Thanksgiving Morning

For the past few years I have posted what I refer to as Thanksgiving thankfulness on Facebook.  Each day I post something that I am thankful for, so I shall also post them on my blog--

Day 1--Today I am thankful that I have the privilege of serving an awesome almighty God.

Day 2--Today I am thankful that 42 years ago I fell in love, head over heels, and I haven't stopped falling in all these years.

Day 3--Today I am thankful that I have been blessed with 3 awesome children. They continue to amaze me with their kind and loving hearts.

Day 4--Today I am thankful for my wonderful in-law kids. I prayed over my children from the time they were conceived, that God would find the perfect mate for them, and He did. Now I have 6 kids. 

Day 5--Today I am thankful for my 6 beautiful, intelligent, loving, kind and funny grandchildren. They'd have to be funny with us as grandparents! 

Day 6—Today I am thankful for my parents, who taught me what it means to totally surrender to God, and to make Him first in my life. They have loved me, encouraged me and prayed for me, and I love them dearly. I will honor them all the days of my life.

Day 7—Today I am thankful for my awesome friends--I have been richly blessed beyond words. From city to city, state to state, church to church, and neighborhood to neighborhood—I will have these many friends forever, for life, for eternity. I am so very grateful.

Day 8--Today is a special day. Today I am thankful that 33 years ago, God blessed us with a 10lb, 4oz baby boy. He came into this world with a tender heart, and a generous spirit. I admire him, I am proud of him and I am grateful that He serves God with his whole heart. Happy birthday son. I love you!

Day 9—Today I am thankful for my extended family—aunts and uncles, and especially my crazy cousins—oh the fun we've had! I am so grateful that most of us are still close, and that we get together for our “cousins lunches” whenever possible. I cherish those times.

Day 10—Today I am thankful for my little sister. In some small way I hope that I have been a mentor to her, I hope that I have been an encouragement to her and I hope that she knows how much I love her.

Day 11—Today I am thankful for my sweet little church—you took us in and made us feel like family.

Day 12—Today I am thankful for Chicagoland—all of it, all the time, every season, every suburb. I love it all.

Day 13—Today I am thankful for my beautiful little Sheltie, she truly has my heart. She's loyal, and is very much my little shadow, my companion, my furry friend.

Day 14—Today I am thankful that I have had the opportunity to travel throughout Europe, I love it and hope to return many more times. I have been bitten by the travel bug and I am glad about that.

Day 15—Today I am thankful for my country, my freedom. I love my country. I am an American.

Day 16—Today I am thankful for my education. I am grateful to my parents for sending me to an all girls private college-prep high school. I am thankful for my time at my local community college, for my time at Bible college and for my time at state college. I am thankful that I was finally able to pick a major (psychology) and I also am thankful that I have 3 minors. Much like travel, education opened up the world for me.

Day 17—Today I am thankful for my house. I have running water, and flush toilets. I have an oven, and refrigeration. I have soft beds, and heat. Yes, I am so very thankful for all that God has blessed me with.

Day 18—Today I am thankful for winter. I love snow. I love cold weather. I love coats, boots, scarves, gloves and knee socks. I love fireplaces, and afghans to snuggle in. I love the quiet stillness that comes with winter. I love that it makes me more contemplative.

Day 19—Today I am thankful for my optimism. I am glad that I do not ever see the glass half empty. I don't even really see it half full. My glass runs over, spilling right into the arms of my God, who makes all things great in my life. I am a happy, joyful, grateful person.

Day 20—Today I am thankful for technology. While some might point out the pitfalls and danger, I see the good that it brings to my life. I can talk to my family and friends who live hundreds of miles away and I can send text messages and photos in a split second. I am grateful that while we are separated by distance, we are connected via Apple everything.

Day 21—Today I am thankful that while natural disasters might take away our material possessions, nothing can take away our faith and trust in God, who is our provider.

Day 22—Today I am thankful for simple things—like the river behind my house, my fireplace, my rocking chai, my coffee maker, my small 1 butt kitchen, it's the simple joys in life that can make me smile.

Day 23—Today I am thankful for my nice camera equipment. I guess you could say I am much better behind the camera than in front of it, for I am an introvert. And I'm ok with that.

Day 24--Today I am thankful for one of my best friends. She is the one responsible for getting me addicted to facebook, so it is all her fault. You can blame her for my many updates and silliness. In fact if I were you--I'd blame her for a lot of things. Of all my friends, she's the one I'd most likely get in trouble with, my mom probably doesn't want me to hang out with her, she's a bad influence!

Day 25--Today I am thankful for my blog. I started out writing on a whim but then it turned into something akin to therapy.

