Gratitude - Day 17

Today was another busy day, chock full of glamorous things like grocery shopping and laundry and sorting the 18 inches of socks that had accumulated at the bottom of the basket. Mondays are always hard for me, because the week starts with a dreary and seemingly insurmountable list of chores. A list made even more dreadful by being virtually indistinguishable from the weeks before. It's hard not to feel like I am spinning my wheels. So I really tried, in the spirit of this project, to stop and notice the positive things. And today it seemed obvious, I am thankful for Clara.

When we were grocery shopping Clara sang and talked to everyone we saw. All my kids have been obnoxiously friendly shoppers at this age, but Clara's exuberance is really something to behold. She will start shouting her greetings 50 ft away. And if they stop and speak with her, she will shout at them again as they walk away. "Buh bye, Honey! See ya soon!" It cracks me up every. single. time. And when we are in the car she will demand Christmas music. And not just any Christmas music, but "Sleigh ride" by Amy Grant. And then she will dance and sing like nobodys business. It's fantastic. And impossible to resist. We make a humorous picture, the two of us, twisting and throwing up our hands in the carpool line.

Clara is our child that looks most like me. And the one most unlike me in personality. But I am just so thankful to God for the blessing of my loud, feisty baby girl. She brings such a spirit of passion and joy (and unpredictability) to my life. And I think, sometimes, it's just what the doctor ordered.


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The week ahead of me is looking a bit crazy. And by crazy, I mean I went grocery shopping today for four Thanksgiving type feasts between now and Sunday. And that doesn't even include the actual Thanksgiving shindig at my in-laws on, well, Thanksgiving! That's a lot of shopping, and baking and casseroles to be toting around. And we won't even discuss how hopeless fitting into my jeans will be when it's all over.

So I resolved to take a hiatus this week from Facebook and Blogging. Ironic, as I am participating in NaBloPoMo by doing this Thirty Days of Thanks thing. My resolutions are conflicting. Which, strangely enough, is not an unusual problem for me. So, while I will still be spitting out a post a day on gratitude, I probably won't be reading and commenting much this week. And yes, I do realize, this falls in the category of very bad blogging etiquette. To which I say: Four thanksgiving feasts people. Four! Cut me some slack.