Thankful Tuesday

Good morning!  It's Tuesday again and time to count my blessings.

Today I am thankful for:

1.  Synchronized wakeups
This morning I had planned on trying to get up at 5, but both dogs and Paul started making noise at 4:45 a.m.  A little early, but I was very appreciative that they did it at the same time and I was able to sleep uninterrupted until then.

2.  The excitement of small wonders
A couple of days ago, Paul asked about the washing machine, so I held him up and put a screwdriver in a hole to trick the machine to start working without the lid.  We stood there for almost 10 minutes just watching it fill up with water and rotate.  He was captivated and I was aware, once again, of what a miracle it is that we have a machine that washes our clothes for us.

3.  Xerox machines
File this under the small wonders category.  Claire was asking what they do the other day and I spent some time explaining it.  This caused me to think and appreciate what a miracle it is that you put one paper on top and then identical papers come out of the machine.

4.  Free activities
There are many free activities in our area for kids and we are thankful.  The kids even get excited when they hear the word "free" because they know it's something I won't say no to.  We've visited the Kimbell Art Museum's permanent collection several times this summer.  The kids like to talk about what is happening in the paintings.  It's air-conditioned and it's FREE!

5.  Mouse cars
Claire has requested that we attach ears and a tail to my Jetta, but it wouldn't quite be as cool as the Truly Nolen exterminator cars that look like mice.

6.  Songs that bring you back
For every season of my life, there is a song that reminds me of it.  Hearing the Dire Straits or the Eagles reminds me of quiet nights of dinner and playing cards with my family growing up.  Hearing the Toadies reminds me of the college nights Adam and I attempted to play pool at Gilligan's.

7.  The power to limit quantity and still be satisfied
On Saturday, we took the kids to Lone Star Park to see the horseraces.  We stayed for about two hours in the sweltering heat.  The horse races continued, but we were beat, so we went home and were satisfied.  Last night we introduced the kids to Slurpees with their own individual cups filled halfway.  Sure we could have stayed for every horse race and filled the kids' cups up to the brim, but then we would have had exhausted and cranky kids one day and hyper kids another.  Instead we had perfectly content children.  It's about quality, not quantity.

8.  Staying home
Yesterday we stayed home all day.  We took the dogs for a walk, played at the park, splashed in the kiddie pool, I scraped paint, we all went swimming in the big pool, painted our toes, read books, took a short nap, and a few other activities.  When it's so easy to be busy, it's also a blessing to be able to be at home.

9.  Sprinkler systems
This weekend our neighbor was watering his grass by hand.  I'm sure he was doing it for hours, but I didn't stay to watch the entire event.  I am thankful for our sprinkler system.  While it's fun to water my special plants, it's also nice to have green grass without labor on my part.  (Of course, Adam will argue that the green grass is plenty of labor on his part, but he's not writing this blog.)

10.   The power to say yes
We're certainly not lottery winners, but it makes me happy to be able to buy the children items they need and sometimes items they just want.  Claire had been asking for a tutu for about a month.  As a rule, I don't just buy her what she asks for every time because she often changes her mind and I don't want to waste money.  Last week I got her a bright yellow and pink tutu from Costco and she was tickled pink.  It makes me happy that Adam and I are able to purchase some items for the kids that they really want and all the items they really need.  When I was buying school uniforms last week, I said a prayer of thanks that we had the ability to get those, because they are not cheap.  Many families will struggle this school year with keeping their kids clothed in uniforms and we are blessed to not have that problem.