30 Days of Thankful--Day 29

I am thankful that my kids can remember what Christmas is all about in the craziness of this month. I went down to my basement this morning to pick it up a bit. I don't do this very often. It is the kids' domain. And, so, to maintain peace the cleanliness of the basement doesn't come up very much. But, I had some time and knew it needed a mother's touch for a few minutes. They spent much of last weekend in the basement working on a play they wanted to do for Christmas. I was so touched this morning when I found a handmade manger in which they had cut up yellow construction paper for the straw. It was a very realist looking manger. It made me feel good and warm inside...

30 Days of Thankful--Day 28

I am thankful for new life. One of the moms I babysit for had another baby this morning. I got the privilege of taking big sister to the hospital to join the rest of the family after his birth. I got to hold the little boy in my arms when he was only about 3 1/2 - 4 hours old. So. very. precious. I am not sure I will ever cease to be amazed at the miracle of new life...brings tears to my eyes just typing about it.

30 Days of Thankful--Day 27

I am thankful for kids who are so curious and creative. I was working on supper last night and Joe had taken the girls out Christmas shopping so it was just me and the boys. This is a rarity. I was soaking up my boys. Nathan spent 20 minutes in a discussion with me about the sink and pipes and such. He got a drink of water, watched the water go down the drain and immediately wanted to know where it goes from there. So he opened up the cabinet and followed the pipes. This led, of course, to the one that comes from the dishwasher. So then we opened up the dishwasher and went exploring. I was faltering a little bit with some of his questions which happens quite frequently. There are so many times I feel so out of my league. Maybe I should be just thankful that we have the internet in those moments. I love watching their eyes and seeing their minds learn about the world they are in.

30 Days of Thankful--Day 26

I am so thankful that I have actually more than 30 days to post my 30 days of thankful! I have obviously fallen behind. Here's what has distracted me:

• We traveled to Indiana to celebrate Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time with family. This year we were with the Horn side. Joe was simply excited that one of his nieces actually likes him. Little Jane really warmed up to him.
• After Thanksgiving my parents were able to come out for a visit. It had been awhile since we had seen them so it was really good to catch up with them.
• I have a new kitchen sink which is so gorgeous and makes it look like my whole kitchen has had a makeover. A big thanks to both sets of parents who were involved in this.
  
• I am just about done with my Christmas shopping. I may pick up a few stocking stuffers here and there, but other than that I am done.
• My house looks like the season. The kids and I had a really great time decorating this year while Joe was out hunting. We did save the "drunken star" for him to put on top of the tree. Now hopefully it will stay on the tree until we are ready to take the tree down.
• Our little Sophie is a much humbler dog this morning. Occasionally she decides to crawl out under our fence and come around and see if we will let her in the front door. Yesterday on her excursion the neighbor's black lab decide to come over and say hi. Sophie thinks she is as big or bigger than the lab and has gone after him before. He evidently decided that he needed to show her who is boss yesterday and bit her on the back hip. (Please don't blame the lab...he is about as gentle as you can get. We are fairly certain Sophie majorly provoked him.) Thankfully she is going to be okay. She had to have 3 little staples put in on the wounds. I think she is also going to have to wear the "cone of shame" as she has already managed to pull out two of the staples.
• I got to visit our MOPS group at church last night and speak on one of my favorite Christmas topics...Advent. I had such a great time with those ladies.