Catching Up on Thankfuls

After a few requests for new posts, I logged on and realized that in my pre-Thanksgiving posts I forgot to include my thankfuls! So, bear with me as I catch up on what I am thankful for (along with a few random pictures), and then chronicle our holiday :)

I am Thankful For:

Thursday (the 18th...yikes!):

Getting caught up on cleaning. When mama is sick, everything falls behind. The house was a disaster area. Lucas and I had been chipping away at various things, but Thursday I made the big push to get it done. Not perfect, but respectable :) It was a relief!

My little mama. Allie has recently been taken with a desire to nurture her younger brother. This includes gently patting his head when he's tired, giving him books for baby music time, and feeding him on occasion!

Friday:

Game night with out friends. When I move someplace new, I always worry about finding friends. I am not the most outgoing person in the world (in fact, my true nature is shy), and going about friend-making is stressful. I kid you not that I always have a plan - when I switched high schools I joined a sport with a pre-season so I would have met people my first day. In college I connected myself with Intervarsity and met my dearest friends in our dorm's Bible study. In seminary I joined the building Bible study and the seminary wives group. But when I moved here I had no clue what to do. Lucas and I made intentional trips to the park to meet other couples with kids. The triathlon solidified these friendships, and a sister-in-law of a friend connected me to another friend. Once a month we invite all these friends over for a game night. My face hurt from laughing so hard. An evening with these friends full of laughter, rivalry, food, and fellowship is a blessing beyond description.

Saturday:

An Uneventful Doctor's visit: Without going into too much detail I will say that I have had several doctors appointments recently where I have completely embarrassed myself in some way. I was dreading my appointment on Saturday morning, wondering what on earth I could possibly do this time. Thankfully, nothing! The curse is broken :)

Help: I have sort of been drawn into the world of web consulting and design. I am an extreme novice, and the stress of working on people's professional website occasionally overwhelms me. But I have a friend who is a professional, who could tell me to figure it out on my own (because I am theoretically stealing business), but instead has given me every tool I could possibly need, and willingly invites me over to ask stupid questions and help me out. I am so thankful for this friend (and his wife, who also lets me ask stupid questions about her online work - they have enlightened me so much)!

The promise of seeing the fishies, and the visit to the tanks, is what keeps them sane at the store!

Sunday:

Nursery fellowship: 50% of the time, my children are the only ones in nursery. This means that when I work in the nursery, I am often watching my own kids. Although not when I'm on with my friend who brings E to play with the twins! That was the case this Sunday, and then when they had to leave (we worked the nursery shift, and then I pulled worship service duty to fill in), I got to chat with another friend from church who I don't get to see very often! Even if I'm just watching my own kids, I enjoy our nursery fellowship :)

Monday:

The library: Growing up, the town library was literally one of my favorite places on earth. I loved the books, I loved the librarian, I loved sitting in the rocking chair by her desk and asking her about books (she knew everything!), I loved her quote board behind the desk (I learned so many famous quotes from that board), I loved the sound of the stamp as it marked the due date on the card, I loved the light streaming through the big windows, I loved the old brick building. I loved everything. To this day my dream is to be a librarian, and I know it is because I loved my librarian and library so much. It was important for me to find a library for the twins, and our local library is wonderful! We made a trip on Monday to pick up new books and dvds for the trip and the twins LOVED playing on the beangbag chairs, coloring at the table, pulling out the puzzles, and looking at the books. But what I loved the most? When they made friends with the librarian. They waved to her, jabbered stories, played peek-a-boo, and called out cheerful bye-byes! I could tell they captured her heart, and that moment captured mine.

Not having to go grocery shopping: Lucas and I did 2 weeks in 1 the weeks before. Not having this day guzzling chore looming over me was wonderful!

Tuesday:

Playgroup. The day has been chronicled here, so I'm not going to go into detail. But the friendship of these moms is a blessing to me, and the friendship of our children warms my heart.

Wednesday:

Our church: A year ago, we had a super secret meeting with the search committee here to talk about coming back (mentioned very vaguely here). At the time we really weren't sure what would happen. This church was part of a very important time in our lives and ministry and we loved them, but we were afraid our emotions would cloud our judgement. We asked God to clearly show us what He wanted, and doors opened like crazy! A year later I sat in the Thanksgiving Eve service (with more attendees than they have had in several years!), and looked out over the familiar faces of people we love. I am overwhelmingly grateful for our church, for the people, for the ministry we had there and our ministry there now. God is good.