Thankful

I’m a few days late on this, but better late than never.  I’ve been in a bit of a rut this past week or so.  I’ve been in a lot of pain, which is completely exhausting.  And this gestational diabetes diet is making me all sorts of pissy.   I feel like I can’t eat anything I want to eat and I’m having a hard time being positive about the whole thing.

I decided to make a list of the top 5 “little” things I’m thankful for – things that can easily be taken for granted.   I’m going to leave out the obvious things – my family, friends, health, shelter, food, etc. – and focus on the less obvious things.

1.  I’m thankful that my husband has a good job.  He earns enough for us to live comfortably and have nice things, and it allows for me to be a stay at home mom, which I wouldn’t trade for the world.

2.  I’m thankful for modern technology.  I loved being able to talk to Mark every day while he was in Afghanistan and I was in the States.  To be able to video chat with him and see his face a couple times a week was really a sanity-saver for me.  And on the same note, I love that we can video chat with our families and that Abbie gets to see and talk to her grandparents that live on a different continent.

3.  I’m thankful for the opportunity to live overseas.  It’s a huge adjustment, and a tad bit frustrating at times dealing with a culture that’s pretty different from what you’re used to, but I’m still glad we’ve had this opportunity.  I think you gain so much by stepping out of your comfort zone and our time in Italy is time I will always treasure.

4.  I’m thankful for other people’s creativity.  I’m definitely not the most creative person in the world.  I can follow a pattern or recipe or read music, but as far as creating things from scratch, I’m about worthless.  I’m thankful that there are people in the world who can create things from scratch.  They inspire me.

5.  I’m thankful for our military.  I think it’s easy to take our freedom for granted since most of us haven’t ever known anything different.  I’m also very thankful that there are people willing to volunteer to defend our freedom.  For years I took for granted that there were many, many people spending months and even years away from their families and loved ones to defend my freedoms.  Obviously I’m a lot more aware of that now that I am directly affected by it, but the truth is, we’re all directly affected by it since we’re all receiving the benefits our military provides us.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you survived Black Friday if you dared to venture out!