dianaschnuth

Last year, there was one person I followed online who posted something she was thankful for every day in November. This year, I decided to jump onto that project myself — and found that everybody and their brother also decided to do the same thing. No matter — even though it’s apparently the “in” thing to do this year, I’m still committing to post a photo of something I’m thankful for every day in November:

Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat

1. I’m thankful for beautiful fall weather with blue skies and no rain.
2. I’m thankful for the fitness center at my work.
3. I’m thankful for date night with @schnuth sans toddler.
4. I’m thankful to have a working washer and dryer in my home.
5. I’m thankful that I have a good friend and fitness buddy in @relysh.
6. I’m thankful for absentee voting. I cast my vote last week.
7. I’m thankful for the love of my life: my husband, @schnuth.
8. I’m thankful for storytime with my son.
9. I’m thankful for my job.
10. I’m thankful that we have such delicious Korean food so close to our house.
11. I’m thankful to be financially able to consider upgrading to a new house.
12. I’m thankful that my husband has a good sense of humor.
13. I’m thankful for the changing seasons. Really, I am.
14. I’m thankful that my son is happy and healthy.
15. I’m thankful that I’ll have straight, healthy teeth before I turn 40.
16. I’m thankful for my chiropractor, who keeps my extra vertebra in line (literally).
17. I’m thankful that my son likes to go out to eat, and is well-behaved.
18. I’m thankful for naptime.
19. I’m thankful to be a homeowner.
20. I’m thankful that I’m salaried and not hourly.
21. I’m thankful for two extra vacation days, earned at my 5-year anniversary.
22. I’m thankful for large and loving gatherings with @schnuth’s family.
23. I’m thankful for lazy long weekends with @schnuth and son.
24. I’m thankful that @schnuth is such a good Daddy to Connor.
25. I’m thankful for my family, who taught me, “Remember who you are and where you come from.”
26. I’m thankful for Mucinex D. Not thankful for this nasty cold, though.
27. I’m thankful for communication, and that my toddler is picking up on sign language.
28. I’m thankful to have reliable transportation.
29. I’m thankful that I get to see @schnuth for a few minutes before he goes to work.
30. I’m thankful for the Internet. (websurfing since ’94, webmistressing since ’96.)

I could have queued these up in advance, but I chose to think of something each day that resonated with me. Sometimes my thankfulness was the flip side of something I wasn’t thankful for — the first snowflakes of the season, for instance, or my painful braces — but the exercise of turning it around was part of the point of the Thankful Project.

There are so many other things I’m thankful for that I didn’t even touch upon. That was part of the project, too, though — coming to that realization.

When I was a younger lass — say, in high school and college — I was a bit more environmentally conscious than I am now. I was really into recycling and buying recycled products, and my mother placated me by buying Green Forest recycled bathroom tissue and paper towels.

I also walked a lot in high school and college, but that was mainly from necessity, not so much from a sense of reducing my carbon footprint. Not that anyone knew what a “carbon footprint” was back in the ’90s.

These days, I find I’m much less environmentally conscious than I once was. Recycling is more of a hassle than a given (except for donating to Goodwill, which is ongoing, mainly because I’m a packrat). Walking everywhere (especially to work) is just not feasible. I use more disposable products than I need to. Now, getting myself back to the environmentally-conscious side of things is more of a “what am I willing to do” gambit, kind of like dieting. What am I willing to give up? To change? Am I willing to adopt a slightly different routine?

This weekend, Aaron and I took a trip to a couple of local produce establishments to try the whole Buy Local concept. Thompson Farms, just a few miles from our house, was selling fresh strawberries — you can’t get much more local than that! Granted, the hand-sorted high-quality quarts were $5 each, which is a little pricey, but they looked great. (They also had jam-and-jelly grade quarts for nearly half that price.)

We then visited Monnette’s Market on Reynolds, also just down the road apiece. There we found produce that wasn’t *quite* as local, but still more local than the friendly neighborhood megamart has, I’d bet. There were Canadian tomatoes, complete with a sign deeming them safe per the FDA. There were homegrown strawberries (not as ripe as the farm berries, but cheaper), and I can only assume that most of the produce was locally grown. We got some bell peppers, tomatoes, green onions, pineapple (yes, I know it wasn’t locally grown), vidalia onion (also not quite local), and an impulse buy of some fat-free chocolate muffins.

So, our first foray into buying locally grown produce was relatively successful. We’ll see if this is something we continue, or if it was merely an interesting excursion. Monnette’s actually has some competitively priced deli items, too, so we might end up going back next week for more of our normal shopping.

Not sure what the next step in “reducing our carbon footprint” will be. I’d like to keep taking baby steps toward joining the revolution.