Three Good Things

Three Good Things for the day:

1. Sammy and I made an impromptu stop at the playground when I spotted a huge mountain of mulch right there in the middle of it.  It was about 7 feet high and maybe 10 by 15 feet at the base.  I suppose somebody was going to spread it out eventually and I didn’t want to miss our chance to play in it.  It was the perfect mountain for a pre-schooler to climb and slide down (and not too bad for an adult either).  Sammy went out of her mind with excitement and I’ve never seen her so physically adventurous.  Another parent wondered aloud why the kids were playing on the mulch when there were slides and climbing equipment all around them.  I guess she’s forgotten her youth.  I’m glad that I haven’t.
2. I did some very good thinking on my walk with Toby this morning. 
3. I took my cat to the vet for his annual check up and he is healthy.

The one bad thing that has happened to me lately came at an opportune time.  This is a time when a lot of really great things are happening for me and my family.  It’s easier to cope with a loss when you have all sorts of good things going on.  I’ll write more about some of the specific things as time goes on.  There are a couple of whoppers!

Before the miscarriage, I had been thinking a lot about how lucky I am.  Well, I shouldn’t say “lucky,” but that is part of it.  I suppose I was reflecting on how well things are going for me.  I have a great marriage, a wonderful daughter whom I get to care for full time, we’re all healthy, we don’t have a house on the market, and there are many great things to look forward to in our future.  Sadly, the reason I was thinking along these lines is that a lot of my friends are going through very difficult times right now: divorce, cancer, you name it.  Before the miscarriage, I actually thought to myself that I’d be really lucky if nothing went wrong with the pregnancy.  (For anyone who thinks there is something mystical about my insight, I have news for you: this is called coincidence.)

The miscarriage has just reinforced this awareness of the good things that surround me.  I simply can’t feel sorry for myself.  Above and beyond the values that I have earned for myself, I’ve also just led a fairly lucky life.  I’ve had a bit more of the bad luck lately, with the two lost pregnancies, but besides that and the divorce from my first husband (I’ll have to write about that some day), I haven’t really had many “trials” in my life.  I have friends who were abused as children, or their parents divorced, or there was a lot of death surrounding them.  In contrast, I feel like I’ve almost lived a sheltered life.

But in order to focus on the good, and not just the lack of bad, I’m going to reinstate my Three Good Things series here on the blog.  It feels like the right time.  To kick it off, here are Three Good Things for the day:

1. Today is just about the most beautiful fall day imaginable, with bright sunshine, a cool breeze, and colors galore.
2. I’m going to a wedding this weekend and I found a suitable dress in my closet–and it fits!
3. Sammy is now old enough that I can hand her the phone while driving, she can have a brief conversation with her dad, and then hand the phone back to me.  I marvel at Little Accomplishments like that.

Three Good Things for the day:

1. Samantha and I had a nice playdate with our neighbors. 
2. I had a very relaxing day.  Besides the playdate, I had an hour-long nap and spent quite a bit of time reading while Sam played at something-or-other.
3. Change is a good thing.  The Three Good Things exercise is growing a bit stale, both for me and the blog, so I’ll end it now before it becomes a chore.   I benefited from writing out the good things, especially on bad days, and I do think that I’ve built up quite a good habit of looking for these things and thinking about them objectively.  I don’t think I would have had the dedication to stick with it off-blog so who knows – I might end up doing more introspection exercises in public.  I was also tickled to see that I sparked a little trend on the blogosphere and I really appreciate all the nice comments I got about the thread.  Thanks for listening!

Three Good Things for the day:

1. The library.
2. Walking my dog.
3. Family dinner.

Three Good Things for the day:

1. Samantha had a really good day at day care.  She didn’t cry or cling onto me when I dropped her off and she got to go to the playground twice.
2. I saved over $30 on my dog’s flea and heartworm meds because my new vet matches any price you find on the internet.  I love saving money.  Can I spend it on something now?
3. I’m about to pour myself a glass of wine and watch American Idol.  Go, Danny Gokey!

