Today I am thankful for good food. It’s Thanksgiving Day and people all around the country are sitting down with family and friends to eat turkey and ham and dressing and green bean casserole and cranberry sauce. Although I am not with my family today, I am with good friends who welcome me like family and we are eating very good food.
Today I am thankful for my family. In 2010, my husband and I got married and started our family just the two of us. We did not know if our little family of two would ever be three or four or more. Today our little family has grown to the two of us plus a toddler and a baby. It’s pretty great and I am very grateful for our family of four and I am looking forward to seeing just how big our family will get!
Today I am thankful for my health. I sometimes forget about the journey I went through a few years back with my health. I often take for granted the fact that I’m alive. But the truth of the matter is that my life is a miracle. My children’s lives are miracles. We are all healthy and able bodied and I am so very very grateful for that.
Today I am thankful for Texas. I am thankful for the weather. This weekend it got silly cold but for most of the year, the weather is warm and delightful. I suppose it does get a bit too hot sometimes during the summer but I would rather jump in a pool than bundle up in jackets any day.
I am also thankful for the history here. I love that we used to be our own country. I love the story of the Alamo and of Jane Long and of Davy Crockett.
I love that bluebonnets are the state flower and armadillos are the state animal and pecan trees are the state trees. I love the pine trees in the east and the desert in the west. I love that you cannot find good Tex Mex anywhere but here. I love HEB and Dr. Pepper and What-a-burger.
I am thankful for my parents. That’s my wonderful stepmom Sharon with me and Amelia in the picture on the left and that’s my Daddy holding little Eli in the picture on the right. There’s not a photo of my Mom because she’s not a fan of her picture being on the interwebs but I’m crazy thankful for her too. She’s one of my best friends.
I’m so grateful for these people that raised me. They prayed for me and are still praying for me. They showed me unconditional love even when I was being a little brat. They are really incredible people.
My husband and I lived in a house in the Houston area for a little over a year. Then we lived in an apartment for three years. Now, we live in our second (and hopefully last) house. We are planning to live here until we’re so old we can’t take care of ourselves well enough to live on our own any more. That’s our plan. Only the Lord knows how it will actually play out. I am merely hopeful that our plan works out the way I imagine it.
I do know one thing for certain though. No matter where we live, no matter the physical location of our residence, as long as we are together, we are home. I am not sure where the following quote comes from but I like it a lot. I think it captures “home” well.
A house holds our stuff
A home holds our hearts
Mom's Going to Madagascar 