Thankful Living

We had another great Thanksgiving this year! Kate has loved helping Mamaw in the kitchen since she was a baby - and Mamaw is always kind enough to let her "help" while she's trying to get dinner ready. Each year she's enjoyed whatever part of Thanksgiving dinner that she was developmentally able to eat, but this year she seemed to really enjoy her feast!

The art of being continually thankful is something I'm trying to achieve this year and the Thanksgiving holiday really renewed that desire in my heart. The four or five years before the joyful ones pictured above were extremely difficult for me. Everyone goes through the hill and valley rhythms of life. I've been extremely blessed these several years since Kate's was born to have so many more hills than valleys - but the season of life just before Kate's arrival was unfortunately an opposite type of blessing.

Looking back I can see that time of testing, frustration, and soul weariness as a "blessing" because of all I learned, how my relationship with the Lord deepened, and how those valleys shaped who I am today - as well as how they undoubtedly affected my ability to more fully appreciate my current "hillier" days. But, to be honest, while I was going through what seemed to be an endless stretch of valley after valley I felt discouraged, abandoned, depressed, alone, helpless, and so many other overpoweringly devastating emotions.

In hindsight I can clearly see how much life I missed because I allowed myself to be debilitated by painful emotions. I missed the chance to share in the joys happening in so many lives around me. I missed opportunities to develop relationships and/or maintain several of them. I missed all the little blessings in our lives that are there if we take time to look around us and thank God for them (like waking up in the morning, the weather, that perfectly timed traffic light that kept us safe from an accident, a genuinely caring friend, etc).

Without any hint of pessimism, I feel that it is fair to predict that this current season in my life of abundant hills with few valleys will not last forever. So I need to find ways to learn from the mistakes I made in my last season of many valleys so I won't be tempted to repeat them.

The most profound idea I've stumbled across to remedy my problem is found here: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Phil 4:6). What specifically blew me away about this much quoted passage was when I heard someone say that scientists have proven it is literally physiologically impossible for our brains to be thankful and anxious or stressed at the same time - we were given a key piece of information on how our bodies were designed to be at peace in that verse. (Because I just heard this fact in passing, you'll be glad to know I googled it and one of the sources backing the reliability of the idea is here.)

Based on that fresh understanding, if I can find a way to fill my days - whether they be spent on the hill or in the valley - with thankfulness, then there won't be any room in my heart or mind for anything but peace... and who doesn't want more peace and less stress? To take it one step further, if I'm living in peace I'll be able to be more mindful of the needs of those around me, to be a better wife/mother, and to not risk a repeat of the sad existence I let myself sink into during my last valley season of life. A dear friend of mine who is currently enduring her own set of valleys reminded me tonight that the birds don't worry about tomorrow so why should we? There's no reason for my stress and anxiousness, I just need to cling to the truth and be thankful!

So now that I can clearly see my goal, I need to find concrete ways to achieve it - because what good is a new understanding if I don't put it into practice? I want to actively take steps toward more continually thankful (i.e. rarely anxious) living. I want to someday see annual pictures of me like the ones of Kate's past Thanksgivings above where you can see an obvious forward progression of growth and maturity as the time passes. So I commit to giving thankful living my best shot each day. And next time I'm going through one of those inevitable valleys, I give anyone reading this permission to ask me what I'm taking time to be thankful for and to hold me accountable to grow and not regress!

There was a lot written and said this past Thanksgiving week about what we're all thankful for, but my question for the blogosphere tonight is this: how do you express your thankfulness for those things?

The Sharpie Triumph

I love Sharpie markers about as much as I detest raw chicken. Sharpies are good for SO MANY things: writing, decorating, labeling, and more - while raw chicken is dreadful for SO MANY reasons: germs, slimy-ness, constant need of fat trimming, and more. And today both my love for the Sharpie and my hate for the raw chicken grew...

Kate was sick this morning, so instead of going to church as planned we dressed in our sweats and headed to the good ole Care Now to see if they could help the girl. I knew we would probably be there a while (even with the Web Check In feature), so I decided to get our lunch together and throw it in our trusty crock-pot before we left for Kate's appointment so we could have it ready when we got home.

Cody loves chicken and rice of any kind - and since I stockpiled chicken, broths, and soups last week because of all the pre-Thanksgiving food sales it was simple for me to throw together ingredients... except the perpetually formidable chicken. After struggling to slice off the slimy fat and cut the boneless skinless breasts into smaller portions I slid the chicken into the crock pot, turned it on, and started to clean up the germy chicken slime residue.

