Full disclosure: I’m writing this while emerging from 24 hours spent in a fairly deep pit of despair. Friday involved a deluge of hard, non-bloggable stuff, and it took the wind out of my sails. I think the hardest part of troublesome things like this is that regular life has to keep going. Belle’s birthday party was happening at our house while I was fielding all sorts of texts related to the fallout from one issue. (Sorry to be vague. The short version: various people we love are going through intense personal challenges and there was a new facet to the neighbourhood drama.)
I’m typing these words on Saturday, the final day of collecting FIGs, and my first FIG for the day is that I’m done collecting FIGs! Perhaps that’s not ideal for the ringleader of a gratitude collective to admit, but here we are. (Please refer to my blog title. I am a pessimist.)
BUT, I laughed out loud while putting Indy to bed on Friday night. I leaned into the fact that I had a pesky errand to run, and was on Cloud Nine when it went shockingly smoothly. The birthday cake I ordered ended up being both inexpensive and lovely. Belle is at the age where my only responsibility at birthday parties is to provide food. She and her friends played games independently, chatted, and came up with all sorts of silly poses for pictures. I do not miss preschool-aged parties at all.
So there are hard things and there are good things, and they continue to commingle… and that is life. Not just for me, but for all the FIG collectors joining in.
This exercise has meant a lot to me and, from the feedback I’ve received, it’s meant a lot to many of you. Thanks to everyone who participated and made this such an uplifting corner of the internet in February. I know it takes time and intention to track gratitude, so a virtual sheet of gold stars to each of you from me.
FIG COLLECTORS AROUND THE INTERWEBS
San enjoyed a nap, watched ducks floating happily in the community pool [I want to be one of those ducks!!!], received a delightful postcard from London (thanks, Stephany!), and an 11-mile run. For lots more FIGs, check out her full post.
Here’s the summarized version of Julie’s FIGs for the week, but I highly recommend checking out the extended edition.
Friday – Baked Potato and Brave Browser
Saturday – Bougie Protest and Lunch
Sunday – Mimosa, scrambled eggs, hair dryer
Monday – CBBC and a nice dinner
Tuesday – Rain, grilled cheese, podcast
Wednesday – Leftovers, flowering trees (again)
Thursday – Rest Day
Friday – The Age of Innocence
Saturday – Yoga for Gratitude, birthday party, crab and garlic noodles
Michelle posted her finished gratitude sheet and I have nothing but heart eyes for it!
My favourite FIG of the week might have to be kangaroos! Sophie comes through with an in-the-wild sighting. This will never fail to delight and astonish me 🙂
She has a post full of FIGs: swimming pools, rain, sibling friendship, the improved battery life on her new phone… and, of course, spotting kangaroos on her walk!
This week, Jenny enjoyed: a new candle (and peach handsoap) from Bath & Body Works, colourful watch straps, colourful writing implements (courtesy of SHU), her kitties, and me!
Sam’s FIGs included a game of family charades, looking up at clouds in the sky, birdwatching (Nuttall’s Woodpecker and lots of Western Bluebirds), and a day at the beach.
mbmom11 writes:
Finding figs has been hard. Some school stuff, kid stuff, just grumpy feelings lurking. But I have a non- cat figs for you.
I’m grateful for potable battery packs. My car was dead Monday morning, and I was able to pull out our potable jumper and got it going with no trouble. I made the mistake of stopping at the gas station before it was ready, and the car died again. Luckily, my adult son was home, ran the charger up to me, and I was good to go.
Hooray for a battery boost—and I’m confident your cats (and maybe hot showers) were much appreciated in your life this week 🙂
Joy O’Toole posted a full recap of her month of FIG collecting!
She writes: Some days it was small, like my favorite tea or a book I particularly like, and sometimes bigger—a new daughter-in-law or lunch out with my sister-in-law.
I love this February ritual. It reminds me to stop and be thankful every day, something that is easy to drop, especially when the weather is grim, or I’m not sleeping well, or I want to plant something in the garden, when it is far too early. I know I will have the FIG sheet to fill out in the evening, so I purposely look for the little things for which to be thankful.
