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I’ve reached a point where writing these feels a bit tedious, which is likely because I keep writing them at the end of the night when I could/should be sleeping instead. Gratitudes might be good first thing in the morning, start off with a pleasant feeling because of the awesomeness all around us. They’re not quite as good when you look at the clock and see all of the minutes passing by that you could be using for sleep… nuts.

1. Nuts. An excellent source of protein.

2. Peanuts. An excellent source of legumes. (Seriously, I know a guy who has a nut allergy, but he can eat peanuts. Go figure…)

3. Weather apps. I like being able to look at my phone and see the weather conditions I’ll be walking into when I take the dogs outside in the morning.

4. Weather forecasts. I have three weather apps on my phone. When I looked this morning, the current temperature was 5, 6, and 7 degrees below the predicted low temperature for the day. “The low is supposed to be 43. That’s usually around 4:00 in the morning and sunny at 8:30 will feel like 50, right?” Or just above freezing, which is almost the same thing, right?

5. Electricity. It powers the fan in the corner (the gray noise helps muffle sounds that might make Sophie start barking), the lamp next to the bed to help me stay awake and my cell phone to write gratitudes on what’s becoming a semi-regular basis. But no matter how much I might grumble about the time it takes to write them, it still reminds me that there’s a lot to feel grateful for in the world. Maybe that helps me sleep more peacefully, but maybe I should try starting the day off right instead…

1. New soccer cleats. You’re looking at a picture of the old one for my right foot. I bought a lot of new soccer gear recently—meet the reason I bought new footwear for my game tomorrow.

2. Remembering I needed new cleats. It kept slipping my mind this week, but last night, I wrote myself a note so I wouldn’t forget. Packing my gear on Sunday morning for an 8:30 game and finding this… yeah, that’s a no-go for playing that day.

3. Dick’s Sporting Goods. Not too far of a drive with a decent selection of soccer cleats. It took a few tries to find a pair that fits well enough, but I had the time and they had the selection.

4. The kid working in Dick’s shoe department. He didn’t know a lot about cleats, but he knew enough. And he’s the person who got them out of the back room, so I’m grateful he was able to do that for me, too.

5. Buying the cleats a day before the game. Sure, wearing them for a couple hours while sitting around the house doesn’t do much for breaking them in, but not doing much is way better than nothing at all.

I was holding onto two dog leashes, one in each hand, when I got a phone call from my brother Brent tonight. (I knew it was him right away—he has a very distinct ringtone on my phone that spooked the dogs a little when it started.) I had to juggle things around a bit before I could grab my phone. He then told me he was stuck on the interstate because of a car fire and I found out later that his drive home lasted THREE HOURS LONGER THAN USUAL.

1. I live close to work. Instead of 35-45 minutes, my drive is just over two miles in the suburbs and takes about five minutes. I could walk to work and back several times in the 3:45 it took him to get home tonight.

2. I can avoid major traffic jams. See: short drive to work.

3. I have a fully functional car. It’s never been on fire.

4. 2Cellos. Hearing their cover of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” coming from my phone is how I knew Brent was calling. And if you ever hear the song, you’ll know why it spooked the dogs a little.

5. Our dogs can pee quickly before bed. Brent and I were talking on the phone—him stuck in traffic, me making sure the dogs pee—and they finished… he might have moved fifty feet during that time. “Might have” being a very key term here. So the dogs finished doing their business and we went back inside while Brent spent ANOTHER TWO HOURS in traffic. Yeah, definitely grateful that I got inside my house before he got to his.

1. Fall. Full disclosure: I took this picture a couple weeks ago when it still felt like summer outside. It no longer feels like summer outside. But hey, at least there are more leaves like this springing up all over the place.

2. Colorful leaves. Because they can be really beautiful. Stopping to smell the roses is overrated. Stop and look at the leaves once in a while.

3. Fall jackets. Because when you wake up at 4:00 in the morning to walk the dogs, sometimes it’s in the 40s with a strong wind blowing and that extra layer of protection is pretty awesome.

4. Dressing in layers. It provides insulation from the cold and can look quite spiffy, too.

5. Foam rollers. I probably mentioned this gratitude a while back, but I’m very grateful for it again. My quads have been really tense since the soccer game two days ago, so smooshing them into submission made it a lot easier to stretch my leg muscles tonight.

1. Solid dog poop. Because sometimes dogs have accidents inside the house and non-solid material on the bedroom carpet would be a serious pain to clean up.

2. Seeing the solid dog poop. Letting it sit on the floor would become stinky and harder to clean. And stepping in it would be worse.

3. Plastic bags. Sure, they might seem wasteful, but they’re pretty handy when I have to pick up dog poop inside the house.

4. Having enough time before work to clean up dog poop. When we’re outside on a walk, take out the poop bag, scoop it up and you’re done. Taking care of the carpet is a slightly more extensive project.

5. Falling asleep quickly. Even if I’m not super-duper tired, I can usually nod off in a couple minutes, which is much more restful than tossing and turning all night.