Thanksgiving Post

It's been a very busy fall season for us with lots of adjustments and lots of activities needing to be squeezed into our everyday life. And although it's been positive and fun for the most part, I'm thankful for the pause the Thanksgiving season offers us, forcing us to slow down and savor the little moments (oh, and the morsels of goodness, too).

As I mentioned back in March or April, I started a personal list of things I am thankful for after reading Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts.   I envisioned being way past number 1,000 on my list by now...but the fact of the matter is, I've been adding to it rather slowly. I apparently need to cultivate a thankful heart. Or maybe I just need more than 24 hours in my day or a personal secretary to jot down my thankful thoughts while on the go.  Whatever may be the problem, it's great to have a holiday like Thanksgiving to get me back in the mode...and to get a chance to sit down and write.

# 174 Thoughtful household gifts that offer daily reminders of the ones who gave them to me

# 175 Brielle's 'team' of educators

# 176 New-ish family traditions

Yes, I know...still just in the one hundreds. I'm actually a little ways past these numbers...but still pathetically off-the-mark. Of course, there are plenty more things for which to be thankful this Thanksgiving Day...more eternal gifts and such...but these come with pictures, and so I thought I'd post them here.

#174I feel like everywhere I look these days in this house of ours, I spot a sweet reminder of a friendship. It seems like everyone was in cahouts for my birthday this year because I received many gifts I would want to have out in plain sight all the time. 

There are these pretty and unique vases that always cheer me up...

There's a sweet put-a-bird-on-it mirror I now use almost daily to check my scarf on my way out the door....

There's a printer/scanner/photocopier I don't know how I did without before...

There's a pile of 'officer horse' manure on top of our garden soil I keep looking out at from my kitchen window...with a smile on my face as I think of how it got there...

And there are many other "little reminders of loved ones" not as much in plain view, but just as thoughtful. I'm especially thankful for these when I am so busy in the day-to-day and need to get jarred from my self-focus to remember a friend. Perhaps my friend needs a call...or maybe I should be praying for them? And honestly...it's just nice to be reminded that there are people out there who care about me too.

#175

By God's grace, we aren't on our own in raising and educating Brielle and Isaiah. Though we appreciate all the input from loved ones and godly teachers that Isaiah gets, we are especially thankful for the team God has put together for Brielle.

There's Mrs. A. (last year's K teacher) and Mrs. Lundy (her current 1st teacher) from Cor Deo:

There's Miss Molly from Kaiser and Mrs. Belisle from Hiteon for speech:

 

 There's Isaiah who teaches with patience and most often, by example...

.and let's not forget Mr. Wachsmuth, who's a genius at making math fun (still need to get a snapshot of him in his  'teacher garb' knocking on our front door, ready for a session with his youngest pupil):

Although I know I'm never really alone in this enormous task of educating our special girl, it's nice to know there are regular, visible and tangible collaborators whose hearts have been weighed with a real concern for her success in the world of academics. There is also a team of family members and close friends who pray for her regularly..and for all that, I am super grateful!!

#176

We've been trying out new family traditions the last couple of years and it's been kind of fun to change things up. 

There's the once-a-week homemade pizza night (still haven't pinned down which night quite yet as I'm finding making pizza is actually pretty easy and convenient and works for me in a pinch):

There's the family "urban harvesting" that happens about every other weekend from Sept through early November. During these weeks, the entire family is on the lookout for unharvested fruit trees within a certain radius near our house and if we find a tree, we go knocking on doors and ask permission to harvest the fruit that would otherwise go to waste. I know some people would be mortified to do something like that. For my family, it's this awesome treasure hunt! Isaiah recently made a list of all the harvest-able trees in the area. I realized it was all worth the time and effort when Papa let us make apple cider from the many apples we harvested! Here are some pictures of our harvest of prized pears near the school Andrew used to teach at.

There's the birthday card display that goes up on our game closet door for about a week. Brielle loved to add her birthday cards to it!

Andrew wasn't as thrilled about the whole idea, but he did laugh when he saw I put his school teacher picture right smack in the middle. ;)

Finally we come to the newest adopted tradition, the Thankful Tablecloth for our family Thanksgiving brunch. For the last few years, Andrew has organized a Flag Football (Turkey Bowl) game on the morning of Thanksgiving. He and his buddies play early in the day so they can get back to their families to help get ready for the Thanksgiving meal. Meanwhile, I prepare a late breakfast and after Andrew and Isaiah have showered, we sit at the table for our more intimate Thanksgiving meal. We discuss what we are thankful for and pray and finish our time at the table with writing out our year's most prominent thankful thought on the tablecloth. Next year, we'll pull out the same tablecloth and add that year's thankful list. I might even get around to stitching over the writing to make it nicer (big might).The plan is to do this many years to come, Lord-willing.

And that's the end of my 2011 Thanksgiving post.
Thankful for you and praying for hearts full of thankfulness before God as we approach the end of the year.