Day 6: I am Grateful I can hear...

I am grateful that I can hear Kenny playing guitar music.  He spends some time playing guitar almost every night, usually shortly after dinner, and it's this really pleasant time in our household.  The kids are milling around, half listening and half playing.  We all have our favorite songs that he plays - mine is "Country Roads", Zoey's is "No Woman, No Cry", etc.  I'm so grateful for the moments when our house is filled with music that we can all enjoy. 

Day 5: Financially...

I am grateful that God has always provided money for my basic needs to be met, whether this was through my parents, a job, a student loan, or family income.  I'm not saying there's never been lean times, or that I don't follow a budget, but I've never been in a position where I had to worry about where my or my kids' next meal was coming from.  And I realize that this fact alone puts me in a category of ridiculous wealth compared to almost all other times and places in history.  It lets me think about things other than survival.  It lets me enjoy and/or worry about all kinds of things other than money, which is only possible because there is more than enough to pay for food, housing, and clothing.  I am so grateful for the huge blessing of God's financial provision, and I hope that reflection on this great blessing causes me to be more generous.

Day 4: Today I am grateful for...

Today I am grateful for the right to vote.  I love living in a country where the government is a representative democracy, and we all get the right to have a say in who and how things are run.  I love seeing all the other people who are out voting or running the polling places, everyone doing their civic duty.  I love the little sticker they give you saying "I Voted".  I'm grateful that even when the election doesn't turn out the way you hoped, there will be another opportunity to cast your vote within 2-4 years.  And I will be REALLY grateful if a few of these bigger elections turn out the way I voted...

Day 3: About my Hometown...

Today's prompt is "about my hometown".  The first question is, what's my hometown?  I was born in Sacramento, spent my first 13 years in Norfolk, Nebraska, attended high school and continue to visit my family every year in Lincoln, Nebraska, and currently live in and plan to raise my family in Reno.  I have lots of love for Lincoln and Reno, but for today's prompt, I'm going to write about my OG hometown:  Norfolk, NE.

Norfolk is a small town of 21,000 people, with no bigger population towns anywhere within 100 miles.  One thing that's fun about small Midwestern towns is that everyone is very loyal to the local sports team.  The varsity football and basketball games are social events for the whole town, and if the team makes it to state playoffs, the fans will caravan en masse to root root root for the home team.  This is a super fun way for the townspeople to have a sense of unity and camaraderie, and I'm grateful I got to be a part of it for many years.  (And even to play on some Norfolk Panthers teams in junior high.) 

I'm especially grateful for 1994, when the Norfolk Panthers beat the Benson Bunnies to win the Class A State Football championship, and in that same season, the Nebraska Cornhuskers won the National Championship.  Sports fandom does not get much better than that!

Day 2: About My Health...

Backpacking trip up Mt. Blanca

 I am grateful for the great blessing of good health so far throughout my life.  Health is one of those things that I often take for granted, so it's good to have a prompt to remember what a difference it makes.  When I was younger, good health allowed me to participate in many fun and memorable activities - volleyball and track teams in high school and college, climbing mountains while living in Colorado, and running half marathons.

Now that I'm older, every brief bout with sickness or injury reminds me how much I rely on good health to take care of my family.  Caring for little kids takes a surprising amount of energy and physical stamina, and it's really hard to manage when you as the caretaker are ill, or when part of your body needs to rest because it's injured.  I've never had a major or chronic illness or injury, and I'm extremely grateful for that.

30 days of gratitude, 2018. Day 1: About My Family

(I got this challenge from scaleitsimple.com)

One of the nice things about having a blog that you write just for fun is that you get to choose
your own pace of writing and posting.  This is also one of the hard things.  Fall is traditionally a slower time of blogging for me.  This is partly because there are many extras in our life this season (all the kids' birthdays, back to school and IEPs and Katie Beckett, all the holidays), and partly because my mood somewhat mirrors the seasons, so fall feels like a time for reflection and melancholy rather than prolific writing. 

However!  If you don't post at least once in awhile, then your blog dies. So I'm going to start my 30 days of gratitude early this year because 1) i want to keep the blog going, 2) my perspective could use a gratitude ramp up starting immediately; and 3) this will allow for a few days off of blogging between now and the end of November.

Here's the full 30 day challenge, if anyone wants to join in the fun!  I will put this first day up on Facebook, but the rest I will only post on my blog.

Day 1:  About my family...

I am grateful for Kenny because he is smart and thoughtful, and the way he thinks about life and faith and politics challenges me and makes me grow.  I'm grateful for his wry sense of humor.  I'm grateful for the musical interludes he brings to the house when he plays guitar.  I'm grateful for the way he sets goals and achieves them, and for the way he has dreams for the future.  I'm grateful for his creativity and his writing skills.  This list really just scratches the surface.

I am grateful for Josh because of his sweet smile, his sense of fun, his passion for the things he's interested in (and anyone who knows him knows what those things are!), his strength and persistence in the face of adversity, and his kind heart.

I'm grateful for Zoey because of her sensitive spirit, her sharp wit, her funny combination of strong feelings and empathy combined with a heavy dose of logic and rationality, her love for her rope, her creativity expressed through dancing, and her love for her family.

I am grateful for Ivy because she's always ready to have a dance party, she was born with more social and emotional intelligence than I will ever have, her big eyes see everything, and she brings so much fun and love to the family. 

I am grateful for Gus because he's loyal and affectionate and a good friend to all of us.

What are you grateful for about your family? 

Ode to the Blue Carpet

This blog post is an ode to our now removed blue carpet.  We changed out our flooring a few weeks ago, and I'm thrilled that we got that opportunity because it's now easier to clean, better for allergies and asthma, and better looking.  But the blue carpet was the defining look of the first 3 years in this house, so I want to post a few pictures in memory before I get to the before and after reveal at the end.

Nice soft surface for babies

Playing ferry boat - blue carpet doubles as pretend water

Soft surface for wrestling

Playing pirate boat, again with the pretend water

Posing for soooo many pictures

Soft surface for playtime

Now that I've paid proper tribute, here's the before and after reveal:

This is the before...

...and this is the after!