I Need to be Thankful

Today was not the easiest day to be thankful for me. More junk has shown up regarding Micro-Aid and what should have been a done deal almost two years ago now. Phone calls in the afternoon caused my stomach to churn and my eyes to leak, but I'm thankful that even during this time, God is giving me reasons for thankfulness!

* The boys have NO clue what is going on in the "big" world. They are so trusting of their father, that he will provide for them, that he will fix everything, that they are safe with him. I am thankful that my Father can do all that and more! (If only I didn't understand all the "big" world stuff, though!)
* The support group that we have that is bringing this situation to the Lord in prayer. At the moments that I feel so overwhelmed with it all, a peace will come over me and I KNOW someone just prayed again!
* That all of tomorrow's responsibilities out of the house for Fred and for me are all taking place around the same time and in the same part of town. This sure helps for a one-vehicle household because carpooling tomorrow will be perfect!
* Some of our after school babysitting kids are going to be leaving this week until after Christmas. Ok, I'm just a bit thankful for that because we need a break from them sometimes, but I was wondering how we were going to supplement that income, as it is my grocery money. Well, God provided with another occassional child whose father needs a babysitter for the exact time that the other children will be gone! That's reason for thanks around here!
* For my dishwasher ... enough said, right? Whew! It's a blessing every day!
* For God's mercies that are new every morning. May He grant us many new mercies tomorrow!

Monday's Thanks

* I'm thankful that Roger and Amy, Daniel and Ryan made it to Ohio safely despite the long flights from Indonesia!
* For Timothy and Christopher's cheerful willingness to clean up the basement with me today
* For the boys' commendable behavior at the funeral home tonight as we went to give our support to my cousin Ron's wife, Tammy, whose father passed away as the result of cancer. The boys don't have a clue who he is, but they were so respectful and well-behaved tonight!
* For Connie who pulled together a beautiful, gigantic platter of cookies for an emergency customer tonight
* That I was able to get ALL the dirty laundry washed, dried, folded AND put away today! I think I did six loads and now they're DONE!
* For the many people that are praying for our stressful week (issues with the sale of our business that we thought were dealt with have NOT been, and now they have come to a head this week)
* Isaiah 23:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Weekend Thanksgivings

* Miriam's delicious Whole Wheat Dried Cherry and Chocolate Chunk Scones recipe that she shared with me. Mmmmmmm!!!!
* Another successful Watkins event today
* My husband who is sooo good about taking the boys for me when I have responsibilities with Watkins
* My mother-in-law who loves when Fred brings the boys over when I'm doing those above mentioned events
* The surprise gift of a Pampered Chef stoneware from a friend who decided she just didn't know what to do with hers...heard I broke mine and passed hers along to me!
* For the ability to whip up a supper from leftovers in the refrigerator that the family loves (Thanks, Mom, for teaching by example!)
* For friends who have gone through something similar to what I am going through now and their willingness to share the good, the bad and the ugly...as well as encouragement and Godly wisdom
* For the piece of REAL mail that came in my mailbox this week!! Thank you, Lilly! It's up on my refrigerator in a place of honor!
* My crockpot which will soon be simmering tomorrow's pork stew for lunch

Tuesday's Thanksgivings

* That our furnace is working well tonight
* For the friends I've reconnected with on Facebook
* For Christopher's laughter
* The look on Stephen's face when he gets a joke. I told him Grandpa's favorite of being able to knock down a wall. He didn't get it at first, and then his face just beamed with the comprehension of this joke. I love it!
* For my neighbor who invited me over for a wonderful cup of white tea from Steeped Tea today
* For Fred's stability throughout our ongoing storm
* For Christian lawyers
* Fresh, homemade popcorn with Watkins butter salt (all the flavor of REAL butter, but with NONE of the fat!)
* Christmas decorations tastefully displayed
* When my heart just bursts with song and I start belting it out (the boys would NOT put this down as a thanks ... especially Christopher who starts whining, "Stop, Mommy! Stop singing!" He just doesn't appreciate good singing, I guess.)
* My friend's relatively pain-free day!!!
* Praying with my husband

I'm Way Behind

It's been a busy week. I'm way behind on posting my thanks, but that's ok because I've been telling God directly what I'm thankful for, even if I didn't write it on here!

