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GiT Thursday — 08.05.10

Introducing: GiT (Give it Thanks) Thursday: My weekly list of gratitude for the huge & the tiny things that I am thankful for.

SeahorseThe sea. I am convinced that I was a mermaid in my past life. As a toddler, I was thrown into the swimming pool to sink or swim. I swam. People are always amazed to see me swim or tread water for hours on end without exhaustion. The truth is, being in the water feels far more natural to me than being on land. The sea is my sweet surrender. It calls to me when I am away. My favourite thing about summertime is visiting the ocean & spending time near the sea.

Matthew & Bella at Island Beach State Park | July 12, 2010

SeahorseCrystal moon. Denver, Colorado is a treasure trove for finding lovely, little trinkets. Last June, I carried home a crystal moon that now hangs from my rear view mirror. During each morning commute, the crystal catches sunlight & throws prismatic, rainbow beams across my Jeep.

SeahorseTrip planning. Oh, heart. There is nothing I love more than exploring new places. Planning my explorations is often just as fun the actual exploring! I am currently plotting an autumn trip to Paris & it’s making me shudder with excitement. (If you live in or near Paris & want to meet up/give me a tour, do let me know.)

SeahorseBaby Brian. My nephew is the sweetest little boy this side of heaven. No, really, he is. I really must devote a full post to his saccharine sweetness sometime soon so that the rest of the world can swoon with me.

SeahorseSummertime. Northeastern winters are the hardest. Being a Jersey girl born & raised, I’ve seen my fair share of blizzards, ice storms, and “Nor’easters”. Throughout those icy months I dream of sweet summertime, sunshine, humidity, & sexy beads of sweat. It’s August & I know that autumn is just around the corner, but I am taking full advantage of every day of warmth that’s left.

SeahorseMika. Mika is my cat. She has bright, icy blue eyes. She is grey/white with a dark, ringed tail like a raccoon. Mika means “raccoon” in Sioux. She is both the sweetest & the most mischievous little girl that I’ve ever known! She loves me like heck one minute & then raises hell in the next. I wish she would stop bringing me presents—chipmunks, moles, sparrows, blue jays, snakes, and so on—but she is a tremendous little hunting tigress. And I don’t mind her keeping the mice out of the house.

Mika on the Front Porch | Winter 2008

Itty Bits…
I am also thankful for: the gigantic cucumbers & the ridiculously delicious tomatoes from our garden; finding new blogs to fall head over heels in love with; scoring a babysitting job on Saturday night—cash(!); Emma’s 3rd birthday party this weekend; date with my bestie tonight; & plotting/planning/recharging my 2010 goals.

Tell me, loves, what are you thankful for this week?

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  • Carousel — 04.09.10

    Hello Dear Readers & happy Friday! It’s been a bit quiet around here this week because I am preparing for vacation. Yahoo! I leave tomorrow morning and will be returning late next week. You will see a couple of guest posts during that time (if I can properly set that up in WordPress) and a guest post from me will be posted over at a friend’s blog. So keep your eyes open for those things, but my apologies in advance as I will not be replying to comments or emails because…

    I plan to be completely disconnected during my trip. That means no Blackberry, Twitter, Facebook, Web, Foursquare, and so on. I need a break from “virtual reality”, my friends. 😉 In fact, we all do from time to time!

    That said, let’s move on to this week’s Carousel. I’ve got some very sweet goodies to share with you this week.

    ———————–

    Every Friday, I post my favourite links, posts, & resources from around the Web. Expect to learn, grow, & be inspired.

    1. Coming across hurting people: Every now & again, I come across a piece that touches me in a deep, profound way. Usually the piece is not too long, but it is always powerful and tugs at my heart strings in a soft, yet poignant way.

    This blog post is one of those pieces. If you read nothing else from this week’s Carousel, read this.

    2. Eco-Bootcamp: The sustainable, savvy heroines over at Your Daily Thread have kicked off a month long going green boot camp in honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22nd. Their goal is to turn Eco-zeros, to Eco-heroes even if you’ve never recycled before.

    3. Soda: A Sin We Sip Instead of Smoke? and Junk food ‘as addictive as heroin and smoking’: I am extremely passionate about healthy living & lifestyles. My passion has been really intense lately as I become increasingly aware of the disturbing truths about modern “food”.

    I view the recent elimination of sugary beverages (soda) from school systems as a huge triumph. I look forward to the continuation of this important trend. Education and awareness is crucial.

    4. create luck, embrace chance & tune in to your serendipity: What is it about lucky people? Have they all got horseshoes tucked into their backsides? 🙂 Amber doesn’t think so & neither do I.

    5. 7 Sources of Deep Clutter: Some great advice about how to eliminate the “shoulds, have-tos, and people-pleasing” bad habits that are cluttering your life & soul.

    (And as a side note, the Good Life Zen blog is really fantastic. Each post is insightful, inspirational, and well-written.)

    6. Remaining Calm in Stressful Situations: I like this post because it teaches us something that we can all benefit from (remaining calm) but I love it because it reminds us of something even more important — that mental/emotional stress does cause physical illness.

    7. 40 Belief-Shaking Remarks From a Ruthless Nonconformist: Ah, yes! We can always count on Friedrich Nietzsche to obliterate the complacent, feel-good beliefs that we hold about ourselves. This collection of quotes will stir your pot and get your wheels spinning.

    8. The Top 10 Online Habits That Make My Life Simpler: If you’re like me—meaning you spend several hours a day online—then you know that the Web can be the biggest time-vacuum known to man (if you let it). This post lists lots of simple yet effective ways that will help you make the most of your precious time spent online.

    9. Why You Should Be More Decisive: Truth: I am an extremely indecisive woman by nature. Those closest to me will tell you this.

    I have trouble deciding upon the simplest of things—which restaurant to visit, which shirt to wear, which road to take, whether or not to put salt on my food, which movie to watch, and so on. Well, a couple of years ago I found an ingenious method for dealing with this problem: I started flipping a coin! Yes, that’s my secret.

    While the coin-flipping model has worked well for me, I still really enjoyed this post. It teaches us why some people have so much trouble being decisive in today’s world and why it is really important that we become more decisive overall. Perhaps I should stop relying so heavily on the coin and start aiming to be more decisive myself…

    10. How To Fund Your Travels With Creativity: I have several friends who are currently living outside of the United States, seeing the world, gaining incredible life experience, and living the lives of their dreams. If you want to know how 95% of them are doing it, read this post. It will tell you exactly what they’re doing and how you can do it too.

    ———————–

    That’s it for this week. I’ll see you all on the other side.

    In love & light,
    Dena

9 Comments

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  4. I am thankful today for my Mom..healthy and vibrant, wise and pretty, strong and courageous, my best friend –who turned 72 today

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