I am thankful...

I am thankful.

I am thankful that my husband gets the kidlets up on weekend mornings so I can get back to sleep for a bit after having to get up early to take my reflux meds. I am thankful the kidlets listen to his request to keep it down to a dull roar so Mommy can sleep.

I am thankful for my family. Many people are not blessed with a loving spouse and three adorable (if I do say so myself) kidlets. I cannot picture my life without them, and I thank God every day for allowing them into my life. I am thankful I have been able to be a stay-at-home mother to my kidlets, and have been able to witness every milestone, for the most part, firsthand. I am thankful my husband was able to experience the milestone of two of the kidlets learning how to ride a bicycle. His long hours at work do not enable him to be there for all of the "firsts," so I am thankful he was the one to help them succeed without training wheels.

Since two of my three kidlets now have a cold, I am thankful this is hitting them this weekend, so they might be feeling better and be able to go to school this week. I am thankful for competing tissue companies that are vying to make the most comfortably soft tissues for my kidlets' runny noses.

I am thankful for my husband's job, not only so we can finance the kidlets' soft tissue habit, but so we can afford food, clothing, shelter, and my habit of turning up the thermostat to seventy-four degrees during winter days. I am thankful that our desire to sell our house is by choice instead of impending foreclosure.

I am thankful for the train system in place in our part of the state, so my husband can travel into work without leaving me without a vehicle or requiring us to finance a second car. I am thankful for his train buddies and his ability to relax and shoot the breeze with them at the end of a long day of work.

I am thankful we have a functioning washing machine and dryer so I can get three heaping hampers' worth of clothing cleaned all in one day without needing to go to a laundromat. I am thankful women in my neck of the woods (I can't speak for the rest of the world) are no longer required to beat their laundry with stones in a stream, scrub them on a washboard after heating the water on the stove, or having to wring sopping wet clothing out by hand in order to clean them. I am thankful that dryers make it easier for those of us with allergies to dry our sheets and clothing without having pollens clinging to everything and making it difficult to breathe.

I am thankful for the Internet allowing us to look up pretty much anything that can cross our minds and allowing us to find answers. I am thankful my kidlets have not (as of yet) asked me anything I would be leery of helping them google.

I am thankful for grocery stores that sell foods that are safe for my food allergy family to consume. I am thankful for advances in the medical field that allowed us to get to the root of quite a few medical issues in our family. I am thankful for the medicines that allow us to live life as close to normally as possible.

I am thankful for a friend who had me over for a movie night last night. I am thankful my husband supports my having a life outside of our family. I am thankful the kidlets did not cheer the second the door closed behind me. (Give it a few years. I'm sure when they are teenagers, they will be glad to see me leave the house for a couple of hours!) I am thankful it was a comedy, which helped me to relax and unwind after a long day.

I am thankful for a million other things today. It's just that kind of day. I find it hard to look around me and not realize just how thankful I am for everything.

I am thankful for you being willing to read this, too.