Grateful.

I try to remember to be consciously grateful every day. It's hard, sometimes, because I tend to be a negative person if I don't watch it.

It's like if you're walking a little, yappy-type dog, and you get complacent because the dog's so tiny and harmless and wee, what could it possibly do? So you're staring at the flowers or the sky, or watching a butterfly flit by, and next thing you know the yappy-type dog is chewing on someone's ankle and you're getting your pants sued off by the walking puppy biscuit because your poodle ruined his favorite argyle socks. Except my negativity is more like a Rottweiler than a poodle. With distemper. And maybe it used to be a fighting dog.

Or, okay, look. This analogy went off the rails. What I'm saying is, my negativity is something I have to keep an eye on. It seems harmless enough most of the time, but it isn't. It snowballs, and it poisons, and it's not something I'm proud of, but there it is.

So I try to be grateful. I try to really look at the things and be thankful and absorb them. So. Five things I'm grateful for today:

1. Coming home after a long day to my boys dancing in the living room to Peter Griffin from Family Guy's rendition of The Bird Is The Word.

2. Having an enormous selection of fresh veggies from our CSA share to make dinner with.

3. Shitty reality TV. Jersey Shore, season 2, you're KILLING MY BRAIN. But I just can't quit you.

4. My sweet, wonderful, amazing boyfriend, and his willingness to help with dinner and everything else.

5. Our son's big, open-mouth baby kisses.