I am thankful for this huge table that will seat 11 members of my family for a Thanksgiving meal together.
I am thankful for blog friends who share inspiring ideas, like how to make my little table bigger with a 4×8 piece of plywood!
I am grateful to be able to watch my babies grow up.
Thank you God for every day of their health.
I am thankful for this imperfect home we live in, surrounded by tall trees and gardens that even in their autumn give me all this beauty for my table.
I am thankful for my mother who will spend Thanksgiving with us this year. Many years her seat is empty because she takes care of the elderly and never wants anyone to be alone on Thanksgiving, so she gives up the day with her family to give companionship to someone who is housebound.
A million times over I am grateful to have a mother who is selfless, constantly seeks out the bright side of life, and teaches us all how to be tenderhearted and God-loving no matter the circumstances.
I am thankful for those we will spend our Thanksgiving day with, and for our family and friends far and wide, from Florida to Maine, New York, South Carolina, Ireland, New Hampshire, Lebanon, Colorado.
I am thankful to live near the ocean, mountains, lakes and beautiful open country, and for New England seasons (even if the winter is a smidge too long).
I am thankful for the husband who gets up each day at the crack of dawn and returns late in the eve, exhausted, from a job that he was blessed to find. I am thankful for a million little things this man does, but at this moment I am super thankful that he cuts pieces of wood for the Thanksgiving table, and lets his wife do her weird thing with shells and pinecones and sticks, and tells her he likes it.
There will always be hardships in life. Hardships bigger than how to seat 11 at a table built for 6.
Concerns greater than whether the host chair slipcovers will show up before Thanksgiving (they still haven’t, in case you’re wondering.)
Loved ones fighting cancer or drug addiction or depression. Job loss and bills to pay. Natural disasters and grief and abandonment and ill health. Heartache – it’s part of life, and it comes and visits us all time and again.
But oh – life’s blessings! Sometimes they are hidden under a pile of laundry, or in the muddy paw prints on the kitchen floor, or in the smile of an elderly gentleman at the grocery store…..but they’re there if you look hard enough. I’m looking, and they’re all around me.
I’m sure to be a maniac tomorrow, cooking, cleaning, and maybe even sneaking in a cup of coffee with one of my girlfriends, so today I wish you a happy Thanksgiving, and a moment to count your blessings.
YOU are one of my blessings! I am so glad to know you – real life friends who stop by here, as well as kindred spirits I’ve never met who share my love of making a home.
Lets have a big party at my huge table one of these days, shall we?
Gobble gobble!
