Time to be Thankful.

It's November. Not that this is big news to you, I'm sure...but I've been contemplating what this means to me for a while now.  Like, five whole days.  Anyway, November has turned into a bit of a tricky month.  September is when we are getting ready for the holidays to come up...and October is all about Halloween.  Nowadays November is kind of shoved under the blanket of after-Halloween sales, and Christmas stuff.  Which is kind of sad.  Don't get me wrong, I love Halloween.  And I love Christmas.  Both Holidays make me happy and are big fun.  However, November is about Thanksgiving...and just because it isn't as visually stimulating as either of the other holidays, (turkeys?  Pilgrims?  Booooorrrrriiing), it's still a time that I feel is grossly overlooked.  It's about being Thankful.  Gluttony, Thankfulness, and Greed.  That's how it's supposed to go.  And it makes me mad when some people try to switch that up.
So I'm putting my foot down.  Or more realistically, putting words to the page, or even more realistically, being self-righteous and smug.


  *all that being said, I'm still the person that decorates for   Christmas no later than November 11th...and I make no apologies.  I'm writing my list of "Thankfuls", so don't judge me.
I made a small list of things I was thankful for on Thanksgiving Day, last year.  But I've been thinking lately that I wanted to start earlier with the things that I'm thankful for.  Just because.


This year has been a hard one.  Not just for me, but for a lot of people I know.  It seems like 2009 has brought a lot of hardships. But then, sometimes it's the difficult things that make us stronger, and more appreciative of the things that we'd normally take for granted.  Anyway, you all know this.  I'm just trying to further explain my post.  But I'm going to go ahead and give you the benefit of the doubt...and assume that you get it, already.


Here goes.


1.  I'm thankful to be in the "enjoyment phase" of having a family.  Right now, I know that my most important goal, calling, whatever, is to be a mother to my three babies.  And a wife/best friend to Jeff.  Now, I realize this isn't a very modern woman attitude, but if I break down what I'm supposed to be doing and my personal desires into their most basic form, this is where I end up.  Sometimes I get overly paranoid about whether or not I'm taking full advantage of my capabilities, or my talents or whether or not I have any of those things.  But when I make myself put everything on the simplest level, I find that I'm right where I need to be.  I'm really thankful for this.




2.  I'm thankful for my siblings and friends and family.  I say this a lot.  But I have been the recipient of tons of good vibes, and warm and fuzzy thoughts, and laughs, and tears, and hugs.  And I've been really grateful for each one.  I'm a lot like my dad was...in that I'm easily overcome with emotion, but I'm not overly excited to share that part of myself.  Just knowing that I have people that care about me, that try to understand I'm doing my own thing right now, is appreciated.  I'm in a soul-searching phase.  I'm trying to find what makes ME happy. And when I know, I'll let you know.


 *Now, please notice that those things were, respectively, number one and number two of my "Thankful" list.  Simply put, they're the most important things to me of all. So...that being said, I'm now going to get to the other stuff.


3.  I'm thankful for this weather.  I mean, has this been the best Fall season, ever?  Uh, yes.  It has.  It's nice and cool, and the sun still shines, and the wind doesn't blow, and we are still supplied with fresh, crisp air.  If there could be one continuous season, this would be the one I'd vote for. It makes me happy and content.


4.  I'm thankful for my health.  I could elaborate, but I won't.  Any of you that have been sick, or seen loved ones go through sickness...know that having health is a huge blessing. Enjoy it.


5. This is a mean one, but I'm thankful for it just the same. And who says mean people shouldn't be thankful for stuff?  I'm thankful for people that have really stupid blogs.  And not only that, but they post really often, and the reason they do it, is because they are "helping YOU be a better person".  I want to point out that these blogs are so dumb, you actually get angry as you read it, because the people writing are so lame.  Yet, like obscene accidents....you just keep looking for more. And that's where I'm at.  I have one blog in particular that I have to check often...because the author's choice of subject matter never ceases to amaze me by its lameness.  I find myself reading the comments after each of this person's posts...wondering if anyone will say what I'm thinking.  Something along the lines of:  "You suck, and so do your opinions.  But you keep me coming back...I'm sickly addicted".  Yet, no one does.  And, because I'm technically blog-stocking this person, I don't feel like I have that right.  I'm thankful for this.  It assures me that I'm not as lame as I COULD be.


6. Bookclub.  I'm missing it today.  Which sucks, because I've been sick, and I've got sick kids...(you know, #4), but when I'm at bookclub I'm around people that bring new stories my way.  And we eat great food.  And we also read stuff.  But it's just a night out with girls each month that I can look forward to.


7.  Sons of Anarchy.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  It's so wonderful.  Each week I wait FOREVER until Wednesday night, for Jeff to download Tuesday's episode off of whatever site he downloads it from.  And then He and I watch it.  And when it ends we look at each other go:  "WHAT?!" Because it's really that good.  And then the wait starts all over again.


8.  Dark nail polish.  Does anyone remember when you couldn't find anything outside of pink and mauve?  Well I do.  It wasn't until I was in high school that the colors began to get cool...and it was Wyoming, so after months of searching I only came up with a glittery navy blue, and a gold-like yellow. You see how difficult it was?  Now I have all my red-blacks, blue-blacks, purple-blacks, green-blacks...you see where I'm going with this. It's not a problem anymore.


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