…While it seems that choosing something to be thankful for each day is a small thing, and it is, it’s also a big thing because it forms a habit of gratitude in our hearts. Every time I take a step towards gratitude, I’m stepping away from complaint. The further down the road of thankfulness and contentment I go, the further away I get from a life of grumbling.
I enjoyed reading Rebecca’s final list of FJIGs.
- February 22nd: A long hot shower when the weather change gives you a migraine.
- February 23rd: One of my best friends had a baby, and “Aunt Becca” got to spend some quality time catching up with mommy while cuddling baby.
- February 24th: Hopefully the last morning having to swap ice for water for the chickens, since the fancy insulated waterer Mr got me for Christmas finally arrived!
Bonus FJIG: This blog turned 3! My first post was about garden work, so we’re on schedule. - February 25th: Bread making day: They weren’t the prettiest loaves I’ve made, but I love knowing exactly what is in the bread and that it’s super healthy {fresh milled wheat}.
- February 26th: Another very rainy day meant crochet time: all the book cover squares are together and ready for the border. I cannot wait to share the final results – it has turned out so fun.
- February 27th: Friday Pizza Night: Homemade. Last year I found the best pizza dough recipe, and I’ve been slowly transitioning it into a fresh milled flour recipe. So delicious, and better for us than Domino’s {of which we eat our fair share, because it is also delicious}.
- February 28th: The sun finally came out, and I was able to catch up on some chicken chores. Namely, cleaning the coop/box. Thankfully it wasn’t as terrible as anticipated. Also got the Omelet waterer set up, and spent some quality time hanging with the flock.
Engie has outdone herself!!
I bought a new goal tracking journal this year. In order to get to free shipping, I added a stick-in gratitude page (attached photo). Every night in February I sat down and filled out a segment and here it is! I’ll write them out here in case you can’t read them in the photo.
- 1. Candles
- 2. Scones
- 3. Ted playing the gratitude game* with me even when he didn’t want to
- 4. Hannah wagging her tail when I got home
- 5. “Shrinking” on Apple TV
- 6. Yoga at the UC
- 7. Olympics opening ceremony
- 8. Springing for a commercial-free package to watch Olympics
- 9. Fancy candles as a Valentine’s Day present
- 10. Ted taking time to come to yoga at the UC
- 11. Being able to take food to a friend when she isn’t feeling well
- 12. A skyful of stars on a clear night
- 13. Zumba with friends
- 14. Having a trusted dog sitter
- 15. Shopping and the Figge (a museum) with Rebecca
- 16. Skee Ball, Pacman, and Mario Kart with Ted
- 17. Long walks with Hannah on a warm day
- 18. Body Blast outside
- 19. Career Fair fun
- 20. Solving puzzles at work
- 21. Finishing The Age of Innocence
- 22. Lunch with a friend
- 23. Cuddles with Zelda
- 24. Date balls
- 25. A great Valdemar book
- 26. Helping T with Mousegate
- 27. Trampoline class
- 28. A successful conference presentation
- 29. Warm, sunny day
- 30. Dinner with friends
Did candles appear twice? Is food an important theme? Sure, but it’s important for those simple pleasures to be acknowledged, right?
*The Gratitude Game is where Ted and I alternate things we’re grateful for. We usually do five rounds. He does not like to play it, but he’s always happier when we do.
I LOVED THIS LIST. I loved the colourful gratitude sticker. You know how I feel about candles and twinkly lights and all things cozy! Delicious food? Honestly, that’s a FIG for me every day.
Also, Engie has a dedicated blog post FULL OF EVEN MORE FIGS (and lots of pictures, including of Hannah), so make sure you check that out.
Ernie has FIGs to share starting off with the success of getting her inbox from 90,000 emails, down to 13,000. That is not a typo. SHE HAD 90,000 EMAILS. I am dying a little inside just thinking of dealing with that mammoth task! Also: shopping her closet, haircuts, and naps.
Stephany has all sorts of FIGs to share this week: homemade nachos, book club, fun TV (Traitors!), and a Saturday night game night while celebrating her nephew’s birthday.
