Forcing Myself to Express Gratitude

gratitude blog, reasons to be thankful

Hello. Hello. Here I am again this week. Back with a thankful post, I did not feel like writing.

My oldest child (18) surprised me with an old car he bought a few days ago--a Dodge Stratus 2003, sedan, with a sportsy look. Never mind the paint that needs to be redone. That is just cosmetics. But the windshield has cracks in two spots. In addition, the front tires are bald, and the first time he introduced it to me, it did not even start.

"Oh, I must have left a light on."

Maybe.

The car is operable again but I am still nervous. He was supposed to work today at 4 pm, I thought. At 3:45 pm, I got hold of him. He was about to drive from a park to home. He said he'd go home to change his shoes before work. Half an hour later, I could not concentrate. My head is hurting and I was almost certain he got into some kind of trouble.

He came home for a couple minutes. He seemed OK. He works at 4:30 pm, he said. I wished he would have told me earlier.

Communication. We need to talk more.

I told him about the dangers of driving with two front bald tires for the minute I had with him before he left for work. He was already late anyway. His work was ten minutes away.

Anyway, for my sake, I should avoid thinking negatively automatically. He was not answering the phone earlier because he was driving. He knows he is not supposed to use the phone while driving, maybe, just like I told him.

What should I be doing? Be thankful. Think positive.

I took this week off. I planned this ahead as, during summer, my hospital unit is slow. So I am thankful I can do some fun things I enjoy like watching my dogs get silly and jealous with each other as my daughter pet each one.

I decided to declutter my home so I can actually see and use the things I want to use. Plus, I boxed several things for donation. My kids let go of their bikes as well that they have not touched for more than a year, so more room in the garage for my son's (very old) new car.

My daughter and I did some gardening. I have a small backyard that my three dogs use as a toilet so no more vegetable gardening there. I cheated and bought a tomato, squash, peppers, rosemary, and basil already in pots, some already with flowers. My daughter likes planting the flowering perennials so I let her do that.

I earned an Amazon card for participating in healthy activities at work so I used it to but a small electric mower. I have a small lawn and only a manual mower, but boy, the electric made the job a breeze. Oh, that reminds me, I am donating my old mower as well. That may have been easy pushing a manual mower ten years ago, but not anymore.

We had a good time watching Paul's son play high school basketball this summer. I still want to complain, though, about the entrance fee of $8 per person for adults. This is high school, geez.

Isn't Velvet, my brown dog so cute? Who said Pitbull (mix) dogs are fierce?

I am thankful for Blue Apron meals my aunt let me try for free. I have made gourmet-hotel-good home cooked meals because of the service.

Okay now, the sky is dark, and it might rain. I am worried about my son again driving his car with bald tires. Soon, I hope, he'd change them.
Ten things of thankful
Do yourself a favor and express your gratitude with this fun team.

Amazon Fresh Review

ABC Wednesday
Join us in ABC Wednesday in its new home.

The letter of the week from ABC Wednesday is the letter A. For the lack of ideas, I am writing about the new (to me) grocery delivery service through  Amazon called Amazon Fresh. I promise I am not getting paid by Amazon for writing this post.

How timely is that that I have just received my first grocery today with Amazon Fresh. What did I order? See the picture below including five grocery items not included.
Amazon Fresh Review



Here is a review based on my first try with Amazon Fresh Grocery Delivery by Amazon in Denver, Colorado.


Pros:

  1. One advantage of using the service is the convenience. I ordered online without having to walk the isles of the store and standing in line waiting for the cashier. The groceries are delivered right to my front door--kinda like the Uber or Lyft for my groceries. This service can attract home-bound adults, busy folks, or some people with transportation issues, like, maybe college students who do not have a car. I am thinking I can do this to friends who are sick or old who may have trouble getting to and from the store.
  2. They have enough choices of brands to choose from.
  3. I can choose to shop local from the "local" tab. This is especially useful for me when shopping for produce as I like being able to eat locally grown foods when I can if the price is right.
  4. I don't have to live with the guilt of not tipping. Compared to Instacart app, another service I used in the past (with buttons for 10-20% tips), there is no tipping option when you finalize and pay for your order. I really don't have much room for tipping in my budget in addition to member fee.
  5. It has a sales tab where I can buy the deals for the day. This makes their food more affordable to me.
  6. The groceries are well-packed and came in great condition. The frozen foods remained frozen and the refrigerated items stayed cold. Frozen spinach frozen? Check. Juice cold? Check.

Cons:

  1. I have to choose thru delivery time that does not necessarily fall the same day I ordered. I had to schedule for the next day six to eight a.m. My first choice was 6-8 pm the same day I ordered. I am hoping this will improve when the service gets more popular in my area and they hire more helpers to deliver.
  2. If I choose to extend my service for another month after the trial, I have to pay $14.99 a month for membership. Also, if the total of my order is less than $40, I get charged the delivery fee of $9.99. Keep in mind, the service is for Prime members that I already pay an annual fee for. Anyway, I love Prime and use it more than once a month so I cannot complain about that.
  3. The groceries are well-packed with one-way packaging, alright, but maybe with too much packaging. I think some items can be combined in one bag, for example. Imagine, each bag is paper-bagged, metallic-insulated bagged, masked-taped, cardboard-lined, and packed with ice packs or with additional dry ice. I am not sure if the metallic insulated bags are recyclable in my area here in Colorado. I am guessing not. And, I can only use so much ice packs. Perhaps my donation station would take them. 

Conclusion: So after all these cons, would I buy from Amazon Fresh again? You betcha. The pros still outnumber the cons. I am sure I'd use the service for a month during the free trial. After that, maybe so. I already just ordered the Amazon Dash Wand that goes with Fresh so I can scan items at home that I want to buy again or vocalize my order through the wand that automatically lists to the virtual Amazon cart. It costs $20 and I heard that I will get $30 credit for it. Plus it comes with Alexa (another "a").

What did I do with the extra time instead of grocery shopping today?  I went to a nursery instead to get the plants below--annuals, perennials, ground cover plants, aloe vera, rosemary, lavender, squash, bell peppers, and hot peppers! I love the extra free time!

plants, vegetable plants