Monday Listicles: 10 Things I'm Good At

Joining in today with the wonderful, amazing & thoroughly inspiring Stasha at North West Mommy. She is one of my all-time favourite photographers, bloggers, Instagrammers & Tweeters.

10 Things I'm Good At

1. I'm good at loving others - I have been told by many that I have a huge capacity to love... I am also a true believer in "tough love". I have raised 4 children of my own (on my own) and I have a prodigal son who (due to his own pain) continues to wound my heart and the hearts of my other 3 children BUT, the more he wounds us, the more I love him. Also, 2 1/2 years ago I took on the enormous task of being the "other mother" to 5 girls (my husband's daughters, who he also raised alone). I became the person to whom they transferred their huge issues with their own mother... I was initially loved by most, I was expected to be "the mother they never had", I was hated, yelled at, sworn at.... BUT I love them all nonetheless.

2. I'm good with numbers - birth dates, phone numbers, account numbers, membership numbers, etc. I have the ability to recall numbers. I also took Maths as one of my majors during my teaching degree, so I'm really good with numbers mathematically too.

3. I'm good at remembering details - I can recall conversations almost word for word and where each person was sitting/standing at the time, and  more...
If I read a letter I can remember the page layout and even the words. I have aclear picture in my head (kind of  a photographic memory thing).

4. I'm good at finding something good in every situation, something to be grateful for - When my children's father left us, I was determined that they grow up remembering the good times when he was in their life (hard to do as a victim of abuse). I never wanted to focus on the pain; we acknowledged it, dealt with it, but I wanted them to remember the happy times. This is a skill I have again given particularly an enormous amount of time to more recently - feel free to read my Gratitude Journal & my post on having an "Attitude of Gratitude".
(some days I slip, but it doesn't take long to pull myself out of it)

5. I'm good at encouraging others - I guess it's something I have always been good at. I did have excellent role models in my own parents. I suffered low self esteem for a large part of my life (I probably still do to an extent, as this list was difficult to complete). I see the importance of building others up, encouraging them to set achievable goals and to be the absolute best they can be.

6. I'm good at reading - I love reading books, articles, blogs, whatever. It's not unusual for me to have numerous books on the go. Currently I am in the middle of 10 books; 2 novels and 8 other books. A girl needs variety in her life, right?

7. I'm good at photography - I'm not excellent or exceptional but I seem to be able to take a number of decent photos each time I go out shooting... and enough people have commented on my photography over the last few months so I have to concede that I am good at it.

8. I'm good at driving - I've always been a safe driver with excellent anticipation, judgement and awareness. I can't drive much at the moment, due to the residual effects of injuries to the right side of my body from a car accident in Nov 2009, but I still possess those qualities when I can do short weekly drives.

9. I'm good with computers - I am the resident family go-to girl for computer issues,  technical issues and software issues. Yep, even my extremely techno savvy son still comes to me sometimes!

10. I'm good at being organised - and passing on that skill to others.

I have to leave you with a couple of images of some "happy places" of mine. No post of mine is complete without a photo.