There are many things I am thankful for #7

Before I start, don't forget to check out http://hypnoticbard.blogspot.com/ if you would like to link up or read what others are thankful for this month.

It never ceases to amaze me how much easier it is to note the things you are not thankful for. That's kind of where I am today. It's raining and grey out and I'm already sick of it being as dark as midnight at 5pm; it impacts my mood. I had to work on the holiday yesterday when most of my coworkers were off. And I even had a bad day at church. When my husband called me Sunday afternoon I said "I had a hard day at church" and then I thought, who even says that? Me.

But I guess that's why it's all the more important that I think of things to be thankful about today since the negativity seems to be oozing out of me. When  you focus on the positive, maybe you notice it more?

Today I am thankful for my mother. Unfortunately, a friend's parent passed away this week and my heart is kind of breaking for the family that is impacted. This is the third parent death among my friends in a short period of time. Sorry to be morose and I don't want to share anyone else's private pain but it really makes me feel somber. And even though I don't want to be depressing here, there's no other way to explain why I feel so thankful for my mom today.

For whatever reason, being nice doesn't come easy to my family. Except to my mom. The rest of us are crotchety as hell, to be honest. And we can't get out of our own way most of the time to give voice the nice feelings we have about each other. It makes me sad that it's hard for me, even a little embarrassing, to express how fully I love my mom. But I do and days like today make me even more aware of it. My mom is my world. When I say my prayers at night, before I list any of the other things, I always say how thankful I am for my husband and my mother (and my cats, in the spirit of full disclosure). Because while family, in general, is a challenging concept for me in light of some experiences I have had, I know that the core people I am connected to are the best possible people I could wish to have in my life.

Sometimes it takes some bad days to put things in perspective that this version of bad is so much better than other people's versions of bad, or even some of your own other versions of bad.

There are many things I am thankful for #6

Today I am thankful for.....

• Political ads on tv being done for a while
• The sunny day that it is and a prediction of warm temps this weekend
• The granular sugar on the top of Dunkin Donuts chocolate chip muffins
• Days when I can wear my jeans to work
• My yellow converse sneakers that I bought at a street fair in Paris. They just make me happy.
• My kitchen being painted as we speak!
• The cooking lesson from a friend last night
• The hope of sleeping in tomorrow. Yawn.
• Police officers 

What are you thankful for today?

There are many things I am thankful for #3

I was thankful for things yesterday; I just didn't want to type on my phone. Because I am on a computer so much during the week for work, sometimes just turning on my laptop at home is too much for me. So one thing I am thankful for (and I am sure I am not alone) is weekends!

This weekend I was thankful for a lot, actually. Saturday was a rare weekend day when I had nothing scheduled. I felt amazingly liberated and had plans with a good friend who is always down for an adventure so we kind of made up our minds as we went along. We made an outstanding, memorable day out of a road trip to Wegmans, a half hour in one direction, and a mall that is an hour away in the other direction-even though we passed two other malls en route. I am grateful for finding fun in the small things. I am also grateful to be in a financial situation that allows me to have enough gas in my car to make extraneous journeys like that. Of note, I was also pretty thankful for the free cider and pumpkin bread that I got to sample at Williams Sonoma. Yum!

Sundays are for church and spending time at home. I was thankful that my husband helped me with some tasks around the house that would have been insurmountable without his assistance. I was thankful for the fabulous shoes I wore with my church dress. And, most of all, I was thankful for having a faith community. I can honestly get why "religion" can turn some people off-I can see where they are coming from on some of their points. But, for me, there is such a great benefit to the group of people that comes with the religion. It's such a joy to me to see people each week who have known me my whole life; people I really enjoy knowing.

Finally, I was extremely thankful for last night's episode of The Walking Dead. Laugh if you must but watching tv is one of my favorite escapes and a good episode of a good show is kind of like getting a present when it's  not a holiday. That show rocked my socks off last night. I would go so far as to say it was the best episode of the show, period. I don't want to give any spoilers for people who haven't watched yet but WOW.

What are you thankful for today?

Service

This is a sample of what it looks like to provide holiday gifts to 232 (the final count) families who have experienced domestic violence. Donors were amazing this year! My heart was extremely full as I got to see the look on people's faces when they received exactly what they had asked for. One woman who has been especially down the past few weeks actually jumped up and down when she learned she had enough money in gift cards to buy a pressure cooker:)
So I am really blessed to actually get two Christmases. This is one of those times when it is truly better to give than to receive.
My experience with all of this has left me with an overwhelming testimony of service and impressed upon me that it is one of the things I want to make sure any future child of mine learns. I am always so in awe of children who understand the value of putting others first sometimes and wowed by the parents who are able to instill that. Last week in the midst of all the holiday party planning, a mother brought her daughter, who helped to carry loads of bags of goodies that would be given to other children. Later in the week, while visiting my grandmother in the nursing home, a group of carolers from a local church came to sing and among them were two kids. One was probably too young to understand or choose, even, where he was but the other  may have an enduring memory of her parents making service to others a priority and the way it made her feel. Finally, I got a little emotional when the news actually reported a nice story: a little boy donating his "life savings" to buy Christmas gifts for his friends' family who had just lost everything when their mobile home burned down. When the community caught wind of his donation, others matched it and were able to provide a thousand dollars worth of items, including essentials, to this family.
I know there are a lot of holiday sentiment and well wishes being thrown around this week but service is something we can all do all year long. We all have unique strengths that were given to us to help fill in others voids. Use yours wisely.
And, in conclusion, just to lighten things up, I will use a quote from a reality tv show....remember who is writing here!! "Live a life of love and service."-Bob Forrest (Celebrity Rehab on VH1)

Today's recommendations

In line with my decision to deviate from my mold of themed blog posts, today I bring you a medley of my thoughts.

