Here we go!
- Day 1: Today I'm thankful to be recovering from Halloween, a favorite holiday of both my son and my husband. Check out little man hulking out! We did so much trick-or-treating that today was spent relaxing and trying to get all traces of green off of N's face :)
- Day 2: I'm still reveling in our awesome Halloween and put this little collage together of every costume that N's ever worn for Halloween. How cute is this?!
- Day 3: Some days I swear that Nate is a carbon copy of my husband. I took him out to run some errands tonight and in Bed, Bath & Beyond, he "pulled a Chris" and set off about twelve of these talking/singing Christmas toys :)
- Day 4: Today I'm thankful for some true fall weather! There is a crisp, not cold, feeling in the air. The leaves are beautiful! Our next electricity bill will be amazing! (if a bill can in fact be amazing)
- Day 5: We've been watching Inside Out a lot and, much like the little girl in the movie, Nate has an inner goofball island that drives who he is! I love all of his little quirks, even if he does gross things like lick me when I just want to take a picture with him :)
- Day 6: Today I'm so thankful for my Nana, who celebrated her third heaven anniversary today. I sat and looked through pictures, listened to old voicemails, smiled at the flood of memories, and had myself a good cry. Oh, how I miss her!
- Day 7: Best laid plans can fall apart quickly ... and that's okay! It's taken me a long time to even consider that as an option, but I'm learning to accept it. We had grand plans today to fill up our Saturday. Then rain came, along with a migraine for me. Sometimes allowing yourself a bit of grace to fall apart or re-prioritize is a huge thing to be thankful for.
- Day 8: Shopping with my kiddo used to be something that I dreaded, but we've grown out of the days of fearfully running through the store in case of an ill-timed poopy diaper or running away to exercise new-found toddler independence. Instead, he is my right-hand man and helps me navigate through the store.
- Day 9: What is life without dogs? Our pups are stubborn as anything, but they bring some extra needed chaos and love into our lives. They spend their days roaming around the house to nap in sunny spots and their nights hogging our beds.
- Day 10: Another Inside Out themed thankfulness thought! Ahh, alliteration. N looked at me today and said, "I'm Sadness. Pull me."
- Day 11: Today I'm so thankful for all of our veterans, past and present, who put everything on the line so that we can enjoy the freedoms that make life so sweet. Both of my grandfathers served, setting tremendous examples for our family.
- Day 12: I've been loving the Dollar Tree lately to find some fun and inexpensive things for my house. Now that Christmas is right around the corner, I'm starting to explore all the fun Christmas things that they have - including these really fun magnets. N loved putting the different pieces of Santa together.
- Day 13: Today I celebrated with a bit of ever-illusive ME time! My parents took N out for dinner and Chris got in late from a business trip, which gave me about an hour and a half to myself. I grabbed some necessities from Costco, settled down with a glass of wine (one of the said necessities), and read part of a new book.
- Day 14: Christmas card pictures! I'll be the first to admit that I stress myself (and the rest of my family) out each year to get these taken, but I love the final results! We're not the best of taking family photos throughout the year, so this is my one guaranteed shot each year. I'm not going to share the photo that we're using on our cards this year (yet), but today the thing that I am thankful for is my ever-goofy son who makes family photo taking an adventure!
- Day 15: I spent a lot of time reading this weekend. I haven't read a book for fun in a long time and I'm absolutely loving this one - The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Album. I really appreciate the imagery, the musical approach, and the story so far. I have a feeling it's going to cause me some tears toward the end, but that just means that I'm invested! :)
- Day 16: I'm so thankful for my three nephews and (finally!) baby niece. I wish that I lived closer to all of these little goofballs, but I am loving watching them grow up into such awesome kids and Nate sure does adore them, too.
- Day 17: My friends are the absolute best. It's kind of amazing when people appreciate your own special blend of crazy and still want to spend time with you :) I've gotten especially close with some of the girls from work over the last few years and I really just don't know what I would do without them!
- Day 18: In prepping for the holidays, I'm especially thankful for our home. It's where we brought N home from the hospital, where he has grown up, and where Chris and I have learned to be parents and better spouses for one another. It's my haven and, while the improvement wish list may always be in the back of my mind, I'm so thankful for this place!
- Day 19: Thankful for N's teachers today and everything that they've done over the years to take care of my kiddo. Tonight they prepared a Thanksgiving dinner for all of the families and I was more than pleasantly surprised to see what N is thankful for!
- Day 20: Am I a total nerd to be thankful for a cleaning schedule? Yes, but I am anyway. I've made some small changes and the schedule is probably the best thing I could have done for my sanity as we move into the holidays and life gets even busier!
- Day 21: Thankful for this kiddo's little mind today. His creativity and imagination keep his little mind busy for hours and the story lines are, more often than not, hilarious.
- Day 23: Nate can't read yet, but his interest in being read to has skyrocketed over the last six months. Before that we generally read three books a night before bed, but now he initiates the process and generally chooses around twenty books. So we read .... and read and read and read. I generally will read until he falls asleep (ha! that doesn't happen often) or my voice starts to give out (the much more likely of the scenarios). I'm still very worried about him starting kindergarten next fall, but this eases my mind a bit!
- Day 24: Crafting with kids can be an adventure. I'm finding that these are so much easier to do now that Nate is a little older and we both have fun. And I spend considerably less time worrying about mess. We made these little Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle ornaments tonight. So easy to do and we made an awesome little memory in the process!
- Day 25: Thankful for an unexpected extra holiday from work that will extend my Thanksgiving mini-vacation!
- Day 26: As we celebrate Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for family: the family that I grew up in, that I married into, and that Chris and I created. We hosted a delicious dinner, had some more than interesting conversation, and this cute little centerpiece actually got us thinking and talking about what we're thankful for!
- Day 27: Leftovers! After a more than busy day of (Chris) whipping up Thanksgiving dinner and hosting, I have never appreciated leftovers and the microwave more!
- Day 28: Nate is a trickster who has a great sense of humor - we see this all of the time. And sometimes we see this really sweet, caring soul peek through and it just makes me smile. Nathan spent hours today drawing pictures of soldiers and then devised an entire plan of walking door to door in our neighborhood to leave them on doorsteps. The purpose was for parents to give to their kids who want toy soldiers. Such a sweet idea, right? Adorable but terribly awkward in execution. Thank goodness for my husband who walked around the neighborhood with him tonight...hopefully the neighbors don't mind!
- Day 29: Decorating for Christmas makes me a bit neurotic to have everything be 'perfect' but I love what the house looks like afterward. The boys decorated most of the tree this year and I only rearranged the ornaments on a very minimal level afterward :) Our house is so pretty right now!
- Day 30: Even though it's always hard to get back into routine after a break from work, I think we appreciate our jobs more than ever this year. Sometimes it's the journey and (especially) the valleys that make you reflect back and rediscover appreciation.
be kind, be thoughtful, be genuine, but most of all
BE THANKFUL
