Gratitude - Day 28

It's an easy kind of day to be grateful. Lazy and full of moments that whisper of beauty and contentment if I stopped to listen. And today, I did. I stopped to note a girl sitting in a movie sighing in her first infatuation. I knew the characters on the screen would always hold happy, wistful place in her heart. I saw the way she stopped by the mirror when the show ended to smooth her hair and reapply shine to her lips. The movements not yet practiced enough to be natural. My heart aching a little - just a little - at how soon they would be.

Later, basking in the chaos of our weekly dinner, I watched the backs of my boys as one led the other down the hall, trying to imprint the scene like a snapshot in my mind. The tall boy - nearly a man - stooping to guide his miniature counterpart.

Then, tonight, with all of my being I marked the feel of two small bodies pressed against me. Savoring their weight and scent as we read our bedtime stories. It was Christmas stories tonight; the beginning of a new season. A season I find myself anticipating with a tentative and unexpected peace.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1896)

We walk on starry fields of white
And do not see the daisies;
For blessings common in our sight
We rarely offer praises.
We sigh for some supreme delight
To crown our lives with splendor,
And quite ignore our daily store
Of pleasures sweet and tender.

Our cares are bold and push their way
Upon our thought and feeling.
They hang about us all the day,
Our time from pleasure stealing.
So unobtrusive many a joy
We pass by and forget it,
But worry strives to own our lives
And conquers if we let it.

There’s not a day in all the year
But holds some hidden pleasure,
And looking back, joys oft appear
To brim the past’s wide measure.
But blessings are like friends, I hold,
Who love and labor near us.
We ought to raise our notes of praise
While living hearts can hear us.

Full many a blessing wears the guise
Of worry or of trouble.
Farseeing is the soul and wise
Who knows the mask is double.
But he who has the faith and strength
To thank his God for sorrow
Has found a joy without alloy
To gladden every morrow.

We ought to make the moments notes
Of happy, glad Thanksgiving;
The hours and days a silent phrase
Of music we are living.
And so the theme should swell and grow
As weeks and months pass o’er us,
And rise sublime at this good time,
A grand Thanksgiving chorus

Gratitude - Day 26 Random Randomness

Today I am thankful for Pumpkin Pie. It's baking in the oven right now and making my house smell like Thanksgiving like nothing else can. It's not a special recipe, just the one off the back of the Libby's Pumpkin can. Because that's what I had growing up which, obviously, makes it the best.

I'm thankful for Clara who has been walking around the house with a quarter all day singing "My money, my money, I love my money" to the tune of The Bunny song from Veggie Tales. Which is just so completely opposite of what Big Idea was trying to teach with that episode I just can't stop laughing at it. Which just makes her keep doing it, my little oblivious idolatress.

And I wrote a post over at Worst Mama today about the Second Hand Christmas theme I am doing this year. And I am thankful for that too. Even if it has elicited some strange looks.

Oh and to beat a dead horse (or dead contest as it may be) tomorrow is the last day to enter the Superhero Cape drawing so go leave a comment if you are interested. Your odds are looking pretty good.

Gratitude - Day 25

Today after a marathon shopping trip I made a big pot of soup. I am gearing up for a lazy couple of days and know I won't want to do any cooking tomorrow other than the requisite pumpkin pie baking session with Allie. Feeling uncharacteristically in the holiday spirit I picked up The Polar Express at Blockbuster when I was running around. So after dinner the kids and I (all but Brandon - who, sadly but predictably, ditched us for some friends) piled on the sofa to watch it. Ben had never seen it but I figured with a boy, a racing train and Santa it would be hard to go wrong. And I as right. He absolutely loved it. Watching it through his eyes brought me such joy. He was positively riveted through the train scenes and would periodically bounce or cheer in his seat in excitement.

(Although what is with the part where the creepy marionette comes to life and starts screeching at the kid? I forgot that part was even in there and it scared Ben to death. Poor kids gonna have nightmares tonight about rabid toys.)

Sitting on a sofa snuggled under a blanket with my children is one of life's simple pleasures. A pleasure that is often neglected in our home. More often than not when my kids are watching a movie it's because I am trying to get something else accomplished. It's rare that I just sit with them in peace for any length of time. Let's face it, it's rare that there is peace for any length of time. So today I am thankful for the time we spent piled happily on top of each other. And for the opportunity, when the movie was over, to talk about what the first gift of Christmas really was. The gift I strive to be thankful for most of all.

