The holidays are over and we all went back to work this week.

The eldest to school; the youngest to daycare; and my husband and me to our respective offices.

But all told, it was a good week.

So here goes with my (sporadic) weekly thankful.

I was thankful for fun moments at the office this week (Thankful #1). Like when my daughter forgot her stuffy in the car in the morning, so I decided it was “Bring Bunny to Work Day” and I snapped a few photos to send home. She got a kick out of it.

I’m thankful for good friends looking out for my interests (Thankful #2). I’ve posted a few times previously about my guilty pleasure love of V.C. Andrews. Last year I realized too late to catch it on television, that Lifetime had made a movie remake of Flowers in the Attic and Petals on the Wind. Rogers on Demand, Netflix and our local movie rental store all refuse to show or carry it, but I had a friend helpfully send me proof this week that the Ottawa Public Library has my back!

I’ve placed a hold and am 26th on the list to get this piece of movie history!

I’m thankful for my gym and the elliptical machines (Thankful #3). I’ve made it to the gym three times this week. I take an hour for me and read on the elliptical, so while I’m not exactly killing myself, I feel I’m still (sort of) exercising, and I’m getting to read more, which makes me happy. I also find given I’m not completely exhausting myself, that I leave feeling pretty happy about life in general.

I’m thankful that I’m finding time to continue reading (Thankful #4). I’m on my third book of the week. Here’s what they are:

Not exactly deep fare, but I’m having fun. Some of you might remember my posting previously when I first discovered there was a zombie hunting Alice. For those curious, it was just okay. Brilliant concept, and they did some fun bits throughout to keep with the theme, but the writing and plot left me a bit … meh. I’m hoping book two (which I’m reading now) grows on me.

That said, Drink, Slay, Love was surprisingly witty and fun. Among other things it had some lovely quotes. Like this:

“Who were you chasing?” Evan asked.

…

She considered a half dozen responses and decided on that the truth sounded the most innocuous because of its sheer insanity.

“I was chasing a unicorn.”

Evan nodded sagely. “Isn’t everyone, at least on some level?”

– pg. 142, Drink, Slay, Love, by Sarah Beth Durst.

Indeed. Aren’t we all?

I’m thankful for my swim parka (Thankful #5). We hit one of those “colder than Mars” snaps this week: down to minus 37 degrees Celsius at one point with wind chill. I even wore it to work one day. It ain’t classy, but it’s warm.

For the non-former competitive swimmers in the house, here’s a picture. Basically they block wind, are huge, and fuzzy on the inside. With a hood.

I’m thankful that I made it a full work week without any alcohol (Thankful #6). I’m cutting back on calories and bad habits and a few glasses of wine after work is a bad habit I’m going to try to work on. That said, I’m celebrating my work-week victory with a glass of wine while typing this. Because balance and celebration of successes is also important, right?

I’m thankful my husband’s new year’s resolution is to help more around the house (Thankful #7). Dishwashers have been emptied, counters cleared, and … like Shaggy said?

I’m also thankful that my husband will be watching the girls tomorrow afternoon so I can go see a friends’ play (Thankful #8). I’ll be heading over with another friend to see Ottawa Little Theatre’s dress rehearsal of Bruce Norris’ Clyborne Park. Looking forward to the afternoon out.

I’m thankful for connections made blogging (Thankful #9). With that in mind, I’ve taken the plunge and signed up to attend my first blog conference in May. I’ll be attending BConnected conference right here in Ottawa. Button’s sported on the side of the blog. Looking forward to meeting local bloggers and learning more about blogworld there.

I’m thankful for the book P is for Princess and sudden creative inspiration for teaching writing (Thankful #10).

My eldest has struggled since early days with fine motor skills and is currently behind her peers for writing letters and her name. So I bought this book because, in addition to vocab, it also allows the kids to trace each of the letters with their fingers (in the correct way) as they go from letter to letter.

She was pretty ambivalent about the whole tracing thing until one night early this week at bedtime when I decided to assign letter tracing sound effects – à la Victor Borge’s phonetic punctuation.

We’ve been tracing letters ever since, and she giggles and loves making the sounds while she does it.

We have one for long straight downward lines, one for short horizontal lines, one for curves etc…

Not yet clear if this will translate over to actually writing the letters, but I figure it HAS to be registering on some level. And it’s fun.

For those who are still scratching their heads at the Victor Borge reference. Here it is:

My mother use to do it at dinner to make us laugh every now and then. And, I think, to help me with punctuation. I never forgot it.

So there’s my ten for this week. What are you thankful for?

I’m linking up with Lizzi and her Ten Things of Thankful Weekend Blog Hop.

Check out the others and share your own.