Good Things Jar 2023

When Kellen was 16, they decorated the Good Things Jar for us. Back in those days, my kiddo lived at home. Gosh I miss that. We were SO close. I am super proud that they are employed and living successfully with their partner Cameron in another town, but I miss them SO much and long for the days when we were in each others lives and really connected. *sigh* …OK! Enough of that, back to the jar. So anyway, in 2013 they decorated the jar. In 2014 we put our “good things” on little slips of paper inside the jar. And in January of 2015, we opened it up and read all the good things together. It was a sweet exercise.

The jar sits in a high-traffic area in my kitchen, and is for storing notes about good things. The goal is that each time I notice the jar, I should stop what I’m doing and think of something good, that I am grateful for, write it down, and put it inside. The point is to practice being grateful and optimistic, all year long every day. It sort of works, some times better than other times.

When Pedro and I moved to our new home, I thought it would be a good opportunity to create a new chapter for the jar. I asked Kellen for a housewarming gift of decorating the jar in something new. They are now 26 years old and have different aesthetics and talents. I handed over the jar, with not quite a full year’s good things in it. The kids just visited and I have my jar back! It’s beautiful!

• 1-20-23 I have a home that I can invite people to visit and stay
• 2-14-23 I am writing again!
• 2-14-23 I played in the snow by myself
• 2-16-23 After two years, Pedro seems perfect for me
• 2-24-23 I love my super annoying geriatric kitty
• 2-28-23 Pedro lost sleep because he was so worried about my unhappiness 😦 ❤
• 3-2-23 Fire in my woodstove
• 3-8-23 Pedro and I easily agree on steps toward our future goals
• 4-18-23 As Luke said, “This is the payoff.” We can afford 3 mortgages at once. {Luke is my financial advisor, and he meant the many, many years of scrimping and being careful with my finances paid off.}
• 4-21-23 Romain reached out to me today. ❤ {This is extra special. My friend Romain is Rwandan, and was living there in 1994. April 21st is an anniversary with monumental implications and emotions. Often he chooses not to speak to anyone, but this year, he called me. It brought me tears of gratitude and hopefulness.}
• 4-27-23 It feels good to have nothing to prove
• 5-8-23 At a scary time in the economy, we are barely impacted.
• 5-24-23 I trust Pedro’s opinions on a house
• 6-1-23 I am looking forward to sharing a home with Pedro
• 9-29-23 I got every damned thing done, and then some. Whew.
• 10-1-23 I’m glad to have my Good Things Jar back for now {Lost it, then found it, but planning to give it to Kellen.}
• 10-1-23 I am so lucky to have Pedro in my life
• {from Pedro} 10-16-23 Endless supply of air Mrs. Meyer soap
• 10-16-23 I get to have an amazing garden next year

Our 2023 jar debuts Pedro’s first contribution. It was silly, like he is. He started with “endless supply of air,” which is a good thing, though it’s not entirely factual and he was only being silly. But then he crossed out “air” and put Mrs. Meyers soap instead, which is a joke between us. As we unpacked boxes in the new house, we uncovered – I am not kidding you – 7 unopened refill jugs of Mrs. Meyers peony scented hand soap. Not the little 12.5 oz hand soap containers (though we had several of those too), no, the 48 oz containers. And they were not stored or packed together, so every other day or so, while we were moving in, we would uncover yet another refill jug of soap. We would sarcastically call to the other person, “You’ll be happy to know, I found some Mrs. Meyers soap!” and the other one would say, “Thank god! I was beginning to feel anxious that we would run out!” One more apparent compatibility of Pedro and me: we use a lot of Mrs. Meyers hand soap.

One more brag: Kellen brought the placemats (in the photos) as a present for Pedro. He likes colour in the house, and these are six matching placemats for our dining table that Kellen made. They are even more beautiful than the jar. Our kids are so awesome. ❤

Oh, I just thought of the first good thing I’m going to put into the jar: my relationship with my kid is still so good that they want to drive all the way here from Albany and stay the night and bring gifts and share a couple meals, and play a boardgame. That is a good thing.