* The absolutely beautiful weather that we had all last week!
* My dear friend who let two of the boys stay at her house ALL day on Friday so that I could finish getting ready for the open house (Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!)
* For God's blessings on the open house, not just for Watkins and The Cookie Kitchen, but for the Pampered Chef and Steeped Tea representatives that also did very well that night
* For Connie and her ideas of improving The Cookie Kitchen this year, including a beautiful and professional flyer, delicious new cookie recipes, gorgeous packaging for the cookies we sold on Friday and for her meticulous bookkeeping. I couldn't do this without her!
* For Christopher's non-stop entertaining today at lunch. He had Elysha in stitches the entire meal! Especially his insistance that he MUST have bread with his lunch...since when?! He had us all roaring at his comments that just never ended.
* For the boys' behaviour (look how Canadian I'm becoming! :) in church tonight when they were standing in front of the congregation singing. They were so well behaved that I could hardly believe they were our boys! They made us so proud of them tonight that we went to McDonald's for a french fry treat afterward! I was thankful for that, too, because we had enough free coupons saved up from various places that we all got our own small fries for free!
* For the message this morning in church that encouraged us to be on guard for lukewarmness that can creep into our lives without us even realizing that there is a problem.
* For a free haircut, thanks to a friend's offer!
* For Cherry Rose Sencha tea that for some reason brings back special memories of Grandma ... probably the rose in there.

Two Days' Worth of Thanksgiving

Oops. I'm getting behind! Here we go:

* For warmer days

* For a husband who loves to put the kids to bed

* That all the cookies I needed to bake for Friday's open house are DONE!

* Knowing God sees the big picture of life and that He knows our struggles

* For my dishwasher

* For Zehrs (grocery store) that sent me coupons for a free 500g brick of cheese, a box of spare ribs appetizers and a quart of fresh orange juice because I'm "a faithful customer" (??? Whatever! I'm accepting it, even though I'm certainly not loyal to Zehrs!)

* For people who are eager and excited to volunteer their time to work with the Sunday School Christmas program at church, and on top of that, they are competent and I don't have to hold their hand the whole time!

* For my bed, which is calling me

Sunday's Thanksgivings

* My wonderful Sunday School class! Those 3rd and 4th graders were sooo attentive today and we had a fantastic discussion about Moses' last words to the Children of Israel before he died. We started out talking about what WE would say to our children if we were fathers and knew that we would be dying soon. Most of the comments were very special and even tear-jerkers, except the second comment out of the blue by a little girl in the second row, "I would say, 'Don't look backwards when you drive.'" Hmmmm????
* Warm, warm, warm weather for November 8!
* The lady at McDonald's that gave us four extra Monopoly pieces tonight because I told her that my kids were hoping there would still be game pieces on a large fry treat.
* The smell of peppermint
* Watching Timothy diffuse a fight today by letting Christopher have the huge truck to play with instead of fighting him for it.
* The security of God's love. Even when our burdens cause us to wonder if God is really there and listening to us, we still KNOW that He is... and that He does love us...and that He does care. And we know that His security is a fact because even when we doubt, He reminds us again with circumstances, through His Word, with the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit, through His children...
* Friends ... for my friends, my husband's friends, my children's friends ... just friends! You know who you are (ALL of you!!)!

A Month of Thankfulness

November is the month of Thanksgiving for Americans. I was gently reminded this morning by my friend that we're almost a week into November now and she misses posts from our family about our thanks. To make up for that, let me give you a list today of MANY things that I am thankful for just now!

* SUNSHINE! Even on a cold day
* My husband who took the boys to a school carnival for the morning
* Music playing in the background (Fernando Ortega, not Wee Sing Sunday School songs)
* My 10 year old Kitchen Aid mixer that was a wedding gift and is humming right now as another batch of cookies is being churned out
* Long distance plans that allowed me to talk with my sister this morning until my phone battery ran out (It wasn't a long conversation. My phone battery gives me about 20 minutes these days. Haha!)
* God's provisions at the perfect moments
*A clean house - I don't have one, but I am thankful for them
* A sense of smell because those gingersnaps are smelling mighty marvelous
* Stephen's love for me. He asked me what prize I wanted from the carnival today because he wants to win me a prize. I told him that if they have chocolate, he can try to win me chocolate.
* Timothy's creativity and all the "books" he's been making me lately (Not thankful for the mess that results from scissors, glue, tape, staples and markers, but I love his drawings!)
* Christopher's infectious laugh and constant conversations with whoever might be listening - or not
* REAL mail that comes in the mailbox with a stamp on it, my name written in a familiar handwriting and a personal note inside the envelope. I haven't gotten one of those for a while, but that's why I'm thankful for them!
* Peace in the midst of a storm
* For my friend who is struggling with extreme difficulties at this time and feels free enough to call me and just cry and beg for prayers
* My thyme that has survived the frosts