Three Good Things for the day:

1. Samantha and I had a nice playdate/visit with an old friend who lives in the area.  She has 3 kids, the baby being just 3 months old.  Even though I recorded them and wrote about them, I had forgotten what those baby giggles sounded like.
2. Sam and I went to the playground today and somebody had made a big circle on the blacktop using the mulch from the play area – about 8 feet in diameter.  I didn’t even notice it until Sam pointed and said CIRCLE! CIRCLE! PEE-PO MAKE CIRCLE!  She seems to know that people make things like that, which is pretty cool.  
3. I got a “birthday card” from somebody telling me that I’d won a contest.  It had balloons on it that said, “Happy Birthday, Amy.”  Sam sees balloons all the time and can say “balloon,” but when she saw the card, she said, HAPPY BIRTHDAY.  I think she is sight reading.

Three Good Things for the day:

1. I have a good doggie.  I took him to the vet and he obeyed me and won over every person he met with his happy face and waggy tail.  The animals have been kind of annoying lately so it was nice to have a good experience with one of them.
2. We ran our air conditioner for the first time.  It worked.  We’re not sure how long it will last, but it works for now.
3. Samantha stood in the shopping cart and handed me each grocery item so I could run it through the scanner.  She loves to participate and it’s so darn cute.

Three Good Things for the day:

1. I spoke to my parents over Skype.  They’ve spent the past couple of weeks on the beaches of Mexico and are now headed inland.  They’re planning to see Mexico City this trip, which should be interesting.
2. We had such a great weekend with our friends from Chicago.  I’m exhausted mentally and physically. 
3. Samantha swung on the big-girl swing at the playground today. 

Three Good Things for the day:

1. We watched more Cosmos.  Carl Sagan is second only to Ayn Rand in his glorification of reason and his worship of the mind of man.
2. We visited the Jefferson Memorial.  “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every from of tyranny over the mind of man.”
3. Nurturing the development of my daughter’s mind is a form of that same worship and respect.

Three Good Things for the day:

Watching (1)Cosmos with (2)good friends and then (3)having a 2 hour conversation about whether or not it is arbitrary to posit the existence of life on other planets.

Three Good Things for the day:

1. Adam just submitted his latest article for publication.  It’s called, “A Stitch in Time: The Rise and Fall of the Sewing Machine Patent Thicket,”  and it’s a great story about the numerous inventions that went into the development of the sewing machine in the 1840′s and 50′s.  The conflicting claims to the intellectual property resulted in a huge legal battle later called the “Sewing Machine War,” but the result was a new market solution: a privately formed patent pool that allowed each member to benefit from his contribution to the whole product.  The purpose of the paper is to dispute the idea that patent thickets are a modern phenomenon which require the reduction of property protection lest we hinder innovation.  It’s a pretty easy read, for a scholarly legal article.   I’ll post an update when it is available at Adam’s SSRN page, in a week or two. 
2. We’re making plans for this weekend’s visitors, K&P from Chicago.  I love that we’re getting so many visitors now that we live in a big city again.  Maybe for our next vacation we can go somewhere without visiting anybody.  We haven’t done that in a long time.
3. I caught a tantrum on videotape!  It’s a bath-time naked tantrum, though, so unless I can edit it, it might not make it up here.  I’m hopeful, though.

Three Good Things for the day:

Little Girl Shoes

Jewelry

Feather Boa

Three Good Things for the day:

1. Novocain.
2. Dr. Seuss.
3. Home delivery on a snow day.

Three Good Things for the day:

1. I made up a yummy snack:  Half a banana, a big scoop of peanut butter, and a bit of honey, all mashed up in a bowl.  I suppose those 3 ingredients are used together all the time in sandwiches, but without the bread it’s more like a nutritious dessert.
2. It snowed, which bummed me out, but it was fun to take Samantha and the dog out stomping and sniffing, respectively.
3. Samantha got into Montessori!