Tag: Thankful

The Thankful Challenge – Day 5

A 365 day challenge to focus on being thankful.

Ok, I made it to day 5. Woohoo! I know it seems silly to celebrate such a tiny milestone but we have to celebrate the little victories along with the big. Some baby steps that will hopefully lead to leaps and bounds.

Yesterday I wrote about Mom. Today I think it is only fitting to follow it up with a thankful post about Dad. I’m so thankful I had two wonderful parents who loved me and always wanted the best for me. I know that is not always the case for everyone. Dad is no longer with us but there was never a dull moment when he was around.

There are so many anecdotes and stories about Dad, it’s hard to narrow it down. I will say that he provided for us and worked insanely hard to make sure we had everything we ever needed as well as some things we didn’t necessarily need. He loved to travel and wanted to make sure we had experiences that would last a lifetime. We had some really entertaining and adventurous family trips, all in our Econoline high top van. Dad loved loading up and jumping in that van for an outing. I can still see him sitting up in the drivers seat, whistling along, as we headed down the highway. We listened to the Kingston Trio A LOT. It was one of his favorite bands. I still listen to the Kingston Trio because of Dad. Listening to his music also helps me remember some of the very vivid memories I have of my Dad.

When I was a kid Dad loved playing in the ocean with us. I don’t know how many hours he spent holding onto me while I floated on rafts in the ocean. I was a little nervous about the fish and, in full disclosure, the seaweed. I would lose my mind when the seaweed brushed across my legs and would go running for the raft. I spent hours on those blue and red rafts (if you are a 70’s/80’s baby you know the ones I’m talking about). Dad held onto that raft and never made me feel silly for being a little afraid of the ocean critters and things drifting in the water. My brothers and I always had the best time in the ocean with Dad. He transferred his love of the ocean to me and to my kids as well. It is my happy place and I always feel a little closer to Dad on the beach.

On a side note, I was looking for a picture of the blue and red rafts to add to this post. I saw one of the rafts marked “vintage” and now I feel old. It was also for sale for $59.99. What in the world!? I don’t even know how someone owns a raft from that long ago that survived this long. We went through those rafts like fish went through the water and they were only about $5 each. The new $59.99 price…must be a victim of “inflation”.

Even though Dad has gone on to Heaven, his memory is still very much alive here on Earth. When we get together as a family, there is always some fun story of Dad that finds its way into the conversation. The Dad stories are the best and always get us laughing. I think about him every day and miss him terribly, but more than that, I am so thankful that he was my Dad!

The Thankful Challenge – Day 4

A 365 day challenge to focus on being thankful.

Want to know one of the fun things about my midnight musings? You get to see the inner workings of my very tired brain. It’s always a fun time when I try to make a post when I really should be snuggled down and fast asleep. I probably should go back and check the posts to make sure I didn’t make too many typos (or say anything too crazy) but maybe I will do that another day. Today I am trying something a little different and writing while the clock still says “a.m.”.

Today, on Day 4, I want to give a huge shout out to the most influential person in my life, my Mom. She has been my inspiration, my confidant, my friend, and my biggest supporter to name a few of the qualities that make her the best. It’s amazing to think God could put so much goodness, kindness, and compassion into one person. She has a spirit of helpfulness and giving that I think may be unmatched. I wish she had kept track of her pie giving when she first started taking pies to people that were homebound or recovering from sickness. I’m pretty sure the pie count would be 500 or more. Did I mention she makes a mean lemon meringue pie? It’s not the thing I am most thankful for about her but it is definitely up there on the list. I’ve tried a lot of lemon meringue pies in my time and no one makes one like my Mom. She also makes a fabulous coconut pie, and pecan pie, which are also fan favorites, but I would arm wrestle someone for the last piece of her lemon meringue pie!

Oh goodness, sorry, I got going on a pie tangent and couldn’t reel myself back in. It happens.

I am one blessed woman to have a Mom like my Mom! We talk and text a lot, sometimes about really random things. She has a great sense of humor and tolerates mine. She laughs at my jokes and comforts me when I am not in the most joking of moods. She has never ever given up on me even when I wasn’t the easiest to love. And she has supported me through everything, even when I moved across the country to pursue one of my dreams. As a Mom with a child that just left for college, I know those years apart were not easy for her but she never made me feel guilty about being so far away.

