Autumn Thanksgivings

 It has been a while since I have done a one of these, but I do think a lot about what I would list if I was doing one.  It seems the greatest weapon against discontent and complaining is thanksgiving.  I never realized how prone I am to grumble until I heard it in my children. Now, I find myself correcting them and then 10 seconds later, I'm grumbling about something!   I think we do it so often, we don't even realize we are doing it.  How it must break God's heart when he is so loving and generous and all we do it "wah, wah, wah".  Just like it upsets me when I go to all kinds of trouble to do something special for someone and then they don't like it.  And God has to listen to millions of us!

356.  I'm thankful that when sitting down to type this, I don't know where to start.  The summer was full and wonderful, without sickness or injury. 

357.  For one new window!  Only 20 more to go. :)  As far as we know, these windows are original to the house.  This house is over 100 years old.  The worst window in the house was replaced this week.  Our first winter here and our first month home with Kate, there was a blizzard.  One day, I walked by this window and there was something white in the floor.  I honestly had no idea what it was until I bent down and saw that it was snow!  I went to the bathroom and cried for a while.  No wonder we were freezing!  As soon as the weather settled, my husband went to the store for plastic.  :)  I didn't tell him until a couple of years later how I went to the bathroom and cried like a baby.

358.  I am also very thankful that we didn't go with Cameron's original idea of trying to restore this wood siding and that he came to that conclusion on his own!  This particular wall of siding was also replaced and there were more holes like the one pictured above.

359.  I'm thankful that Cameron's job allows him some flexibility with his schedule so that he can join the girls and I for things like picking apples.



360.  I'm thankful that he wants to.

361.  For an almost 12 year old.  Oh my.  How does that happen?  On Friday, my first baby will be 12 years old.  OK, moving on.

362.  I'm so very thankful for a good school year so far.  Especially in light of the fact that I was dreading the start of school this time.  That has never happened to me before.  I usually am very excited to get back into a routine and give Callie her stack of books, etc.  This summer though, I just could not seem to get excited about it all and was really pretty worried about the whole thing.  I prayed a lot about it and asked Cameron to pray too and God was faithful to answer those prayers.  The week before we started, I finally got a little excited, got a large portion of planning done and knew it would be okay.

Eating sushi for our study of Japan

363.  For thrift stores.  Callie had grown out of almost every single piece of clothing she owned.  I got her three outfits, Kate a pair of shoes, and a wool sweater for a project I have been wanting to do for a long time, plus another shirt, all for under $40!  Callie liked everything I brought home too.  She's very easy to please in that regard.  I'll be going back in a couple of weeks to see if I can find some more goodies.

Sunday night at church we saw videos of the Japanese tsunami and footage of one of the towns that was destroyed.  A man from our church went there for two weeks to help with the clean up and he was telling us about his trip and the people he met.  Even watching the video, it seemed so surreal, like a movie.  It was very moving.  We have so much to be thankful for.

Insipired by Ann.