Weekend of Thanksgivings

We've been gone this weekend and thus my silence the past few days. This has not stopped me from being thankful because, actually, I am very thankful for this past weekend! It was almost, ALMOST a mini-vacation!

This weekend we were in Windsor for several reasons. Last year, Violet went to Paraguay on a work team and met Karen. Karen sent back some mandioca flour and some authentic Paraguayan Farmer's Cheese with the work team to give to me. Somehow this stinky cheese ended up in Violet's possession and the dear woman MAILED, by ExpressPost, this stinky cheese so that I could make real chipa! What a thoughtful act that was! The next thing I knew, I was inviting her and her family to spend the weekend at our house a few weeks later and that was the beginning of a friendship for all of us! I am thankful that Violet went to Paraguay and met Karen because it caused us to connect with each other!

I am also thankful for Levi, Violet and Tim's oldest son. He is Stephen's age and the boys just love him and his little brother, Jaden. They talk about Levi all - the- time!! This weekend was such a joy to watch them play together and form a friendship as only little five-year-old boys can do!

I'm thankful for Violet's husband, Tim, who's sense of humor really helped to dispel the mounting frustrations of an over-tired four-year-old boy who just lost it royally at the lunch table. While Fred was in the other room trying to help our Timothy gain control, Violet's Timothy was keeping us all in stitches with his comments. Thanks, Tim, for the comic relief that we needed!

I'm also very thankful that we had a three hour drive there and back this weekend because it gave Fred and me SIX whole hours to talk to each other, and mostly uninterrupted as the boys napped or kept themselves entertained most of the way. We had a lot to talk about, and the theme that came up over and over again was that no matter what happens, we want our trust to be in the Lord and we want to be thankful for His care.

Let me explain a bit ... Fred has been working for the company that purchased our computer business this past spring. He was the only salesperson, working to keep six technicians busy. This company has decided to restructure and model themselves after their Calgary office and that meant that they were going to eliminate the sales position and just have the techs do their own sales. Fred has tried to negotiate with them and help them to see the danger in adding one more responsibility to already-overloaded technicians, but this structure works in Calgary, so they are bound and determined to try it here as well. So ... Fred's last day is December 5. We don't know what God has in store for us after that because there doesn't really seem to be anything opening up at this time, but we are trusting that God will provide. We both have a peculiar sense of peace that is carrying us right now, and I'm thankful that our trust is pushing out the worry. That's not to say that there is no concern whatsoever and that we're just living happy-go-lucky while the "day of unemployment" looms closer and closer. No, there is concern, especially on Fred's part, but still, we have a peace that God is very much in control. And that's a good thing because we have NO control, so we may as well submit to that ultimate Authority and let Him have that control!

How am I thankful in this situation? Oh, for more reasons than I can list here right now! For one thing, God loves us and has a plan for us. He will provide. I'm thankful that both of us watched our parents struggle with these very issues when we were children. I never knew that my parents struggled until much later in life because they always made it seem like we had everything in the world that we needed! Now I am much more aware of what my parents went through when we were younger, but at the time, we never felt we lacked one thing! I wish I would have understood this all back then because maybe I would have appreciated it even more But then maybe not. I was probably still an egocentric child who wouldn't have cared. But now I do, Mom and Dad, and I appreciate all that you did for us back then when you had nothing! You've taught me contentment and how to live off of nothing. Our family will be just fine because of your example.

Ok. I'm going to stop for tonight. It's late and I feel I'm getting wordy so it's probably best that I just go to bed now and stop rambling. Just to summarize though, we had a wonderful weekend visiting Tim and Violet, Levi and Jaden in Windsor and I am thankful for our very real conversations and discussions and the sweet fellowship and encouragement that we shared. I'm also thankful for six whole hours that I spent talking with my husband, praying together about our future, and the fact that we are both determined to praise the Lord and trust in Him no matter what! I'm also thankful for my bed that is calling me now. Good night.

