Day 13: Place

The place I'm thankful for today is the airport. I'm grateful that air travel makes it possible to get across the country and even around the world in such a compact amount of time. I'm grateful that arriving at the airport signals excitement and anticipation - going on an adventure, seeing a favorite spot or favorite people. I'm grateful also for the positive feelings upon returning home.  There's lots that can be challenging about air travel these days, so it's good to also remember what a mind boggling wonder of technology and what a fantastic portal of connection and experiences it can be.

Day 12: Tradition

 

I am thankful for our family tradition of restaurant food on Friday nights. It's a nice way to give parents a break and give everyone a treat all at once. It's a fun way to start the weekend and it gives one less thing to think about as you wrap up the work week. And for most of the life of this tradition (which we've held for several years), it's been a good way for our family to get some quality family time, although the way it has worked out this past year has been a little different. Due to sports schedules, the restaurant food has been a standing order of pizza and chicken tenders, picked up at 3:30 from Pizza Plus so that everyone can have at least a little dinner before heading back out. The sports schedule recently changed to give us back our Friday evenings, so I'm grateful that we'll be able to go back to a more normal eating time, get a little variety in the restaurant food, and eat together as a family.

Day 11: Season

 

I am grateful for summer in this stage of life because it provides rest and a break on the same every day routine.

It's restful because we take a break from homeschool for a couple months. The kids and I both appreciate the slower mornings, the absence of workbooks, and the freedom that opens up to do other things or to do nothing at all. 

It breaks up same every day because of all the unique-to-summer events that happen. VBS, day camps (and new this year, one kid going to overnight camp), Art Town, vacations. As well as the seasonal things that we've always loved - pulling out the kayak and paddleboard for lake days; going to the pool; watermelon and corn on the cob at summer barbecues. And the always fun, likely bigger and better than ever celebrating 250, 4th of July. Cheers to summer!

Day 10: Sounds

 

                    Quote from "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis

When I saw this prompt, my first thought was that I am grateful for the sound of water. And then before I got the chance to sit down and write a post, I read this section of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" to my kids which describes the sound of water so perfectly. And what makes it even more beautiful is what it is symbolizing here - winter is melting into spring as the deeper magic is coming into Narnia in anticipation of all things being renewed. I am grateful for the sight, sound, feeling, taste, and smell of water, and I'm grateful for this remarkable story.

Day 9: Role Model

 I'm going to choose a fictional role model this year and say that I'm thankful for Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter. I'm grateful for the characteristics he embodies as a leader and as a person. More on the leader level, I'm impressed by his skill at his profession (magic / wizarding); his ability to come up with creative and surprisingly effective solutions to thorny problems; and his wisdom, patience, and ability to stay cool when things around him are going crazy. More on the human level, I'm impressed by his self sacrificing nature, his ability to maintain a sense of humor and perspective through everything, and his deep kindness.

I'm grateful for fiction writers who create such a rich world as Harry Potter, with characters you get to know like friends, and who create characters that you can root for and against and even aspire to want to be like. 

Day 8: Knowledge

 

I am grateful for the knowledge I learn every time my son develops a new area of interest. Josh develops pretty intense interests in things and then those are his favorite things to talk about, so I'm going to take a little walk down memory lane of the different interest areas over the years. None of these have completely gone away, but they fade after a few years when a new topic captures his imagination.

 In preschool, it was trains, so we knew all the characters on Thomas, but we also knew the difference between a boxcar, hopper, and gondola.

In early elementary, the interest was bridges. We learned about the different kinds - arch bridge, suspension bridge, cable-stayed bridge, etc. We learned about the longest and the strongest and the most unusual bridges throughout the world. Two favorites were the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the memorable Gallupin Gertie in Tacoma, Washington.

In late elementary through middle school, it was natural disasters. We learned about the different wind speed classifications for hurricanes and tornadoes, about what causes natural disasters to form, and most of all what were the biggest and most notable disasters in history - everything from Vesuvius to Mt. St. Helens with volcanoes, Hurricane Katrina, the Tri-State Tornado. We still take note of every tsunami sign we see when we're on the coast and keep track of wildfires pretty closely.

Now, the beloved subject is shipwrecks. Titanic and Lusitania are the two that he can tell you about backwards and forwards, but he likes to learn about more obscure ones, about ship captains who acted honorably and dishonorably, and about how lifeboat regulations have changed over time.

These are all subjects I knew very little about before Josh, and they are subjects that make me think of him with a smile every time they come up in even the smallest way in every part of life. I'm grateful for the passion he brings to his interests and how that overflows to all of us.

Day 7: Changes this Year

 

This one is an anticipated change that's coming up in August. After four years of homeschooling, Zoey is going back to public school to start high school. In honor of this, I'm going to do a thankful about some of the things I loved about high school.

I'm grateful for teachers and academic opportunities. Like McQueen, my high school was one of the biggest in the state. This meant that we had quite a range of classes to choose from and sometimes got really great teachers. In particular, I loved my high school English teachers and credit them for helping me learn to get technically skilled as a reader and writer while not taking away the joy and fun of either pursuit. I had an Anatomy and Physiology teacher who had us eat all kind of strange animal body parts and try to earn the "Iron Stomach Award" as we learned about the different body systems. I had social studies teachers who showed me that history can be the most exciting and relevant subject rather than the driest. I hope Zoey has some teachers who inspire.

I'm grateful for the events, like Spring Day and football games and pep rallies and the dances and the graduation ceremony. I wasn't especially into any of these things at the time, but looking back, they are special marker posts during your teen years and though they weren't the highlight of the experience for me, I'm grateful and glad they were there. I hope Zoey enjoys some of the traditional high school events.

I'm grateful for the sports and coaches. It's so helpful in high school when you find your thing, and for me this was definitely sports. On my teams, I found friendships, learned many life lessons (scattered throughout previous blog posts), and made some great memories. I got to experience both victory and defeat as intense as anything I've faced in adult life, and I found a place of belonging. I hope that Zoey is able to find an activity that excites her and gives her a place of belonging.

Most of all, I'm grateful for high school friendships. I wasn't a popular kid, but I had really great, strong, real friendships. None of us were inclined to party, so our weekends looked more like spending an hour at Blockbuster picking out a movie, driving around for hours, listening to music - and it was the absolute best. I loved my high school friends and definitely count them as the highlight of my high school experience, and I hope that Zoey makes friendships like these.