Grattitude Jar 2025

In this post, I'll go over the entries I put into my grattitude jar for 2025. This is my third year of doing this. In 2024 I had 73, in 2025 53. This makes sense, as the first time I did it I was including things that are ongoing, like being near the Iron Horse Trail. That doesn't change on an annual basis, but I'm not going to record it twice. However, this year I only had 48, so it looks like I'm declining. Maybe a New Year's Resolution will be to have 50 grattitudes.

I will add context to entries where needed, and I will edit when necessary to maintain confidentiality. This won't be in chronological order. I did make a small effort to date them, but I only tried that partway into the year and I wasn't consistent. I'll try to put entries with similar contexts next to each other, though. 

1. I got to go back to my old neighbourhood in Guelph
2. Got to try shakshouka at Kitchener Market 
3. Got to go to The Boathouse (a restaurant in Victoria Park that closed some years back reopened. Funnily, I also got to go to another Boathouse, in Guelph. That happened same day that I revisited my old neighbourhood)
4. Went to Fresh Grounds Cafe (there was a cool cafe operated by The Working Centre called Queen Street Commons. It closed during the pandemic and despite constant promises to reopen it hasn't. However, they have introduced Fresh Grounds at a different location, which feels like an equivalent)
5. My brother discovered and really loves New City Supermarket and Full Circle Foods 
6. A neighbour got us some hostas and helped us plant them (I mentioned this in a blog post. She had a clay pot with chalk for the community to use. One day me and Lee-Anne saw that it was broken so we replaced it. I guess she's got a camera or something, because she saw our random act of kindness and rewarded use with hostas)
7. Kid at the Downtown Community Centre thought I was an actual gryphon (made a blog post on this. I'd never felt more magical)
8. Finding Warren Greenhouse, a local nursery with a better selection than Walmart 
9. Lots of sunflowers looking promising  
10. Got a harvest of snow peas, a bell pepper, some arugula and parsley from the garden so far 
11. Green bell pepper coming in strong (we would get a few) 
12. Already have 6 sunflower blossoms, a red tomato, & zucchinis looking promising (zucchinis didn't pan out. Otherwise, very successful garden this year)
13. One of the tallest sunflowers has made multiple blossoms after losing its first  (broke a personal record for sunflowers, apparently didn't record a grattitude for it)
14. Getting dividers for my Gryphood binder 
15. Upgrading my Gryphood binders with page protectors,  double-sided colour pages, and a new binder (eventually made a second binder, one for Main Courses, the other for Snacks and Sides)
16. Got to make my WALES Cookbook 1st Addition. Got 18 recipes from members, 20 members participating 
17. I finally made the buckwheat chocolate groat squares, and they were pretty good (recipe and groats attained by a neighbour of my grandparents)
18. Finding three more Peter Wohlleben books at Conestoga Mall's Indigo (Guy who wrote Hidden Life of Trees. I've since read The Weather Detective. It was good, but not at the same level. I've written about it on my Reviews blog)
19. Facilitating a bread baking workshop at WEAFY Day (company event. One of the facilitators had to back out because of an emergency, so we needed to come up with a new workshop and I stepped in)
20. Meeting an old neighbour at the train station after missing them while dropping by their old place. The son spoke a full sentence (The son was previously not able to speak full sentences, so this was a positive surprise)
21. I found my old boss' turkey recipe from 2020 and made it again
22. Mom finally went to the doctor and she could have been in worse shape (she was diagnosed diabetic like myself, but it makes more sense for her age. She isn't in as bad shape as I was, and a little medication has done wonders)
23. Learned how to use puff pastry
24. Lee-Anne got an interview as a medical social worker (she didn't get the job)
25. Central had their good roast beef deli meat
26. Hearing a hawk's cry on the Iron Horse Trail (this is the only one I don't remember)
27. Learning about Goblincore
28. Getting the Finch App
29. My YouTube algorhithm giving me small-time YouTubers after my 1000th blog post (I figure this is because I read 999 posts of my own blog. It's owned by Alphabet, as is Youtube, so my algorhithm must have thought, correctly, that I enjoy small-scale introspective creators)
30. Lee-Anne and her brother got to say goodbye to their grandmother
31. Seeing someone that I used to support on the ION and telling her about our wedding
32. Lee-Anne made it through her surgery okay
33. Going to Wordsworth Books
34. Getting to use the Park Place Pool (a perk of my mother and brother moving into the building nearby. We get access to the amenities)
35. Mom was next to a hospital when she was hit by a car
36.  Only mom's shin was broken in the accident, was otherwise okay 
37. Mom lives on the first floor of an apartment building and only a 3 minute walk from our place as she recovers (she got hit by a car and broke her shin this year) 
38. Mom's health has improved since starting medication 
39. Dropped my blood sugar by 0.2 (after some stagnancy, it was nice to see improvement. Unfortunately, I would later backslide a bit)
40. Getting back into painting with the Crow Magician (made it for a coworker that kept getting The Magician in tarot readings) 
41. My coworker saying that my Crow Magician is the best thing that anyone has ever made for her
42. A stranger telling me that she loves my painting as I brought it to WALES
43. Someone at Walk or Wheel said my whale painting is majestic 
44. A person at the Central Artwalk recognized Lee-Anne and gave her Girlguide Cookies (we ran into someone selling them last year at a different art walk. She was selling them but ran out. She took Lee-Anne's number but never got back to her. Apparently she wasn't able to get them again. This year she noticed us and made sure we got our cookies)
45. My mother and brother visited four locations for the Central Art Walk
46. Lee-Anne tried going to the Breakfast Club at Community Healthcaring and enjoyed it. She's signed up to volunteer
47. Saw a coyote for the first time
48. Running into someone from the Summer Program again