Of Lost Remote Controls and A Cup Full of Cider

Sometimes,

being suddenly awakened in the silence of the night,

realizing that I fell to sleep while saying "Goodnight" to my kids,

and lying down with one of them,

just for a minute,

brings a reality to life that the morning sun,

with all of it's cares and busyness

often scribbles out.

It's funny how the quiet,

the stillness,

the hours of sleep that have rested my brain

bring out a moment

of overlooked thankfulness:

#41  I am thankful for a body that climbs out of the bed

(even if exercising that day reminds me that my body is not getting younger

and causes strange pains in strange places). 

It works, 

and I'm thankful. 

#42  I am thankful that God never gives up on trying to teach me patience:

like today when I finally MADE time to exercise,

and spent the first 15 minutes trying to find the remote for the DVD player,

so that I could fit in a work out before the baby woke up

and while the kids were outside in the snow.

Someday, perhaps, I will conquer my bouts with impatience. 

#43  I am thankful that God loves me.

  Really.

It is an amazing thought.

He loves me.

#44  I am thankful for the snow.

God says to give thanks continually, in all circumstances.

  I didn't like seeing more snow predicted,

but when those snowflakes fell,

and my daughter called me over to the door,

to see all the tiny miracles

of snowflakes

individually precise and perfect,

that we could actually see,

it was a reminder that God cares enough

to carve each tiny snowflake that falls from the sky.

 The LORD of the whole universe

cares.

 

#45 I am thankful for baby smiles and sticky fingers;
moments of understanding in my oldest daughter's school;
a son who never tires of pulling up the stool when I turn on the blender,
or frying pan,
or mixer.

 

#46 I am thankful for God allowing a good report to come from a friend's trip to the doctor about a worrisome lump in her neck.  I don't want her leaving the earth anytime soon: we have too many things we still need to do together...

when the kids aren't so demanding.

#47 I am thankful for father who stops by

with a gallon of cider,

a bunch of bananas,

and yogurt pudding cups to share with each of the kids

as well as words from the Bible

to encourage a tired mother

and feed the tender faith of a listening 8 year-old girl.

#48 I am thankful for God's blessing on my husband's hard work raising steer.

  Sometimes we wonder where the customers will come from,

but God always seems to send them in...

sometimes in trickles,

sometimes in floods.

 

#49 I am thankful for a husband who tries so hard to do right, even after a long day of work, a frustrating hour commute, a chipped tooth.

  He pulls into the driveway,

saunters down to the barn

with the privilege that God has given him to do what he loves:

watching lazy cows eat their supper of hay.

#50 I am thankful for life.

"Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD."

Psalm 150:6 

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Women Taking a Stand: Thankful-Thursday
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