March 1, 2026 by suzanne day by day

Seven for Sunday

It is now somehow March. With a new month, apparently, come new and disturbing things to occupy our collective attention.

I am extremely thankful that February has had, as its companion, Elisabeth’s latest exercise in finding gratitude each day. It has been a gift to feel obligated to focus my mind on the big and little joys that surround me. Thank you so much, Elisabeth, for leading this practice in tracking the glimmers of light even on dark days.

This past week was a birthday week, and since many of the things that made this week’s gratitude list are birthday-related, I’m going to deviate from how I’ve tracked them. Instead of going day by day, I’m just going to make a big list.

Sunshine!: We’ve had more sunshine than not this week, and I’ve loved it! Spring feels like it is trying extra hard to burst forth into our lives and I appreciate the effort.

*This is a photo from a few weeks ago because somehow I didn’t take a single outdoor photo all week.*

Lunch with Mom and Dad: I got to go out to lunch with my parents, which is always so lovely. Having them nearby is something I do not take for granted, and I am so glad they enjoy my company as much as I enjoy theirs. After lunch, my mom and I went for a little stroll in the sunshine. Wonderful.
Baking Projects: I did a bunch of baking this week, which is always enjoyable. My attempt at lemon bars was a bit of a flop (I forgot the salt entirely and then I’m pretty sure I underbaked the crust), but! I did make a delicious loaf of perfect sandwich bread from scratch. And I transformed a pair of extremely past-their-prime bananas into a snack cake that my kid and her friend gobbled right up.

Sleepover: The kids were off school on Friday again (don’t want them to have too many five-day weeks!), so my kiddo had one of her closest friends stay the night. We went out to dinner, then grabbed ice cream, and the girls had a wild time watching movies and giggling and staying up way too late. Even though the noise grates on me, I am so grateful that my daughter has this friendship in her life.
Birthday Cat: My kitty turned one, and it was fun to celebrate him. He brings me more joy than I ever could have imagined, and I am grateful for him every day.

Checking Off an Onerous Task: My car was due for a checkup, which I *hate* doing, for so many reasons. The experience was comically awful, but now it’s DONE, and I don’t have to get a checkup for a long time!
Long Distance Love: I got so many cards and texts and phone calls for my birthday, it was staggering. I feel so very lucky to have so many wonderful, kind, caring people in my life.

Mexican Food and Margaritas: My husband wanted to know if he should make reservations at a steak house for my birthday, but you know what? I wanted mediocre Mexican takeout and margaritas from a bottle. That’s what I got and hoo boy, was delicious.
Flowers!: My back-home best friend sent me the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers!!!! Lenny of course had to inspect them (and taste a leaf immediately, which is why I can only buy cat-safe foliage; he threw it up later which was super fun for all of us) before I moved them to one of the few cat-safe spaces in our home.

Call Week Perspective: Call weeks remind me how grateful I am for all the weeks my husband is not on call.
Tea!: My parents gave me an extremely generous check to use on something frivolous, which I am looking forward to spending. Since my mom likes to have something for me to unwrap, she also gave me two tins of looseleaf tea that sound fun and delicious, and a little tea strainer that looks like a leaf!

Clean Sheets: While my kid and her friend slept in, I laundered all the bedding. I just LOVE slipping into a fresh, clean bed at night. It’s a small thing, but it brings me pleasure.

Books!: My husband got me a stack of great books to read, along with a couple of other gifts. He knows me so well; these books all sound fabulous and I can’t wait to dive in.

Surgical Success: A beloved family member had surgery this week, and – even though we don’t yet have the results – the procedure itself went smoothly and the family member is doing great.
Yoga Nudge: Julie has invited everyone in blogland to join her, virtually, for yoga practice every Saturday. I finally got my rear in gear and managed to do this video – which was all about slow, intentional poses with lots of deep breathing and mindful exploration of gratitude. I hated every minute of it. But, as with many things that are both difficult and worthwhile, I am so glad I stuck with it. Forcing myself to slow down, mentally and physically, is something I struggle to do, and long after the video ended I was enveloped in a sense of serene calm. Oh right; this is why we’re supposed to try things that we don’t normally do, and to push outside our comfort zones once in awhile. I am grateful for that reminder, and grateful to Julie for facilitating it!