As is my custom after wrestling the fat off my chicken, I got out my bleach spray and started squirting it all over the counter, sink, sink knobs, etc trying to wipe away all traces of the poison from my kitchen. I must have gotten a little overzealous with the need to cleanse the counters because I few minutes later when I sat down on the couch I noticed my new black sweat pants were starting to turn a light shade of orange in a line and a few spots across the thigh.

It only took me a minute to realize what had happened and curse that stinkin' chicken. But, a little bleach stain wasn't going to get in my way of leaving ASAP to get Kate to her doctor... cue the superhero music: and my trusty black Sharpie jumped to the rescue!!

At each stoplight on the way to the doctor I carefully colored those pesky bleach stains black with my Sharpie. By the time we made it to the office, my pants were practically as good as new. The black Sharpie colored spots weren't an exact match to the black pants, but they looked so much better than they would have if I'd left them their light peach hue.

So I found yet another use for my trusty Sharpie markers today. And, the good news is that I have about 15 shades of Sharpie, so if this happens again there's a good chance I'll be prepared! But if anyone reading this post should choose to remedy a stain with a Sharpie rather than a Tide Pen or some other more conventional method, I recommend the removal of the clothing item before coloring commences... but under extreme circumstances when one is forced to color clothing directly on the body, try your best not to be shocked when you experience some permanent marker bleed through on your skin!

(Side note: Kate was diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection as well as pharyngitis at the doc. They gave her an antibiotic and told me to keep advil and cold medicine in her system for the next few days to help ease her fever, pain, and other symptoms. She'll be all better soon!)

Out like a Trout

Okay folks, I'm out like a trout for Thanksgiving.
Hope everyone has a great holiday, enjoys lots of turkey and dressing, and I'll be back at my computer sometime Sunday armed with ever so precious Thanksgiving pictures, memories, and perhaps even a unique thought or two about our holiday!

What Have I Created?

What have I created?!? This girl absolutely, totally, and completely loves her hot chocolate. Each time we drive by Starbucks she asks about it -- and "the coffee store" is gradually turning into "the hot chocolate store". Her greatest disappointment is that the Starbucks around here don't have little drive thru tunnels like the one in Lubbock had -- but bottomline, as long as a kid sized hot chocolate comes out of the window she's up for any sort of non-tunnel or tunnel adventure!

Christmas Tree Decorating and Traditions

We decided to set up the Christmas Tree a little early this year since the next three weekends are pretty much booked solid for us and I believe in getting the most out of Christmas decorating! Since Kate's birthday is in January, she's gotten to enjoy helping us decorate the tree every Christmas since she was born. The pics above are a brief snapshot of my favorite two special tree decorating moments: Kate putting the angel on top of the tree with Cody and her hanging her special baby's first Christmas ornament.

One of the funniest things Kate's been doing all weekend is mispronouncing the word Christmas Tree. For some reason she's been saying "Christmas Tree-t" with unbelievably hilarious consistency. I've tried several times to slowly and carefully enunciate "Christmas Treeeee", and each time she says back to me with equal emphasis "Christmas Treeeeee...t"! She puts so many Eees in there that each time I think she's got it and then, just as she's about to run out of breath, she puts that last little t on the end. So after trying to direct her to say it correctly unsuccessfully, I've decided to just let her say it however she wants - it will be a sweet memory for momma!

We've noticed Kate's memory has gotten quite a bit sharper lately - she clearly remembers things from last spring/summer and shocks us frequently with what she'll say about something that happened several months back - but we discovered this weekend that it's likely her earliest real memories right now start around Easter this past year. She knew the Christmas tree was a big deal when we got it out and started setting it all up, but she started looking for her "basket" and kept asking where her eggs were. I told her Christmas wasn't about eggs and tried to explain that Easter will come later, but she insisted that she still needed a basket with some eggs!

Kate definitely enjoyed Christmas last year more than her first, but I think this will be her first Christmas that will make a lasting impression on her and that's so exciting!! And because of that fact I want to try hard to create moments to consciously build memories with her and establish more family Christmas traditions than just putting the angel on top of the tree with Daddy and helping hang ornaments. But what sorts of activities can you do with a toddler that will still be meaningful and significant when that toddler is a school age child or even a teenager? I going to really have to think about that over the next couple weeks.

What are some of Christmas season traditions at your house?