Noemi savoured mini-golf, swim meets, conversations with her kids, impressive school projects, and stunning natural scenery. For more FIGs, check out her full post.
I appreciated Lindsay’s FIGs: sunshine, doggy haircuts, trying new fruit, commuting in the light, and a good (human) hair day.
Suzanne’s post is one-stop shopping for ALL THINGS JOY. Sunshine, delicious home-baked goods, birthday love, hosting a sleepover for her daughter, clean sheets, books, beautiful flowers, and yoga. Seriously, if you have not read her post, please do it ASAP. It is overflowing with delightful things.
Also, it was Lenny’s birthday!!!
Sarah’s FIGs included: Starbucks, morning runs, and cozy, comfy clothes!
Kyria has FIGs from her time in Taiwan: Lunar New Year decorations and celebrations, finishing a good book (see below), getting a clean bill of health, random morning catch ups with several loved ones, a few runs along the river, mostly great weather, a couple of fun and challenging hikes, dragon fruit smoothies, boba tea, getting my taxes 90% completed, getting my continuing education 90% completed, 7-Eleven takeout meals.
Melissa has all sorts of happy things to note: her personal trainer, receiving her copy of Inhale Exhale, cinnamon rolls, a fresh screen protector for her phone, and puzzles. See the full list on her blog.
Diane has been busy with work, but found time to list a whole bunch of FIGs: clean underwear, finding missing pens, me (for hosting the FIG Collective), good books, Sligo Creek, the recital program she’s recently been a part of, and her sassy six-year-old.
ELISABETH’S FIGS
22 FEB (Sunday)
- 166 | Fraiser.
- 168 | Belle reading out loud to Indy.
- 169 | Crunchwraps for a second night in a row.
- 170 | Lemon-lime sparkling water.
23 FEB (Monday)
- 171 | A long, hot shower.
- 172 | Clean hair.
- 173 | The shower has been fixed! [I never blogged about this. After MONTHS of not being able to use our upstairs shower because of a very specific leaking issue, we managed to get it fixed for $285. Which, considering we thought it might cost $10,000, is DEFINITELY a FIG.]
- 174 | Sneaking away to my favourite cafe; I feel more grounded.
- 175 | Airpods.
24 FEB (Tuesday)
- 176 | Timely thrift store finds. (Pants and sweater for Indy.)
- 177 | Haircuts for the kids!
- 178 | Listening to Indy tell the hairdresser his set of jokes 🙂
25 FEB (Wednesday)
- 179 | Clear roads.
- 180 | Friendships. Especially during these tricky teen years.
26 FEB (Thursday)
- 182 | Coffee with Joy.
- 183 | A lovely walk with John.
27 FEB (Friday)
- 186 | Sweater tag off at Winners! [Belle bought a sweater at the mall an hour away, and when we got it home, we discovered they had failed to remove the security tag. I tried for an hour with a rare-earth magnet to remove it… no luck. I drove to a local home goods store, and in two seconds they had it off. I showed the tag and receipt so they knew we hadn’t stolen it.]
- 187 | A beautiful cake.
- 188 | So many friends for Belle.
- 189 | Sleep.
- 190 | We’ll soon be away from neighbourhood drama—leaving to live the bigger life!!
- 193 | iPhone photos to capture the birthday party memories.
- 194 | I am safe. I am loved.
28 FEB (Saturday)
- 195 | The end of FIGs. I’m ready!
- 196 | Sunshine.
- 197 | Indy’s luggage is packed.
- 198 | Drive to Survive—a new season!!!
- 199 | Dark chocolate with mint (Lindor).
- 200 | Seafood casserole—yummy.
Thanks again to everyone for joining in. It’s been incredible to see the range of things we’re grateful for…
We’ve had kangaroos and porcupines and cats and dogs and not getting struck by lightning. We’ve had TWO new daughters-in-law. We’ve had delicious food, sunrises and sunsets, great workouts, full nights of sleep, and celebrating cats’ birthdays (Foxy and Leo). We’ve had skiing and walks and runs and yoga and the Olympics and so much sunshine. We’ve had fancy pens and puzzles and snow days and books and a hot chocolate festival and mimosas for breakfast.
