30 Days of Thanks: Day 3

Ya'll it's been a day. We had church this morning where our pastor addressed the recent suicide in our community this week. There were so many tears and the entire church was grieving, including me, and I didn't know this wonderful young girl. What a way to start Sunday.

Then my kids, my dear sweet kids, drove me up the ever loving wall this afternoon. I should explain. I have been having significant issues getting them to pickup after themselves. As I tell them I do not expect my/our house to look magazine perfect, but goodness I would like to be able to enter their rooms and really walk. Not step gingerly over clutter, trash and clothes. After almost 6 months of being on them to clean up this mama had enough. I told them my last weekend with them that we no longer were going to have "fun" mom weekends, we were going to clean, organize and purge until I was satisfied. So, on that last weekend with them, we started. They worked in their rooms, we emptied part of the attic and cleaned and purged. This weekend we did the same thing. It involves me starting a personal project on my own stuff, running over to help someone else, separating the boys, putting someone back on task, returning to my project, etc. Over and over and over again- ALL DAY LONG. It's dang exhausting, physically and emotionally. And then B, the 8 year old, says "hey mama" and I've been "hey mama"-ed about 10000x times today and I about lose it on her. I can't help but answer with a short, exasperated "WHAT?!" and it's "what am I supposed to do with ....." You know the thing I told her to do 5x already that she forgot because she was being willfully disobedient. Needless to say, it was a rough day here in this household.

It left me wondering what I was going to be thankful for tonight. I'm certainly not truly thankful/grateful for the "stuff" that we have. I am thankful that we have had generous friends and family that have gifted us with so much, that we are able now to pass along to others. But that's not the spirit of things that I want at this moment. I've been pondering it for the past few hours, and nothing has felt genuine until I realized what S, my oldest did today. This gal tackled organizing an area in the attic that has been neglected, reorganized stuff that her siblings had just placed randomly on shelves and then sorted through 2 boxes of miscellaneous craft supplies, birthday cards, old balloons, etc (stuff I have saved to scrapbook). She did it without complaint and joyously as times. She fielded my short, if you find any anniversary cards, etc please just put them in recycle comment without batting an eye.

Thus, on day 3, I'm thankful for my eldest's gift of organization and service today.

30 Days of Thanks: Day 2

Short and sweet: I'm thankful for my dear friend Pete. He's been there over this crazy journey the past 4 years. I can't say enough how much I appreciate him.

30 Days of Thanks: Day 1

I typically attempt to do the #30daysofthanks of Facebook, but invariably miss a few days. This year I opted to switch it up and post it here. This allows me the option to write more, reflect more and be more candid.

It's November 1st and we're all coming down off a sugar high from yesterday's trick or treat extravaganza. I'll be honest, I wanted nothing more than to stay in my warm bed, sleep, read a book, watch hiking videos on YouTube and drink warm beverages today. Bonus if I would get to share those things with someone special, but alas it's a Friday and work calls with an 8am meeting. That being said it was a productive, yet frustrating day at work when I realized I had lost all of my work on a project and had to start from scratch. On top of that I had promised it to the people today, so I was on a deadline to recreate a week's worth of work in under 8 hours. Thankfully, I found a few shortcuts and was able to put it out for them as promised.

This leads me to my first thankfulness post:

I am thankful for being able to work well under pressure.

It's saved me a number of times and drives me when I need it. I know that not everyone thrives under pressure, and there are certainly times when I do not, but today was not one of them. For that, I am grateful.