THE DAY OF SONG, GRATITUDE AND GLUTTONY

This cute little turkey was made by my five-year-old.

Well, I haven't written in about two weeks. It's pretty ironic that my delinquency comes during the holiday that is directly centered on the value that this blog is all about. Something about having twenty-some-odd people staying at my house, cooking like a mad woman, plus all the basic keep-the-house-going type stuff. Oh, and my five and two-year-olds have decided that they don't like me being on the computer for any length of time. Fun.

Back to business. Our Thanksgiving day was wonderful and I hope all of you had a good one as well. I have a fabulous family who I spent the day with (many of whom are wonderful cooks, which definitely comes in handy on this day!). And we started the day with a great tradition in our town: every year on Thanksgiving morning, there is a Thanksgiving concert given by the community choir and other local individual or small group musicians. It was so awesome! This year I was able to sing in the choir with my husband, 14-year-old son (his first choral experience), and sister. Aside from the amazing choral music, we had an organ piece, a mother/son violin/bass duet, an oboe solo, and a sextet singing "New Day." The music was so beautiful and uplifting, the director and accompanyist (a husband and wife team, and family friends) were amazing, and the spirit of the day was wonderful. It was a great way to start the day.

So after the concert I had grand intentions to sit down and write a grateful post on the day, but between company, making rolls and pies, visiting my parents and wrangling kids, it never happened. So I will just do it today! After all, this blog is about gratitude: this is a good exercise for any day!

Here's what you do: set the timer for three minutes and write as many grateful things as you can think of. How many things can you name? Here's mine.
Today I am thankful for:
my husband
each of my five boys
a computer that works
when the timer works (note: the first two times I tried this exercise, the timer
didn't work and I had to start again)
our free country
our servicemen who fight & sacrifice for our freedom
a working washer and dryer
healthy children
my relatively good health
my Church
my Savior
The Book of Mormon
knowledge of a God who loves me
the beauties of the earth
a garage
snow
clear roads
sunshine
trees
a warm home
my two-year-old's cute mispronounciations
that I can read
that I can write
that my children love to read
fun tv shows (food network)
dancing with my husband
smiling
laughing
watching my children & husband wrestle
not having to wrestle with them every time
tickling (in moderation)
quoting movies
fun Nintendo time with my family
Rock Band

34 things. How many can you do? It would be interesting to count how many if I didn't have to type them, if I was just naming verbally--I bet I could get twice that many.

I just did it and had one son time and one son count and I got 74. Try it--it's fun!