an attitude of gratitude.

This week for Family Home Evening we talked about being thankful. I started to explain "being thankful" to a two-year-old, and, well, not a lot came to mind. It seems like gratitude defines itself. I finally said it means being happy when someone does something for you or gives you something and you need to tell them 'thank you'. Then we stressed how it is especially important to say thank you to Heavenly Father, because He gives us so many blessings. Carly proceeded to jump on the couch.

Then we made really fancy thankful turkeys by tracing our hands.

[Carly's turkey. She came up with it kind of on her own. I decided it is ok to be thankful for yourself.]

In times of stress and change and worry, it is easy to lose track of just how blessed I am. Its easy to dwell within myself, and forget how many things in my life bring me joy.

I am grateful for unpierced ears. As a little girl, I really wanted to get my ears pierced. My dad was against it, and always told me that when I was 18 and moved out of the house, I was welcome to pierce my ears. It made me mad as a kid, and by the time I was a teenager I just didn't think about it anymore. Since turning 18 and leaving the house, I think I have considered piercing my ears each year at my birthday. Earrings are fabulous and can really jazz up a simple outfit. But whenever I consider it, I know I never really will. My unpierced ears, in my personal situation, are a symbol of a fathers love. They remind me how lucky I was to be born to loving parents, who taught me and loved me and showed me the way. I am grateful I was raised in a better family than I really deserved.

I am grateful for a messy bedroom. I have some character strengths, and being an organized person just isn't one of them. It is something I have really tried to work on, but all too often my weaknesses win out. Even when I pull the rest of the house together, our bedroom often remains neglected. After all, no one really ever sees it, right? I am blessed to have the most patient, selfless husband in the world. He spends long hours at school and work, and comes home to super daddy duty. He loves me despite my endless weaknesses, and while he is a much neater person than I, he never complains about how my clothes are all over the floor or how I don't make the bed when I wake up 3 hours after he does. He gets me, and that is not always an easy thing to do. I can't imagine life if I had never found him. I'm grateful for my best friend.

I am grateful to live "in the middle of nowhere". I felt that way a little bit, when we contemplated moving to Michigan. Michigan? Really? Isn't that like the tundra? Do people even live there? But I love it here. Summers are beautiful, falls are breathtaking, and winter was really not any different than an Idaho winter. There are so many incredibly kind people here, and I feel blessed to have come here and made many friends so quickly. I'm grateful for a good ward and for playgroups and for a close little library and for monthly girls' nights out. I'm grateful that Chris is in a top-rated challenging program. He probably wonders why we chose the harder path sometimes, but we know this is where we were supposed to be, and so many doors have opened for him and his career in the short time we've been here. In today's world, the more employable you can make yourself, the better, and I am lucky he is willing to work so hard to make our life plans possible. We are so blessed that we were led to the middle of nowhere.

I am grateful for unlimited text messaging. I grew up with three brothers, but never felt like I missed out on having a sister. I had my mom, and she was every bit the mom and sister I could ever want. It is hard to be away from her, but the poor woman gets more random text messages all day then she probably wants. It is nice to always be a few buttons away to share random thoughts, funny stories, hard times, and, heaven forbid, a million different baby names. All the things we might we able to talk about if we were able to meet for lunch every week. I am grateful for my friendship with my mom, and the way it has taught me to form a friendship with my daughter. I hope she always trusts me and loves me the way I trust and love my mom. I'm grateful for moms and daughters.

I am grateful for the House of the Lord. We had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Temple on Saturday, and it was something I desperately needed. I think it is impossible to worry in the Temple. It is impossible to feel sad or stressed. It was one of the few times in the past few weeks when I have felt 100% calm and excited about the twins. Of course, I am excited, but being 100% calm is not an easy thing to achieve. But in the House of the Lord, I was reminded that I promise to commit my life to the Savior, and in my current role, committing my life to the Savior means raising these little spirits He sends to our home to follow Him. It is my calling, and if I have nothing else to give in life, I pray I can at least help get these spirits back to Him. In the Temple I was reminded that was my single most important job. And while that is quite the job, it put the worries about strollers and feedings and lack of sleep and two kids doing everything at once for their entire lives in perspective. And I remembered that I need to retreat to the House of the Lord more often.

Happy Thanksgiving.
I hope you have a fabulous week.
And get to relax.
And eat a lot of food.
That's my plan.
xoxo.