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Lessons Learned from Thankfulness
A few years ago I sat down and wrote down a list of all the things I was thankful for. I don’t know if you’ve ever done this, but it’s a good thing to sit down and do from time to time. It’s also amazing to come back and look at the lessons learned from thankfulness and look back at what you were thankful for before.
Lessons learned from Thankfulness
This particular time, my husband was in surgery. It’s interesting to come back and read this list nine years later. Here are my lessons learned in thankfulness:
- You can be thankful in all situations. My husband was in surgery, and yet I was still thankful. One of my best friends was
- Just write what you think of. This list is weird, it’s very weird.
- It’s good to go back and look at what you were thankful for in the past.
What I wrote almost 10 years ago
So, here I sit at Barnes and Noble as Jeff is going through surgery. I have a self-imposed time limit of 15 minutes more here before heading back to see if there’s any news from the doctor.
I’ve seen everyone putting up their Thanksgiving posts all month long, and I decided to put it all in one week with more than one thing a day. I’m going to put these in as I think of them, and not necessarily in order of what it means to me.
1. Free wi-fi at Barnes and Noble. Aww, heck let’s just say, Barnes and Noble. I spend way too much money here. I’m thankful for the train table at my local store which has allowed me to spend many a happy hour browsing through books as my kids happily play at the train table.
2. my faith. I’ve been so amazingly blessed to be raised in a Christian family and raised in a good strong church. They have blessed me so much and helped me through more things than I can easily count.
3. pressing ham. What is a pressing ham you ask? Only the most awesome pressing tool when you’re sewing. I use it every time I sew something beyond a quilt.
4. blue jeans. I practically live in them.
5. digital cameras that are nearly indestructible. Really, I think it has Superman’s powers.
6. On the subject of Superman. I’m thankful for Superman, that mischievous little sprite that he is. He’s well named. Honestly, there are times that I regret naming my kids the names I gave them. In most fantasy books and many religious traditions names have power, and I’m beginning to take it more seriously as my kids take on the characteristics of the people and characters behind the names we gave them……
7. Comic books. Yes, I still read them, and no I don’t think comics are just for kids. As a matter of fact some aren’t for kids. In case you’re wondering, Everything I need to know about homeschooling I learned from Batman.
8. library
9. comfortable chairs
10. HEB- seriously I love my grocery store. Maybe someday I’ll write an ode to HEB.
11. my lap-top. It’s small and little, and the keyboard is a bit too small, but it fits perfectly on my lap, and I’ve done so much lesson planning on this during car trips. And now I’m creating my AWESOME Christmas unit.
12. Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday. There’s music and decorations and PRESENTS!
13. Muppet Christmas Carol- I can probably sing word for word almost every song in that movie.
14. Dr Pepper. “It makes my mouth feel happy.”
15. Those old Budweiser frog commercials. I downloaded the sound from them onto my computer ages ago and so they randomly come up on my playlist. They make me laugh. And now with the wonders of YouTube you too can watch all of the ridiculous Bud Weiser Er commercials.
16. Abbott and Costello “Who’s on First” routine, love it. People have tried to repeat the magic but it isn’t quite the same.
17. Future Ticia here, this one is hard to read with what we now know about Bill Cosby, but I’m leaving it in because it is part of who I am, and why learning who he was was so painful for so many of us who grew up watching the Cosby Show. Bill Cosby Noah. Have you heard it? It’s pure genius, and now my kids listen to it and LAUGH! At this point that’s almost funnier than Bill Cosby. It totally cracks me up listening to my kids attempt to do the act not really understanding why it’s funny.
18. The Cosby Show- I loved that show and grew up on it.
19. Nick at Nite- you know the classic Nick at Nite from the 80s back before they had TVland when they’d show stuff like the Dick Van Dyke show and I Dream of Jeanie…..
20. Star Trek! Yes, I was that weird kid who went to Star Trek conventions, they’re so much fun.
21. Jeff- like I said this is a random list as I think of them. I can and have written whole posts on what I like about Jeff.