Day 26—Today I am thankful that all my children and grandchildren will be coming home for Christmas. I can hardly wait for the fun to begin!

Day 27—Today I am thankful that I will never ever run out of things to be thankful for. My heart and my life are full.

Day 28—Thanksgiving morning—today I am thankful for God's grace, it is enough for me.  

His Coat

When I was a kid I used to love watching westerns on TV.  I know, it's not very girly girl, but I'm just being honest here.  Yes, I loved westerns and still do.  I love horses, I love the "white hat" concept, and I love wide open spaces.  I can remember riding through the foothills of northern California on my beautiful chestnut gelding feeling like the queen of the world.  I would ride through tall grasses just singing and praying away.  All alone, just me and my horse riding through the wonderful countryside thinking about God and thanking Him for anything and everything.  It was a wonderful time in my life--my horse life. 

I believe that is is why the concept of my heavenly father owning the cattle on a thousand hills is not a hard one for me to grasp. I would ride through wave upon wave of golden hills and I could imagine 1000's of hills just full of God's cattle.  In fact I once had the privilege of going on a short cattle drive.  It was and still is one of the highlights of my life.  So I guess you could say that I know horses, cattle and foothills pretty well.  At least I like to think so.  

Right now in my Bible study and my small group (couples Bible study) we are studying the books of Nehemiah and Proverbs.  Thinking about the discussions we've been having has my brain swirling.  We've been talking about generosity and giving, which is really appropriate considering the time of year it is.  This is kind of where my thoughts have been going these past few days--

I'm wondering now if I ever truly realized just how poor we were at times when I was a little girl.  All those trials we went through as a family, all those times when God miraculously met our needs, all those times of answered prayers--and I'm wondering, is that why God has given me such a tender heart?  I've been told so many times throughout my life that I have a bleeding heart--and they didn't mean it as a compliment.  Usually it was during political discussions, of now which I try hard to avoid if at all possible.  I am a slow learner though, and every once in a while I just have to say something!  

You see, I learned through being poor, well, what it truly means to feel rich.  What?   Yes, when I was oh so poor, I was really oh so rich at the very exact same time.  I learned through being poor what it meant to identify with others. I also learned why giving is so important.  Because if it is truly my father who is so very rich and if I am so very poor then why am I so stingy with His money?  It isn't mine after all.  It is His, and it always will be.  I am His, all I have is His, and if He wants me to give--give I will.

When my husband first met me, I'm pretty sure he thought that this was a nice cute little attribute for me to have.  And then we got married.  And things changed.  We had a budget to follow, and things to spend money on, and bills to pay.  And there I was wanting to give it all away, because I just knew that God would meet our every need.  It was a hard concept for my husband to grasp, this giving nature of mine.  It took years for him to understand that in the middle of our just getting by, it was still important for me to give.  It was especially important during the holidays.  How could I even begin to justify buying presents for my children when I knew there were kids out there that would be waking up to absolutely nothing on Christmas morning?  The thought was an overwhelming one for me.  Why?  Because many times I used to be one of them!    
I could identify with them.  Thankfully my husband would indulge me and our little family would play some small part in helping out others less fortunate.  

It didn't take too many years for my husband to come around to my way of thinking.  Well actually he had his own way of thinking.  It was a lot like mine only different.  I learned that all along he had the same heart, he just showed it in different ways.  And as the years passed we eventually came to place in our marriage where these hearts for God merged.  We came to an understanding of what was important to one, was just as important to the other, we just had our own ways of expressing our hearts for God.  I now see my husband as one of the most giving people I've ever met.  He's always been that way, it's just that now I can see it, I can look back over the years and see where his generosity impacted the lives of others and also of me and our family.  

He did something last year that I am going to share here in my blog.  He'll be embarrassed when he reads it, but oh well, it's my blog.  A few months ago we were driving home one cold rainy day.  We had stopped at a red light.  When we started up again I noticed my husband looking back in the rear view mirror, he kept looking and looking, and then he finally pulled over, he said--I'll be right back.  He jumped out of the car, and gave the coat right off his back to an older man holding a sign.  He was working--holding up an advertisement, making minimum wage, in the freezing rain, with no coat.  It broke my husband's heart.  He got back into the car, wet, no coat, too emotional to talk--we rode home in silence.  

Right there in that moment my heart was overwhelmed.  I was so very thankful for the man that God had brought into my life.  This caring, thoughtful, tenderhearted man who gave the coat off his back to someone in need--it's no wonder I love him so much.  

Yes, we might be different in our ways of giving--but we truly have the same heart.  Because there is no doubt in our minds who owns the cattle on a thousand hills.  What we think of as ours, is really Gods, we gave it all to Him the day we accepted Him into our hearts.  

