5 Things I'm Grateful for This Week: Part of the Gratitude Miniseries

The other day I was looking through my iPhone photos and stumbled across a photo from March 8, 2020; it was a photo of me drinking a Bloody Mary on the patio at one of my favorite local restaurants. The photo made me stop, stare, and smile for a minute as I reminisced normalcy, simple pleasures, and life uninterrupted. It’s crazy how fast things change in a month, isn’t it? One month ago, I was enjoying a Sunday brunch date with Alex, celebrating a successful move into our new house. Today, I’m on week four of home quarantine, feeling so uncertain about how much longer all of this will last.

Photo from March 8, 2020: Enjoying a Bloody Mary on the patio at Latitude 35.

Last week I introduced a gratitude miniseries here on my blog to help promote positive thinking and thankfulness amid the madness, chaos, and uncertainty we’re currently facing. Aside from the obvious prevalent uncertainties I’ve been feeling regarding the financial and economic crisis affecting us all in some capacity, I’ve been in a much better headspace since I started reminding myself of all the little things in life to be grateful for today and always.

If I haven’t said it already, let me say it here: I feel so grateful to have a happy, healthy home life. At the same time, I’ve been feeling a lot of sadness lately for other people who don’t have the same happiness and security in their own homes. I’m grateful for stability, but I feel so much sadness for families struggling to pay bills and put food on the table. With so many people out of work filing for unemployment in a now jam-packed system, I can’t help but hope that the economy rebounds quickly and life is restored without too much critical impact. Time will paint the picture we’re all anxious to see, but for now we’re forced to settle, be patient, and weather the storm, though I think it’s safe to assume we’d rather hit fast forward and skip through all the hardships looming in the days ahead.

Continuing forward with my happiness project and gratitude miniseries, here are five things I’m feeling grateful for this week:

Extended quality time with my boys

Spending extra quality time with my boys has been one of the biggest perks of being stuck at home these past few weeks. Though I miss actually going to work in a separate office, it’s been so nice to work from my home office where I’m surrounded by so much unconditional love every minute of every day. It brings a smile to my face when my little visitors come upstairs to say hi to me throughout the workday; one visitor brings me extra coffee, one visitor cuddles up on my lap, and one visitor even brings me his squeaky toys while I’m on conference calls! I’m grateful for these little moments and more, because I know the extended hours at home are only temporary.

Our new breakfast nook and dining set

Our new house has the cutest little breakfast nook off the side of the kitchen that overlooks the whole backyard. Since we gave away our old table when we moved, Alex and I ordered a new rug, table, and chairs and created the perfect cozy spot to drink, dine, and blog (as I’m doing right now!). I can see myself spending lots of hours in the nook moving forward — there is so much natural light that pours into the house, especially in the morning since the back windows face the rising sun.

All things coffee

Last week, I ordered some coffee bags from one of my favorite Wisconsin coffee companies. Door County Coffee & Tea Co. makes so many flavors of black coffee grounds and sells them in convenient single-serve one pot bags, perfect for a coffee lover like myself who loves a variety of coffee, both flavored and unflavored. I ordered flavors like Chocolate Cherry, Blueberry Cobbler, Vanilla Cappuccino, and Cinnamon Hazelnut, along with other plain black flavors as well. I’m feeling grateful to have enough bags to last me the rest of April for sure — and I can’t wait to try the S’mores flavor they sent me as a freebie!

I’m also feeling really excited because my new expresso maker was delivered yesterday and I can’t wait to whip up tasty coffee drinks with it! It’s my first expresso maker, so I’m a newbie with all things expresso, lattes, and cappuccinos — but I’m eager to learn, sip, and share my favorites with you guys. Plus, now that I have an expresso maker, I can make the yummy carajillo drink I blogged about in my Saltillo, Mexico post!

Memories I’ve made so far in life

One thing I’ve always felt really grateful for is that I’ve been lucky enough to see and explore many places in my own state, within the United States, and across the world. The other day, I found a stack of printed photos from last year and it brought me a lot of happiness as I remembered just how much fun 2019 was as a whole. I love keeping printed copies of photos to put in frames, scrapbooks, and photo bins — these are ways to help preserve memories so they don’t disappear on old computers or drives that get lost over the years. I’ll definitely be excited when I can get out and travel again, but I am thankful for the memories I’ve made so far in life, so I’ll hold onto those memories while they’re all I’ve got.

The Internet

Without the Internet, I’d be so lost — and I’m not even ashamed to admit that. Living 1000 miles away from my family, the Internet is a must for keeping in contact with my mom, my dad, my sisters, and other members of my extended family. The Internet also provides access to social media sites like Instagram, a site that has personally helped me connect with lots of other blogger friends over the past few months of my own blogging journey. I feel really, really eternally grateful to have carved out my own little space on the Internet where I can connect with and get to know other people and experience so much kindness, positivity, and motivation at the same time.

While the Internet can be a toxic place from time to time, more often than not, I’ve seen so much good come from it. Because of the Internet, we can work from home in crisis, our kids can go to school and continue their education virtually, and we always have access to information and news at the tips of our fingers for when we desire to know, hear, or experience more. I realize the world turned for many years without the Internet, but I’m so grateful to have it now and always.

What are you grateful for this week? Leave a comment below!

Enjoy!

JB