30 Days of Gratitude ~ Days 16 - 22

As I thought ahead about my gratitude photography project for the week of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd look for small things each day just as I had been doing. After all, it's a given that I'm thankful for my God, my family, and my home. I wanted to look for little things that are sometimes overlooked as we busily hurry through each day.  That just wasn't in my heart this week as all my family arrived. My heart was full of gratitude for my amazing family! This gratitude post is all about them!

 

As the boys played, gramps raked the front yard.

A pile of leaves + four boys = fun, fun, fun!!!

A pile of leaves + one gramma = gramma slipping and landing flat on her back, camera flying through the air, miraculously missing grandson's faces!!!  All is well, gramma is fine and so is camera!!  Thank goodness for the pile of leaves!!

 

I'm thankful for the spot in the pasture that will not grow grass. I'm thankful for that good, old sandy dirt that makes a great place for the boys to dig, build roads, and play with their cars.

I'm thankful that we have trees with limbs low enough for climbing. Just so as you know (Drew says this and I love it) his mommy is right beside him!

 

 

I'm even thankful for my Cricut. The boys cut and pasted for hours the morning it was too cold to be outside. You can't see it on the paper, but Drew had just cut out a large roller coaster and it was pretty awesome!!

I never thought I'd say this, but I was thankful for the TV and movies when two of the boys began running a fever!  Aaron and Josh (on the left) are the sick ones.  Drew (with the remote) changed the movies, controlled the volume, and pushed the buttons as necessary. Much to the dismay of the others, he likes to pause it a lot!! Josh finally had to go to the doctor; he has strep! Just a few doses of antibiotic and he was feeling much better!  Aaron had a fever and upper respiratory symptoms. We're just waiting to see if any of the rest of us get strep!  So far, so good!!

 

 

Thankful for board games that kept them busy when we had to stay indoors and for gramps that is teaching Josh how to play checkers with his older brother, Jake!

 

Every little second that I'm with these boys and my family is a blessing. Josh, who's five, wrote this note. He wrote "we went to" and then I would spell the last words in the sentences. The last line makes me cry tears of joy. He was writing about our many adventures together.

 

 

We went to the lake.

We went to the park.

We went to the zoo.

We went to Rush.

We went to church.

We went to the library.

We went with gramma.

 

Oh, the memories we have made together!! Each one a special blessing!  I'm so thankful that the time we spend together is not only special to me, but it's special to my grandsons.

 

The boys said the blessing at each meal this week. I love the way they pray from their hearts and with innocence. I wish I could remember every line from every prayer. Here's just a small sampling of their prayers.

 

Dear God,

Thank you for mommy and daddy.

Thank you for gramma and gramps.
Thank you for memaw and pepaw.

Thank you for Aunt Patty, Uncle Jacob, Aunt Aimee, and Uncle Randy. (We regularly went through every one's name that was at the table!)
Thank you for cousins.

Thank you for this beautiful day.

Thank you for toys. (and any object that was in sight; we don't always keep our eyes shut)
Thank you for all being together.

Thank you for bread or hot dogs or ham (or whatever).

Thank you for this beautiful food.

 

Oh and we must not forget:

Help the Pilgrims and Indians.

Help us be good and pleeeeeeese no sin!

 

And so it went, little boys full of thankfulness!! Their prayers brought smiles and tears to the rest of us! I'm thankful that their parents have taught them from a very young age to pray.

 

I hope that your Thanksgiving was full of special memories and thankfulness; mine certainly was!!