Thursday Thanks – my ft.notes

Thursday Thanks. Helping #18.

Curling up in my Thanksgiving Chair today. 60ish degrees is scarf weather, right?

This week, I’m thankful for holiday shopping trips with my sister, steak dinners and pink Starbursts. Why isn’t there a pack of pink-only Starbursts? Why haven’t we even made a dent in the Halloween candy? (How long is it acceptable to keep it lying around?)

I’m grateful for catch-up calls with my best good friend—who has been my friend since the second grade—which is exactly how old Tucker is now, which makes me happy and nostalgic and old.

And it means my kids are older. There are a lot of brand new bobbins in my newsfeed lately. Beautiful babies, with teeny toes and noses, that curl up so small. Makes my ovaries quiver a little. I miss the baby socks, the baby giggles, the baby-fine hair.

But it means that my kids dress themselves now—if you give Case credit for backward shirts and inside-out pants, which I absolutely do. It means they wipe their own hineys. They tell their own jokes. Doozies.

They’re also old enough to say what they’re thankful for. I asked them in the car rider line this morning.

Tucker is thankful for trees “because they give us air.” He’s also thankful for his family and Cheerios—which he was munching on in the car. Any other mediocre moms make breakfast a movable feast some most mornings?

Case is thankful for his family and his friends at school. I hope they’ll both be lucky enough to have a friend like mine—one who’s been an unfading sunshine across years and decades and life.

What about you? What are you thankful for today?

Thursday Thanks. Helping #17.

It’s a Halloween episode of Thursday Thanks–coming to you live from my Thanksgiving Chair.

Today, I’m thankful for the plumpest, perfectest gourd on earth and all of the gems in its glorious guts (I ate my weight in roasted pumpkin seeds last night–anybody with me?).

I’m thankful for chocolate candy, hard candy and any candy that’s not candy corn.

And I’m beyond grateful that I work for a company that lets me be a mom–especially on holidays. Like most good companies, mine encourages a healthy “work/life balance”.

That said, I think the phrase “work/life balance” is bunk–harder to grab and hold than a fistful of slinky pumpkin guts. Work is part of life. And balance is only real in math and budgets and beams, of course.

I worked at a magazine for a skinny minute where I went from a senior writer to managing editor overnight. The business manager offered up some advice. “This is a lot more responsibility, obviously, and probably a lot more stressful. I just want you to remember that this is a magazine. It’s not brain surgery. No one is going to die.”

I’m still thankful for that perspective–and never more than today. In (superficially) crazy times, I’ve always used his line: “it’s not brain surgery.” Until it is. Like this last week, when someone I love more than my life had a second brain surgery. That will wake your perspective. Shake your core. Make you feel anything but balance.

Then you find footing in gratitude, and new sweetness in every breath.

What are you thankful for today?

Thursday Thanks. Helping #16.

Happy Thursday, y’all, from my Thanksgiving Chair.

Today, the spotlight’s on the little things. Cause, you know, I’m sensitive to little things.

And, sometimes, success is getting to baseball practice on time and remembering sunscreen.

Sometimes happiness is asking the big boy if he’d rather go through the car line or if he’d like you to walk him in. And he picks you.

Sometimes pretty is mascara-free.

Sometimes freedom is a bare-footed bike ride to the mailbox.

Sometimes a peace offering is pumpkin pie ice cream.

Sometimes a worship service is a solitary conversation with God in your driver’s seat, in the middle of rush hour, in the middle of the highway, in the middle of a song.

Sometimes medicine is a Disney movie.

Sometimes you have to remind yourself to be thankful for the sometimes. All the time.

Any little somethings you’re thankful for today?

Thursday Thanks. Helping #15.

Sitting here:

Thinking this:

& a grateful heart.

Thursday Thanks. Helping #14.

Thursday was tip-toeing away from me and I was going to skip this post.

But I can’t ditch my Thanksgiving Chair. Not this week.

This week, I’m thankful for good news.

And for The Good News.

I’m grateful for a handy hubby, who can fix an oven all by himself (although, not gonna lie, I was kinda hoping for a new one. Oven, not hubby).

I’m thankful for truffle popcorn, gingerbread cookies and American honey.

I’m grateful that Tucker and I can finally be civil/laugh a little/almost enjoy getting through his spelling word sentences.

And, this week, I’m grateful for the skinny minutes that right-size you, when the universe puts you in your place. Have you ever been still in a moment where you felt appropriately small and, even so, you knew you were a worthy piece of the puzzle? A stitch in the pattern? I felt like that today.

Insta cliche, I know, but I couldn't resist the cloud carpet. — Insta cliche, I know, but I couldn’t resist the cloud carpet.

And how could I not be uber grateful for a sunrise on freedom?

Your turn. What are you thankful for today?

Thursday Thanks. Helping #13.

Happy Thursday, y’all, from my Thanksgiving Chair.

Since it’s the last Thursday of the summer, I have to say that I’m thankful for this season in the sunshine state. We filled summer to the seams with fun: supper clubs, celebrations, sleepovers.

Now, we’re all in for baseball season–two boys, two sets of practices, two game schedules. It sqwunches those precious post-work to pre-bedtime hours even more. But I’m so grateful that Case isn’t stuck on the bleachers anymore. He finally has his own team, his own chance and real permission to enter the hallowed DUGOUT (boys are so weird).

This week, I’m also thankful that when there are no words–or words just won’t work–a hug or a smooch can say quite a lot.

What are you thankful for on this last Thursday of summer?

Thursday Thanks. Helping #10.

Happy Thursday, from my Thanksgiving Chair.

