***A bit of blogkeeping: Have you entered to win 4 tickets to the I-X Christmas Connection? Check it out! Remember, you can tweet daily for additional entries.***

This November, I decided to take the “Thankfulness” challenge. Every day, I share on my personal Facebook page one thing for which I am thankful. What I’ve discovered so far is that, whether it’s a big thing or a little thing, I have so much to be thankful for and starting each day thinking about that puts me in a pretty good mindset for the rest of the day.

Since we’re right at the middle of the month (November, where are you going?!), I thought I’d share my first 15 days of thankfulness:

1. Today I am thankful for a warm, snuggly bed when it’s cold and windy outside.

2. Today I am thankful for my friendship with Beth, which has lasted through college craziness, distance, and lots of life changes and is still strong, vibrant, and relevant in our lives.

3. Today I am thankful that I got most of my chores done yesterday, so I can have a day to relax before the work week starts again.

4. Today I am thankful for my graduate degree. It’s been a long strange trip figuring out how best to use it and what to do with it, but it’s always been what I really wanted for my career.

5. Today I am thankful for the ability to occasionally work from home, with the pups as my office mates and pajamas as my suit.

6. Today I am thankful for the “Tri-County Wives Club” (Alicia, Amanda, and Kimberly). We are somehow the perfect fit of four very different, yet very similar women. I am daily inspired, strengthened, and cheered by their presence in my life.

7. Today I am thankful for being a member of Playhouse Square Partners. We have a lot of fun and do a lot of good at the same time!

8. Today I am thankful for the interesting and diverse people I have met and become friends with through blogging. I never would have anticipated it, but it’s been a source of amazing connections.

9. Today I am thankful for the relationships that didn’t work out, teaching me what was really important and clearing the way for those that endure.

10. Today I am thankful for the John Carroll alumni community and the opportunity to stay involved with a place that means so much to me.

11. Today I am thankful for our veterans, who bravely and selflessly made our freedom possible.

12. Today I am thankful for warm sweaters, coats, gloves, and hats when it’s cold and snowy. Stay toasty, my friends.

13. Today I am thankful for Book Club. We’ve been meeting in various forms for over 4 years and haven’t read one of the books in at least 3 years. But I’ll take the monthly excuse to see these ladies!

14. Today I am thankful for Tobey. Four years ago today, I adopted him from a high-kill shelter and it’s the best decision I could have made. He is truly the sweetest, most loving, most neurotic perma-pup!

15. Today I am thankful for the weekend ahead with absolutely no plans. There’s nothing wrong with being a homebody every now and then!

Are you taking the Thankfulness challenge? What are you thankful for?

***Disclosure: I am a member of Playhouse Square Partners and am on the Board of the John Carroll Cleveland Alumni Chapter. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.***