Thankful...

The pies are baked. The stuffing is made. The turkey is stuffed. The oldest is home and his son is with him. We're a full house for the next four days.

We're celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, and then we'll do Christmas on Friday since its unlikely we'll see either of them in December. My house is decorated for both holidays right now...it's a little schizophrenic.

I have so much to be thankful for, so much that I tend to take for granted, especially when times are as frenetic as they've been this fall. My hope for the weekend and for the coming month is to slow down and simply enjoy and try to more fully appreciate all that God has blessed me with.

Thank you, God, for my friends and family,
for my husband and children and my grandson,
and even for this dog who is a bit psycho with all the people in the house right now.

Thank you for the food in my kitchen,
and the fact that I have a kitchen that is attached to a house that has a roof that keeps us warm and dry and sheltered.

Thank you for the cars that take us from our house
to the places we need to go,
and thank you that one of those places is my husband's job, which he goes to willingly each day in order to care for us.

Thank you for our health,
and for providing for our needs,
even the ones we don't realize we have.

And thank you for those things we don't need,
the Wii and the iPods, and great TV shows and cable with DVR,
and for more clothes than any of us really needs.

Thank you for the ways you enrich my life with simple joys,
with books and words and music,
with yarn and fiber and patterns and spinning,
and with kickboxing and sweat and bruises that let me know I'm doing something good for me.

Thank you for the faith that sustains me,
for your love and provision,
and for the gift of your Son, who is everything.

To all of my friends, wherever you are, I wish you a most blessed Thanksgiving holiday. :)