here'e looking at you, kid

1. I am grateful for genetics. I love being able to see pieces of the parents when I look at the children. Right now I'm watching my sister help her oldest daughter with her homework, and, wow, that cute little girl is just the spitting image of her mother. And besides the physical resemblance, I enjoy seeing the personality traits that the children have picked up from their parents. It makes me excited to see what parts of me Oliver will exhibit (since we already know he didn't get my fingernails. Poor kid).

2. I am grateful that my dad is always willing to take all the children outside to play so that the other adults can work on dinner. Oliver just loves being outside with his grandpa.

3. I am grateful for warm, fresh-from-the-oven rolls.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."

--Melody Beattie

they call it puppy love

1. I am grateful that twenty years ago today my family happened to be in Berlin and was able to witness the opening of the Berlin Wall in person.

http://www.basehorinfo.com/news/2008/nov/20/vacation-coincided-berlin-walls-fall/

http://www.basehorinfo.com/photos/2008/nov/18/27006/

Even though I was a young child, I can still remember the drastic difference between a people who were caged and then were free.

2. I am grateful that I get to spend the next few days with my sister and her family and learn from her mothering expertise.

3. I am, well, to say it nicely, not really a dog person. I'm not an animal person generally (Ginet, it's like we are the same person), but am especially not a dog person. My sister has a dog. I'm grateful for this reminder that I don't ever want to have a dog. You know, just in case I was reconsidering the option.

"Gratitude is a state of appreciation, an act of thanksgiving, which causes us to be humble because we recognize an act of kindness, service, or caring from someone else which lifts us and strengthens us." --Elder Robert D. Hales

channeling my inner porcupine

1. I am grateful that Somebody forgives me and continues to love me even when I am stubborn, irrational, and mean.
2. I am grateful that books come in paper format and audio format so that Somebody and I can "read" the same book at the same time and then discuss it.
3. I am grateful that we were able to enjoy so many vegetables fresh from the garden this summer, and that the late summer items--the squash and sweet potatoes--were ripe just in time to be made into Oliver's first baby foods.

"Don't wait to start. Open your eyes, open your hearts, and open your arms. I promise that as you do so, you will feel greater joy and happiness. Your life will have a new level of meaning. You will forge relationships that will transcend this life and endure through the eternities."
-Joseph B. Wirthlin, "'Live in Thanksgiving Daily'," Ensign, Sep 2001

the closet isn't going to organize itself

1. I am grateful for yummy, dried cranberries to mix in with my oatmeal each morning.

2. I am grateful for slow cookers so that I can put food in it in the morning, then go about my day with errands and chores, and know that when I return home and am ready to eat there will be something hot and (hopefully) yummy just waiting for me.

3. I am grateful for weekend mornings (okay, really just Saturday mornings) when Somebody is home and can take Oliver downstairs to play and allow me to get just 15 more minutes of sleep. Somehow that makes a big difference.

"Gratitude is a mark of a noble soul and a refined character. We like to be around those who are grateful. They tend to brighten all around them. They make others feel better about themselves. They tend to be more humble, more joyful, more likable. Gratitude turns a meal into a feast and drudgery into delight. It softens our grief and heightens our pleasure. It turns the simple and common into the memorable and transcendent. It forges bonds of love and fosters loyalty and admiration."
--Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

more than sunflowers and sunsets

1. I am grateful that I live near my parents. I always thought that living an hour away from family was the perfect distance--you were close enough that visiting for the evening or weekend wasn't a hardship, but far enough away that there was no obligation to see each other every day. I was wrong. My parents live just 10 minutes down the highway (a significant distance compared to how close they have been the last couple of years) and I am grateful every day that it is no inconvenience at all to go over to visit them. I love them. Somebody loves them. Oliver loves them. Being near them continues to bless our lives in countless ways.

2. I am grateful that Oliver knows my parents and loves them almost as much as he loves me and Somebody. I love watching him with my parents, love watching them adore him, love watching his face light up when he sees them, love watching them play together.

3. I am grateful that we decided to move to Kansas. Leaving Utah was difficult for us because we were leaving behind amazing family and friends, and because we both had such wonderful experiences there. Utah was where our story began and we were afraid to move away from the warmth and security we knew there. Kansas, though, has been more than good to us. I feel like we, as a family, belong here in ways we never belonged before. I have been especially blessed with friends who enrich my life (I can't say enough good things about them, but I can't say anything more about them here because this gratitude is about Kansas life and not about friends). We are finally growing up and this is the perfect place to do it. I can't even think about how challenging it will be to leave.

"Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some."
--Charles Dickens

slowly going darker

1. I am grateful for times when I get together with friends and we are chatting and laughing and the time just flies by. Not that I'm grateful for the time passing quickly, but, you know, when the conversation just keeps flowing and then you look at your watch and are surprised at how much time as passed. Those times = awesome.

2. I got my hair cut and colored today and had to take Oliver with me and am so grateful that he did not wipe his now not-all-that-runny nose on any toys that did not belong to him. He was a trooper and I was glad that he was so well-behaved. I am also grateful for how great my hair looks after a professional has styled it.

3. I am grateful that right now, as I type this, Somebody is scratching my back (you know, because I needed to relax after my long, hard day of getting my hair cut and having dinner with friends). I helpfully suggested to him that maybe that was what he wanted to be doing, and while he didn't necessarily agree, he still obliged.

"As with all commandments, gratitude is a description of a successful mode of living. The thankful heart opens our eyes to a multitude of blessings that continually surround us. President J. Reuben Clark, formerly a First Counselor in the First Presidency, said: 'Hold fast to the blessings which God has provided for you. Yours is not the task to gain them, they are here; yours is the part of cherishing them.'"
James E. Faust, "Gratitude As a Saving Principle," Ensign, Dec 1996

i'm pretty sure i killed the yeast

1. I am grateful for clean floors. Somehow the whole house looks better when the carpets are recently vacuumed and the floors are swept and mopped. (I learned this from my mother who ALWAYS has the most clean floors.) My back is sad that it all that cleaning had to happen in one day, but, man, it was time.

2. I am grateful that the internet is like one bottomless pit of new recipes just waiting for me to try them. And that sometimes the ones I try turn out really well. Sometimes not so much, but at least I can learn from my cooking mistakes, and Somebody is a good sport to eat whatever it is that I serve him for dinner. (And just in case you were wondering, the new ones I tried tonight were mostly successful. It was the first time I've cooked with leeks--I used them in a potato/leek/bacon/corn chowder--and now I'm not afraid of them anymore. The bread bowls I attempted turned out more like enormous hamburger buns. Delicious hamburger buns, but hamburger buns.)

3. I am grateful that I feel comfortable enough in the kitchen to make my own changes and substitutions to recipes to tailor them to fit what we like to eat. I come from a family of competent cooks, and I have been taught well.

"If gratitude is due from children to their earthly parents, how much more is the gratitude of the great family of man due to our Father in heaven!"
--Hosea Ballou