Thursday's Thankfulness

I'm thankful for other people's blogs. I really enjoy reading about my sisters' lives and my aunt and my cousins and my childhood friend and others. What a great time in history that we live in! Could you imagine how much closer our forefathers would have been if they had been exposed to email and blogs and Facebook and IM and texting and all that stuff? I just love it, and I'm thankful that I can communicate with my family on such a regular and inexpensive basis this way! I miss being with them all personally, but I love catching up on here!

This morning, Timothy reminded me that we can be thankful for the pouring rain because that means that we get to use our umbrellas. Hmmm. Good point. What's the use of having an umbrella if we can't use it?

I'm thankful for my neighbor, Kelly. I am expecting a large Watkins order and I had hoped it would be here today as I will be gone for the next few days. I didn't want to leave the boxes sitting on my porch, so Kelly offered to stop by and take them home with her if she sees them here tomorrow after we leave. She's so sweet. She has three little girls, so our households are completely different, but we get along great and don't let those opposite-gendered offspring keep us from spending time together. I believe God has brought Kelly into my life because she is going through a lot of difficult times and she is searching for something. She doesn't know yet that it's God, but I can tell, and I'm thankful for all the hard questions that she throws my way, and I'm even more thankful for the answers the Holy Spirit gives to me at just the right time! Pray for Kelly. She is asking and seeking, and she needs to come all the way to the knocking stage because the door will be opened if she does!

Wednesday's Thankfulness

I'm thankful for memories. Tonight as I was working on another batch of cookies for an order we have tomorrow, I was thinking about Grandma. I have such vivid memories of me kneeling on her vinyl covered kitchen chair, leaning up over the counter in the kitchen while she cut out cookie after cookie after cookie at Christmas time. I never thought about it when I was a little girl, but there were only two people living in her home at that time, yet she was always making huge Tupperware containers full of cookies! Who in the world were all those cookies for?! (That was a rhetorical question! We know who they were for! They were for absolutely anyone who walked throught that door ... especially all the children that knew exactly where those cookies were kept!)

I am thankful for songs that pop into my head that are perfectly appropriate for whatever I'm thinking about or going through at any particular moment. And I love that when I burst into song (as off-key as it may be at times), sometimes my kids will join me with a load of enthusiasm! Usually they're wonderful, uplifting songs, but then some days are like yesterday when I couldn't stop singing, "Five green and speckled frogs sat on a speckled log, eating some most delicious bugs. Yum! Yum!" Anyone know that song? I sang it almost non-stop yesterday until Stephen ran into the kitchen clutching his ears yelling, "Mommy, please stop singing that!!" Despite those odd ones thrown in there, I really am thankful for the songs that God puts into my heart that make me just burst into singing!

I'm thankful for my sister-in-law, Evelyn, who is here visiting from Salt Lake City right now. Whenever Evelyn comes for a visit, all the sisters and sisters-in-law try to get together for a breakfast with Mom Weinhardt. Tomorrow we're going to go to The Fireside Restaurant in Kitchener and I think that all of us are going to be able to make it this time. I love listening to the servers' questions when they are at our table, "Are you all related?" "Yes, sisters and sisters-in-law, and our mom." "Wow. How many of you are there?" "Well, four of us are sisters and the rest are our brothers' wives." "Wow. Oh. Wow. There are eleven kids?! Wow." At Henry and Jo's wedding we even just went by "Brother #6" and "I'm the wife of #6." It got too confusing to say names any more. Anyway, I digressed. I am thankful for Evelyn and for the rest of Fred's family because they love to get together as much as my family does, and I'm thankful that sometimes it's just the sisters that get to visit. It cuts way down on the crowd.

Tuesday's Thankfulness

I'm thankful for little boys' naptimes. I was able to cut out about 350-400 little holly leaf shortbread cookies this afternoon while Stephen and Timothy were at school and Christopher was sleeping! Whew! The orders are starting and I need to stay on top of things here. (ohio_mom ... I had lots of scraps today and contemplated saving them for your tummies - er- house, but some other little tummies got here first. Sorry.)

