The Inaugural 10 Things of Thankful!!

My family sat around the dining room table, the dinner options laid out before us.  One of my sons inspected it all and complained, "Oh, man, we're having asparagus?"

I hopped all over him.  "Honey, what else are we having?"

"Chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, and strawberries."

"Do you like all of those things?"

"Yes."

"And yet, when you came to the table, you picked out the one thing you don't like, and complained about it.  You had a choice; be grateful for the things you like or be upset about having to eat something you don't.  You chose to be unhappy.  Next time, why not choose to be happy? Instead of complaining to me about the asparagus, try thanking me for the mashed potatoes.  Do you think the tone of dinner will be a bit different if you do?"

Yes.  Yes it will.

What we look for, we will find.  If we look for the bad, we will most certainly find it.  There are bad things happening around us every day.  However, there are also good, kind, wonderful things happening at the same time.  We simply need to look for them.  When we do, our attitudes improve.  We become happier. 

This is why I jumped in yelling, "Pick me!  Pick me!" when my friend, Considerer, made a call for co-hosts for her new blog hop.  I'm all for encouraging people to see the good in their lives.

Before you are allowed to share your own, though, I'm going to make you read mine first.

Unless, of course, you are so excited to join in, you scroll right through mine to link yours up.  I'll be grateful for the link-up.

10 Things of Thankful

 

1.  I am thankful for forts.  I know, last year I went on and on about how much I strongly dislike forts, but that was about indoor forts.  Outdoor forts are the bomb.  My kids have grand plans of spending 24 hours outside one day next week.  Yesterday, they spent the entire day outside getting their forts ready.  Two teams.  Two forts.  One quiet house.  One happy mom.

 

2.  I am thankful for over-the-counter medicine (for man and beast).  When one gets poison ivy around her eye, she may want to gouge out her eyeball and rip off her eyelid.  Fortunately, when hydrocortisone doesn't work, IvaRest will usually do the trick.  When a pig gets sick and a vet can't get to it, we can buy all the medicine we need to cure it.

3.  I am thankful for beautiful spring evenings.  Hubby and I use these as date nights by heading out to the garden to pull weeds.  We're outside to feel the warm breeze, to hear the animals chattering, to see the sun setting.  We can talk about anything we want, confident the children will not interrupt us.  (They are way too afraid we'll put them to work if they do.)  All of this while helping our garden to grow.

4.  I am thankful for food in the pantry and the freezer.  By raising our own pigs and canning our own food, I can simply run to the basement at 4:30 and say, "We're going to have pork tenderloin, cinnamon apples, and green beans for dinner.  I'll make some cornbread to go with."  I did that just yesterday.

5.  I am thankful for our dogs.  Sure, they are a pain sometimes, digging up my flowers and eating the chickens that managed to get into the yard.  But they do their job.  A coyote has been coming around in the mornings, trying to make friends.  The dogs will have none of it.  The coyote, so far, has been kept away from the pigs.

6.  I am thankful for kind doctors and modern medical practices.  Since our new home seems to be OrthoIndy, I'm so grateful for the kind, efficient people who work there.  They know what they're doing, they get us in and out as quickly as possible, and they pass out candy.  We have healed or are healing from our injuries quite nicely.

7.  I am thankful for good friends and a playground to meet.  Our kids run around having fun and burning energy while we moms can laugh, vent, and support each other in our struggles.  And I get to hold babies.  I love holding babies.

8.  I am thankful for bright sunshine which dries our clothes so nicely.  I can get so much more done when two or three loads can be hung to dry, while the socks and underwear take an eternity to dry in the dryer.

9.  I am thankful for good, kind, fun coaches.  There has been some unhappiness surrounding one of our soccer teams, and it just makes us more grateful for the wonderful coaches we do have and have had in the past.  My kids have never once complained about going to soccer.  They love it, and so much of that love is a result of the coaches' love of the game.

10.  I am thankful for mulberries.  Unlike the song says, mulberries don't always grow on bushes.  We have an abundance of mulberry trees around our property.  Sure, I look like I am bleeding out when I get back from mowing around them, but those berries taste so good.  The kids don't even have to come inside for a snack when they are outside playing.  They simply go to one of the trees and start eating.  

I have not been good about storing these berries.  I don't know exactly what to do with them.  Do I need to take the stems out or not?  Taking them out would be a pain!  The kids pick a bunch, so I am going to try to make a pie with them.  We'll see how it goes.  I'm sure there is a recipe for syrup out there somewhere I could try, too.

If you have a good recipe for anything mulberry, let me know!!  I'd be so grateful.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

The new blog hop is here!  The new blog hop is here! I'm somebody now!

Happy thanking and linking and hopping!!

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 Your hosts

A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, A Woman's Place, Bringing the Sunshine, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Icansaymama, Shoved to Them, Steps into Parenthood, The Wakefield Doctrine

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