Gratitude has been on my mind a lot recently. So much bad news floods the airways and covers the newspapers, and I feel truly blessed. I do my gratitude thing in the car on my way to work, but I thought it might be nice to share some of them:
- 32 years of being married to my best friend (in July)
- A daughter who is thoughtful, smart, funny, and thinks it’s OK for her mom to have a blog
- A son who has the best smile, the greatest dimples, and has finally proven to himself how smart he is (the rest of us have known it for years.)
- A job that I love. I’m just about to finish my 34th year of teaching school, and I’ve never lost the passion for it despite the increase in paperwork, pressure, and negativity
- My daughter’s new boyfriend. We just had the pleasure of meeting him last week although we’ve been reading his blog for several months now. You can read their love story here and here. (He’s responsible for Sarah’s blog and mine, too.) Read about his awesome journey to the Middle East this summer here.
- Good health. It’s nothing I take for granted. I just finished my 56th year; the same age my mother was when she died. Now that I’m a mother I can appreciate how awful being sick and dying must have been for her. She had such grace.
- The best class of fifth graders anyone could ever have the pleasure of spending a year with. They are positive, happy, interested, and interesting 10 and 11 year olds. There’s only two weeks of school left and I will miss them terribly next year
- Good friends. They make the good things in life better, and the terrible things in life bearable. Another thing I don’t take for granted.
There’s plenty more; lots of little things, but these are the big ones that come right to mind.