This feels like the perfect place to end. Two hundred FIGs later (for me), what stands out most isn’t any single candle, kangaroo, casserole, or hot shower, it’s the steady accumulation of “ordinary” moments. February held hard, sad things and happy, joyful things, sometimes in the same hour. But writing the joyful things down, naming them, and sharing them has reminded me (again) that having a gratitude practice can’t be put off until life is tidy. Joy and delight thread themselves right through the mess. (If we let them.)
Thanks for finding joy in gratitude with me and sharing your special moments with the broader community.
Long may our lives be sprinkled with FIGs <3
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Such an array! It’s interesting that a lot of the little FIGs are similar around the world! ( if we can pretend kangaroos are like cats or ducks? Interesting animal cueing cute/ serene?)
That cake is so elegant- glad the party went well.
Thank you for hosting this!
Now go finish your to do list for Europe- adventures await!!
One most last minute FIG- thank you for putting up with my spelling errors! I’m often doing blog comments in the middle of the night, and my phone has weird aurocorrect. So I don’t always catch the mistakes. Portable charger not potable- that would be Rebecca’s waterer.
Aurocorret- it doesn’t even fix that to autocorrect!
Oh my goodness, my spelling is so much worse now that I am on the computer so much, and often it’s NOT my fault, it’s autocorrect!
So many cute animals this month.
The party was a big success; and I rarely buy cakes and 10/10 enjoyed not having to dirty any dishes in the prep for this party.
So sorry about the unbloggable stuff! The “life keeps going while everything quietly falls apart in the background” thing is very brutal. But you are right, soon you’ll be away from neighbourhood drama, off to live the BIG LIFE!
I had to check out Noemi’s blog because of the photo of the natural bridge – it looks like a rock formation in South Africa, it’s aptly called “Hole in the Wall”. Nice to see that they have one in California, too!
Also, I think it’s the first time I’ve seen Belle without braces. Her smile looks amazing!
What I love most about this whole exercise is exactly what you said: the good and the hard are often crammed into the same day, even the same hour. We have to just spot and grab the bright bits! I really enjoyed reading along!
I love natural rock formations; they always seem so majestic and awe-inspiring.
She approved that picture and I was glad her brace-free smile gets to be seen 🙂
Oh goodness, I’m very sorry about the non-bloggable stuff. That SUCKS. I’m here to complain that it’s 3:45am and I’ve been up for maybe 2 hours already. I mean, I stayed in bed for an hour trying to go back to sleep, then got up about an hour ago. BAH!
Onward! I love all of these lists, and thank you for all of the work that goes into this! I know it’s a lot. I’m excited for your trip, and for you to be away from the drama for 4 entire months! And wow for the tag on the sweater, that’s wonderful that the local store could get it off for you!
Belle’s smile is beautiful, and Kyria’s list reminds me that I haven’t even started our taxes yet. I wonder what would happen if I just didn’t do them at all this year?
Oh no… lack of sleep is THE WORST. I hope you managed to get back to sleep.
Ugh. Taxes. Thankfully, we’re 1/2 of the way through!
It was SUCH a joy moment to get that tag off. I was worried it wouldn’t work OR they’d turn me away. Neither happened and I was ecstatic 🙂
I want to give you a big hug for all the unbloggable stuff, dear friend. Like you said, life is full of both the bad and the good, and I appreciate so very much that you have given me the task of seeking out the good intentionally and purposefully and mindfully. It’s such a valuable practice and I enjoy being part of this practice so much. Reading everyone else’s FIGs is its own kind of joy, too, and I love your point that it’s not the extraordinary events that stand out, but the accumulation of the everyday pleasures that I find most meaningful. Sending you love and gratitude. xxoo
Thanks, friend <3
The things we do consistently every day can be some of the deepest sources of joy!
