Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Tis the Season...

To Give Thanks!  I'm running out of titles for my thankfulness blogs.  I think I'll just start throwing out some random words that have nothing to do with thankfulness from now on.  Today I am thankful for:
  • Getting to see my son walk across the kitchen for the first time.  He has taken up to 3 consecutive steps, but it has been the "leaning forward about to fall on his face types" of steps.  Today and tonight, he stood up straight, stuck his chest out, clapped his little hands, and took off.  He was so proud of himself, and you could clearly see that he knew he was doing something big.  We all 3 jumped up and down and danced.
  • Health insurance.  It is something that I could easily take forgranted.  I work for Sumner County Board of Education and insurance for teachers in known as "some of the best."  We literally pay about $200/month for our entire family and our benefits are incredible.  We rarely have to pay anything out of pocket.  I am so thankful that we have insurance so that we can go to the doctor anytime we need to.  So many mothers in the world look at their sick babies and can't help them and can't get them to the doctor.  I can't imagine the pain they have to go through when they feel like they can't do anything to help them get better.  All mothers who truly love their chidlren don't like to see them in pain. I have been to Africa and El Salvador on missions trips (and lots of other places as well) and have seen first hand sick children that have limited health resources so I try not to take being able to pop into the doctor and get Reese checked for granted.
  • Reese turning one tomorrow.  I'm sure I'll blog more about this tomorrow.
  • An incredible camera, laptop, and video camera.  I have a Canon Rebel XSi and love it.  I'm not sure how to use all of the features, but if there is anything to spend money on it is a good camera and a video camera.  I'm thankful that we are able to have these things.  They are luxury items to me, and I realize how lucky I am to even have a camera at all.
  • Mail being delivered to our home.  We don't even have to go to the Post-Office to get our mail.  It comes right to our mailbox. 
  • God's presence in my life.  I have a life that I do not deserve, and I am fully aware of who gives me every good and perfect gift.  Even though I have to ask forgiveness AT LEAST once a day for something I have said, a thought I have had, my temper, something that I did, etc I desire to please the Lord and to always show his love and kindness to those around me (sometimes I fail miserably at showing love to the people I encounter).  It took me years to grasp how much God loves me and how deep and wide his love is for me.  I know that even though I may not have a "perfect day" that it does not change God's love for me.  Reese has not slept in two nights and today I was exhausted.  Physically and emotionally just exhausted.  On Saturday night, our Pastor talked about a scripture and when he read it, I got goosebumps all over my body.  I have been praying that I would find ways to not be stressed and overwhelmed with work, being a mom, a wife, keeping the house cleaned, laundry, making sure the boys have what they need from the store, re-financing our home, etc.  I had began to focus on all of the things that I HAD to do instead of focusing on wonderful and lovely things about life.  The scripture he gave us was Philippians 4:8.  "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."  I had to remind myself to stop thinking about all of the things that I had to do because I would get overwhelmed and to just think about the things that are lovely about life.  Today, the exhaustion caught up with me.  I did not have a lunch break or a planning time.  I literally looked up at the clock at 11:15 and had barely sat down since 8:00.  If I had sat down it was with a student trying to get them caught up on something.  My lunch was spent fixing one of my students glasses in the office, and my planning time was spent in a meeting.  At 6:45 tonight (after being up since 2:30am), I realized that I had yet to eat a bite of food all day.  It was just one of "those" days.  Before I left my desk today, I got out this verse and said it over and over and over again.  I began to think about all of the wonderful things in my life and just thought about those things.  I would not allow my mind to think about one thing that I had to do or that I had forgotten to do.  I just thought about lovely and wonderful things.  It is so comforting to know that God is holding my hand everyday through everything.  Wow, this one was long.
  • My friends that I work with.  I listen when they are having a tough time with something, and they listen to me too.  Most of the time, we are all thinking the same thing.  Just the fact that someone else feels the same way about something helps.  Oh and did I mention that my classroom is right across the hall and next door to 2 girls that go to our Church?  It's always fun to talk about upcoming events with them. 
I have a feeling that anyone who actually reads this blog probably stopped reading a while back on this post.  It's bedtime.

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