Thankful Thursday---the cooler weather has arrived....

HI everyone!

I keep thinking of this song today, as I am recovering from being sick:

Honestly, it is kinda like a rodeo around here some days, what with roping the twins as you would a calf, running from place to place like when you ride barrels, and the crazy, fun exciting atmosphere.

I told my mom a few minutes ago that for once I feel like I dont have anything to write about.

Since you are reading this, you know I was wrong. It also helps that I have a mother who reminds me of the amazing readers and friends that I have who look forward to hearing from me. She says she cant wait to get her computer up and running so she can "be a fan". Personally, I think she just wants to participate in the giveaways I do over on the Welcoming House Facebook Page. She has been eyeing my canning ring pumpkins for atleast a week, and now that they are going to their new owners, 

she is jealous. :) LOL.

It has been a couple weeks, but I always use to write on Thankful Thursdays and talk about the many things I am thankful for this week. I feel it is really important for us occasionally, or daily, to focus on the good that we have been blessed with......and when we especially begin to think that we dont have anything special to talk about or be thankful for.............well.........

those are the days we really need to talk about them.

Out of the blue two nights ago I came down with a head cold that one of my toddlers had been struggling with the day before. And for whatever reason, it knocked me for a loop, putting me out for the entire day yesterday. My husband and I had split the twins up the night before since they were both sick, and I had slept in the same bed as one of the Littles. 

Which if you are a parent, you know is basically the same as saying 

I didnt sleep at all.

How is it possible for such a small child to turn somersaults while sleeping, place their heads and feet in your face repeatedly, and wake up 8 hours later as bushy-tailed and bright-eyed as a squirrel, when the parent can barely find their glasses, let alone a coffee cup?

My husband said I followed the twin downstairs, walked right into the living room and collapsed on the couch.

He said that was when he knew I was really sick.

He couldn't even wake me with talking to me and shaking my shoulder (note: I am normally such a light sleeper that someone breathing in the other room, downstairs, or outside, will take me from sound asleep to standing with a bat in my hand), so instead he got breakfast, called my mother, and went to get her so he could head into work. A few hours later I woke up to hear crying children, my mother talking, and having no idea how I made it onto the couch.

Trying to be a gracious hostess, I tried to have a conversation with my mom and play with my kids for about an hour, only to fall asleep, snoring no less (to the delight of the twins who thought it was a new game) right in the middle of a sentence.

So an entire day of sleeping later, here we are today, and I am thankful for so many aspects of my life that I just have to tell you about them.

I am incredibly thankful to be married to a man who works like we are a team.

I never saw that growing up, and am blessed to be a part of a marriage where we work in tandem when it comes to problems, projects, and kids. 

I am incredibly thankful for my mother who lives just across town and loves me enough to show up and hold down the fort when I am so sick I am not even aware of my kids bouncing on top of me. (true story)

I did not have that kind of help when my Big Kid was a very sick and medically fragile infant and toddler, and I am so incredibly thankful to have that help now. I can remember not sleeping for days, keeping myself away from her when I was sick because it would put us into the hospital again, listening to a baby cry for hours and hours a day in the hospital. I even remember having a nurse taking me home and putting me in bed because they were convinced I was going to have a physical breakdown if I did not get some sleep....I was a young mom, with a tremendously ill baby who had been in the hospital for almost three weeks at that time, and a husband who was our sole income.

I am thankful for this time in my life.

I am thankful for the blessing of having two different couches, in two different rooms, as well as a bedroom, so I can move from place to place and still rest, but keep an eye on my family. :) Thankful that I understand more about medicinal herbs and was able to make some tea yesterday that I know really helped me get over it, as well as taking my Anit-Plague Tincture we have been "brewing" for about six weeks (which is when you bottle it up). Thankful my oldest is capable of  doing school with little supervision, and my Littles are not in school yet. Thankful we had food in the freezer to eat meals. Thankful I have a pressure cooker that can make meals today in less than 20 minutes. Thankful that my husband knows enough about canning to follow the directions of a slightly delirious wife and finish processing the last 20 jars of spaghetti sauce. Oh wait, that would take us right back to number one...

Perhaps these seem like silly and small things to you, but honestly, I have been without every single one of those things, and recognize that 

even in the small silly things God shows

 his incredibly great love for us.

I will be back tomorrow with another post, but this time it will be of my Gingerbread sweet rolls with Maple Icing. :) My next entry into the Grain Mill Wagon challenge....and this one is a good one!!

What are you most thankful for today?

Many blessings to you and yours,

Heather