At the first kid call this day seems oh so typical.  The smells of pumpkin pie haven’t risen up and intoxicated us with sentimental feelings that come with the holiday. The same little arguments occur about what cartoon or who can put their feet straight out on the couch for cartoon watching. I want so badly for this day to feel special and different. Today is just an ordinary day in every sense except that we have set it apart in the midst of the normal to be thankful for what we have. And somehow holidays have also become a bit of homesick days when we don’t live close to the rest of our families. Jackson has brought fresh enthusiasm for the holiday as his class has been studying about the Pilgrims and Indians. He comes home will all kinds of facts and paper bag garb, attempting to convince Owen that wearing the simple black pilgrim hat will suit him far more that the exciting Indian hat adorned with feathers.

We have much to be thankful for.

Today I am thankful for my husband, this guy has been working non-stop on this place since the day we landed stateside. We tell each other weekly that it’s almost all done, and it is in terms of big projects but the little stuff will be constant. Seth has patiently chipped away at the big stuff.  I am thankful that he is such a kind daddy and so patient with the boys. And of course to say I am thankful for the ways he loves me would be an understatement. I am blessed.

I am thankful for our energetic, funny, intense, happy boys. I am thankful God picked them to be in our family. It is so fun to watch them grow and learn by leaps and bounds these days.  Owen’s new way of expressing love is to press his nose against ours and to grip his little fingers around our necks so we can’t back away while he whispers “I love you”. A much needed balance to the toddler tantrums!  I took Jackson on a date yesterday and he told me next time he would let me have the cherry on top of the milkshake. That’s generosity in advance I guess! They are our babies turned boys. Growing way too fast.

I am thankful for family and friends near and far.  I could make a phone call a day for probably the next year and not be in touch with all of the special people we have met and gotten to know in this crazy life we live.  We are enjoying being close to family this year and having special times with friends who had been so dear. We are also thankful for the new friendships developing in our new neighborhood.

I am thankful for our home. It’s coming along. And it’s feeling like home.

And to name a few more, I am thankful for: a 5 yr old that is dying to cuddle up for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade,

pumpkin pie (that didn’t require a drive to the base for canned pumpkin), turkey!, Seth being home from work for the day, a day with my Aunt, Uncle, Grandma and family!  and so much more!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours wherever on this big globe you might be!

well, in actuality the fish is (was) named Stormy…but he was bought out of pity. A couple of days after Jackson broke his arm he was home and cooped up and miserable about missing so much at school. We had our fish bowl out in the garage waiting for a good day to give in and get the boys one and I gave Seth that “we need a darn goldfish look” or a puppy, but the second option wasn’t an option so goldfish it was.

Ages ago I wrote a post about the song Hush little baby, a vent of sorts. As parents it is so tough to not want your kids to be happy. I want my kids to be heard and comforted and affirmed, but I also want life to feel better. Sometimes that is in the form of extra time together, a spur of the moment treat and others it’s in the form of a 29 cent fish.  It is completely appropriate to want to give our kids things but often it isn’t whats needed. I could fill his room with balloons, play the cheeriest of music, tie a pony outside his front window for him to ride, and still his arm would be broken.

We woke up Sunday morning to 2 floating goldfish.  Yep, that’s right, the fish didn’t last as long as the cast, and neither did pity. We are over this cast thing.  Thankful for great doctors (who speak English), great medical care, and healing bones, but not so much for the big red, threat to self and others cast.  I will say the cast as been a catalyst of sorts for Jackson to have to work through disappointment and tempering his energy. So maybe we will all come out with a bit more knowledge and understanding….and one of us with a scronny arm. 

As the boys brainstorm their next pet and argue about who will pick the color of the dog or the size of the hamster, I am smiling thinking of the fish named Pity. He taught me a little lesson on my efforts to try to ignore the real needs.  Will we end up with another fish, likely, but it won’t be named Pity.