30 Days of Thankful--Day 9

I am so thankful that God gave me the gift of being able to multitask. Right now I am browning meat for supper (I am making an additional dish for the freezer), singing songs with the little girl I babysit, printing out a turkey craft to make with her later, starting dessert for tonight's Lifeworks class, and uploading music to my itunes (I have to reload it all onto my new computer...ugh). I love being able to multitask so I can sit later and read books with my kids without being distracted because I have accomplished my day's work.

30 Days of Thankful--Day 8

I am so thankful that I get to be home when my kids are home. I have been so blessed the last 10 years to be able to stay with my kids. I got to be here with all of them when they were infants and now I get to be here when they get on the bus in the morning and when they get off the bus in the afternoon. And, now that they are all in school, I feel even more blessed that I get to work and bring in a little money and still get to be here with my kids. God is good.

30 Days of Thankful--Day 7

I am thankful for changing my clocks. Yikes....you have no idea how difficult it is for me to say that. However, I have decided that today is going to be a day of thankfulness instead of complaining and contemplating a letter to my congressman at 4:30am. I am thankful that I was in time this morning to spend some good, quality time in the Word. I was fully awake to kiss my husband good-bye as he headed out for his tree stand. And I was able to actually bake some breakfast for my kids. If I'm really productive this morning, I plan on taking some time to REST this afternoon and hopefully I can stay awake past 8pm tonight!

30 Days of Thankful--Day 6

I am thankful for Sabbaths. We typically have unusual days of sabbath at our house since Sundays are Joe's primary work day. However, at least to me, Sundays still seem like a day of rest. We get to worship together with our blood family and our brothers and sisters in Christ and then we get to nap and rest. I typically try to stay off the computer and not do much housework. Usually our meals consist of something I've made on Saturday I is either in the crockpot or the oven or it is what we call at our house "get your owny" meals. After a good Sunday where I have intentionally taken a break from life, I can usually say good morning (and mean it) on a Monday morning.

30 Days of Thankful--Day 5

I am thankful for wonderful teachers. We have been so blessed with such great teachers for my kids. Just last night we witnessed another example of our teachers going above and beyond the responsibilities of their jobs. All of the fourth graders had a lock-in at the school. Why? Simply because they had been working hard this year and the teachers wanted to reward them. So four very brave teachers hosted the lock-in and from all sounds it seems it was very successful. Of course, right now my fourth grader is "sleeping it off". My hopes is that the teachers were able to get good naps this afternoon too!

30 Days of Thankful--Day 4

I am so thankful for my house. I LOVE my house. When we moved here four years ago with four kids I never dreamed that I would be able to live in a five bedroom home. I was hoping for 3 bedrooms with a good play area. And when we first looked at this house, I didn't even realize it had five bedrooms. It is just the right size. And it has a fireplace to warm us by on cold, damp evenings like last night. This house is a constant evidence to me that God truly does know the desires of our hearts.

30 Days of Thankful--Day 3

I am thankful for rainy days. Rainy days make me want to stop, sit down with a book and a blanket and a roaring fire in the fireplace. And I have discovered over the last few months that I need good reminders to stop and do such things. So today I thank my Father for a nice rainy day reminding me to stop and rest.

30 Days of Thankful--Day 2

I am thankful for hot running water. I have recently rediscovered my love of a nice, hot bubble bath. I got a bathtub spa set as a white elephant gift in July and when my kids were on vacation at Grandpa and Grandma's a few week's ago I thought I'd try it out. I sat in the bathtub with complete silence (except for the occasional popping of some bubbles) and the dull rumble of the back massager. I enjoyed a good book and breathed in the aroma of my bath bomb from Lush. It was so. so. relaxing. So I have added bubble baths to my weekly routine. Last night as I was escaping in the bathtub my mind wandered to 10 years ago. Joe and I went on a mission's trip to Mozambique. Mozambique was in 2000 and still is the 5th poorest country in the world. While we were there we stayed in one of the nicer houses in Maputo (the capital). Every morning when we went to bath, we would poor cold water into an electric hot pot. We would heat the water up and then attempt to achieve a nice, warm sponge bath. I was there for two short weeks and Joe was there for 5. It was such a pain when we were there and then I think of the people that live there permanently...I am so thankful for my hot running water.

30 Days of Thankful--Day 1

In honor of November, the month of Thanksgiving, I thought I would do a series on thankfulness. We will start out with one that may seem a little odd to some. I am thankful for Halloween. I always get a feeling of gratefulness and patriotism during Halloween. What other country is so great that you can simply dress up and knock on some doors and get candy. In our small town the streets are filled with families and some neighborhoods take Halloween as an opportunity for a block party. Halloween is a simple reminder to me of the great town and country that I live in. And so, from that perspective, I am thankful for Halloween.

The Storyteller

I had conference marathon evening last night. I managed four parent/teacher conferences between 6-8pm. AND I managed to make it to all of them on time and didn't get mixed as to where I was supposed to be. Not bad considering they were spread between two schools. One of many highlights of the evening was getting John's journals for August and September. I love, love, love reading stories that my kids write. They are all so different and creative. John especially seems to have a gift for creating and telling a good story. I thought I would share some of them. Each day his teacher has a question that the students answer and then illustrate their answers. One particular day the question was: "What do you think your teacher keeps in her desk?" John's answer:

"I think my teacher keeps a giant bone in her desk. So if the class is really, really, really bad I am sure she will give everyone a good "thwonk" on the head with it. That is why I try to be super good. So I will never get a bump made by the bone. Boy that teacher is scary."

His stories make me smile.