Thankful Thoughts

I am sad that Mitt Romney lost.  He would have been an excellent president.  I told Peter this morning before we checked the final results that if it was meant to be it would be.  He responded with- it is like in the Book of Mormon the Lord always let the people choose for themselves and if they chose iniquity he would not stop them but the consequences would come.
I am thankful for the guiding influences I have in my life to help Peter and I lead our family.  We will continue doing the best we can with what we have and know that the Lord is aware of us and our efforts to be righteous.
I will also continue to both love and curse my budget.  We have been living on a much stricter budget since about May and it has been both a blessing and a curse.  You come to realize just how little money you have and yet I love the feeling of buying only what I have the cash in my wallet to buy.  (Unless, you have to put the $110 worth of medication you have bought in the last week for various members of the family on your credit card because you usually only budget $40 a month.)  There will still be parts of me that wish I could just take my kids to McDonalds when they ask or we are out and about running errands and they are getting hungry but I am not willing to sacrifice the money I budget for Christmas or birthdays each month just for convenience.  PB & J at home will be just as tasty.
I also love food storage and the feeling I get when my shelves get stocked up.  It is canned good sale season around here and I have taken advantage.  I love knowing that I have those items there to help my dollar stretch or to feed us when there may not be as many dollars to go around.
I am thankful to be eating regular food again.  I had the nasty canker sore on my tongue and spent 3 days living mostly on pureed soup through a straw and fresh fruit slushes from Sonic.  The best was the night I decided to nibble my way through 2 biscuits.  When it took me nearly 40 minutes to eat them, Jon said to me, "Maybe you shouldn't have taken so much dinner."
I am thankful so very much for the priesthood and Peter who is willing to bless me and our children with it. Priesthood blessings are the best!
I am thankful that Joey can find peace in the words of a primary song.  His favorite is The Fourth Article of Faith and yesterday as the dentist was numbing his mouth so he could pull a tooth, I sang that to calm him and it helped.
I am thankful for our new behavior charts that will hopefully help us with some of the challenges we have been facing with our kids.

 I am thankful I am teaching Arabella's preschool and she is loving it.  We are learning about he letter G this week and will be making grateful turkeys tomorrow. I love watching her learn.  It is also good for me to see where I can help and encourage her as she will be heading to kindergarten before I know it. (Okay, she still has another year but I know it will disappear.) (The picture above was from the  last time I taught.  We did the letter D and the number 3).

I am thankful for the 31 jars of pickles I canned this week after buying a case of pickling cucumbers from Bountiful Baskets.  My kids better like these because that is a lot of pickles. 

And finally, I will continue to be thankful for my children who love to: steal all of the toothbrushes and carry them all over the house, wear her new cat ears and pink feather boa, each week check out books at the school library with titles like Spiders; Ticks; Snakes..., and for kids who leave their socks everywhere or will hide them behind the pillows on the couch.  I  love each of my kids and the little things they do.

Okay so this is the finally, I love this giant hole the kids worked together to dig all day on Saturday so they could make the "family bench" in the picture above.  It is funny that Lily slid into the hole and could not get out because it was so deep and big.  It is not as funny that she go multiple ant bites on her arms while she was stuck.  I think my kids love when the garden is done so they have a place to dig! I love that they played so well together all day Saturday!
One more- I am so thankful for Peter who has disassembled and reassembled our washer at least 5 times in the last 2 months trying to make it work right.  It is finally really fixed and works like a dream!