Winter's Coming

I like winter, no, I love winter.  It's my second favorite season.  Autumn being my first.  It's over now though--autumn.  It really is, even though according to our calendar winter does not officially start for another few weeks--it's snowing.  Oh yes, it is.  So in my own little world, that means winter is coming.

My husband has a theory as to why I love winter so much.  He thinks it's because I like to cocoon.  That's what he calls it--cocooning.  I don't think that's a real word, but that's never stopped me before--I kind of like my made up words.  I also like cocooning.

Yes, I believe that I do make a cocoon of sorts.  I love sitting with my books, laptop, and iPad, I love reading by the fire, writing, and thinking.  I love sitting with my dog, praying and worshiping.  It seems to me that there is more time for that--in the winter.

The winters here are usually bright and sunny, very few days are dreary.  With that sunshine, comes hope and with that hope a gratefulness pours from my heart.  I look outside and see the snow glistening, and I feel happy and safe.  And it's not as though I don't venture out, because I do.  I put on my heavy winter paraphernalia and head out.  Bundled up--coat, gloves, boots and scarves, out I go, into the sunshine, into the brisk cold, into the world that God made.

However, right now, as I sit with my legs curled beneath me, laptop balanced precariously on my thighs, there is a quietness to the outdoors, a softness that isn't there when the snow melts.  The only sounds I can hear right now are the noises that my house makes--just the humming of my refrigerator really.  Everything else is so quiet.  I am able to think this way, me and my laptop, fire going, dog sleeping, and I know that all is well within my small world.

Think about it for just a moment, if it were spring or summer I would want to be walking outside, doing something other than writing.  I would not be in this contemplative state of mind.  I would be looking at flowers and wildlife.  And while there is nothing wrong with that--I do know that I wouldn't be writing.  And writing has become a very important part of my life.  It's a time where I can be real, I can be me, I can talk without fear of being judged.  I guess I think that if you don't like what I write, you won't read it.  Believe me, that thought frees me up to write about any little thing that pops into my brain.

What I have noticed about myself over the past few years is that in the winter months I am inclined to write more, ponder more, and reflect more on life--more specifically my life.  As the year comes to an end, I become more in tune with my circumstances.  In fact what I notice is that I take the time.  That's it.  I'm not distracted by warm sunny weather and all that it holds.  I tend to settle in for a few short months and once again become a very deep thinker.  And then, as each thought surfaces, I share them, kind of like small pieces of candy.

Yes, winter's coming, and I am glad.  I will settle in.  I will write more.  I will appreciate all that is around me, because winter's coming.

Dinner Party

We did something the other night that we had not done in a very long time.  We went to a dinner party.  A real live dinner party!  With 10 guests and a beautifully decorated dining room table--a formal, yet casual atmosphere, with an elegance that unknowingly to me--I had been missing.

I hadn't been to one in years, at least it seems that way to me.  Oh I've been over to friend's houses for dinner, I don't mean that.  I just mean that I haven't been to a grown up, sophisticated dinner party in a very long time.  You know the type--the kind of party that one sees depicted on television or in the movies.  The kind where there is soft music playing in the background, mood lighting, and wonderful smells coming from the heart of the home.  You know--grown up time.

Perhaps I stayed in the kid zone far too long--I don't know.  It just seems to me that during the past 3 or more decades it's been all about my children and then all about their children.  And I love that, don't get me wrong.  However, somewhere along the line I have gotten out of the habit of dinner parties.  I don't think that I had given them much thought.  You see, they are a lot of work.  What with all the cleaning and planning, the serving and entertaining, the timing and the guest list--it just seemed so much easier to say--hey, you wanna go get something to eat?  

Yes, somewhere along the line, the art of entertaining (outside of my family) has lost it's way.  However, after that dinner party I am finding myself wanting to somehow get on that track again.  I want to once again resume the art of entertaining friends.  With friends and neighbors, with candles and good food, with music and wonderful conversation--I want that.  I want grown up time.  Time to discuss current events, rather than nap time, politics rather than teenagers and yes, even religion, the one topic I'm told we should stay away from.  Can you imagine me--staying away from the topic of religion?  I don't think so.  However, in the interest of keeping things elegant and sophisticated, we would all be polite and dignified--that is if you were to ever come to one of my dinner parties.  Oh I'll have one, oh yes I will.

I've been inspired--thanks to that beautiful dinner on a cool fall evening, sitting with neighbors and friends, yes, I was inspired.  I shall begin phase one--planning.  And then, we will discuss phase two--who to invite.  Hopefully it will be the first of many to come.  I want to bring it back into our lives.  I want a dinner party.  I sure do hope that my husband and I are on the same page.  But, what have I to fear--we usually are.

Now, what shall we eat?