I'm thankful for lurkers. I got to hear from one of my lurking friends this week and found out what's been going on in her family lately. She's a busy woman, yet she took the time to write to me and tell me a bit of what's going on in her life. I wish she would take the time to blog, too, because I LOVE her style of writing ... it's just like the way she talks. There's lots of honesty sprinkled with dry humor and a hint of sarcasm at times. I've missed talking with her and I'm so glad she wrote to let me know she's still alive!! :) Enjoy your busy weekend, Lurker! You'll be fine! You always are.

I'm thankful that the boys love bran muffins. We've had a bit of a "problem" as of late that has required some additional bran to be incorporated into our diets, so I'm glad that when I make bran muffins for them, they gobble them up. They have no clue that it's for their own good. There is a down side of eating lots of fiber, though, and little boys think it's terribly hilarious. For some reason, when one of them had their little gaseous reaction today, the other shouted, "Attention students!" at the same time and they both cracked up. For the rest of the evening we would hear little toots and then someone shouting, "Attention students!" and then gales of laughter. Sigh. I thought I could teach them to not make this an issue, but I'm not sure anymore. I'm still thankful that they like bran muffins, though, because we have them often and I like them, too!

Monday's Thankfulness

This morning I was woken up by an excited four-year-old voice saying, "Mommy! Snow is coming out of the sky! Can I eat breakfast and go shovel the driveway?" Thankfully, it was almost time to get up anyway, and how could I have been upset with him with such enthusiasm coming out of his whole being?! I was thankful for the childlike excitement that a simple snowfall can bring. It got me all excited about the day, too!

I'm also thankful that guardian angels protected that same little four-year-old boy a few hours later as he tumbled head first down the basement stairs! I heard the bumping and banging and ran over just in time to see him skid down the last two stairs, down onto the concrete floor at the bottom. Of course there were tears and hugs and prayers, and I'm thankful that a little neon-green Diego band-aid fixed a tiny scrape on Timothy's hip bone.

Today I am also thankful for humility and forgiveness. Last week a dear Christian friend of mine accused me of something that I did not do. She was quite adament about it, yet if I wanted to, I could have forwarded an email that proved my innocence, but I didn't. It wasn't worth the fight. I apologized that I had caused confusion and pain for her, but also stated that I believed that I was innocent. The Lord gave me the grace to forgive her there on the spot and to even forget the whole incident, and that's why this morning I was surprised by a phone call from her. She called to apologize for her accusations last week and said that she realized she was wrong and asked for my forgiveness. Wow. Her humility in coming back to me humbled me!! I assured her that I had already forgiven her, and our relationship is restored! Asking for forgiveness and the act of actually forgiving someone is NOT an easy thing! Many times relationships are sorely bruised and damaged beyond repair because there is not a complete attempt to reconcile and forgive. I am so thankful to say that this situation seems to have played out exactly how God wants us to react. I can't take credit for it. I know it was the Holy Spirit working in both of us and I am so thankful to have been a part of such a humbling experience. I'm also thankful for my sister in Christ who also allowed the Holy Spirit to work in her heart and make things right. I have a greater respect for her today because of this, and a greater thankfulness for healed relationships!

Sunday's Thanksgivings

I am thankful for our church's Sunday School program. Because I am involved as a teacher and a parent, I am very aware of what goes on behind the scenes and in the classrooms. Many years ago, a few Sunday School teachers were convicted that our children need to be memorizing scripture at a very young age, when it is easy to be implanted into the hearts! Every week the children ages 4 and up receive a new verse printed out that is their verse of the week. Our boys are currently going through the 10 Commandments and this year we have been putting their verse cards into a little pocket photo album that we keep on our kitchen table to read every day. Stephen said the other day, with such excitement I might add, "Pretty soon we're going to have our own whole book of commandments right here!" I teach the Grades 3/4 class and our verses are a bit more difficult, but it just warms my heart every Sunday when the kids are so excited to recite the verse that they learned that week. I always make sure that I teach my class the entire meaning of the verse so that while they are learning it throughout the week, they can understand every word and why it is such a powerful verse for their lives. I am so thankful that at such an early age our children are hiding God's Word in their hearts! We don't know what the future holds for them, but if they have this Word in their hearts now, they will be able to draw from a Source that will guide them every step of the way!

