Grateful Day 1

I've recently discovered the organization, Plasticity, who works to improve employee engagement/morale/retention etc through data and psychology combined. One of the social media campaigns they are leading this month is the #12GratefulDays initiative. Starting today - 12/7, they post a daily mission and you respond to it via Twitter.

I love this idea, so I figured I'd expand and turn my daily entries into blog posts.

Today's mission:

Name 3 things that happened last week that you are especially grateful for and share them in images, videos or text.

In no particular order:

1. The corgis racing around the house.

Nearly every day after our evening walk, Gimli runs up and down the length of the house. Merida chases him from the living room in the back all the way up to the front and back again. Eventually, she tires and she remains in the living room, while Gimli continues towards the house. Most times, on his run back he then chases her around the coffee table.

Every day I say, "oh, I must record this!" And everyday I do not.

It looks something like this.

2. Finishing a tough run.

Last month Runkeeper posted a new challenge - the Global 5k run on December 6th. Their aim was to bring thousands of runners together on the same day for the same goal. They are tabulating the data right now, but by their estimates, they brought together about 200k runners.

I signed up for it and off we went early Sunday morning. We were fortunate enough that there was no snow or ice on the ground, though it was a little chilly... ~ 1 degree Celsius.

I've done 5ks before so the distance wasn't too much of a challenge, but I had updated my "5k race" workout interval to:

1k - run

.5k - walk

1k - run

.5k - walk

.5k - run

.5k - walk

1k - run

Sunday's run was the first time using this schedule and while I was sore afterwards, I was pleased to have accomplished it. This is the closest I've ever gotten to running the full 5k. I have more ground to cover, I know, but it's a far cry from where I stood back in January.

3. Homemade cookies

Last week, I made my first batch of gingerbread cookies. Although, if we're being honest, they are gingerbread Mickey Mouses. It was not as difficult as I thought, but I really had to get my hands into the dough to mix it properly.

These cookies are all gone now, but I'm going to make another batch this weekend. Those Mickeys should have M&M buttons... unless someone eats all the M&Ms before Saturday.