I always have a lot to be thankful for. But, this week, toothbrushes get an honorable mention. Hang with me. How many toothbrushes do you have in your house? We have 11, at least. And 3 of those are mine. I have my spinny, for the twice-a-day routine, a pink travel toothbrush with soft bristles. And I have a new one, still in the package, on standby. Jeff has at least two. The boys have two a piece in the downstairs bathroom so we can do a quick scrub before we dash out the door in the mornings (light sabers and Angry Birds). And they each have another upstairs for bedtime (Captain Rex and Darth Vader). It’s, like, an embarrassment of toothbrush riches.

I never thought twice about our household toothbrush count until I heard Pastor Juan Carlos Serrano share a message with our church on Saturday night. Pastor Juan lives and leads in Cuba and it took 4 years to arrange his visit here. He only speaks Spanish, so there was a translator with him. Their words, overlapping, overlaying, together delivering The Word? Nothing was lost in translation. He spoke so rich in stature and spirit that the entire room held a collective breath.

After the sermon, our Pastor Matthew told all of us that he’d taken Pastor Juan and his wife to Target. “For fun,” he said. They’d never experienced aisles of options. Pastor Matthew told us that the Serranos just get one toothbrush. So, the toothbrush aisle was overwhelming. I mean, you get to pick your brand and your bristle. You can go single or multi-pack. Manual or battery. Pink or blue. Or orange, red, purple, green, chartreuse. So many possibilities for dinky teeth scrubbers. And we have that many options for almost everything we touch.

I ~~know~~ hope you’ll all be brushing your teeth soon. Maybe you’ll notice your toothbrush when you do? And while I’m counting my toothbrush blessings tonight, all 3 of them, I’m also grateful for the 2 bottles of wine that I shared with my amazing parentals last night.

And for the 1 dreamy forkful of cronut I tasted this morning. Y’all. This fad is legit.

So, how about you? What indulgence are you thankful for this week?

Thursday Thanks. Helping #9.

Thursday snuck up on me, but it’s never too soon to climb up in my Thanksgiving Chair.

Here’s a quick dish of things I’m thankful for this week:

* Doc McStuffins No-Bake Muffins. Full disclosure. I saw the segment on Disney Junior. I thought they sounded ahhh-mazing. So, I spun it this way: the boys could help me make them and we’d share a fun snack. Case did help me put them together, but guess who’s eating her way through the entire tray solo? Anywho. Make them. (I used raspberry preserves. Walnuts instead of raisins. And I was a tad heavy-handed with the coconut.)

* A hubs who fills the second grader’s lunchbox–napkin to nummies to note. Because he’s much better at being on time than me. And because he loves doing it.

* Solid ear buds when there’s office construction. Worn-out playlists that never wear on me.

* Friends who leave surprise bananas on my desk.

* The man in our office building’s lobby store who had pistachios on the shelf at 3:04 pm yesterday.

* The car radio, with DJs and commercials, the soundtrack of my commute. Does anyone besides me still love driving old-school style?

So, in a nutshell, I’m grateful for food & music.

And these Disney Digression bits.

What about you? What are you thankful for today?

Thursday Thanks. Helping #3.

I’m happy to curl up in my Thanksgiving chair today.

So much to be thankful for. Like our family’s Friday movie night. I’m way outnumbered in this house and we watch a lot of Star Wars. But last Friday we settled on The Lion King. Woot! For a skinny minute (the boys can’t sit for long because they like to act out the scenes) we were all snuggled and still on the couch. Whole.

We talked Jeff into replaying this epic beginning a few times on full blast. Movie magic.

Any takers on the lyrics? (No Googling!).

This is my favorite way to sing it is:

NAhhhhh, Savannah. Motorola! Mitsubishi, Honda! You’re singing now aren’t you?

And, speaking of magic, I snapped this pretty shot of our street this week.

I’m guilty of slipping into house envy and saying, too often, “We need new carpet. We need a new dishwasher. We need a pantry that was not designed by a man!” No we don’t.

We have this.

1491 square feet of messy, crazy, love-worn fun. It’s home. A home where we’re free to learn and play and worship any way we please. Thank goodness.

Here’s to sweet freedom and the greatest home on earth.

What are you thankful for this July 4th Thursday?

Thursday Thanks. Helping #2.

From my Thanksgiving Chair :

This week (and every week) I’m grateful for pizza night. Every single Wednesday, we have pizza. This means no cooking, no dishes and no one making a decision about dinner. Yay!

We’ve had angry weather this week–tornado warnings, “excessive lightning” and delicious humidity. But I’m grateful for summer storms. They cool the day, green the grass and give me a chance to share this cute Disney Digression.

Mostly, though, I’m thankful we have boys. Boys mean you find rubber frogs in the dishwasher. Legos in the utensil drawer. And you say things like: “please watch where you’re peeing!”

With boys, there’s always a brotherly brouhaha. A round-the-clock ruckus. And they say things like: “you’re the most beautiful mommy ever” (even if you’ve just peeled yourself off your pillowcase, no proof of beauty sleep in sight).

Then, boys have summer camp and dress-up-like-a-bug day. With boys, you don’t have any buggy headbands or glittery wings. Nope. With boys, you have these:

(P.S.: We did not buy all of these sabers. My sweet cousin Alaura, our rockstar babysitter–and another reason I’m thankful this week–brought a bag full of The Force with her last weekend.)

So, for a bug day with boys, you get some long, black socks and rifle through the closet for a cool shirt. Dad digs his beanie out of the winter drawer. And you make a spider.

Or, Case says, “a tarantula.” Dun Dun Dah:

(Filtered for more drama)

And boys? They think this feeble attempt is picture-worthy. Thank goodness.

Then you tuck that ~~boy~~ tarantula into class with a squeeze and a smooch.

And boys, my boy, says: “Momma? You’re my happy thought.”

How about you? What are you thankful for this Thursday?