Gratefullness and Thankfulness

From time to time sometimes your whole life can crystallize in a way and you see things clearly.  It might be a life-changing event such as getting married or having a baby, or it might be that you were having a lovely bath after a long day and it just whammoed you in the head.  I am not sure "whammoed" is a valid term, but that's what it can feel like.

Maybe you've realized that while things aren't perfect in your life, you have a lot to be thankful for.  You realize that hey, you're not hungry, you have clothes, you even have clothes you like to wear. You have reasonable health.  You might be in pain, but it's bearable and you can deal with it.  There are lots of people in much worse pain that have a hard time managing.

You have a good family.  You have a great family.  You have family that likes to visit you.  For instance, Uncles Bob and Brian are coming to visit next week.  Uncle Bob is great.  He cooks, he makes pies, my children love him, he always has good conversation and we love when he can come to visit.  Uncle Brian is the same, although Uncle Brian is smart enough to let Uncle Bob do all the cooking and sit back and just eat.  Uncle Brian is a comforting person to be around, he's kind and friendly and the type of person you're glad to have as a friend.

The following week, Aunts Adrienne and Brenda are coming to visit.  They're coming all the way across the country, and they're going to spend time with us and we're going to see if they're fooling enough to change diapers and oh, they read this blog so maybe I'd better not say too much about our master plans.  But we are very thrilled they're coming to visit and have a relaxing, family week with us.  We'll be celebrating Aunt Brenda and daddy's birthdays, because they're on the same day.

We're going to have not one, but two sets of parents stop in to visit during the next few weeks.  From prior posts, you know we love it when the grandparents come to town.  The only down side is they keep leaving.  I'm still working on my plans of entrapment...

Suffice it to say, we have great families, we have a good life and we have lots to be thankful for. 

The Big Boy Update:  Daddy cook. My husband is making pizza from scratch for lunch.  He got a big stool my son could stand on to see the counter so he could help make the dough.  He kept repeating, "cook" and "daddy cook" and his level of excitement and thrill was just a delight.  My daughter wanted to help, but she's a little young yet.  The cutest was when he got down from the stool, went to his plastic cooking supplies, got the plastic catchup bottle and pretended to add some to the mixing bowl of dough. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Hi.  Hi.  Hi.  Her new word.  And it's one you can request.  You can say, "hi" and she'll say it right back at you.  She'll look you in the eye and say it without hesitation.  "Uh oh" still requires an appropriate situation.  And speaking of uh oh, let me tell you about her unscrewing skills.  Her brother wants to interact with lids of all sorts, but he has yet figured out how to unscrew something.  Today, we heard her in the pantry and she was making a clunk sound that meant she'd stood up and pulled down a spice from the low spice rack.  I was impressed.  I was more impressed when I came around the corner to see her with the lid off and Zataran's seasoning all over her and the floor.  The smell of that, intermixed with little girl poo was overpowering.  She and her spicy self got naked on the deck and redressed at the changing table. 

Fitness Update:  Eight miles of ow.  Yesterday afternoon, after my neighbor was done with clinic and off work for the week, we went for a medium-length run.  Seeing as it was afternoon, we were pleased when our timing for the first mile was under our average.  Expectations high as we continued through the first half of our run that I like to call, "The Hateful Route" due to lots of steep hills and switch backing trail, kicked my butt.  I was so out of breath.  We had eight miles in plan and once we're committed, there's no real turning back as it's a loop.  We made it.  I drank and drank at the watering hole at six miles but owie.  Some days you win, some days you're not even in the race.  She and I commented that we were more tired yesterday than we had been on our half marathon distance day. 

Someone Once Said:  The phrase “we (I) (you) simply must—“ designates something that need not be done. “That goes without saying” is a red warning. “Of course” means you had best check it yourself. These small-change clichés and others like them, when read correctly, are reliable channel markers.