First of all, thank you Elisabeth for being our ringleader EVEN when things were hard, even when you’re, I don’t know, GETTING READY TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY FOR FOUR MONTHS. You know. Nothing big. Seriously, thank you for hosting the FIG/ FJIG month. I will carry all these fun things with me into March. Wait, we’re in March. I’M CARRYING THEM RIGHT NOW. So much joy and happiness in all of these things, from Lenny (OMG Lenny!) to gardening to mimosas, and everything in between. So much gratitude for this community.
I am so glad you’re in the birthday party stage that you’re in with Belle. I loved when that happened, when all I had to do was procure massive amounts of food, and everything else just happened. It’s a beautiful thing!
Now, I’m finishing my coffee and rolling out my yoga mat – two daily FIGs!
Isn’t Lenny (and Sylvie, and Zelda and Hannah and Rex), etc JUST THE BEST. This month has made me rethink my stance on pets 😉
Nicole, they INHALED the pizza. INHALED it. I was worried we’d have tons of leftovers and there were crumbs. I’m sipping my second cup of coffee. A FIG indeed <3
::::sending tremendous hugs::::
<3
This is such an undertaking for you so thank you for doing this! I feel a little less bad about not participating this year as that meant you had one less person’s FIGs to recap. I am impressed with your high # of FIGs! You really rocked the challenge. I had tried to participate and wrote things down for about 8 days and then I completely forgot about it. Sigh.
I’m sorry you had a rough stretch this week. You have so much on your plate – you don’t need more stress/angst to deal with!
You have a lot on your plate and do a good job of noticing things that bring you joy in your day-to-day.
The week has had some ups and downs, but we are approaching the finish line of prep and the starting line of adventure <3
THANK YOU ELISABETH!!! Reading your quick summary of all the FIGS from the month {“We’ve had kangaroos and porcupines and cats and dogs…”) reminded me how beautiful and varied life is. It’s incredible that we have all these things to experience!!! I love reading about everyone’s FIGS, and there are posts I missed that I’ll go back to now.
Sorry about the hard things going on in your life. It’s frustrating when you want to share but you just can’t because it involves other people. I hope things can be resolved… and yes, phew, you’re getting away from the neighborhood drama for a good long time!!! Maybe something will resolve with that situation while you’re away- you never know.
What a wonderful, lovely recap! Thank you so much for hosting this, Elisabeth! It’s a really special, amazing thing. I’m so sorry to hear that you had hard things going on. Sending hugs and a big wish for better things!
Thank you for sharing and the work you do to uplift this community. Jenny’s cats sleeping are so adorable along with Lenny, Hannah, Zelda and all the other adorable pets.
I am so sorry for your hard week and situations you have to deal with.
Sending you a big hug.
Aren’t Jenny’s cats the sweetest! I want to snuggle Sylvie so badly (who cares about cat allergies, right)?
You are so welcome. Thanks for being an encourager <3
Always such a joy to read through this summary each week — especially the kangaroo sightings!! Maybe next year I will finally get my act together and document FIGS consistently! I am a glass half full type of person and feel like I have kept mental note of “happy things” since childhood, but it is definitely a good practice to write them down too.
I’m so sorry for the hard things and also appreciate your discretion in what you share publicly. Greta’s birthday party had a similar vibe to Belle’s and coming right on the heels of Cece’s party with 3rd graders, it was so different! And I was glad because I happened to be on call for work that evening so I had to excuse myself a few times to go call patients! That would not have been feasible with the younger crowd.
The shower solution is so great and especially for that price! I feel like you pay that much anymore just to have someone come out and diagnose the issue, let alone fixing it. We had to have fixtures replaced in both upstairs and downstairs showers within the past year and I’m pretty sure it was close to $1000 each time (Nick would remember for sure). Blech!
Home repairs can be SO expensive. So it’s always a happy surprise (and relief) when they’re cheaper than expected! Not everything works out this way!!
I’m playing catch up/reading in reverse- that’s the way life is at the moment. My dad is still in the hospital- thought he’d be home yesterday and coach is away teaching a class. But Reg is home, ready and willing to help me. Hooray.
Sorry to learn that you encountered some unbloggsble issues. I hope things clear up soon or that the degree of difficulty fades.