Mary Angel

(11/2016) November already, I refuse to believe it. Alright, my calendar is insisting that I accept it is the month of turkeys, Thanksgiving, and Black Friday. I don’t know why it takes a holiday with a turkey to get me thinking about what I am thankful for, but sure enough, every November my mind starts analyzing my life over the past year or so. The small and big blessings are flying around in my head like leaves on a windy fall day.

We were forced to buy a new van this summer (ours finally quit at 240,000 miles). When we were driving home and I wasn’t worried about the car leaving us sit on the side of the road, I was very thankful. As the air conditioning froze my nose and toes, I was very thankful. I wasn’t super thankful for the payments, but you have to take the good with the bad sometimes. When each of my kids says prayers at night they always thank God for the roof over their heads and their family and friends. Family and friends are an amazing blessing in my life. Everyday my kids are on the top of my list of blessings, right next to my hubby (the man who still make my heart skip a beat even after 20 years of marriage). My husband does so much for us and means so much to us that it is difficult to put into words how thankful we all are for him. Although all of my friends come to mind when I am thinking about what I am thankful for, my best friend has a big star next to her name on that list. She is always there to help anyone and always has a sacrificial heart; in a word she is amazing.

One apparently small, but lately very large blessing is health. Maybe it is because we have all of the Grandparents living close. Maybe it is because my husband is trying to get into better shape. Maybe it is due to my daughter’s weight struggles. Maybe a recent dementia diagnosis is at the root. I am not sure what has ultimately brought me to my extreme thankfulness for health, but here I am. Every day I am thankful that my weight isn’t going up, my feet don’t hurt worse, and that my hair is already grey and nothing the kids do or say can make that worse.

One of my memories on Facebook this week was a picture of my girls on either side of our dining room table and their best friend’s next to them. When I read the caption it said, "Thankful for the little moments. Watching four best friends play play-dough, while speaking in British accents." My husband took the picture and made the post a little over a year ago. He was right; it isn’t just the big stuff. Being thankful for the little, day to day, things is what makes life beautiful. I absolutely love when my girls are all giggly with their friends. When they speak with a foreign accent it is just icing on the cake. When I only had boys there wasn’t much giggling.

When it comes to the boys I love when I catch them in deep conversation with one another. I am always thankful when they are being kind to one another and their little sisters. I enjoy immensely when I get one on one time with any of my children. Much to my mother’s dismay I am very blessed to see and hear my boys wrestling. It literally cracks me up when they are rolling around on the floor, one of them in a head lock, and both of them grunting and cackling at the top of their lungs. Another blessing I experience from my family is when we do family game night or family movie night. I am not sure I could be more thankful for the time together, especially since my oldest is a senior in high school. I know it won’t be long and there will be an empty chair at family game night. (I am still thankful for whatever is in his future, but I will be sad to see the empty chair) I am also thankful, in the mornings, when I have a full car load of teenage boys (either sleeping or laughing) driving to the high school. I might not be an early morning person, but I have never had a morning when I wasn’t smiling my way all the way down the road with these kids.

I am thankful that my parents are so supportive of me and always here for me (and for my family, and friends, and everyone else). I am thankful that they have moved in with us and therefor have more opportunities to travel and visit their friends and family. My whole family is blessed by how much time and effort my parents put into their grand-dogger. We are also thankful to have my mother-in-law so close and for the time she spends with the girls. They love to be girly and that is far from my forte.

I am thankful for anyone who reads my article and the opportunity to write for a wonderful local paper. My editor and all of his email reminders are another blessing in my life. Making scrapbooks for my friends and any time crafting is one of my longtime blessings. If we stopped to think about every little thing we should be thankful for it could take weeks or months to make that list.

Lastly, I am thankful for what my children say every night during prayers. I am thankful that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. Ultimately if it hadn’t been for that moment I wouldn’t have anything to be thankful for. I will never be able to comprehend that amazing sacrificial love. It is often taken for granted or overlooked, but what an incomprehensible blessing! God Bless!

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