do workout, but I definitely wouldn’t say I’m a “gym rat” or anything even remotely close. I’m more of a “try to get 3-4 workouts done each week and out of those, I actually normally get about 2-3 done. But now that we’re not able to go to the gym and we don’t have a home gym or anything like that, I have become more and more thankful for things like the Sweat App and all of the workouts I have saved to my Exercise Pinterest board. This has truly been a saving grace and helps me to destress and feel like I’ve been at least a little active on the days where I just want to sit on the couch and eat mug cakes all day. Here are links to the workout equipment I DO have and use at home for workouts. Exercise Bands \\ Mini Stair Stepper \\ 15 lb Dumbell \\ Jumprope \\ Ab Mat In addition, I also have a few home workouts that I do typed out and saved on my Insta Highlight: Home Workout! I’m planning to do an actual video soon, so stay tuned!

7. I have a creative outlet.

I am so so thankful for my blog all the time, but I am especially thankful now that I have a creative outlet and a place where I can write and express myself. I love talking about things I love, be it fashion or recipes or home decor. I love having a place where I can share things with people who care about them and I love that I’m still able to do this from the comfort of my home. It helps me get my mind off things and helps me look forward to times ahead after all this is over and things go back to normal. Even as I sit here and write, I had started working on another post before I began this one and my mind just began to wander and I began to worry. So I stopped typing and starting trying to look at things from a more positive perspective; instead of thinking about all the negative that was happening, I thought about the positive and began to name off things I was thankful for. And then I decided to share them with you guys. Because it is SO easy to sit down and let the bad things flood your mind.

8. We have chocolate in the house.

Appreciate the little things friends. Confession: I eat chocolate literally every single night of my life. I have a slight addiction to chocolate lava cake and after a day of eating healthy and making sure I exercise, I look forward to coming home, settling in and having a little chocolate mug cake each night with a scoop of Bluebell Homemade Vanilla ice cream. I had to search online at 3 different stores before I found them in-stock and was able to have them delivered. But I HAVE THEM NOW. And for that, I am thankful.

9. The cats are enjoying the extra company.

Okay to be honest, I’m not totally and completely sure this one is true hahaha… I think Raven is definitely happy that we’ve both been home more. However I feel it’s safe to say that Marilyn on the other hand, is quickly growing annoyed with us! What can I say, I can’t go by and not pet her or pick her up and cradle her like the precious angel baby she is. I JUST CAN’T. But with us being home more, also comes extra treat times (I love to give them a few little treats a couple times throughout the day. They’re so cute with their little crunches!) and I KNOW they are loving the extra treats. So I think I can say they are happier we’re home more.

10. We’re able to stay connected with our friends and family.

All I can say is thank GOODNESS for FaceTime. When J and I were doing long-distance when he was in Beaumont and I was in Houston, we would switch off weekends with who drove to see who. So every other weekend, I was in Beaumont visiting him, which meant that I also saw my family every other weekend since they were also there. I got my job in Austin and we moved up so fast that we didn’t get to have another weekend in Beaumont before I started working here. Since it’s a bit of a longer drive and trip to make in a weekend, we had been planning to make a trip down to see everyone mid-March… Right as the virus really hit here and started affecting SETX. The weekend we were supposed to go down, we ended up deciding that same day we were planning to leave that we felt like we should stay put since the CDC was advising people not to travel at all. Plus I have 80+ year-old grandparents we were going to be visiting and with everything hitting the way it was, I just didn’t feel comfortable with even the possibility of exposing them, even though the risk was little to none with us.

So we haven’t been home to see our family since really the 2nd to last weekend in January. Going from seeing your family every other week to going 2 months without seeing them is HARD. But it’s 100% necessary right now and J and I both believe in doing our parts to keep both ourselves and those around us safe. That is why FaceTime, calling, texting, etc has been SUCH a blessing lately. I call my Mawmaw every single day on my way home from work and talk to her. I have a weekly call set up with my best friend to ensure I at least get to talk to her once each week. I FaceTime my momma every few days so I get to see her and text my daddy daily so I can keep up with him. It sucks not being able to see them right now, but I am SO stinking thankful that we have the technology and resources available to us that we do so that I’m able to still have contact with them.

 

So with that, I want to challenge all of YOU. Comment below with 3 things you feel thankful for right now. Think of them, write them down, say them out loud, and most of all, don’t lose sight of them. Having things to be thankful for at a time like this is so truly important and I couldn’t be more grateful to be able to share them here with all of you.

THANK YOU FRIENDS.

Until next post, Xx.

 

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