The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~

What a tremendous love between a father and son…

“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”

~Michael Jordan ~

“In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities.” Janos Arany

What you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it. Opportunities, relationships, even money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter what happened in my life.

Oprah Winfrey

I’m sitting here with a huge smile on my face and a warm feeling in my heart.  My kids are both home, there’s over a foot of snow outside and the Pats are winning.  Christmas is a few days away and the house smells of baked goods. 2009 hasn’t been the easiest year but I wouldn’t trade my life for anything. <3

I just finished watching the last Biggest Loser episode before the finale and once again, the contestants ran a marathon. Talk about coming a long way in almost no time! It’s a testament to what can be done with hard work and dedication. Granted, working out like they do is like a full time job but they were home for 60 days and still had to keep it up.  Makes me look at my challenges through new eyes.  Anything can be done!

It’s only 7:45 and I’m already in bed!  Granted, I have my laptop, pot of tea and books with me but I’m hoping that it will be lights out soon. Today was quite the day and I’m physically exhausted but this nice comfy nest is so enticing. While today wasn’t the easiest of days, I stuck to my practice of finding beauty throughout.

Some random things to be thankful for:

*A nice short commute to work…. I love that I don’t have to sit in traffic for hours and deal with that frustration on a daily basis.

*Working with people that I really enjoy.. I’m blessed with a great co-teacher and teaching assistants who are all on the same page and put kids first.

*Good behavior of most of my class today… thanks kids, I really needed it on my first day back! (Mums the word about  other issues because this is a positive post, not a negative one…)

*Coming home to a family that loves me (human and canine alike) who are everything to me.

*Sipping this delicious cup of tea and shutting the light off soon.

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Today is a day in which we actually have 25 hours since we turned the clocks back last night. (Too bad the girlies didn’t let me sleep for the extra one!)  Unfortunately, I’ve been out of touch with blogging of late due to some personal challenges. I have been doing lots of reading and updating my Book Nook but since I haven’t been going to many Pats games, the Podcast and Tailgate sites have pretty much been on hiatus.  It’s not that I’ve lost my passion for my team, rather real life issues (family, health, work) have taken most of my time and energy.

Since today is November 1st, I’m going to once again  participate in the annual NaBloPoMo in which I pledge to blog every day for a month. And just in case I don’t feel like I have anything to say, I can always refer to a great suggestion by Christopher S. Penn.  I’m trying to be more mindful of each day and not let time just pass right on by so I’m putting into practice his suggestions in his awesome blog post How to Avoid Missing the Best Days of your Life (Part 1). (Be sure to read it and click through to read all his links too.) I have so much in my life to be thankful for and each day here is a gift.  So, I’m going to remind myself throughout the day to be cognizant of the beauty in my life. Participating in NaBloPoMo is a reminder to be consistent and follow through each day.

So, as trivial as it may seem, I’ve just thoroughly enjoyed a piping hot cup of java, some organic cranberry pecan whole grain bread toasted to perfection, smothered in natural peanut butter, topped off with sliced banana and it was lucious!   It’s Sunday morning which means that I’ll dive into the Sunday paper  while consuming more coffee and snuggling with my dogs. Then,  I’ve got 22 more hours of being home (my favorite place to be) before  I have to go to work.  I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.

What is beautiful about your life today?

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