Thankful for Health

On Thanksgiving Thursday, the big girls and I ran in our local Turkey Trot.  Us and about 7000 others!  We met friends out there and had a great time.  Not to mention all, of us had great runs.  

The big girls completed a 5K.  The picture below is Nature Girl's back.  She is in the yellow.

These two are of Little Mama.  If you look close at the picture above, you will see a super sweet smile!

The three runners.  I had just completed my first 10K.

The three older kids have all been training with me as I prepare for my half marathon.  The girls run and walk.  Usually by themselves.  And Boop will go with me when I walk for an hour.  

I am super proud of them and their desires to be active.  I will continue to train and they will continue to be encouraging.

It really was a great way to start our day of thanksgiving.  Thankful for health and beautiful weather, family and friends . . . 

Giving Thanks

I am so thankful today for family, food and friends.  For a God who loves me and my whole family and everyone so much He sent His One and Only Son to pay the penalty for my sin so that I may have eternal life with Him.

And I am thankful for my macdaddy washer!!!!  We have been without a washer for four days.  I could not hardly walk into the master bedroom bathroom for all the wash on the floor.  Yesterday afternoon the nicest delivery guy brought us the biggest washer we have ever seen.  It is commercial grade and the kids could take a bath in it!

Yesterday Boop spent much of his afternoon listening and staring at it.  If you listen real close it sounds like a plane taking off.  It uses half the water and spins the clothes until they are almost dry.

I know I should be enjoying the holiday cooking and preparing etc.  (The kids are watching the parade.)  But, we are having dinner with my in laws so I only have a couple of easy dishes to make.  So, I am spending the day, thankfully, washing all of our clothes.

God says in His word "in everything give thanks" and I am totally giving thanks for the ability to do laundry . . .

Boop and Broccoli

About six weeks ago, at church, the kids were learning about the virtue of thankfulness.  To encourage the kids to be thankful, at the end of the program, they handed out Thank You cards and told each child to think of someone they wanted to thank and send them the card.

The next morning, during school, we took some time to think of someone they each wanted to thank.  Nature Girl picked her Sunday School teacher and LM gave hers to her ballet teacher.

For a couple of weeks we had been praying for a son of a friend of ours, nicknamed Broccoli, who I have known since he was my kids age.  He had recently been deployed to Iraq.  He was part of some type of convoy thing.  We prayed for his safety every morning and sent letters and FaceBook messages to him.

So, when Boop picked some one he was thankful for, he picked Broccoli.  He wrote out his card, thanking him for his service and wanting to know who was winning. ;)  We put it in the mail.  I sent Broccoli a FB message just letting him know he would be receiving a card written just by Boop.  He sent me a message back letting me know that the Post Office was closing because they were being sent back to the States!

Of course that was fabulous news and I knew my mom's friend would be over joyed!  About 2 weeks later I got Boop's card back in the mail.  But, we were going down to visit my mom and would be able to leave the card with Broccoli's mom.  And she would be sure to get it to him when he was state side.

Well, this morning my phone rings and it was a number I did not recognize.  Usually I just ignore those.  But, I am sooooo, soooo glad I didn't.  It was Broccoli calling for Boop!!  I was so excited.  And, when Boop was told who was on the phone for him, he grinned from ear to ear.

They talked for a few minutes.  When I asked Boop what Broccoli said he told me "He said he thinks they won."  That soldier, who we prayed for and are so thankful for, made my son's day.  Where would we be without the men and women, who are willing to put their lives on the line, every day to protect the lives of others.

Thank you Broccoli for your service and we are so thankful you are home for the holidays . . . .

1000 Gifts

Which is totally stolen from A Holy Experience blog. And if you have never read anything by Ann Voskamp, I encourage you to do so. I consider her way more "spiritual" then me, so it is sometimes hard for me to read and understand what she writes. But others say it is just her writing style, which can be somewhat "difficult" to comprehend.

Anyway, she has had a number of struggles in her life and has written a book called One Thousand Gifts. I will be honest, I have not read it. Yet. But, I know many people who have. And I had dinner with one such person about a month ago. She told me that the book got its beginning (if I understood correctly) because she, Ann Voskamp, was struggling with life and decided decided to find out if she could come up with 1000 things she was thankful for. And a book came out of it. (Obviously very general sketch here.)

The woman I was talking with said that she started a similar list in her own home. She placed it somewhere where she could see it daily. And she keeps adding to it, as thankful things come along. And then, if she is having a hard day, she looks at the list and it helps to remind her of things she is thankful for.

I loved, loved, loved the idea. So I stole, stole, stole the idea. I am not a thankful person by nature. What I mean is, I have to remind myself to give thanks. Constantly. And I usually forget. (Although, when I do stop to think about it, it is not very hard for me to find things to be thankful for.)

So, I took some of my pretty cardmaking paper and some stamps and made a 1000 Gifts list and hung it on the side of our pantry, in the kitchen. And, as I think of things to be thankful for or if something happens that makes me smile, I add it to the list.

Some of the things I have added, that I am thankful for are: the Cross, the faith my hubby has in me, books, EG in pigtails, and the big girls dancing. When I start feeling grumpy, I try to remember to look at the list and something on there will usually change my thought process. Or, at least make me smile.

Just recently I received an email from a blog called Proverbs 31. The post was about how our thoughts have wheels. My thoughts take me somewhere. I need to be careful what I think about because those thoughts will either take me to a good place or a bad place. Which usually causes me to act/react in certain ways.

I can see this sooooo prevalently in my life. If something gets me down or annoys me, my actions follow suit real quick. But it is hard to control what rolls around in my brain. Especially when something annoys me! But I hate, hate, hate how something that is stuck in my brain can make me react in an unfavorable way to the life that is going on around me.

As with many things in life, it is all about choice. Some choices are easier to make then others. I know that if I just choose to be thankful, my attitude will change. God says in the bible "a merry heart makes a cheerful countenance." And the list is a way to help me to choose to have a merry heart.

I don't know if I will make it to 1000 anytime soon. But, when I look up at my beginning list, I can't help but have just a little change of heart . . .