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.  

Do you Pinterest?

I love Pinterest!  

Where else can you find...

 truth, 

inspiration, 

knitting patterns, 

  ways to use the junk I collect, 

and recipes I'll probably never try.

Sounds kind of silly, but I have found so many great ideas on Pinterest. 

Like this bulletin board.  We have one that was inspired by this one in the entrance of our school.  

The view from my chair

My weekend has pretty much been spent in my oh-so-comfy recliner--not because I didn't have anything to do, but because I've been fighting (and losing to) a cold.  Thankfully my better half has finished all the laundry and fed everyone, and that was after he went to the store and bought chicken noodle soup and cough medicine for me.  I'm hoping this week is a little calmer than last week, but I'm not going to hold my breath.  With red ribbon week, Josie's first cheer competition, fall carnival at school, Jake's birthday, and Halloween around the corner, I doubt that this week will be restful.  While it often seems that there is too much to do and too little time, we are blessed in so many ways.  What an amazing life we live!

Lost Tooth and Picture Day

Jake lost another tooth this week.  Now, he's got one of his top, middle teeth left and reminds me of Willie on Swamp people.   If you watch the show, you'll know what I'm talking about!  Jake is counting the days until his birthday.  He is very excited about turning 8.

Yesterday was picture Day for cheer.  In year's past, picture day has also included a parent show to kick off the season, but our gym has grown so much, there are too many teams for all the parents to fit in the gym at the same time.  This is JoJo with her friend Caitlyn.  They've cheered together for 3 years now.  

This year, Josie's team has new uniforms that are very cute on the girls.  I can't wait to see the "real" pictures.  My friend Courtney is a professional photographer and does a phenomenal job.  She took our family picture for our Christmas cards last year.  If you live in the Tomball area and need pictures done, she's amazing.

So now we've practiced the hair and makeup and we're ready for another season of competitive cheerleading.  Their first competition is just 2 weeks away!

our week

I vowed last week that I was going to update this blog more often.  I really enjoy blogging, but have gotten out of the habit.  I prefer to have pictures for every post, so I've been putting off posting since I have not taken any pictures in the past week.

Our week has been filled with tumbling and cheer practice, homework and housework, cough medicine and breathing treatments.  

Josie has already had to have a wire on her braces reattached--not really a surprise, just the way we roll.  Thankfully it happened on a day that the orthodontist is in Magnolia.

We've been contemplating dog training for Dixie.  Apparently we do not know how to train her not to chew on everything--including us!  Any suggestions?

Neglected but not Forgotten

This blog has been seriously neglected in recent months.  So much has happened that I have not blogged about...new job, new puppy, new school year, new braces...and that's just this past month!  My resolution is to update more faithfully.  

For the first time since PreK, Josie is at a different school from me.  She is handling 6th grade like a champion, and I am adjusting to our new arrangement (mostly).  Right now, she's in the thick of preparing for another competitive cheer season and playing intramural volleyball.  

Jake has settled into 2nd grade and continually brings a smile to my face.  He has decided not to play soccer in the fall because it would interfere with hunting season.  A boy has to have priorities!  

Daddy brought this little cutie home about a month ago.  She was abandoned outside the golf course with 3 other puppies.  Wanting to avoid the inevitable kid-chosen names like Snowball or Snowflake, he named her Dixie before he brought her home.