Mom has supported me always and in every way. Now she does the same for her grandkids. Whatever the weather, if she tells them she is going to be there, she is there. Scorching hot track meets, check, torrential downpour football game, check, freezing cold regatta and cross country meet, double check. She has been there for my kids the way she was there for me and that is something I will never forget. I want to support my kids and be the best Mom I can be for them because of her.

I could go on and on and I will likely revisit Mom stories later in the year. There is one thing for sure, the bond between a Mother and daughter is so special and I am thankful God saw fit to put us together! I love you to the moon and back!

I would love to hear your favorite stories about your Mom. Please leave a comment to let me know one of your favorites!

The Thankful Challenge – Day 3

A 365 day challenge to focus on being thankful.

Well folks, so far I have yet to make a post or really start writing a post before 10pm. Suffice it to say, I have not quite figured out how to work this into my schedule. I hope I can eventually shift to writing the blog before 10am but so far this is what we have. I came into this year long blog making a snap decision to start this challenge and didn’t give it too much thought. The one thing I did realize…if I started overthinking this thing I would never start it. That means I would never start writing. I thought If I start with little blurbs to dust off my keyboard and strengthen my typing fingers, I could build it into something more.

An interesting and encouraging thing has been happening in these first few days. Some people have read the first two posts and have offered positive feedback. Others are asking me how the New Year is going and if I’ve made any resolutions. While I don’t consider this a New Year’s resolution (people rarely keep their resolutions), I do share my Thankful challenge idea with them. Everyone’s reaction has been so encouraging and some have told me they want to start the thankful challenge with me. How exciting! I do hope more will join in with the challenge!

So today, for Day 3, I am so thankful for all the encouragement and positive feedback I’ve received in the first couple of days. It helps me realize I am actually doing the “write” thing. (Tee hee! See what I did there?)

Ok I better go to bed. So far I’ve fallen asleep with my finger on the eeeeeeeeeeeeeee and the nnnnnnnnnnn. Now I just need a ddddddddddd to make it to the eeeennndddd of this post! See you on Day 4.

The Thankful Challenge – Day 2

A 365 day challenge to focus on being thankful.

Well, this is another skin of my teeth posting. I’m squeaking in just before midnight but I didn’t want day 2 to go by without posting my thankful challenge for the day. Plus, how silly would it be if I couldn’t even make it past day 2 of my self imposed challenge. Ha! That would not be good!

For day 2, I am so thankful for the people around me that build me up and keep me sane, a.k.a my support system. My Mom is at the very tippy top of that list but she deserves her very own day and I want to have a little more time to write about her. She will be “appearing” in a post all about her in the next few days.

I cannot name all the people in my support system, for fear of leaving someone out, but they know who they are. It’s the people I can go to with anything and they are ready to step up and help however they can and at a moment’s notice. It’s the people I may not see every day or we may not even live in the same town but whenever we see each other it’s like we have been together all along. It’s the people I can call or text and tell them anything and they do not judge or “throw shade”. (…do we still say that?) It’s the people who will come over in monsoon-like weather to let my dogs out…on multiple occasions. (I still owe you some flowers for that!) It’s the people who will bring me a meal just because they know I had a rotten day. It’s the people who check in on me even though they are going through a tough time themselves. It’s the people that humor me and aren’t afraid to keep our streaks alive with goofy photo filters on a certain social media app. Oh the lol’s I get from those pics. I could go on but hopefully you get the idea. These are the people in my support system.

My support system is filled with the people that truly make my life easier, help me maintain my sanity, and aren’t afraid to laugh with me when things just seem to go all sorts of crazy. Some I have know my whole life, or most of my life, and some I have only known in my adult life but I love you all! I am so thankful for you, my most fabulous support system.

Let me know how you would describe the people in your support system.

Stay tuned for Day 3!

The Thankful Challenge – Day 1

A 365 day challenge to focus on being thankful.

