"Be grateful for what you have, not greedy for what you don't have"

How do I keep this in mind?
How do I keep from complaining and whining and wishing for more?

Though I read One Thousand Gifts several years ago and agreed with Voskamp, I still have nothing but trouble being grateful in my daily life. Like the four year old in this article I lose sight of the things I have and see only the holes in my life.

I just found this list I made a few years back titled - Things I love.
It reads as follows:

• Flowers
• Tire Swings
• Tea Parties
• Freshly Cleaned Clothes
• The Ocean on my Feet (Tide)
• Laughing Late at Night
• Warm Cookies with Cold Milk
• Apple Picking
• Tree Climbing
• Rope Swings over Water
• Horse Rides
• Picnics with Frisbee
• Warm Summer Nights - that feel like noon at midnight (midnight summer drives with the windows open)
• Roaring hot Fires

Funny, how I forget the magic of daily things - the constancy of the things I always adore.

I've been trying to come up with 10 things a night for which I am grateful. ...The optimal word is "trying". Translation: I did well on vacation - when there were no distractions from it - but now that I'm back to my life it is dangerously closet to non-existent. Like flossing, really, it totally happens ...some times...if I feel like it...and there's a full moon...and I happen to be in the presence of floss at that very moment.

So, here. So now. Now is a good time for me to put this down again. To put this in my heart again.

Thank you for:

• The supersonic sound of the Blue Angels practicing over head at lunch
• The way fruit flavored yogurt tastes far superior when it's loaded full with extra fruit.
• These strange August days that feel cool as spring.
• Real conversations with my brother over lunch. 
• Being able to ask my best friend any random thing that comes to mind - no judgement, no inconvenience.
• Starting a new book that is so funny and fun and full of promise
• Ridiculous dialog between female characters that makes me think of Sarah.
• The way having a kindle let's you magically receiving books from the library like surprise gifts.
• Multi-colored Sharpies - packs of 24 possibilities. 
• Seeing the joy in someone else when good things happen (US citizenship). 
• Silhouettes of geese flying overhead in the sunset peachy sky with a green field below. 
• The way the sun feels so warm on my skin as I scrunch in a chair to read a good book.
• The feeling of the wind in my clean, cut hair.
• Talking Grandma about the past in a garden gazebo. Her honest to goodness joy that I came.