Let's Celebrate 2016 Already!

It's time to CELEBRATE This Week with Ruth Ayres from Discover. Play. Build.  Every week Ruth invites us to share our celebrations from the week and link up at her blog. What a fun way to reflect on everything there is to be thankful for. 

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This week I'm celebrating school-wide collaboration!

*throws confetti*

After rereading Ruth's book Celebrating Writers and discussing with colleagues, I'm reminding myself that celebrating doesn't have to be boisterous and grand. At the moment, I'm out with my friend Amy at a local coffee shop. We're sitting in a made-over auto garage at a wobbly table that looks like it's from the 50's with Elton John's Tiny Dancer playing overhead. It's late but there are people here. From time to time a train passes by outside. It's been a nice night.

So what am I celebrating...I'm celebrating 2016 already. I chose revel as my one little word for the year and I love it already. Everything about my life is perfect - the ups and downs - the goods and the bads. It's all okay. I've felt calmer and more grounded this year than ever. 

I get to wake up every morning and take my puppy out. Most times I don't like crawling out of my warm, snuggly bed to wrap myself up and go out into the cold at 5:30 in the morning. But every time I look at her sweet face, I think, "I am a girl with a dog." I've wanted a puppy since I graduated from college. I used to teach persuasive writing and ask my students to help me convince my husband to get a dog. It's still surreal to me that we have a puppy and she's sweet and we're doing fine. (Here's a pic of my sweet pup! She's four months old now!)

I'm making my lists! So far, I've written a list everyday and I'm still following the topics from The Reset Girl and her Listers Gotta List challenge. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's hard...but overall it doesn't take very long, it helps me reflect, it's a nice habit to be in so far.

Everyday I do something for myself. Whether it's stopping to look around when Perdi sits at the edge of the yard and scans the neighborhood, making my list, unrolling my yoga mat and spending some time there, or anything else. I'm looking at everything I get to do to take care of myself - even if it's just something small everyday and recognizing how it makes e feel. 

This is way longer than I expected it to be! I wasn't sure what to celebrate this week...but just writing down a few things that are going on, taking time to grab a snapshot of my life right now feels great. And it feels like enough. It's perfect.

What are you celebrating this week?