Long Distance Friends, Again: On my birthday, I got a call from a friend I haven’t seen in seven years. This is one of my favorite people in the world, and I really don’t know why we lost touch – I want to blame children and careers and time zones, but I really need to just look harder at how I can make connecting with him more of a priority. Anyway, he called me and asked where I was, and I told him. Since it was kind of an odd question, I asked where he was, figuring he was in Europe or on a ski hill somewhere. But no, he was IN MY TOWN. He ended up coming over for dinner that night and spending time reminiscing with me and my husband and catching us up on what’s been going on since we last saw him. It was so incredibly special, and I don’t think I can adequately express how grateful I am that we were able to get together.

New Rug: We finally finally ordered a new rug to replace the IKEA rug that’s been under our kitchen table for fourteen years. For the most part, I still like it. But it has become a tripping hazard and Lenny likes to hide hair ties underneath it, which is making the problem worse. We haven’t managed to remove the new rug from its package yet (see above re: Call week), but it’s HERE and I’m excited!

Forty-Five: Even though forty-five feels startlingly old, somehow, I am grateful for this birthday and for every birthday I get to have. Growing older is, a lot of the time, a pain in the ass, but above all, it is a gift.

*The thick envelope on top of the yellow package contains my colonoscopy instructions. Woot.*

Many thanks to Elisabeth for leading another month of the FIG Collective.

February 22, 2026 by suzanne day by day

Seven for Sunday

Thank goodness for Elisabeth: her F.I.G. Collective project is not only keeping my brain primed to find things to be grateful for this month, but getting me to blog when I feel completely sapped of post ideas.

Here are seven things I’ve been especially thankful for over the past week.

Sunday, February 15: Carla has the day off tomorrow (for President’s Day), so the three of us plus my parents left town for a mini ski getaway. We had great snow, great weather, and a lot of fun. I adore skiing, and I am so grateful to be able to do something I love, with the people I love.

*The morning started out foggy but the snow was perfect and no one was there!*

Monday, February 16: The grocery store still has a TON of beautiful Valentine’s Day floral arrangements – and they’re all half off! I snapped up this cute little planter.

Tuesday, February 17: Even though we hire a cat sitter to come take care of the kitty twice a day while we’re out of town, he acts as though we have abandoned him for years to fend for himself. He demonstrates his relief at our return through days of intense and unending purrs and Velcro-ing himself to our sides, and I’m not going lie: I love it.

*Who knew purring could be so accusatory?*

Wednesday, February 18: Guess what arrived in the mail today?!?! What a thrill to be able to experience Nicole’s writing in book form, and to have my own copy of her first novel for my home library.

Thursday, February 19: I had my annual physical with my doctor today. I am grateful that all my labs are normal. I am also grateful that my doctor listens to me and that she was happy to refill prescriptions and submit orders for my first ever colonoscopy. Am I looking forward to this procedure? Hell no. But I have a family history of colon cancer and I am grateful that I’ll be able to get some insights into my intestinal health.

*I really would like to decline, but I am NOT GOING TO.*

Friday, February 20: For the first time in A WEEK, I sleep through the entire night without waking up. I have been seeing many of the wee hours of the morning lately, and when I’m in a spate of poor sleep it’s easy to feel like it will always be that way. I’m so thankful that I am still capable of sleeping six hours in a row.

Saturday, February 21: Today is the bat mitzvah of a family friend, and it was such a joy to witness her confidence and satisfaction as she led the service in Hebrew. I’ve known this kiddo for more than half a decade now, and as I watched her recite the Torah portion of the service, I could see her little second-grade face superimposed over the face of the beautiful young woman she’s become. Being able to watch Carla grow up and into herself is, of course, such a gift, but I am surprised by how moving it is to watch her friends grow up alongside her. The entire day was joyful and celebratory and I am so thankful to have been part of it.

