March 18

I'm grateful for lazy Saturday afternoons spent drinking tea and baking molasses cookies.

March 17

Lilu might not share my gratitude, but today I'm grateful for her vet doctor.

Over the last few weeks, she developed several odd hairless circular patches on her skin so I took her in to be checked. After doing a scraping on the patches, the vet determined she had demodetic mange. This isn't a good diagnosis in adult dogs, as the mite's appearance is usually related to a lowered immune system. I am intensely relieved and thankful that Lilu's blood tests came back negative for all of the bad stuff, but I'm sure not looking forward to force-feeding her bitter medicine daily for at least the next eight weeks.

March 16

When they roll this beautiful machine over to where I am nervously waiting, it sounds like a dairy cow with a bell around her neck is crossing the hallway. I have come to love that sound.

Today I'm grateful for laughing gas. It makes my required quarterly dental visits so much easier to handle. I'm also grateful for Tess, for her extremely gentle touch as she's working incredibly sharp instruments over my poor teeth, and for Dr. Hinkson, for making my mouth well again.

March 15

I'm grateful for the support of my family and friends and my determination (some might call it bullheadedness) in my quest to become more healthy. And you don't know how tickled I am to be collecting these cute little five-pound star stickers again.

March 14

First off, I am NOT grateful for whoever it was that pushed in the locking mechanism on my four drawer filing cabinet (for which I have no matching key because we bought it used) and did not immediately fess up to their transgression.

But I am grateful that my coworker Justin decided to take the project on and came into my office packing a mega-tool set and shop-vac. He fought with that lock (who knew that it was easier to get into a car then into a filing cabinet?) until a spring finally came flying out and the bar holding the drawers in place was released. And yet, that's not all! He then took the shop-vac and vacuumed up all of the little metal shavings on my carpet AND inside the folders that were in the filing cabinet. Justin, you're the best!

March 13

It takes a special kind of person, a patient kind of person, to work with children's choirs. And then to have that person not only work with kids singing, but kids dancing, well, that kind of person is rare indeed. Add to that the responsibility for making sure the adults sing and dance correctly, well, you can see where I'm going. There are not many people who would slip comfortably into that multi-faceted role.

But Emily can, and I'm grateful today for her. Her talents are many and her enthusiasm is contagious. We are lucky to have her among us.

March 12

I'm grateful for my garden's first bloom of the season and that my energizer-bunny dog didn't stomp on it! Yippee!