James started reading a devotional book to us that he got for Christmas. It is about growing in thankfulness. He figured our kids could use some encouragement in being more thankful. Couldn’t we all? So here, in this first week of 2011, I am thankful for:
God’s protection. There were two incidents, that I know of, where God’s protective hand touched our lives this week.
Let’s go back to New Year’s Eve Eve. The conversation with James went like this: “I’m (Lori) not ready to take the tree down yet. I just love having it lit at night and I think I’d like to keep it up a few more weeks.” “I’m okay with that,” said James. Now onto New Year’s Eve. I’m in the kitchen, getting ready for the evenings festivities, when I suddenly hear a big crash. I look up and see this:
I didn't see Jay (he was helping me clean it up), but I saw Jesse standing there. He pushed that nine foot tree right over. That was the end of my idea of keeping the tree up. Down it came, but I am so thankful no one was standing under it. I am also thankful for the ornaments that miraculously didn't break. We did lose three special ornaments, and a bunch of others, but as Jay said, "Christmas is not about the ornaments". James was in the midst of changing two broken door knobs. He asked if I wanted to use them for anything, I told him to throw them it away (its those smaller, fake door knobs that Jay broke). One of the kids suggested I could make ornaments out of them. I made one for Elijah (the baby we lost) to replace the one I had made that got broken. The second I made for Jesse to remind him of this memory.
The kids got a basketball hoop for Christmas and we have had it set up in the livingroom. They weren't allowed to use it; we were just waiting for a good time to move it outside. We had a couple heavy wheat buckets weighting the back down to keep it from falling over. A couple days ago I was in the kitchen again and heard a big crash again. I looked up to see Rachel, Jedaiah and Jesse, all standing behind a fallen basketball hoop. I was so thankful none of them were by the hoop. Rachel said Jesse took the buckets off (I think she might have had something to do with it too). I have a chip out of my floor to remind me of God's protection.
I'm thankful Jesse made it through his first trip to the dentist. He got his first cleaning and cried a lot through it, but he didn't try to fight it. I'm thankful the dentist was able to fill Jonathan's first cavity right then in the office and saved us another trip.
I am thankful it is Friday. I've decided to change our schedule a bit for school. We are going back to Friday's off. It won't be a day off today because Josh and Jay still have school to do. It has been a rough week for them, trying to get back into the routine. They had some catching up to do from the week before Christmas and they still haven't caught up.
I'm thankful for the body God has given me. I am trying to do better to take care of it. I'm working on loosing a few pounds that I gained this past year. In trying to eat healthier, I'm learning about sprouting wheat. I learned this yesterday:
"According to research undertaken at the University of Minnesota, sprouting increases the total nutrient density of wheat berries. The nutritional content of the wheat berry quadruples in some of the vitamins and minerals through the sprouting process. For example, once the wheat berry is sprouted, vitamin B-12 quadruples, other B vitamins increases 3 to 12 times, vitamin E content triples, and the fiber content increases three to four times that of whole wheat bread!"
Also, the folic acid increases 278% and vitamin C increases 300%. I don't know how much it contains to begin with, but wow! I'm looking forward to learning something new and hopefully the process won't be too tedious. It doesn't sound too difficult. I'm all for increasing nutrients into our diet.
I am thankful for friends who are willing to watch our kids so James and I can go on a shopping date tomorrow. We have a few things to return and I want to shop for some birthdays that are coming up.
So that is week one of 2011. I am thankful that these are the stories I have to tell.
