Give Thanks, Day 11-20

11.  I'm thankful for yummy chicken fried deer steak and the awesome husband cooking it.  

12.  I'm thankful for school holidays!

13.  I'm thankful for DVR, Wii, iphone, nook, and all the other technology that has me spoiled rotten.

14.  I'm thankful for youtube, because that's how I learned to knit.  

15.  I'm thankful for cookie dough that allows me to be so lazy that my kids don't realize what "from scratch" means.

16.  I'm thankful for Nonnie, who taught me what "from scratch" means and to Granny who is teaching my kids.

17.  I'm thankful for doctors, medicine, breathing machines and all the things that keep us well.

18.  I'm thankful for my job and all the people who show up every day and do their best for our kids.

19.  I'm thankful for good books and the ability to read them.  

20.   I'm thankful to Mrs. Smith whose face pops into my head every time I see a passive verb or the incorrect usage of a word.  She's the reason I can write coherently and the reason I'm cursed with wanting to correct the writing of those who cannot.  

 

A Watched Pot...

Josie was making mashed potatoes and was getting impatient waiting for the water to boil.  Cody told her, "A watched pot never boils."

She thought about it and said, "I bet you could also say, 'A watched pot never burns down the house.'"

TGIF

It's finally Friday, and I'm spending the day home with Jake.  He's been sick since Wednesday, and he's still running fever.  Hopefully he'll feel better soon.  At least we'll have a few days off from school next week for Thanksgiving.  We haven't made any plans, but that makes me happy.  There are a lot of things I need to do around the house, and I guess I'd better get busy Christmas shopping.  How is it possible that it is already time for Christmas??

Flashback, but it's not Friday...

For some reason, I didn't think I needed to sleep tonight, so I have spent the last hour looking at the last 4 years of my blog.  I came across this picture, and thought I would repost along with Josie's current picture.  Has she really grown up that much?  Time really does fly!

2009

2012

Still Thankful, Days 6-10

I love that November inspires people to express their thankfulness.  I am continually amazed by all the blessings in my life.  I pray that I will learn to live a life of gratitude all year--not just during the Thanksgiving season.  No pictures today, just my next 5 days of giving thanks.

6.  I am thankful for having enough--enough job to pay the bills, enough home to keep us warm and safe, enough food to keep us fed (and then some), enough of everything.  We live in an abundance of enough, and I sometimes wonder why we were given this life and others go without.  What makes us special?  Why are we so blessed?

7.  I'm thankful for my circle of friends.  They've laughed and cried with me.  They've taken my side, even when I wasn't right.  They've helped raise my kids on a daily basis.  They've helped me clean my house.  They know that if anything ever happens to me, they'd better hurry and get to my house and clean it before anyone else sees it.  They're my sisters, my family.  They know all my secrets, and they still love me.

8.  I'm thankful for my town and community.  I never dreamed growing up that I would live anywhere but Happy, TX.  If someone had told me 25 years ago that I would someday live within an hour of Houston, surrounded by pine trees, and work in a school with more kids than lived in our whole town, I'm sure I would have laughed.  Luckily God doesn't make mistakes, and we've ended up exactly where we are supposed to be.  Magnolia has been good to our family, and I am grateful to call it home.

9.  I'm thankful for parents who taught me right from wrong, the value of hard work, and that life is meant to be enjoyed.  I only got to keep my Daddy for 14 years, but what a man he was!  God gave me a Mama that continues to inspire me with her strength.  How many stay-at-home-moms could take over a 2,000 acre farm with a rag-tag workforce that consisted of my sister, my two cousins and me?  She definitely earned her retirement, although I'm not sure what everyone in town has to talk about now since we aren't breaking things on a daily basis anymore.

10.  I am thankful for God's plans for me and my family.  I don't know what they are, but I pray that I will learn to slow down and listen.  I am thankful that God hasn't given up on me, even though I keep trying to drive the boat, instead of trusting Him to prosper me.  It's not my timing or my planned path, but thank goodness everything happens the way He intends it.

Thankful

Every day on facebook, I have been reading posts about being thankful.  Here's my list for the first 5 days of November:

1.  I am thankful for God's grace.

I am forgiven, loved, blessed.

2.  I am thankful for Cody, who is more than just my husband.  He is my best friend and my partner.  He is the hardest working man I know, and there's no one I'd rather spend the rest of my life with.   As an added bonus, in the event of a cataclysmic event that takes us to a technology-free world, there is no one I would rather be with than him.  He is the country boy that will survive, because he really can skin a buck and run a trot line.

3.  I am thankful for my two smart, healthy, fun, crazy, active, caring kids.  What joy they bring every day!  I am so glad God gave them to us; I can't imagine life without them.

4.  I am thankful for a childhood, hometown, family, and history that has shaped who I am today.  When you grow up in Happy, TX, have all your grandparents in the same town as you, go to a 1A school, and spend summers on a tractor, your values may not match everyone else's, but I'm okay with that!  Grateful to have been a small town, country girl.  No matter where I live, I'm still that same girl at heart.

5.  I am thankful for the freedom we enjoy in this country.  It wasn't free, and I am so grateful for those people who put their lives on the line to protect our way of life every day.  I am proud to call these two men my grandfathers.