Thankful, Pictorial Edition

15. For 2-yr olds…

to whom a hockey stick is an obvious choice for a gun…

(and yes, I am aware that his pants are undone.  I have no idea what’s going on there…)

16. For the first fire of the season in the wood stove…

and the warmth that it brings.

17. For kittens…

and the 6-yr old who loves them, and that as yet I have not run over any of them with my car (although we all know this is more than likely going to happen…)

18. For Chris’s Crack Cocaine Lemon Sugar Cookies…

which I am going to be ever so thankfully making today (because I’ve been craving them since August) and which helped me through many a stressful spot on the 4x4 adventure (because nothing soothes stress like Lemon Sugar Cookies and a cup of fresh coffee).

17. and mostly today, I am thankful that both of Berry Baby’s puking incidents yesterday occurred when I was not present but Berry Guy was.  Not because I want him to have to clean up puke, but absolutely because I don’t want to have to clean up puke.

Thankful

 

5. Sooooo thankful that so far this morning Berry Baby has only barfed once, and that he did it before the neurotic Berry Boy woke up, and that Berry Boy therefore made it to school without freaking out about The Puke.

6. For Mennonite Girls Can Cook, and the roast chicken recipe that involved laying bacon on top of the seasoned bird (have mercy)…it was the BEST roast chicken I have ever made, and those drippings made the BEST gravy, and I will totally be using that strategy on my Turkey for Monday…

7. For work, and work-from-home, and the additional money it brings in.

8. For cream cheese

9. And whipping cream.

10. For my treadmill, which allows me to run year-round, and helps me push myself, and staves off the effects of the aforementioned cream cheese and whipping cream.

11. For the rare but lovely mornings when I get to doze off and on for an hour before getting out of bed.

12. For the rare but lovely mornings when I get out of bed to hot coffee lovingly prepared for me by Berry Guy.

13. For patience in playing Lego.

14. For espresso, and that lovely crema foam on the surface of the espresso that tells you that you just made a really really good shot.

Trouble

That little one, he’s definitely trouble.

The older one, he gives me trouble, but that little one, he embodies trouble.

Fortunately, they’re both ridiculously cute.

So it’s seven days until Thanksgiving, where we will enter that wonderful state of turkey-and-pumpkin-pie-induced-stupor, and when I break out the maternity pants so that I have enough room to shovel in as much turkey, stuffing, gravy and mashed potatoes as possible.

Just kidding.  I’ll wear normal stretchy pants.

I love holidays that involve turkey.  I plan to ramp up my running mileage this week to prepare for the gluttony.

I was also thinking that I would prepare for Thanksgiving by counting off the things I’m thankful for.  Because I’m 35 this year, I think I will count off 35 things that I am thankful for.

So, to start, (in no particular order of significance) I am so thankful for:

1. Coffee.  Whole coffee beans that are fresh and a little oily, that give off that amazing aroma as you grind them, and then get transformed into this nectar of blissfulness.  Ahhhh.  I love how coffee can make a bad day good, and a good day better.

2. Those two trouble makers.  They’re absolutely gorgeous and they fill my heart to bursting.  They are incredibly irritating and incredibly sweet.

3. Their father.  Because he is the best father to those two boys, because he calls me “precious” and not in a mocking way but also not in an icky way, because he thinks I’m beautiful even when it’s first thing in the morning and my hair is sticking up in ways that no one should ever have to see, and because he loves me even when I sometimes can’t quite figure out why.

4. For Fall.  For the crisp air, the color on the trees, the wonderfully musty smell of decay as plants and leaves die, for being able to clean up my flower beds, for being able to watch the combines and swathers on the fields, for cooler weather running, and for lighting the wood stove for the first time of the season.