Thankful

I'm thankful for

The blue eyes of my babies

Copious amounts of dessert

Kisses shared

Smiles too

Marshmallows on yams

And fun to be had

Charades with family

And friends too

My brother acting silly

My mom taking time with my girls

Matching jammas

And bedtime bears.

Showers of blessings

Lately it seems like there is a lot of heartbreak in blog land. I don't know why, but it seems everywhere at I "click" I see stories that just make me want to hug others, let them know they are loved and whisper words of hope.

I think this has made me particularly thankful this autumn. I think going through the class I am and pondering the theology that is so solidly in my soul, again makes me even more thankful. Then, I turn to my family, and words are not enough to express my gratitude. But, they will have to do, since that is all I have.

So, I thought I would make a bitty list of some things that I am grateful for today. Hope you are able to do the same!

1. The promise of heaven.

2. My husband.

3. Lilla

4. Anna

5. My home.

6. My church.

7. My parents.

8. My siblings.

9. Their spouses.

10. That my brother is able to walk after a very bad skateboarding accident this summer.

11. The change of seasons.

12. My dog.

13. The classes that I'm taking which are challenging me.

14. My bestie, Shelley, and her family.

15. My other bestie, Carrie, and her lovely children.

16. My camera, which has captured so much this year.

17. My blog, which has enabled me to share some special memories and thoughts.

18. Blogland and all I've learned from all of you.

19. The Bible which has come alive to me more this past year.

20. My husband's job which has provided us a living this year.

21. My mom mobile which takes us where we want to go.

22. Our zoo pass, which has given us many wonderful days.

23. Our children's museum pass, which has given us much education.

24. The opportunity to homeschool my children.

25. Music, as it plays a huge part in my daily life. I'm listening to Ray Charles singing Christmas carols right now. :)

26. Hearing my daughter read and seeing her recognizing words. Amazing.

27. Anna developing right on path.

28. Anna's warm hugs and kisses.

29. Lilla telling me I'm a good mom.

30. Hearing my husband sing Amazing Grace to the girls last night.

31. My husband's family, who always welcome us in.

32. Awana, which has taught my daughter such a huge amount of bible verses it just amazes me.

33. God's amazing grace to me, even though I surely do NOT deserve it.

34. The opportunity to help people who are struggling. I'm thankful to be part of a church that does community well in reaching out to people.

35. My whole family is healthy right now. Not even a runny nose in the bunch. Now that's something to be thankful for!

What are you thankful for today?

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving every year I like to write out some things that I am thankful for. I try to do 365, but I am sick right now with a spinning head so I'll so 100 for now!

