When I began my way toward 1,000 gifts from God I thought that maybe I'd get tired of counting somewhere along the way and simply stop.  Instead I find it a little bit addicting.
I find myself living in the beauty of each day instead of waiting for the next "big thing" to come along.
I find myself satisfied at the end of a busy work weekend instead of pining for the things that I missed.
I find myself counting my blessings as I am driving and telling Chris my list before going to bed.

I find myself happy.
joyful.
humbled.
blessed.

Here is the beauty of this week so far

565. a multitude of facebook/e-mail/phone birthday greetings - and one accordion rendition
566. the trip to Mable with the Brenna fam
567. holding my husband's hand along the way
568. Grandpa Brenna shaving during most of our visit
569. Grandma Brenna seemingly knowing who we were
570. a beautiful drive through MN countryside

571. days that my car does not leave our garage
572. the autosave feature of blogger and g-mail

573. forgiveness for words that came from my dirty yet repentant heart

574. thoughtful birthday gifts: a packet full of love letters, a gift card for a movie date night from a friend, russian tea, and a book about 1000 Awesome Things

575. ooo, ooo, ooo, I have a blog friend. Actually, she is a real friend but she did mention my blog on hers, which I (understandably) think is completely cool. She is on a journey with her family to become debt free and is writing about it here.

576. lots of sleep to get rid of a sudden headache
577. Chris' (mostly) soft rhythmic breathing in the middle of the night
578 - 580 are for Chris alone since his mom and sister and our friends read this list
581. Cooking up delicious things in our kitchen until our feet hurt and our friends sit in awe of the food
582. A wonderfully fun dinner party (probably more on the later since it does deserve it's own post, I think)

583. Sitting outside on a cool evening, watching the sun set (over Target, which did not make it less beautiful), eating ice cream that "fills in the cracks" perfectly, smelling the sugary, chocolaty concoction float out of the doors from coldstone, laughing with friends.
(I worked hard on that last sentence, so you should read it again. ... ... okay, thanks.)

584. moving the magic bullet to a lower cupboard where I can reach it.
585. learning about trust, forgiveness and repentance in our marriage.
586. my peonies are blooming after two years of not blooming (probably due to not enough sun, a problem that was fixed when we cut down the big tree in our front yard last fall) and it makes me SO stinking happy. every time I use my front door.
587. Sitting outside cold stone with five friends with our calendars (and one blackberry) open, coordinating summer schedules.
588. crisp white shirts. I haven't used bleach since an unfortunate incident in college and i will say that the white shirts make my old navy scrubs look new ... well, better at least. (Thanks honey!)
589. Friends, who as soon as I start my sentence with "we will need a few people to come to Milwaukee to help us move ... " make dibs on who gets to go first. seriously. love. them.