Gratitude Surrounds Her

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I’m grateful I found my mantra the very first day we arrived in the Outer Banks.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for sleepy heads on our nine hour drive.  And mismatched pajamas, but that’s a story for another day.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for this view on the GPS.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras Vacation

I’m grateful he’s telling her what’s what–

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

— and they are still best friends.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful this lighthouse has stood steady as a sentinel in my life for the past decade.  I’m grateful it still brings me to tears when I see it each year.

Hatteras Lighthouse (Outer Banks)

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

Hatteras Lighthouse (Outer Banks)

I’m grateful I finally got a moon shot.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for Thoreau.

Thoreau quote

I’m grateful for hot tubs.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras Vacation

I’m grateful he wants to take photos with his pretend camera– “first of people, then cats, then boats.”

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for THREE.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful that even though this world is so big, He has held us in the palm of his hand.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for feeling small once in awhile. And flying kites.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras Vacation

I’m grateful for flamingo bathing suits.  With matching hats.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful that I get to be the only woman in his life right now, because OOF, he’s going to be a heartbreaker someday.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful he posed for my best friend, even if he refused to do so for me.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for stillness.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful I didn’t ruin my white pants.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for gigantic pretzels eaten overlooking the harbor as the ferries chugged back and forth to Ocracoke.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras Vacation

I’m grateful for beauty in all forms, even if it’s 248 spiral steps.

Outer Banks & Hatteras Island Vacation

I’m grateful for the perfect striped maxi dress and gold sandals.

striped maxi dress and gold sandals

I’m grateful for THAT.  Wowza.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful that I finished, even with laryngitis and a sore throat.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for 3.1 miles of peace and quiet with my BFF, and that at the end of it all we get to be loved by these guys.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful there’s still wonder in this world, and that he has it.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for this ‘one wild and precious life‘.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for this footprint in the sand.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for a side dish of salty air with our dinners.

Outer Banks & Hatteras Island Vacation

I’m grateful for this view.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for being able to tuck the sun in each night.

Outer Banks & Hatteras Island Vacation

I’m grateful she perseveres, no matter how long the road or how hard the fight.  I’m grateful she teaches me about courage and hope each and every day.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

Yes, I’m grateful for that scowl.  Most of the time.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for that HAIR.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

Can I get an amen on those curls?

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful he stood still for a moment.  Barely.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for vintage finds from The Elegant Attic.  I’m grateful for the owner’s southern hospitality, who urged me to take a tour of her amazing home!

Outer Banks & Hatteras Island Vacation

I’m grateful for sunshine.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for organized chaos.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for moments where my only job in life is to find the perfect piece of seaglass.

green sea glass

I’m grateful for sand.  Oh so much SAND.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful this former tube fed baby not only ate two huge rolls before dinner but relished dunking them in garlic oil.

Outer Banks & Hatteras Island Vacation

I’m grateful for peek-a-boo.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for photobombs.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m used to be grateful for Brew-Thrus.  I’m not sure I’m grateful for them anymore.  But I’m grateful for being 22 once, and thinking Brew Thrus were amazing at that moment in time.

Outer Banks & Hatteras Island Vacation

I’m grateful he’s the one who was tackled.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful Route 12 wasn’t underwater.  It’s sometimes underwater, and often under sand.

Route 12 Hatteras Island

I’m grateful he cares.

Outer Banks & Hatteras Island Vacation

I’m grateful that crab didn’t catch my mojito.

mojito at Ketch 55

I’m grateful for Gee Gee at Buxton Village Books, who understood what I was asking even with my raging laryngitis, and amazingly had book #6 in the Outlander series in stock to feed my addiction.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras Island Vacation

I’m grateful he searched until he found me a piece of seaglass.  I’m grateful for his love.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras Island Vacation

I’m grateful for independent coffee shops like Ugly Mugs.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras Island Vacation

I’m grateful she can write her name.  The doctors told us she’d never write her name.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful he’s the father of my children.  I’m so thankful she gets to call him daddy.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for perfect days.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful he can rock a pink flamingo hat when needed.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for daily sunset kayak trips where the only sound I heard was the cry of the birds, the lapping of the water, and the leaping of the fish.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for having two amazing men in my life.  My heart?  It melts.

 

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for my best friend’s family, and her beautiful, nurturing children.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

Outer Banks Vacation

Outer Banks Vacation

I’m grateful someone was here before us, and someone will be here after us, and that we could be here, now.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for that determination, for a woman on a mission!

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for daddies who took the kids ghost crab hunting so the mommies could catch up over wine in the hot tub.  Did I mention I’m also grateful for BFFs?

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras Island Vacation

I’m incredibly grateful for the Hatteras Realty employee that mailed his beloved White Kitty back to Pennsylvania after it was left on the top deck of our rental and not discovered missing until 9 hours later as we pulled into our driveway.  I’m grateful she recognized a well loved stuffed animal and didn’t throw it away!

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

I’m grateful for a great ‘before’ and ‘after’.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras Vacation

I’m grateful this miracle baby shines on.  Oh Lord am I grateful!

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras Island Vacation

I’m grateful we were able to go on vacation in our very favorite place for two weeks.  We may not always be able to do this; change is in the air, and it’s hard.  I’m grateful for this moment in time, and we appreciated every second of it.  I’m grateful we could spend this time together, absorbing inspiration from the world around us and each other.  I’m grateful.

Outer Banks & Cape Hatteras vacation

“When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it is over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.”
Mary Oliver

What are you grateful for today?

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