This morning while I was in the middle of my devotion, there was a focus on being thankful. As I stepped through the different focuses outlined for me, it occurred to me that I have become forgetful to be thankful. I’m not sure what happened over the last few years to pull me away from my generally positive, thankful, bright side personality but I decided this morning (yes this morning) that I needed to make a change in 2024. Was it a snap decision? Absolutely! Although, I do want to focus more on writing this year. What better way to get started than with a thankful focus? I know a lot of people pick certain months out of the year to be thankful (especially November for some reason) but I thought to myself, “What if I take on the whole year?”. Could this be a life altering experience? Quite possibly. Am I biting off more than I can chew? Probably. Will I succeed? Who knows? Is it worth a try? Most definitely!

So here is the first post of (hopefully) many to get this year started. What am I thankful for today? It is hard to figure out where to start. What is the best first thankful post for 2024? As the clock ticks down toward the end of this day, I probably need to go ahead and figure it out so I am not behind before I even get started. I’ve been thinking about this all day, and it turns out I truly have many reasons to be thankful, big and little reasons, funny and serious, joyful and grace filled. I’m not sure if it makes sense but I’ve also been thankful in sadness. So to get the year started, is it cheating to say I am thankful I have so many things to be thankful for? Seriously! I tend to focus on the big things but as I was thinking through it today, there are so many little things out there as well. I cannot expand too much on it because, well, I need to be able to keep this up for 364 more days. If I write about everything now, what will there be to write about the other days this year? So for now, I am thankful I can be thankful. Short and sweet, but very true.

If anyone wants to join me in this challenge or just wants to chime in from time to time, please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you.

PS: I’m especially thankful I was able to figure out my login for WordPress. It’s been a while (read: years) since my last post and the struggle was real! My thankful quest was almost over before it began.

A Day to Be Thankful

This Thanksgiving I had so much to be thankful for.

I woke up on Thanksgiving morning at Mom’s house with my sleepy sweet girl looking like an angel as she slept in the bed on the floor next to my bed. She is a most beautiful sight to see! Sometimes I just stare at her as she sleeps and can’t believe how blessed I am to be Mom to this wonderful sweet daughter.

After we all woke up, my brother and I went on our traditional, “family is all together”, doughnut run. It’s usually a very comical trip while we stand at the counter trying to guess what type of doughnut everyone would like to eat. This year we got smart and took orders before we left the house. It’s a short trip to the doughnut shop but I cherish that time with my brother. That’s why I insist on keeping the doughnut tradition alive.

When we got home we were met with some very excited kiddos, ready to eat their doughnuts. Of course I’m not sure sugar was the best option for breakfast. We had some very rambunctious children after breakfast and I’m certain the doughnuts had everything to do with it. They got loud and I mean really loud. But, as I was listening, I realized that loudness was joy. Overwhelming joy that they could be together as cousins. They love each other, love spending time with each other and cannot help but be loud when they are together. I am so thankful they enjoy their time together even if it gets a little noisy at times.

The Parade! Finally, I remembered the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade starts at 9am and not noon! I miss it every year but not this year. My sweet daughter was so nice to remind me in the morning that I wanted to watch the parade and to check its start time. She watched the parade with me while we built and decorated ginger bread houses with my younger nephew and his Mama. My girl’s ginger bread house only stayed together for a little bit before she started eating all the candy. It did not survive to make the trip back to our house.

The weather was beautiful and perfect for being outside. Hide and seek as well as football and monkey in the middle occupied our time outside. My son and the older nephew threw the football for a long time while our two dogs joined us as we all played outside. Everyone was happy happy happy!

After lunch we sat around the table and told stories from our childhood. The stories included ones about Dad and his skiing adventures. I love remember him and his stories. I miss him so much, especially when the family is all together and he is not sitting at the table with us to add his humor to the conversation.

My oldest brother joined us for our big Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey, sweet potatoes, three bean salad, corn casserole and all the fixings. So delicious with all the traditional family food. Let me not forget Mom’s incredible pies. She always fixes 5 or 6 pies each holiday, this year: 2 coconut, 2 pecan and lemon meringue. Yummy in my tummy! Mmmmm!

Even better than pie was having the whole family together to celebrate and be thankful together. I am so thankful for my wonderful family, friends and all the blessings God’s given me.