You know, I was thinking about how it’s been over four years since we started doing Thankful Thursdays! We began this practice in the summer of 2020 because heaven knows we all needed to hunt for good things in that first year of the pandemic.
May 2020
While I did manage to find things to appreciate at that time, my current self often thinks how grateful I am that it is not 2020 anymore. For many, many reasons. 🙂
My 2020 self didn’t know that things would be so much better by 2024!
This week, I am thankful:
that I saw lots of sunrises this week
Since the time change doesn’t happen until this weekend (!), sunrises are pretty easy to catch right now.
And I did that Monday-Wednesday this week.
that I have time this weekend to study for my first pediatrics exam
My exam is bright and early Monday morning, and I have quite a bit of empty space this weekend to study for it.
I purposely scheduled my two current pay period shifts for next Friday and Saturday so that they wouldn’t immediately precede an exam!
As I’ve mentioned before, I always feel a little iffy before the first exam in any class; you never know how a group of professors will test until the first one is done.
that I know some of this peds material
I was doing the infectious diseases topic and when the lice slides came up, I was like OHHHH I already know all about this. Because once upon a time, allllll of my (homeschooled) kids got lice simultaneously.
(Here’s how I finally figured out how to handle lice without insecticides, by the way. Save it in case you get a lice infestation!)
Something in peds that I did not know: giving aspirin to a child who has had a viral illness can cause a rare but very serious complication called Reye’s Syndrome (you can read about it here at the Mayo Clinic’s site.)
that I can easily take out my piercing for clinical
On clinical days, we students are not supposed to have any ear piercings except for a single stud in each ear.
So, that means I gotta do something with my cartilage hoop.
the hoop that breaks nursing school rules
The first semester of clinicals, I put in a very uncomfortable clear spacer, and the spacer kept falling out anyway.
At some point between then and now, I realized I can just take the hoop out for the 8 hours of clinical and then put it back in at the end of the day. I’ve had that piercing for so long, it’s fine without a spacer during the day. Yay!
And once I am an actual nurse, it’ll be fine to keep it in. I wear it for my tech job all the time, and the nurses on my floor have plenty of extra ear piercings.
The rules for student nurses are just more strict than for nurses.
for access to fresh produce
I came across this Mental Floss article highlighting a recent rise in cases of scurvy, and it reminded me how grateful I am to be able to have plenty of fresh produce in my life.
The scurvy cases are largely due to socioeconomic factors and it reminded me of the challenge it is to eat a healthy diet when you don’t have enough money or even a home with a kitchen and refrigerator.
And that made me think about how I appreciate the various ways Hungry Harvest works to make a dent in this problem by providing low cost or free produce to people in need (they actually have a program at my college that offers this!)
for the ghost earrings Zoe let me borrow for my pediatrics clinical day
Kids love novelty items, and these met the “studs-only” requirement. At clinical a little preschooler with a feeding-pump backpack appreciated my ghost earrings after I appreciated her cat ear headband. 🙂
If I ever land in the world of pediatrics, I will most assuredly accumulate a whole collection of novelty stud earrings.
Although, I don’t know…I have a lot of elderly patients on my regular unit, and I will say that the women in that age range also really love stuff like this. So maybe I should just start a collection anyway. 😉
I do have to work on Thanksgiving day this year, so maybe some pumpkins would be a good start.
JenRR
Thursday 31st of October 2024
I’m very grateful we finally got some rain! We’ve been experiencing so many field fires recently, including an extra scary one, 20 miles from our house. They managed to close down the highway before the flames spread to the other side. It’s been eerie to get daily emergency weather notifications for extreme fire danger and dust storm watches.
I’m also thankful for another year of pumpkin carving and trick-or-treating with my kids! I love Halloween.
K D
Thursday 31st of October 2024
Great post today.
I too am thankful for this weekly exercise.
While Kristen has been appreciating the sunrises I've been admiring the sunsets this week. They have been long and gorgeous. I have been soaking in as much after dinner still light outside time as possible as I don't love the result of DST ending.
I too am thankful for the abundance of food. It's wonderful to eat berries year round thanks to frozen food. Our choices are sometimes overwhelming but we are fortunate to have them.
I am thankful for time to sit outside yesterday, first with a friend and then later with DD and SIL.
I am thankful for our neighborhood. The houses and yards are modest (most houses are ~1000 square feet) but they are well built and well maintained. Families make it work and there are lots of kids about. We are also close to major roads and shopping.
Mar
Thursday 31st of October 2024
Thankful my oldest grand is old enough to use a Target catalog to point out what she wants for her birthday and Christmas. Takes the guessing work out. She said grandma take a picture so you remember them. Lol sure kiddo... For a lot of firsts this year! Northern lights & total eclipse. For local restaurants. For our Christmas break at work, we are closed for several weeks at Christmas. Yay!!!! For the Apple Fitness app, my kids and others are all sharing their workout info. I have been trying to keep up with them. They are all half my age but we have fun with the goofy messages you can send. For the Halloween lunch we are having today, free pizza!
kristin @ going country
Thursday 31st of October 2024
Our homily last Sunday was all about choosing joy (with much more emphasis on God's blessings, of course). You would have liked it. :-)
Thankfuls:
--That while my husband, eldest son, and I were all quite sick with a nasty stomach bug on Tuesday, the younger three got themselves ready for school, fed animals, did their homework, and my daughter even loaded and started the dishwasher for me. Yay for older kids.
--For our heated mattress pad, which I cranked to high when I was so sick in the middle of the night. Nice to have a soft, heated place to huddle between trips to the bathroom.
--For indoor plumbing. I actually thought in the middle of the wretchedness how much worse it would be if I only had an outhouse. Ugh.
--For my habit of stashing things in the freezer, which is how the younger three children ate dinner on Tuesday (chili) and the sick ones had homemade chicken broth when we started to need something non-solid for sustenance.
--That all three of us started to feel better yesterday and should be good to go for trick or treating today. Still crossing my fingers my daughter doesn't come down with it sometime today. She's the only one in the family who hasn't had it yet.
Elisabeth
Thursday 31st of October 2024
I'm thankful that I woke up to be able to read this post. There is so much dark stuff on the internet and your blog (and especially these posts) are a ray of light. So thank you, Kristen <3 Those ghost earrings are adorable. I love how a little thing like fun earrings or a favourite shirt can really make our day go from ordinary to more whimsical and exciting.
Thankful things: -That for the first time since becoming a mother, I am fully skipping Halloween. I escaped for a few days away to visit my parents, which means my husband is on Halloween duty. I dread Halloween every year, so it is thrilling! - Flannel sheets. -Mom's home cooking. -The crunch of leaves under my feet; in places literally having to wade through piles of them in the forest. -The fresh start of a new month. -Starting this November in a MUCH better head space versus last November.