Gratitude - Day 24

Today I cleaned out all the Weekids toys. What a process, but man am I grateful that I accomplished it. All those baby/toddler toys have been weeded out and bagged up to pass down to someone with an actual baby or todder. I thought I would be sad, but so far I am just glad for the increased floorspace. Maybe there is hope for a living room with a coffee table again after all. One day.

I am also grateful that for once, when I went to find out what my too quiet kids were doing during this process, I was not met with destruction.

Instead I found these fierce pirates sailing the high seas:

(Or in other words, two kids in a diaper box with some swords.)

At last it's here...The Giveaway!

Do you know what this is?


Okay, if you look closely, you will see it is bad picture of my bed, unmade and waiting for me at this unseemly hour of 12:38 AM, but let's not dwell...

I'm talking about those gorgeous brightly colored things, do you know what they are?

They are the personalized superhero capes Ben and Clara are getting for Christmas! Couldn't you just die from the cuteness? When I decided I wanted to give away one of my favorite things again I thought it might be nice to share one of my favorite ideas for a Christmas gift. But then I remembered that I am horrible at picking out Christmas gifts and probably shouldn't be advising anyone.

Well, wouldn't ya know it, but these beauties showed up in the mail a day or two later. I ordered them from the Superflykidz shop on Etsy. Surely you know about Etsy? The great black hole of handmade awesomeness?

Oh and by the way, I also ordered two for my nieces' Christmas gifts. Because girls are super too.


And I cannot tell you how excited I am about this. Because here's the kicker. They are only 15 bucks a piece including personalization. $15!!! You pick the cape color, the design, the design color, the letter and sparkles vs no sparkles. (I vote for sparkles) That is crazy people!

And look what a good job she did:


I was so tickled with how well they turned out and all the cool aunt points I was going to get that my giveaway seemed a no brainer. So I contacted Superflykidz and amazingly she responded with a really kind offer to donate one. Which makes her not only the creator of one of the best cheap kid gifts around but also in the running for my new best friend.

So, if you want to be entered in the giveaway to win a personalized cape for one of the super kids in your life, then I want you to do one small thing for me. Please leave a comment on this post letting me know one thing that you think would make a good inexpensive Christmas gift for you or someone else on your list. Because as I mentioned before I am gifting challenged and I could use the help.

Note: Superflykidz doesn't have a ton of examples on display at the Etsy shop right now because she has been innundated with Christmas orders and everything has sold. However, you can do a custom order at anytime. This giveaway will end at midnight on Thursday (Thanksgiving) night so that the winner may be able to get their cape in time for Christmas. You do not have to have a blog to enter but please make sure your contact information is in the comment.

Gratitude - Day 23

Wow, what a difference a day and some sleep makes. I got nearly eight hours last night and feel like a whole new person. It was a lovely day full of little girls in tutus, boys tearing through house, football on the television and obscene amounts of food. In short, we had my side of the family's Thanksgiving. And I am so grateful for my family, the whole motley lot of them. My brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews and their Gramma and Pop. It is a blessing to be part of a large family and I am thrilled we chose to continue in that tradition. I hope that someday my kids will have their own noisy chaotic holidays with not enough seats and children constantly underfoot. I just can't imagine it being any other way.

I am also grateful that this week is over. Today, for the first time in weeks I am sittting at the computer prior to 11:30 at night. I have nearly 200 posts in my google reader and 87 requests in my Facebook account. And I am planning on ignoring every single one of them. And even better the week ahead of me seems amazingly devoid of entries on the calendar. With two very important exceptions. Thursday we will be celebrating Thanksgiving with my husbands equally wonderful and chaotic family and Friday Allie and I will be going to see this movie. And yes, I know the book is a pile of sappy, juvenile fluff-n-nonsense, that is far beneath my high brow tastes. Except that apparently it's not because we are both pretty darn excited about it.

And now, I'm off to write the mildly anticipated and much delayed giveaway post. It will go up at midnight: two entire weeks after I said I would. I am so sorry, but try as I might sometimes real life gets in the way of my blogging life. The nerve.