22. Music- after writing that last one, I got the song “What I like about you” stuck in my head.
23. My memory- I have a fairly good memory for random useless details and minutiae. This makes me very good at Trivial Pursuit for categories I have any interest in. Jeff finds it hilarious to play Star Trek trivia with my family. My brother and I know all the answers and my Mom who watched all of this with us sits there and looks somewhat confused.
24. Spellcheck- it catches the spelling errors I make.
25. Being a good speller. Hey, what do you know speller is actually a word. But that takes away my joke about making up a word.
26. My quirky sense of humor. I know, what sense of humor?
27. Google- that monolithic creature that it is and it’s amazing search engines that get me so much information for schooling my kids.
28. Being able to homeschool.
29. My sewing machine. Crazy workhorse that it is. Did you know it still worked despite my then 2-year-old boys stuffing about 20 pins into it? They still tell the story in the local Bernina store to this day.
30. My 4-H sewing teacher who put up with so much from a rather bratty middle schooler. It lets me make cool presents for my kids and have a blast making all sorts of weird stuff.
And with that, I’m back to the surgery center with a cool new pattern from a magazine to make a dress for myself in all my spare time. Oh, wait I don’t have spare time.
Continuing my thankfulness list
Future Ticia 2023 here, I’m combining the four posts I wrote to create this list, so here are more:
Thankfulness list 31-???????
- The fact that Princess really wants to be a superhero.
- That Princess wants to be a Mommy when she grows up.
- Batman really truly believes he can grow up to be Ironman.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer- which I am watching right now thanks to Netflix.
- Netflix- it is awesome and I get to watch so much fun stuff.
- Being a nightowl. This is also not good because I stay up way too late.
- my puppy. he’s cute
- Chuy’s- I love that restaurant
- I’m so incredibly thankful for my small group. They’re incredibly awesome.
- My brother and sister-in-law who are keeping the kids tonight.
- sleep, you know the thing I”m not getting right now.
- Harry Potter
- I could list a lot of book series, so maybe I’ll be lazy and say books, I like books.
- mice, I think they’re cute.
- my van, I like my car. I didn’t want a van, but I like it now.
- Tara, she’s been there for so much
- horses, they’re pretty
- animals. animals are good. I need sleep, so maybe I’ll stop here
I wish I knew how to change the numbering.
oops 49
49. that Jeff’s surgery went well
50. that the nerve block is wearing off
Thankfulness list something to something
I don’t remember what number I’m on, but I’ll make it short and simple
I’m thankful for my wonderful family and for how they love on each other at difficult times. And I’m a rather inclusive person when it comes to the definition of family, and there are several people I would consider family that are not biologically related to me.
And to my many many wonderful friends out there in blogland:
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Now, I’m off to bed, and hopefully I get to sleep quickly. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, followed by several more busy days………
More on thankfulness
Comments
10 responses to “Lessons Learned from Thankfulness”
That is so weird…Katie and the boys are watch A & C's Who's on First routine right this minute on the computer!
Fantastic post! I have never heard of a pressing ham or whatever it is called – I thought you were going to say pressed ham is something you eat in TX!!!!!!!!!! I also have never heard of HEB. I love your list though!
What a fun list…and a perfect reminder of all that you are thankful for while Jeff is in surgery.
HUGS!!
?AnnetteGreat list! And I hope the surgery goes smoothly!
Great list – it gives so much insight into who you are as a person.
We have 2, 20, and 28 in common. Is a pressing ham another word for thimble?
Hope the surgery goes well. Love the list.
I am thankful for your thankful list, with all it thankful offerings and thankful thoughts…
(Did I use “thankful” enough?)
Oh, and we SO need to meet face-to-face someday, because we have SO MUCH in common…
Hope Jeff's surgery went well!
I hope he's recovering well and that you are well too!
I love your list! I hope the surgery went well.
Love reading the list! Yay for so many things to be thankful for!
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