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Thankful Thursday

Each Spring, I fall in love with where we live.  It's the sounds of the birds that reminds me of France, it's the sun streaming into my windows, the moon I can see through my skylight (I caught a glimpse of it this morning through our arch windows, too), it's the streets that are perfect for walks and puddle splashing.  It's wonderful in the spring.  And Hannah is already checking on the pool when we check the post.  I am thankful for where we live.

Yesterday, our family hosted dinner at the church.  I had a terrible dream night before last that we ran out of food (I guess that's the real life equivalent dream to failing tests).  As I was in the kitchen cleaning up for the night I had that old feeling of good goodness.  I used to seek out times to cook for large groups of people, even flirted with the idea of going into catering.  But in recent years, I've stayed out of the industrial kitchens and let others have the joy.  It was great fun to make up a mess of meatloaf, some mashed taters and snap green beans.  I even served some meringues, which was a miracle considering all the rain the past couple of days.  I am thankful for work.

My daughter is amazing.  She can switch from sweet to shrill at a moments notice.  And I've been trying to coax more and more of the sweet out and determining if the shrill is caused by any triggers.  We've been having more fun and less frustration.  We only had one or two melt downs during school this week, which we were getting up into the tens on a daily basis.  I'm also hoping that she's enjoying learning.  I am thankful for study.

Almost every morning, when I'm first waking up, our cat comes into our room, jumps on our bed and then comes right up to my pillow and sits down.  She lets me pet her while she purrs.  With the addition of springtime bird songs, she has added looking out the window and chirping at the birds to our morning routine.  When I finally get out of bed, she leads me to the kitchen where she shows me that she has eaten all her food from the day before.  I am thankful for unusual companions.

This past week, I was blessed with an idea.  And let me be clear, it's not a vision like "If you build it they will come" or a vision with specific plans like the ark that Noah built.  This is more of brainstorm starting point.  When I talked with the person who could help with it, she had a similar vision!  I am thankful that God is smarter than me.

Years and years ago, I was awarded a Masters of Divinity.  God had blessed with gifts, ones that I had thought (when I first started my degree) I would be able to use to have a career and ministry.  My life looks nothing like I thought it would when I started seminary.  Completely different.  This past week, a friend affirmed to me that God has been faithful and allowed the gifts that He gave me to continue to be used for His glory.  I am thankful that God is faithful, even when I am not.

Joel and I are reading this really terrible couples book together.  It came with high stars from Amazon and I had read a great book by one of the authors of this book, but the truth is that this book is terrible.  I read it out loud to him and sometimes he thinks I'm adding words to the book, and sometimes that's true, but the often times it's not.  Joel is a trooper and keeps on letting me read to him.  I am thankful for my husband.

What are you thankful for?

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