I am writing this before I have a mimosa (or two) otherwise it will be 100 things I am thankful for which means I will be droning on and on about how happy I am and no one likes to read stuff that is TOO happy and thankful. It sounds fake. I think twenty seven is enough things to be thankful for. Besides pretty soon I have to peel potatoes. I can’t be writing all day long
1) Good son Duncan took the little boys to his house last night for a sleep over. Wow. HIS house. Consequently I was able to make 10 pies early this morning without once saying “Stop talking to me I am counting cups of flour! Oh well shit! THAT pie is RUINED. Why does everyone always have to TALK?!” I was supposed to bake them last night but I got involved in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The original, not the creepy Johnny Depp version. (Sorry Johnny. I still love you.)
2) Its fifty five degrees outside. Or something like that. Practically balmy. So we have the doors open and you can hardly smell the turtle tank with all that fresh air mixed with pumpkin pie smell and a lit candle.
3) I am thankful that Daniel still likes tie-dying things, making snow cones and that he still hugs me even though he is 13.
4) Everyone is now home so Maria has stopped following me around saying she is bored. I am thankful that is over. She was practically climbing the walls without someone to argue with. I am pretty much too chipper to argue with her today.
5) Twenty seven is a lot of things to be thankful for. Mimosas. I am thankful that soon there will be mimosas.
6) I am thankful that every time I make the bed I notice the indentation on Grant’s pillow from where his head was and that I say: “God please watch over him so he will make a new indentation tonight” before I fluff it out. I never fluff it when he is travelling.
7) I am thankful for my job: my leaders, my peers, my customers: they are my people. This is an amazing blessing. Especially since I work a lot of hours. It might as well be with people I dig.
8) Football. Three games today.
9) Four days off from work. (Despite number seven, it’s important to take time off.)
10) My favorite Steelers shirt which I intend to wear for the next four days. Because it’s holiday. Also for luck against the Saints. So I am thankful for luck and less laundry.
11) Number ten counts as two. That’s not cheating.
12) Maria just told me that you can actually die from drinking too much water: that your cells would eventually burst. I am thankful I have not done that to myself at this point in my life.
13) I am thankful that the argument is over about whether or not they are going to make a fourth Hobbit movie or if the third one coming up in December will be the last one. I mostly don’t care. I would rather listen to arguments about which is better: Grant’s stuffing WITH or WITHOUT celery.
14) I am thankful Grant put celery in the stuffing.
15) I am thankful that the beer pong tournament happening in our breezeway with our kids isn’t with actual beer. That would be wrong.
16) I am thankful that I did not get a call from Mitchel’s teacher regarding the lovely fall leaf collage he did in school. The sun up in the corner is very pretty but the leaf guy at the bottom right corner “drowning” is a little worrisome.
17) I am really thankful for the ruby slippers we bought Maria for Christmas last year. It’s important that she has something I am jealous of. It’s weird that she won’t let me wear them though.
18) I am thankful that Duncan’s friend (and ours) Connor is here for Thanksgiving. And I mostly like it when he calls me mom. Even though, just to clarify, I am not his mom. I think taking credit for six kids is enough
19) I am thankful for my headphones. I would never get any writing done without them.
20) I am thankful for my new washer and dryer. Still. After three months. I really, really appreciate being able to wash and dry a load of laundry in an hour instead of three
21) I am thankful and proud that Dillin has a good job and that HE is happy he has a job even though it’s not his dream job. He leaves the house to go to work with great optimism. I promise you Dillin: the dream job will come. Keep on keeping my love.
22) I am thankful the potatoes are all peeled. I had to take a break from this post. Being thankful is kind of exhausting. So is peeling potatoes. But NOW I have a mimosa in my hand. I promise to NOT be thankful more than 27 times
23) I am thankful for David’s wicked funny sense of humor. Except when he crop dusted me at the library yesterday: that was crossing a line. Farting in the library is sacrilegious. Just sayin.
24) I am always, always thankful for hot water. There is never a time that I am not thankful for a hot shower or bath. Except when there is not hot water. Which happens a lot in my house. And that f’ing pisses me off. BUT at least there is water. It not being hot is a first world problem that I try to not dwell on. Too much.
25) I am thankful that I quite possibly could finally be at a point in my life where the intricate growing Lego village along the wall of my living room makes me grin instead of scowl at when I am vacuuming and can’t get along the baseboard. Because of the village. I mostly realize now that Lego villages add an element of elegance and class to any décor.
26) I am thankful for Maggie, Dillin’s girlfriend whom I think of as another daughter who simply doesn’t live with us, mostly.
27) I am so very thankful, so very, for my friends and family without whom I would not be all the way okay. At all. My heart swells with love for you all.
Happy Thanksgiving!
peaceof8 