39 Things I am Thankful For Today

Tomorrow is my 39th birthday.  As an early birthday present to myself I wanted to make a list of 39 things I am thankful for today.

1. I am thankful for my supportive husband and fun loving sons who are playful, adaptable, and up for the adventures that I decided that we ought to do.  This year our family got a little bigger and a little more chaotic but I think my heart grew to accommodate it.  I just looked through our google photos to choose a picture to post and I was surprised at how much we have all grown and changed over the past year.  What a year!

2. I am thankful for my parents, sisters, grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins and niece and nephews who I will get to see next month and spend sometime with in my western Pennsylvania homeland.  I feel lucky that we all have each other.  We are separated by distance but we are all looking up at the same sky at night.  I am grateful that though geography separates us we are not really all that far away from each other in the grand scheme of things.  I am thankful for all their visits, phone calls, texts, and e-mails.

3. I am thankful for the family I married into.  My husband’s family is my family too and they have welcomed me with open arms.  They didn’t have to embrace me the way that they did but they have taken me into their fold.  I am thankful for their love, support, and  their interest in the boys.

4.  I am thankful for the Kids Corner room at the YMCA.  Today I am using my YMCA membership to take a little break from the boys and write this blog entry.

5. I am thankful for my library school education where I first was introduced to blogging. (I used Blogger then).  I am also thankful for all the jobs I had where blogging was part of my work responsibilities because they kept me interested in blogging.  I am thankful for my work at the Indian Valley Public Library because it got me engaged in using WordPress which is what I use now.

6. I am thankful my high school  English teachers.  My 12th grade English teacher Miss Orendorf gave our class  challenging  writing assignments that helped me not only learn to write better but to learn to love the process of writing.  I am thankful that she expected a lot from her students.  I am thankful for Mr. Sprowls’s thought provoking assignments and the faith he had in me as a student and a person; it helped me see myself in a better light.

7.  I am thankful for my husband and his support of my blogging activities.

8.  I am thankful for Beth  the lactation consultant at the Lehigh Valley Health Network.  She runs the Monday Morning Moms group. I attended this group regularly when Mr. Man was born.  Her group allowed me to meet many of the mom friends that I have now.

9. I am also thankful to Beth because she introduced me to Gratefulness Journaling, which is what this list is an example of.  Try it! I am grateful for Gratefulness Journaling because it helps me see the blessings in my life.

10.  I am thankful for the bakery section Landis, a great local grocery store.  I was going to make myself a birthday cake, but I got really wrapped up in writing this blog post and now I am more interested in writing than baking.  I know I can trust Landis to make a great dessert to enjoy on my birthday.

11. I am thankful that my husband is going to pick up said dessert on his way home tonight.

12. I am grateful to the Indian Valley Public Library because I will be borrowing one of the museum passes that they lend out to patrons tomorrow on my birthday.  This means that my family will stand to save at least $36 in admission fees to visit a must see museum in the Philadelphia Area.  Thank you Indian Valley Public Library!

13.  I am thankful my friends, husband, family members for seeing the value in purchasing passes to various museums, zoos, and area attractions.  Since becoming a stay-at-home parent, these passes have allowed me to take my family to pools, zoos, and museums on almost a weekly basis.  Most mornings when I wake up, if we don’t have something planned, I have numerous activity places at my disposal.

14.  I am thankful that I have a car that runs.  The fact that my car runs and is reliable is not lost on me.

15. I am thankful that we have money to fix our car if it breaks.

16. I am thankful for my health.  I am thankful that I have energy to chase after little boys and a body that works and allows me to care for them.

17. I am thankful for a warm house in the winter and a cool house in the summer.

18. I am thankful for plenty of food to eat and clean water to drink.

19.  I am thankful for a summer birthday. I have always felt thankful that I could go swimming on my birthday or do an outdoor activity on my birthday.  Besides my last semester of graduate school, I have never had a birthday on a day when I had to be in class.

20.  I am thankful for the tahini I bought last week when I was visiting my sister in Virginia.  Today I made homemade hummus and every time I take a taste of it I am instantly grateful.

21. I am thankful for the computer that I am typing this blog entry on.  I feel lucky that I have a portable computer that I can use in my house or at a location of my choosing to write my blog .

22. I am grateful for  baby snuggles and hugs.  Baby Nugget is at the age where he likes to put his arm  around my neck while I am holding him.

23.  I am grateful for growing boys.  Looking through my google photo while preparing this blog post has reminded me how much they have physically grown in the past year.

24.  I am grateful for boys that are growing mentally too.  This past weekend Mr. Man has become obsessed with his Sesame Street Alphabet Puzzle.  When he first got it as a gift last year, he would pretty much just dump all the pieces all over the floor and forget about it.  Eventually, I started keeping it down in the basement except when he asked to play with it.  I even thought about giving it away.This   past time, when I brought it upstairs he has started putting in it together.  He even pretends that he is spelling words with it.

25.  I am grateful that I have friends who text me to check in or ask if we want to have play dates. I am grateful for their company.

26.  I am grateaful that I have sisters.

27. I  am grateful that my sisters  all like each other and that we can communicate almost daily on a  group text chain.

28.  I am grateful that we have neighbors who like us.

29. I am grateful for the things they have shared with us including: gossip, vegetables, stuffed animals, toys, and a swing set one time.

30.  I am grateful for facebook because even though it has some drawbacks it has allowed me to have an insiders view into the lives of family and friends who I might not see everyday.

31. I am grateful that I had a healthy baby this past year.  I am grateful that everything went well and he will be 5 months old on my birthday!

32.  I am grateful to the blogging community because I have made connections with people who I would not have known anything about if I had not found their blog.

33.  I am grateful to everyone who reads my blog.  It really does mean a lot to me that you take the time to read it.  You do not know how much it means to me.

34. I am grateful to my blog subscribers for subscribing to my blog.  Your interest in my blog, which was great enough to cause to you subscribe means a lot to me.

35.  I am grateful to the Coopersburg Borough and Upper Saucon township for building lots of parks and playgrounds.  Last week, Mr. Man, Baby Nugget and I walked on a natures trail in one of these parks and found this cool lean-to.

36. I am grateful that the animated program American Dad is available on Netflix , the first 12 seasons at least.  I have come to look forward to watching an episode every night before bed.

37. I am grateful  that I was born and have lived for 39 years.

38.  I am grateful for my mental  and physical facilities that allow me to completely participate in life.

39.  I am grateful that I  get to celebrate another birthday.