Thankful

Thanks to all of you who visit after reading today's devotion. Since the devotion is about noticing our abundance instead of our lack, I thought I would write about being thankful. This was written last night:

Tonight is a night for being thankful. Thankful for the faces that met us at the door as we came in from our anniversary trip to Charleston SC. Thankful that they were well taken care of in our absence. Thankful that my husband's business took us to such a romantic city, and that we got such a great deal on a beautiful hotel in the heart of that city. I have memories tucked in my heart from our trip, things I will treasure long after the trip is over. I told my husband more than once, "We should always go away for our anniversary." He agreed.

If you can swing it, I highly recommend going away for your anniversary, even if it's just for one night. I will admit, I felt guilty about going so soon after being gone for She Speaks. But my best friend gave me some sound advice that her own mother gave to her: put your marriage first, above the children. She looked at me intently. "This trip is about investing in your marriage. The kids will survive." With her urging, I made myself go... and I am so glad I did.

And yet, I am thankful to be home as well. Thankful to be back to the sights and sounds of home. Thankful for the safe trip we had. Thankful for my 10yo daughter who is feeling better from a terrible case of swimmer's ear-- thanks to all of you who responded to my private pleas for prayer on her behalf. We visited the ear, nose and throat specialist today and he said that, while she has a ways to go, she's much better. One more week and she should be back to normal. The moral of this story? Swimmer's ear isn't just a bothersome earache that clears up on its own like someone told me (we've never had a case of it in our home so I was clueless). It's an infection that, if untreated, can get serious real fast.

Now I am sipping red zinger tea with milk and sweetned with Stevia while perusing some of my favorite blogs-- blogs on enjoying home and on being a better writer, 2 things I hold equally important so they get equal attention. I am thankful for one thing I feel like I've been doing right lately as a mom: at dinnertime the tv goes off and it does not come back on for the rest of the evening. After dinner is time for talking to each other and for getting out our books to read. Nights are spent with children curled up on their beds and on the couches silently reading. Peace envelops the house. ("Your house is scary quiet," my best friend said when she visited last week.) It is nice to not have a tv droning on loudly, canned laughter distracting us. I didn't plan to turn the tv off at night, it just happened and-- as the summer winds down and school threatens to start again-- I am thankful it did. I do not like the tv. It is an unwelcome guest in our home and I am glad to silence it, if only for a few hours each night as we end the day. Peace and quiet is not overrated, and nothing takes the place of several hours with our noses firmly planted between the pages of some great book. It feels good to do something right, even if I stumbled on it by accident. For that I am thankful.