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Welcome to my new weekly gratitude feature, Gratitude Gems, where I show a little appreciation for the good things in my life!

Starting this feature today, of all Mondays, seems particularly poignant.  Today was the quintessential Monday for me… I woke up on the wrong side of the bed and I was achy all over, particularly in my back, neck and shoulders.  My husband also woke up on the wrong side of the bed, which made us quite a grumpy pair while getting ready for work this morning.  AND I felt pretty sure the cold I’ve been fighting for the last week or so was going to hit me full-force.  I was in need of a little attitude adjustment.  Mondays’ll do that to you, I suppose.

Luckily it didn’t last long.  This morning there was a moment when I looked down at my keyboard, noticed my hands, and marveled that the paint job I did on my nails on Saturday – something I rarely do because it never seems to last – was still perfectly in tact and oh-so-pretty!  That got the ball rolling…

Which got me thinking about other pretty things like makeup and I remembered that I didn’t need to do mine this morning because the make-up I applied yesterday and couldn’t be bothered to remove last night was still in perfect condition when I went to brush my teeth this morning, and that saved me about 5 minutes of prep time.

And luckily I have relatively worry-free skin so sleeping with make-up on generally doesn’t bother me.

I also saved time on my hair this morning – having curly hair with a mind of its own means that sometimes it just gets bigger and/or better when I sleep on it, and I can just spritz with a little water to tame the frizzies when needed.  Plus I don’t really have a grease issue to contend with.

All that made hit me in less than a minute and I realized just how pretty I felt today.  And knowing I looked good gave me confidence, and confidence inspired positivity.  Take that Monday!

S