Thankfulness (or an attempt at it)

Nice knowing you, October. Apparently, November is the new kid in town and I have to be honest, I am not prepared for this changing of the guard! Seriously, where did fall go? I feel like summer wasn't that long ago, but judging from my apparent lack of tan (honestly, how pasty white can I get in two months??), fall has been here for a while. And with a quick look at the calendar, is almost on it's way out. How does that happen? It's like the Halloween to Holidays Death Spiral is officially here. You get all dressed up for Halloween and go trick or treating, and when you wake up the next morning, you are unwrapping gifts under the Christmas tree. That's how it seems, right?

Anyways, where was I going with this?


Hmmm....


Oh yes, Thanksgiving. Right. (I'm sure no one else sees the connection from my fall rant post above to Thanksgiving, but trust me, it's there). So I was reading a blog from a girl who I went to college with (which I don't know if she really knows that I read her blog- I mean, we lived in the same dorm and had some of the same friends, but I don't know if she would remember me. Is that a legal form of stalking? She just always has such fascinating posts. Am I being to honest here? Do any of ya'll do that? Read stuff from someone that you remotely know, but secretly? Again, I digress...) and she was posting daily something she's thankful for for the month of November. I thought it was a good idea. I do my share of complaining, and thought it would be a good practise to work on thinking thankful thoughts- not selfish or whiny thoughts. (If I spell practice like practise, does it make my blog more sophisticated? Yeah, I agree. It does).

Since today is November 4, I am four days behind, so will post four things that I am thankful for today.

1. A quiet house. After naptime, it was one of those evenings where the dinner, bath, books, bed routine just wore my out. I didn't have much patience or grace with my kids and was just worn out. I am thankful that right now, it is quiet. I can sit, type and unwind.

2. Our house. God completely blessed our socks off with this new place, and sometimes I just feel completely underserving. For so long home ownership seemed so unattainable yet was a huge longing on our hearts. We weren't expecting it to happen at this time in our lives, and the fact that it has makes me feel the  underserved love that God longs to give us. (Not that I would only know God's love for me if he provided a house, but you know what I mean, right?).

3. Sweaters. Seriously, is there anything better than a cool, crisp fall day, a good pair of jeans and a sweater? No.

4. Skype. I know that it's weird, but this little program has proven to be an awesome connection for my kids and my parents to use. When we uprooted from California to Michigan many years ago, I knew that I would miss my family and friends. That was a given. Once I had kids, however, I realized how sad it was for me that my kids wouldn't get regular interaction with my side of the family. This past summer we started to use Skype, and it has been so good for my heart (and hopefully my kids) to use this method of communication to form connections with my family. My mom has been awesome on Skype.  She always picks games and activities that the kids can totally engage with her 2,000 miles away. I feel good knowing that they understand who Grandpa and Grandma are and know them as someone more than people we see once a year.

Okay, there you have it! What are you thankful for? I don't think I'll be posting these every day, but I promise to at least have a list of 30 (or is it 31?) by the end of the month.