This is a crosspost from my main blog:

First of all, I'm thankful right this minute for an email I received earlier. It was another e-mail from the same nice lady that sent me the one about my grammar. I likely sounded rather flippant about the whole thing when I mentioned it prior, but I assure you I was not being flippant about it. I was and am, quite grateful for someone willing to come to me and tell me what she did. I haven't had an opportunity today to really read the second email in depth, so I'll be doing that later on.

Today was very busy, just like it always is on family birthdays or holidays. Everyone was here by about 2pm, and the ham was carved & on the table by 3. All the little kids were well behaved (even us bigger kids minded our manners!), and it was just a very good day.

Every year on Thanksgiving, people gather 'round all over the US and talk about what they're thankful for. It's a good thing to do I suppose, but it seems somehow misplaced to be mindful of your blessings but one day a year. When I was growing up, my mom had a saying that rings in my ears to this very day. "Be thankful for what you do have, and don't worry about what you don't have." Mom was a single parent working full time, raising 3 kids in the 60's and 70's. It wasn't easy for her to give her kids all the "wants" but we always had all the "needs". I'm so grateful for mom teaching me that attitude.

Rebecca made a wise move this month and chose to make her theme for November, a month of being thankful. She's been encouraging readers all month long, to share what they are thankful for on their own blogs, or by leaving a comment on hers. If you haven't been reading the comments or the updates, you really should be. They will bless you. Rebecca's blog will bless you. I'm thankful for her, and even wrote once in one of my very first entries on this blog, that when I grow up and become a real blogger, I want to be Rebecca.

As I watched my family today, I had an overwhelming grateful feeling that they were all here. All of them healthy, all of them beautiful people in their own right, and all of them healthy. Not everyone can make that claim about their family at a holiday gathering, and I realize just how blessed I am.

I have struggled almost my entire life, with "not having". When I was a kid, we had the necessities and once in a while, something a little extra. After I grew up, the "not haves" just followed me into adulthood and it's been a struggle financially almost my entire adult life. It would be VERY easy to wallow in self-pity but it would be a complete waste of time. I know, I've done it more than a few times and it never accomplishes much of anything, except to make me feel like an ungrateful brat.

I'm quite thankful I have fellow believers in my life that encourage me (sometimes daily) to remain in the proper attitude and remain thankful, grateful, and keep praising God no matter what comes. There are no words to describe the blessing of a changed attitude, when you simply sit in awe of Him, knowing that "in Him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). He provides the very air we breathe. He alone keeps our hearts beating. It's very difficult to dwell in self-pity when you can't provide something "extra" for your kids, knowing full well that all we have comes from Him anyway.

Every night when I go to bed, I reflect back over my day and make an effort to recall things that I can be thankful for. It's usually not much of an effort to do that, considering I'm thankful for even the smallest things. Not having a headache that day, Jordan getting 9 out of 20 spelling words correct, Kevin getting home from work safely or Jessica cleaning the upstairs bathroom. It's something different each day, but our days in this house are filled with things we can be thankful for. I strongly believe in thanking Him each day, for every one of them. I even thank Him for the gift of sleep. A much needed asset, for a mom with 5 kids at home.

As I looked over the pictures I took of Kev's birthday today, I can't help but simply be thankful for each of these kids. Some days they drive me flat out nutty. Other days (like Friday) they all do super in school, and are just so well behaved I almost can't contain my joy that "these are MY kids!". That's the same feeling I have tonight, as I reflect back over today.

I could sit here and list so many more things I am thankful for. It's easy for me to focus on the "haves" and not dwell on the "have nots" because of the way my mom raised me. I'm thankful for that, and only hope I can pass the same wisdom on to my own kids.

SDG,
Carla