*The cat is wondering why I am using him as a prop.*

That’s all I’ve got for you today, Internet. Snow is falling quietly, the cat is waiting for me to play with him, my family is still asleep. I hope you found many things that filled your heart with gratitude and joy this week, and that the week ahead is similarly full.

February 15, 2026 by suzanne day by day

Seven for Sunday

It’s time for another week’s worth of gratitude, led by Elisabeth as part of this month’s F.I.G. Collective.

Sunday, February 8: I made these apple crisp bars on a whim, and they were SO GOOD. Easy to make, delicious, and they reheat exceptionally well.

Monday, February 9: GUESS WHAT?! My treadmill has magically healed itself!!!! My husband came home last week and took the treadmill apart, trying to fix it. To no avail. Then he and our child and I researched treadmills all weekend and even went to a big box store to try out the most likely candidate. Then, for some reason, he decided to plug in our existing treadmill one more time, and it WORKED. (We think that it may never have been broken; instead, we may have accidentally removed the emergency stop key, which makes me feel like a Grade A Dumbass, but whatever.)

Tuesday, February 10: The temperature SOARED to 40 degrees F (5 degrees C) today! I took a walk outside and I wasn’t the least bit chilly. The SUN was out. It was magnificent!

*Even the clouds are shocked that the sun is out and the temperature is above freezing!*

Wednesday, February 11: YOU GUYS. I went to the post office to mail a couple of books to some out-of-state friends, and I decided to ask whether my mail carrier might have accidentally removed a package from my mailbox. The postal clerk was very friendly about it, and said she would find my mail carrier… at which point I fretted and fretted about how it sounded like I was accusing my mail carrier of stealing my package. My normal mail carrier was out, so the substitute came over and I explained my issue to him. He said that Amazon isn’t supposed to put packaged in mail boxes (did you know that?!) and that the post office had a storage locker where they kept Amazon and FedEx and other non-USPS packages that they would simply send back to the shipping companies, and he would check the locker for me. So he did, AND HE FOUND MY TEA!

Thursday, February 12: Usually I drink a smoothie (made with high protein yogurt and high protein milk) for breakfast, but sometimes I opt for sourdough toast with butter instead. No regrets.

Friday, February 13: Carla mentioned recently that she was hoping to find a necklace that matched her favorite earrings, similar to this one. She told me that she’d seen the exact necklace that she wanted – and had taken a photo of it. Well, I looked back in my photos and she took the picture in September of 2025. So I was pretty sure the store would no longer have the same necklace in stock. But I went while she was in school and, lo and behold, the necklace was there! And it was only $6.99. What an easy way to make her Valentine’s Day a little more fun and special, right?

*This is the best of four photos Carla took of this necklace.*

Saturday, February 14: Family movie night! We borrowed Psycho a week or so ago from the library. I have never seen the movie before, even though I know the general idea. And reading Birchie’s Hitchcock rewatch recaps has piqued my interest about trying some classic Hitchcock movies… plus, my husband and I watched Monster: The Ed Gein Story, the subject of which helped inspire Psycho, which edged up my interest a little more. (I would not necessarily recommend this series. It was riveting and fascinating and horrifying, but also felt problematic in a way I’m not sure how to pinpoint.) (Also, there are a few scenes in Monster: The Ed Gein Story that depict the audience reaction to Psycho in the theaters, and I am always interested, if a little wary, of watching something that causes people to vomit, faint, and run out of the theater.) The three of us watched Psycho and I will admit that I may have dozed off a little bit at one point, but mainly we had a blast making fun of the characters. Horror movies have come a long ways since Psycho hit theaters, and all three of us – yes, even Carla – have a much higher tolerance for gore and terror than 1960s moviegoers.

*I obviously had to text Birchie immediately when we checked this one out.*

That’s all I have for you today, Internet! I hope you’ve found many joyful moments in your days lately.