Thankfulness In My Living Room

Since Thanksgiving week is upon us I wanted to write a post about what I am thankful for. My problem with that is, I can go on forever listing all the things I'm thankful for. So, I decided to take a slightly different approach. I decided to just pick a spot in our house, stand in that one place, and find 10 things I'm thankful for right in that spot. I randomly chose the living room so here is my list of things I'm thankful for here in the middle of my living room.

1. God. (After all, He's everywhere.)

2. This Christmas cactus. As the winter gets gray and cold and bleak these bright, beautiful blooms will be a light in the dark.

3. These two lamps. They were made by a relative from trees on my old home place (see more about what that home means to me here Lessons From The Old Homestead). They are just waiting here for lamp shades.

4. Our Nativity. Every year I think about leaving this up when we take down the Christmas decorations. I always want to, but there seems to be some sort of rule about packing up all the decorations by early January  (judging by the people who come to our house and say "you still have your tree up?!) We love and celebrate this story all year long, not just during the Christmas season. This year it's staying up. 

5. This chair. My parents gave me this for my birthday many years ago and it's the chair I rocked the babies in, read books to them in, spend hours and hours sitting together and talking with them in, sat in all night when they were sick and I wanted to be up to keep an eye on them, and it's also the chair my brother-in-law will catch a nap in after Thanksgiving dinner before he has to get back to the dairy farm to milk the cows. (That nap is as much a tradition around here as anything else!).

6. Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This is the latest book we've been reading (in that chair!) and it's one of my favorite things to do on days too cold to spend too much time outside. We all love this series and it's fun to read about the different things they did and then listen to the kids run to Grandpa and ask him if they did that when he was little! 

7. A level. This level belonged to my Grandma. She passed on before I had the privilege to meet her, but a few of the things I know about her are: she survived the suicide of her first husband, she raised seven children during the great depression, she gave her ration stamps to the folks in town because she knew they needed  them more than she did (she knew she could take care of her family with what she raised and grew on the farm) , and when anything broke down or fell apart on the farm Grandma was the go-to girl. I hope I inherited a little of her resilience, strength, and ability.

8. Bird feeders out my window. I know that seeing all the birds here will be a very welcome sign of life in middle of a long winter.

9. Socks. Yes, I'm actually thankful for the dirty socks that are almost always taken off and abandoned in the middle of the living room. Because that means that somewhere in this house there are children running around having way too much fun being kids to worry about picking up their socks. (I still fight it, "Kids! The floor is not the laundry basket!" but it secretly makes me smile.)

10. Handmade Christmas ornaments. This one was my birthday gift from Farm Boy last year. The red ball next to it is Styrofoam with one of the kids pictures glued on. I think those trees some people have with all the gorgeous matching glass ornaments and ribbons and lights are spectacular. But, for me, there's no tree I'd rather have than the one covered in multi-colored lights and handmade ornaments. (And there used to be candy canes on here...hmmmm...)

There you have it, Thankfulness In My Living Room.

What are you thankful for where you're standing right now?

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