Blessings

It's very gray, dreary and cold out today. All of you know how much I dislike the cold, dreary winters here. I can feel my mood changing just looking outside and feeling my permanently frozen fingers. But as I ran out to get the mail a few minutes ago I thought back to how just 3 days ago I was sitting in that grass with my neighbors wearing FLIP FLOPS and realized that I have so many blessings in my life that maybe if I focus on them instead of that gray sky outside that I'll bear the winter better this year.

So, here is my list of blessings that God has put a great big flashing neon light on today:

1. Two wonderful girlfriends to sit in the grass with (and warm enough weather to wear flip flops)

2. The boys' friendships with the other kids on our street - especially the Adamses and the Duffs (we'd be lost without them) and who can forget my future daughters-in-law Grace and Clara

3. A night of uninterrupted girl time and scrap time with Vicki, who is one of my very best friends along with her wonderful family. We love that we live so much closer to them now and can hang out together more often.

4. Rest time. Ethan actually napped today and Elliott played quietly in his room. Aaaahhh....

5. Family. It's so rare now that marriages last over 10 years, and we feel blessed to have parents on both sides who have been married for over 30 and 40 years. Blessed also that they love us so much and we get to see them and enjoy them often.

6. A really nice weekend alone with Brian. My parents wanted the boys to come over to their house, so we were so excited to have time to ourselves. And it was so nice - in the mid-to-upper 70s all weekend so we took advantage of it and went hiking (hadn't done that in a long time). Beautiful fall trees!!

And for some blessings that seem little but are equally exciting to me today....

7. A brand new scrapbook magazine in my mailbox this afternoon

8. Totally blessed that most of these babies had a place to go besides my hips! (Thank you Brian for taking them to work with you!)

9. A good Christian radio station - JoyFM (94.1)....although I do still miss the FISH in Atlanta - and there's another blessing....being able to listen online!