• A coworker loaned me a copy of The Immortal life of HEnrietta LAcks. Although I just finished a book I had been sluggishly wading through for months and was really excited to start the newest release from Philippa Gregory about the War of the Roses, I had this one with me while I had to wait at the hair salon the other day and it sucked me in. Pretty much every other chapter is the more science focused information and some of that can be skimmed over a bit, in my opinion. It's interesting but I don't want to get bogged down in all the names and every little detail and new invention. The part I am loving is learning about who Henrietta Lacks was and about her family. Actually, I'm probably even more drawn to the broader racial points the book notes, especially they way races were still separated and people liked it that way, even during  my lifetime! I had a similar realization with The Help as I talked with an older woman who grew up in New England and said her experience of racial conflict in that time frame was very different than it was described in the book, which, of course, took place in the South. However, this book is not fiction. It just awes me to draw the parallels in the time frames being discussed of what was happening in the lives of my mother or my siblings or, like I said, even myself as the story moves into the 90's. It's truly almost hard to imagine that life could have been so different in two different places, not so far apart, within the same country. If you are interested, here is a link to Amazon to read more about the book.
• Yesterday was one of those Dr. Suess days. A terrible, no good day. From feeling sick to finding lots of money missing from my bank account to my car needing to go into the shop and not being able to make it to work, I felt a bit doomed. However, like trials usually do, it helped me appreciate the things that worked well. I was so grateful for my community yesterday. Proud to be a townie!! To mend the money mystery, I talked to people at my local credit union who were super helpful and supportive. It was definitely one of those incidents that, had I been working with a more corporate, big name bank, I would have had a much harder time. Then in dealing with my sick car, I went to my local mechanic, who I adore. When I walk in, I feel like I'm at Cheers. Everyone knows me and I really trust them. How many people can say that about their mechanic? We worked out a deal to get the problem fixed on Monday when they would have a loaner car for me to use. As I drove away, the problem made itself known, loud and clear, that it was not interested in waiting until Monday. While they didn't have a car for me to use to get to work, the patriarch of the company got in his truck and drove me home. Talk about amazing service! And, as a side note, when I paid my bill with them this morning, I used a gift certificate I bought through my town's rotary auction. How's that for tying it all together with a shiny, locally made, red bow?
• Fianlly, just because I don't think bullet points should be allowed to be used unless there are at least three items, I will conclude with kudos for the Muppets movie. I was not a huge Muppets person growing up, I admit. Sure, I knew about Miss Piggy and Kermit's romance but I couldn't name all the other characters. At one point during the movie I asked my husband where Oscar the Grouch was and he was close to shunning me as he told me I was confusing the Muppets with Sesame Street. Oops. All that being said, even a non-follower like me loved the movie. It had a surprising amount of humor that was beyond the kid level. The songs were a little too catchy, even. Ultimately, it was the kind of movie that just makes you smile. A lot. We left the theater and I kind of felt like I should skip to the car. Hubby definitely vetoed skipping but I think the inclination sums up the good feeling vibe the movie created. I recommend it!
  

There are many things I am thankful for

Did anyone recognize that line from a song I remember singing as a kid? It would go on to say "I'm thankful for the earth. I'm thankful for the sea. I'm thankful for my country and I'm thankful to be me." Or at least I think those are the words.

Speaking of singing, in church this week we sang some songs for Thanksgiving. My favorite weeks are the ones near holidays where we get to sing songs that I'm really familiar with.  I remembered singing those Thanksgiving songs in elementary school growing up but when I was singing the words in church, it occurred to me that my niece and nephew probably don't even know what these songs are because they would never fly in a school system these days. Part of me is amazed that they let me sing about God even back then and another big part of me is really sad for the kids today who don't get to learn these classic holiday songs.

A lot of blogs have focused on lists of things they are grateful for this month, being Thanksgiving themed and all. I totally wanted to copy them!! But I decided to wait and hold it all in for this week to really embrace the holiday spirit. I adore Thanksgiving (yes, more than Christmas in some ways) but this year, partly because of  my vacation and partly because of the unseasonably warm weather (snowstorm aside) we have been experiencing, I feel a little unprepared for turkey day this week. So my hope is that focusing for a few days, at least, on the real roots of the celebration will bring me up to speed.

Each year in my journal on Thanksgiving I fill a page with things I am thankful for, large and small. I would like to follow that pattern and, in no particular order, list a bunch of things I am really grateful for:
lipgloss   my bishop   reality tv   my husband   my mother   Stella (my cat)   Pants (my kitten)   cereal   my VIP movie pass   a supportive work environment   a job in this economy   my ability to travel this past year   my new carpet and green paint   DVR   Plimoth Plantation   family traditions   the smell of Barnes and Nobles   time to read   nutella   Golden Girls   heat   fall foliage   raspberries   my car   pools to swim in during the winter   hiking trails   The Humane Society   friends   Target   a safe relationship   health insurance   my grant being funded   being part of a faith community

And thank YOU for reading this:) Happy Thanksgiving!