Ten Things of Thankful: Week 14

Today I am not even at home. I am at camp (which you shall see noted in the first few items on my list…and I am really hoping that Christine remembers to link me up during the hop!). And though I know you will all be dying to see what fun, thoughtful, insightful and witty things I will have to say about your posts, all that will have to wait until I get home on Sunday night.

I know this has probably brought your blog-hop to a grinding halt, but please don’t let it be so. Try to carry on until I can join you; I know it will be difficult, but try to manage. Do it for the sake of the children, if nothing else.

So…without further delay, I give you what you’ve all been waiting for:

1.   am thankful that it SHOULD not be too hot this week-end for Family Camp with our church. In the past we have stayed in the non-air conditioned cabins as well as the air-conditioned lodge. This year (due to my increasing thriftiness…tent-camping was the cheapest option) we are tent camping…always dicey in September in Indiana.

2.  I am thankful for the opportunity to get away with my family and with our church. We haven’t gone for the past 3 years for various and sundry reasons, so we’ve been looking forward to this trip for months.

3.  I am thankful that my husband does not have to work on Saturday; for a few hours on Thursday, he was going to have to work on Saturday and miss half the camp. Because not only was he going to have to work; he was going to have to be at work about an hour away, beginning at 5 on Saturday morning…so clearly not the kind of situation in which he could go down to camp (which, of course, was the opposite direction of work) on Friday night and then get up early on Saturday to go in. So then we started praying that he wouldn’t have to work, letting God work out the details. By Thursday evening, Mr. Always Random got word that the equipment needed for the work wasn’t functioning and that they were going to delay Saturday’s scheduled work until Monday.

4.  I am still thankful for Salted Caramel Pretzel Bark. I made some to take to camp in order to share it with my church family on Saturday night; I’m not entirely sure that it will last that long. It’s like crack (and no, I have no idea what crack is like so please don’t ask; this may actually be more addicting than crack, if you really must know…)

5.  I am thankful for a nice, easy school-week. I do so enjoy homeschooling the PBA, but let’s be honest…homeschooling, as in any other school, has some weeks which are simply rougher than others. But this one was smooth as silk. And, as the 12yo was pointing out to his brother, “We’re 1/6^th of the way through the school year!” And by golly he’s right…6 weeks down already. And only the beginning of September. Nice!

6.  I’m thankful for those moments when I have time to write. And I’m thankful to know when I can put together a halfway decent post, vs when I’d simply be half-assing it (sorry for the language…but it’s the only word that truly makes the point) and you, my loyal readership, deserve more than that. I’d rather not post anything than post crap (I’m such a potty-mouth). So there. I said it. Consider yourself notified. So yes what that means is that even if you think what I am posting is junk, I, apparently, think it is pretty good stuff.

7.  I am thankful that one night this week, I made something for dinner which I have made previously and for some reason it wasn’t all that terrific. I’m certain it wasn’t operator error. Why do I think that? Because this was actually the second time I made it and it came out exactly the same way; I remembered as soon as I saw it the second time. Why didn’t I throw away the recipe after the first fail? I have no idea…perhaps I thought it was operator error, which I am thankful to announce, it was NOT. I guess that’s one thing of thankful…realizing that sometimes a cooking fail actually has to do with a crappy recipe and not my lacking culinary skills. I have since thrown the recipe away. At least I think I did.

8.  And now here’s the thankfulness item I actually set out to include in my ramblings about the meal preparation: I am thankful that even when a recipe doesn’t really turn out as I had envisioned and when my attempt to fix it still doesn’t render it great (it is edible, but not terrific), I am thankful that no one in my household complains. They put their heads down and they shovel it in. In addition, they keep their comments to themselves.

9.  I am thankful for my chiropractor…while my back is still tender and a little bit out of sorts, I am thankful that he can always accommodate me and doesn’t make fun of me too much when I throw out my back from too much sitting.

10. I am thankful for the optimism of my 12yo who, just this week, has repeatedly shown himself to be a “glass-half-full” kind of kid. I won’t give every example…just the one that made me giggle and scratch my head (not regarding anything he did…trust me, you’ll understand momentarily). This is a longish story, so settle in.

For the past 8+ years, we have lived next to a somewhat-interesting couple. We believe they are somewhere in their 60’s and both work full-time; we rarely, if ever, see them, and even if we do see them, we exchange a wave and a “Hello!” but that’s the extent of it. However, we must seem somewhat trust-worthy, as whenever they leave town for more than a day or two, they entrust their house to us.

And when I say this, I need for you to understand that it is not a conversation that happens (usually), but we simply find an envelope in our mailbox with our names printed on the front; inside the envelope is their trip itinerary as well as a key to their house. They have never once asked us if a) we would mind watching the house, or b) if we will even be home to watch the house. I am waiting (because you know at some point it will probably happen) that we will be gone the entire time they are gone and no one has known that they were gone at all.

This particular time, the wife came over last week and actually knocked on the door; shock of the world! When I answered, she handed me an envelope and said, “Here’s the information about where we’ll be.” And then she walked away. I closed the door, and then rolled my eyes. The PBA were standing there with me. The 10yo asked, “So…did she even ASK?”

Me: No. No she did not. Don’t we think that’s kind of rude? Should we assume things like that, or should we ask someone to watch our house for us?

10yo: Oh we should ask…that does seem a little rude! (my little Eddie Haskell)

12yo: Well, at least they think highly enough of us to have us watch their house! That’s nice!

Yes, Mr. Glass-Half-Full…you are right. Thank you for re-framing that for me.

But I’m not finished with the story yet. Once they returned home from the trip, the husband came over to fetch the key and tell me about the trip (I wasn’t asking and already had my jammies on…awkward…to be fair it was the late hour of 8:30pm!); he had two gifts wrapped in tissue paper with him. He thanked us for keeping an eye on the place (they do always thank us, so there is that…), and he handed me the gifts.

And then I thanked him and we closed the door. Again, the PBA were right there. We tore open Gift #1. It was a set of three birthday-themed cookie cutters. Now, it is nowhere close to any of our birthdays, but we thought it was a seemingly-ok gift. We assumed that the second gift might be…cookie dough?

Nope, it was a large bottle of bubbles.

Yes, bubbles. The kind you play with outside and blow through a small plastic wand. Apparently my 10 & 12yo boys look like they would still like to play with bubbles.

I may have rolled my eyes.

But without missing a beat, Mr. Glass-Half-Full said, “Well, those will really come in handy when we have some foster kids here!”

Yes, buddy you are exactly right…thank you, once again, for re-framing the situation for me. So thankful for that boy!

Have a fabulous day!

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