i am thankful for

There are huge blessings in the fact that I wasn't hired until the day before school started.  For one thing, I was left off all of the rotation schedules like car pick-up duty, bus duty, etc.  Also, it is cold.  And I was left off of the before and after-school duties schedules.  So I don't have to go out in the cold.  Did I mention how lucky I am?

I am also blessed by the fact that even though I was scrambling to find childcare right before school started, I was still able to find someone loving and kind, and familiar with my children to help keep the kids after preschool.  We are fortunate that my mom is able to help some and Julianna's pervious preschool teacher can help as well.

In addition, I am thankful for online TV.  I very, very, very rarely watch television anymore.  I just don't have time no matter how much I want to.  I somehow still manage to keep up with a couple of my favorite shows via the internet when I can take long enough at my lunch break.  We don't have DVR or cable so I am especially thankful for the growing number of shows that replay episodes, making them available online after they air.

I am thankful for our health.  Sure, there has been a lot of sickness in our house lately, but none of it has been life threatening.  My mother-in-law has been declared free of cancer once again.  My husband and myself have stuffy heads and nasty colds but that's nothing compared to the woman I know who is in the hospital dying, leaving behind an eight year old grandson that she is raising.  Julianna is fortunately over her stomach bug and she's not having to go to Camp Brenner every few weeks for chemo treatments like my little friend Vinny.

I look around my house and I see tons and tons of "stuff."  Sometimes that "stuff" is not a good thing.  It is clutter that I am getting sick of having around.  But lately despite the fact that I want to just throw it all away, I am thankful for all that "stuff" because it means that we are blessed.  It means that we don't hurt for anything.  It means that we have what we need.  It means that God has provided.

I listened to a radio broadcast this morning encouraging people to donate to Operation Christmas Child and the woman described this child in Bosnia who lived in a garbage heap.  Over 300 children lived in the dump so that they could eat the discarded food.  The woman was there to deliver shoeboxes to those children and this one girl wouldn't come out because she didn't want the "clean people" to see her.  She was ashamed of her filthiness.  The woman described how foul she smelled and how she was covered in human waste and soil.  The girl kept throwing trash at the woman and the woman decided to throw trash back.  Eventually the girl smiled and came out of hiding.  When the woman presented the child the shoebox, the girl picked up the baby doll inside and hugged it to her chest, trying not to get it dirty.  Then she put on the dollar-store necklace and looked at the woman with questioning eyes.  The woman told the little girl that she was beautiful.  The girl ran over to a broken chair and climbed on top of it.  She began blowing kisses to everyone there.

Today I am thankful for a good life.


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