new year day 1

I usually clean up the Christmas stuff 3 days after Christmas, but since our tree was not dead aka a fire hazard we left it up until today.  So from 9 am until 2 pm I undecorated the house and put everything back in the attic storage.  The frustrating thing is that just when I got all the boxes neatly arranged in our little space I went downstairs and kept finding ornaments, or hooks, so just little things that need to be in a box that is the farthest from the attic door.  I am glad that I waiting until today when Jeff was here to help me haul the boxes up and down and pack everything up.  The Christmas decor is packed away neater than it has ever been and I even thought to make sure to make sure that the Easter decorations were closest to the door so I don't have to do any major rearranging in a couple of months.  So today I am thankful for a clean slate in our living room.  I do love our living room once the tree and Christmas stuff is gone because the room is twice as big.  I don't believe in having a buying a tree that fits our small space, I buy the biggest one that can fit in our house and then complain about the lack of space for three weeks.  So the living room is neat and tidy, unfortunately the rest of the house hasn't caught up, but it will, eventually.
After cleaning up we took the kids on a bike ride.  Despite it being a bit chilly, it was so nice to get out of the house and do something.  If I could go back in time and talk to myself 10 years ago I don't think my 25 year old self would believe that I would willingly go bike riding in 45 degree weather.   Before kids getting fresh air wasn't such a big deal to me, now I can't live without getting outside if even for 20 minutes despite the cold weather.  I am proud of myself, I am way more willing to go outside than I was even 4 years ago and I hope that I will continue to put on my "big girl pants" as I like to say and get outside. 
So 2014 is my year of gratitude.  I am so thankful for my home, even though it is small, it is ours, it is relatively warm and has a lot of love in it.  I am thankful for fresh air and the energy to do something. I am thankful for time off from work and school that we can be together.  I am thankful that I have made it another year. 
So today was good, tomorrow it is suppose to rain and Friday the high is less than 30 degrees and windy, let's see if my gratitude can make it through to the weekend!