1. Salvation

2. The cross

3. Jesus

4. My husband

5. Lilla

6. Anna

7. My sister, Erika

8. My sister, Melanie

9. My brother, David

10. My brother, Chris

11. My brother-in-law, Russ

12. My sister in law, Jody

13. My niece, Madison

14. My niece, Sydney

15. My mom

16. My dad

17. My stepdad, Richard

18. My former stepmom, Sandy. Although she is no longer married to my dad, she still has a place in our hearts!

19. My new stepmom, Nel.

20. My bestie, Carrie

21. Her children, Jenna

22. Buddy

23. My other bestie, Shelley

24. Her hubbie, Tom

25. Her children, Taylor

26. Makie

27. Gracie

28. My dog, Ellie

29. My mother in law, Mary Lynn

30. My father in law, Norbert

31. My BIL, Alan

32. His Wife, Steph

33. Their children, Justin

34. Sean

35. Olivia

36. Emily

37. My BIL, Mark

38. His wife, Melissa

39. Their daughter, Tiffany

40. My SIL, Terri

41. Her husband, Brent

42. Nephew, Alex

43. BIL, Dan

44. His wife, Amy

45. Children, Danny

46. Jeff

47. Matthew

48. Amanda

49. Jackie

50. Billy

51. My BIL, Jim

52. SIL, Tammy

53. Nephew, Grayson

54. Niece, Jasmine

55. My house

56. My car

57. My bed, which I’m laying in now since I’m sick

58. My husband’s job

59. Being able to stay home with the girls

60. The library

61. Wal-Mart, the evil empire, but when you live here, it’s all you got!

62. MOPS

63. MOPS Steering Team

64. My fridge is full of food

65. Our family has clothes

66. We are able to pay our bills

67. My church

68. Worship Music

69. Clean, hot running water

70. Hope

71. Peace

72. Joy

73. Faith

74. My Bible

75. Living in the USA

76. My camera, I’m such a photo taker!

77. Photoshop, it’s amazing what that thing does for pictures!

78. My laptop, all my friends live inside it. J

79. Facebook for all that it’s connected me with this last year.

80. Prayer

81. Real, honest to goodness love

82. Pizza, my very favorite food

83. The special family who helped us financially this last year. Just incredible!

84. God blessing us financially when we really needed it

85. Lilla accepting Christ this year

86. Lilla choosing to be baptized when we never even talked to her about it.

87. Awana

88. Kid’s church

89. My pastor

90. My pastor’s wife

91. Heat, I don’t respond well to cold

92. The Children’s Museum

93. The Zoo

94. The trail near our house

95. The park

96. The change of season, so I can appreciate what I have!

97. Anna becoming well after a very rough start in life last Christmas

98. So many meals and prayers provided to us last year after Anna was born

99. Sleep

100. Life

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Thankful Thursday

As the days whip by in a rapid pace closer and closer to the Thanksgiving holiday next weekend, my thoughts are drawn on all that I have to truly be thankful for. We found out today that a fellow we know from church lost his job, we are thankful for income. When I bought some canned vegetables this week I couldn't help but think of the local food pantry that needs to be stocked, and we are thankful for food on our table. Then I hear about a blogger who is struggling to survive, and I am thankful for my health. When I hear of all the desperate ways people I know are grasping at happiness, which just seems to be out of their reach, I am thankful for the cross.

And...here are two more beautiful little things I am thankful for this week...

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Gosh, where has the last week gone? It has flown by and I have basically been just far from blogland. I just feel like I've been super busy, which is a good thing. What does the bible say? Idle hands are like the devil's playground? OK, that's not word for word, but you get my idea. LOL

The last week has actually been a bit hard. We have been so blessed to drive two cars with no car payments for nearly 2 years now. How? Well, we drive old cars. It seems like everyone has nicer cars than us, but because we are living on one income, it is so hard, so we just are happy they've stayed with us for so long. Unfortunately, Michael's decided to depart from us on Friday. What was a 4 cylinder, is now a 2 1/2 cylinder. Yeah, not so good. So, it's sitting at Michael's parents waiting to be salvaged. Of course we weren't expecting that to happen so we've had to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what to do. We definitely can't afford a new car payment. We went to the dealer to talk about leases and when they told us $400 was a normal car payment, our chins about hit the floor. First of all, we don't believe it, and secondly, that is just crazy!! Particularly for people with 2 or 3 car payments. Absolutely insane!!

So, we decided not to lease either. So we are left with the options of:

1. Only having one car. This would be really difficult since we live in the country and Michael works 45 minutes away. I would literally be stuck for 4 days a week...ugh! If we had to we would do this but it's not our preference.

2. Buying a used car. This is most likely what we will do. We've been looking around and we actually found a minivan we almost bought. Michael started talking to a guy at work though that owns a car lot and next time he goes to the auction he's going to look for something for us. I'm not a fan of the PT Cruiser as I just don't like the body style, but he thinks he can get one at a really good price and it would fit our needs for more room, so that may be the way we go. I'll let you know!

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was pretty nice. We started out the day looking at the ads for black Friday and ended it the same. In between, we decorated the tree that we had put up Wednesday night. And let me tell you how the peanut loved that! She was so cute coming down stairs and look at this...

I hope you all have fun celebrating the holidays too!