In between the holiday cooking, Christmas card picking, house cleaning, gift shopping, baby food making, full time working, Glee watching, blog reading, oh yeah I really need to get my hair cut this year craziness of it all, when others told me holidays took on a whole new meaning with kids, boy were they right. (And as a side note to the hair... guess what Momma got for Christmas this year?!?! Gray. I got grays. I have no problem embracing turning 30, or a post-baby bod. I do not embrace gray. This is crap.)
Back to the holidays, not that Kaelyn will bat a beautiful eyelash at whether or not I make a turkey or pumpkin pie... but I will forever be changed at how the thankfulness in my heart has grown so much it aches when I look at her. Thanksgiving is a whole different word.
My mom always told me to count my blessings when I couldn't fall asleep and that it would help, and it did because I had so many that I would fall asleep trying to list them all. She gave me my Five-A-Day notebook- this little spiralbound notepad that she wrote in the front of, that I would list 5 things every day that I was thankful for. I found it the other day, and had a blast reading through it. Slurpees, fun at the movies, a hug from my sister, a hot date (yes, Ben read it too. He saw the entry of " staring at a tan six-pack." yaaaaaaaay! Never gonna live that down. Umm, hello?!?! I was so 16. So boy crazy. So normal!) Years of pages of five little blessings a day that made me smile.
So the other night when all those crazy to-do's were flying through my head, and I had to stop because the clock said 11:53pm and really, what was I going to accomplish on my list at 11:53pm laying in bed? I started listing my blessings, and didn't get very far, but I did realize that they all had a theme. The love of a devoted husband, family, health, friends, a job, the sweet sound of my baby sighing in her sleep. Simple things. But not really. The big simple things that make up my days, my family, my life, and that sometimes get taken for granted until they are taken away. (Which a whole other fear of mine that will have to be dissected another day.)
I catch myself very easily getting into the I-would-be-happier-if trap if I'm not careful. And at 29 I have finally realized that I may not be able to change circumstances, but I can change the way I think about them. (For example, yes, if I could snap my fingers and fly to Japan to have coffee with my mom or hug my brothers or hear my dad's laugh, I would. In a red hot second.)
Instead, in this example, I am thankful for webcams, the fact that they are healthy and very happy, spreading the amazing love of Christ, and that my brothers send me pictures of themselves making goofy faces with birds on their heads.
Have a gloriously simple-blessing filled holiday, my friends. And remember, you can either eat the bird, or put it on your head.
Or both.
The choice is yours.
xoxo
dae
1 comment:
Thanks Honey! Love you so!
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