I'm thankful for competent leaders in the church. Bear with me, I'm on a Sunday School kick here tonight. This afternoon I had a Sunday School teachers' meeting and our superintendent is such an excellent administrator and I am truly thankful for him! He and his wife make an excellent team as they are on the ball and on top of everything! When you see Brian outside of a Sunday School meeting, you see a meek and quiet man who loves the Lord and his family. When you see Brian at work inside a teachers' meeting, you see a man who takes his responsibilities seriously and is able to be diplomatic and patient with awkward situations and firm, yet full of grace, when direction needs to be clarified. He knows how to run a meeting efficiently, bringing us back on topic when we start to wander. He addresses sensitive issues with such a strong gentleness that I sit in amazement at how he handles these situations. He is also very convicted that our jobs as Sunday School teachers have been given to us by God and we must make sure that our walks with HIM are as close as possible, because that is the way that we will be provided with the wisdom that we need as teachers. I am very thankful for Brian and for the many hours of work and love that he puts into his position of leadership in the Sunday School!

Lastly, since I really am on this Sunday School kick, I must say that I am very thankful for my Sunday School class that I teach. Today our lesson was about Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus. Wow. I just love teaching new words and concepts to children! We started out by talking about the word conversion and how this is simply something that changes from one form to another like a raw egg going through a cooking process, converting into something that is edible. We talked about people we knew who have been converted from a sinful life into a Christ-filled life. They look the same on the outside, but on the inside, they've gone through a heart-changing process that converted them into a new creature. The kids were so into the lesson that when I saw that we only had two minutes left to wrap everything up, I wanted so badly to ignore the time and keep going! My prayer for these third and fourth graders is that God would use my words to teach them lessons that they will remember in the future. I pray that something that I am able to explain will click with them, either now or in years to come, that will help them draw closer to the Lord. I love these kids and I'm so thankful that God has chosen me to be a privileged teacher of this class!

Saturday's Thanksgivings

Today I am thankful for my wonderful husband! He has been wonderful about taking care of the boys last night and today while I was busy with my Watkins events. Last night he took them to Oma's house for supper and then stayed to let them play until it was time to come home for bed. Whew! I don't know if he'll ever realize what a blessing that was for me to have them occupied somewhere else for a few hours last night! Today I had a Watkins table set up at Cambridge Christian School's bazaar and he brought the boys (AND a bunch of things that I had forgotten since I had to leave the house at 7:30 this morning in a brain fog!) and let them play some of the games and eat a hot dog and french fries and run around with their cousins for a bit. By the time I got home this afternoon, Christopher was down for his nap, the other boys were playing quietly and the house was in pretty good shape!! My husband was wonderful this weekend! (Now, I forgot to tell him that I have a Sunday School teacher's meeting tomorrow afternoon and he'll have to entertain the kids alone again.)

I am also thankful for the example that my parents and grandparents were to me. Ok, you all think this is going to be super serious and mushy, but I have to be honest and say that the example that I am thankful for today is the example of their gift of conversation!! Yes, my mom, the WalMart greeter and my grandpa, the man everyone knew, were great examples to me! This morning as I was talking with customers at my table, I realized how freely I could just chat about anything with anyone! This is definitely because of the example of those influential people in my life.

I'm also thankful for our fireplace tonight. We haven't wanted to turn on the furnace just yet (it's ONLY November 8!!), but it's cold in here tonight! Our fireplace is burning beautifully and it's so cozy and warm. It's especially comforting because it's been rainy and drizzly all afternoon.