Gratitude

Gratitude has long been something I value, and it’s something I really do appreciate in life.  I think it’s important to be grateful, even for the “little” things… because far too often, we overlook them.  While I’ve been semi-neglectful of my blog for quite awhile now, my gratitude in life hasn’t been lost.  So never fear!  I’m going to be working on posting more often, so you can get a glimpse into the things that I’m grateful for.  =-) Stay posted!

Beautiful Spring Weather!

And plants that flowering, bushes that are growing, and the smell of fresh mulch in the yard.  Ahhh…. life is good.  =-)

Time with my kiddos…

I sure am grateful to have time with my kiddos, while they still want to be spending time with their mommy.  =-)  This past weekend was filled with that time, while daddy was away for work, and we had SO much fun!  We made birdhouses together, had donuts together, and played all kinds of games with each other.  I love those times, and I sure am grateful for the ability to just BE with my kiddos.  We sure are blessed!  =-)

Mopping with Daddy

I am a firm believer that we can be grateful for nearly anything, but one thing I’m grateful for is how much my kiddos love to help.  Especially with things like cleaning the house.  I’m fortunate to have a husband who likes to clean, so my boys have always seen cleaning as something that guys do.  When I was young, I still remember (with perfect clarity) making a comment about how I couldn’t clean the toilet, because only boys do that.  I had always seen my daddy do it, so I just didn’t think it could be something I would be expected to do.  Suffice it to say, I learned a very important lesson that day about how wrong I was in my thinking, and it got through – loud and clear!  We haven’t had anything like that happen as of yet with our kiddos… but cleaning is something that they see as “guy time” because it’s the two of them and their daddy, getting to do things together.  And the most exciting thing to do (and fight about doing) is mop.  =-)  I’m grateful to have kiddos who enjoy things like mopping.  And to be able to afford a good mop.  And to have a floor to mop in the first place!  More than anything else, I’m grateful for my little family.  Because they always help me to see that there are SO many things to be grateful for.  =-)

People in your corner

Have you ever wished you had someone in your corner?  Not all the time, and not for everything, but once in awhile, all you really need is to KNOW someone else is there with you… and that they’re totally all in with being supportive of whatever it is that you’re going through.  I was reminded of that yesterday, by a friend I’ve had since I was in the single digits (and that’s been a whole lot of years!), who sent me the kindest message that was exactly what I needed to read.  I am SO grateful for her, and for everyone who has ever been “in my corner” when I needed it.  I really am!

What a great reminder that we need to always be willing to go spend time in other people’s corners… not just hope they will come be in ours.  =-)

A new kitty!

It’s been a solid six months since we had to put our second kitty down (the first one was put down over a year ago), so today was a HUGE day in our house – the day when we went to get a new one.  Our youngest kiddo has been talking (for a VERY long time) about going to get a sad kitty, and making that sad kitty happy.  He’s told me almost daily about his plan to make the kitty happy, and said all along that he wanted to find the sad kitty so he could take it home and make it happy.  =-)  Imagine his delight today when we found a kitty, brought it home, and it wanted to be in HIS room.  He thinks he is SUPER special now, because the kitty is HIS friend.  And he’s getting to make it happy.  =-)  We clearly have a lot to learn with her, because she’s only four months old, and we’ve never adopted one that was so young… but both kids understand that having a kitty means they have jobs related to her care, and they are both happy to be doing them.  For now.  =-)  What a great day!  =-)  We are so blessed, on so many levels.  What a blessing it all is!

Mommy/Tyler Date =-)

I recently discovered that Michael’s (the store) has the coolest crafting times for kids – at least through the summer.  =-)  I took both of my kiddos a week ago, and we had SO much fun!  Yesterday, I went on a date with my oldest, to make a super fun craft together.  While I can’t tell you just yet what we made, since we made it as a surprise to send someone (and it wouldn’t really be a surprise if they read about it first!), I did get a picture of the work in progress.  =-)  After we were done, we went to McDonald’s and got dollar menu stuff for lunch (translation = I spent less than $5 for both of us!), and he got to play in the play area… and when we were all done, he looked up at me and said “mommy, we’re friends, aren’t we”.  I told him we were, he grabbed my hand, and we walked to the car.  As soon as we got home, he couldn’t wait to tell daddy ALL about it, and I loved hearing how he described his excitement.  We really did have fun, and I think that’s not only something to be grateful for, it’s a blessing.  And I am so thankful for it!  =-)

Eye Drops =-)

I don’t use eye drops very often, but for those times when I do, let me just say that THEY. ARE. AMAZING!!  I had some seriously late nights this week, and would go from everything being blurry and fuzzy, to seeing clear as day again.  With just a couple eye drops!  What an incredible invention!  =-)

So today (and this week!), I’m grateful for eye drops.  All kinds, but especially the ones that made a difference for me this week.  =-)

Dehumidifiers

I spent the first 25 years of my life living in Michigan, where it may feel sticky at times, but I really never knew what humidity could be like until I moved to Virginia, the land of MASSIVE amounts of humidity.  We have a pretty heavy-duty dehumidifier in our basement, and it pulls two or more gallons of water A DAY from the air in our relatively small townhouse.  It’s serious out here!  So while I know that I am regularly grateful for that small appliance of ours, I am really extremely grateful for it.  It works hard for us, and we so very glad that it does!

Completely out of curiosity, I decided to look up the info on who invented the dehumidifier, so I could see how long they’ve been around.  I was shocked to see that it’s since the early 1900’s!  Here I’ve always thought of people a hundred years ago as living without the things we often take for granted.  I’m sure they were a lot more expensive though, so not everyone had them.  =-)  So maybe I should also be grateful that we can afford to have our own humidifier today!  Not just that we have one, but that we have the ability to have one!

All that said, we woke up to 60 degree temps outside this morning, so our windows are wide open right now… and that is blissful too.  =-)

Garbage Disposals

I’m not only grateful that ours works, I’m grateful that we have it in the first place.  After spending a few days in a house that didn’t have one, I realized how much I’ve taken ours for granted.  Things I think of as completely normal to dump out in the sink just don’t go down the sink if it doesn’t have a garbage disposal in it!  =-)  No, nothing got stuck… but I learned my lesson.  I’m extremely grateful for our disposal, more than I ever realized I could be!