Happy Thanksgivng everyone🍁!

So many reasons to be thankful…I decided to straight-up make a list:

1. Heat in winter and a/c in summer

2. Running water

3. Electricity

3. A gas fireplace and hot water heater

4. Cars to drive and gas to put in them

5. Food to eat

6. Jobs

7. Clothes

8. Books to read

9. Education

10. A home

11. Family, friends, relationships

12. A heritage

13. Freedom

14. Opportunities

15. Creation

16. Animals

17. Beauty

18. Joy

19. Jesus

20. God’s love

I could keep going, pick apart every detail of every reason above, but my prayer is that this list helps bring to your mind all you personally have to be thankful for in your life. Spend Thanksgiving Day in humble awareness and allow gratitude to permeate every moment and lead into a greater sense of being purposefully thankful in all the day-to-daybeds of life.

I realize I’m a few days behind on writing about my thankfulness. I haven’t neglected to recognize all my blessings, but we’ve had guests and some busy days….

That being said I want to say how thankful I am for friendships that span the years. I am beholden to some dear, dear people who have stuck with me as friends who are closer than I can describe. I am blessed by their presence in my life, even though we don’t get to be with one another all the time. I am grateful for their acceptance of me, their love and sacrifices of time and listening ears and help.

How good and precious is a friend who sticks closer than a brother! I know God is the Giver of these good and perfect gifts! I could not find my way down all the roads of this life if I didn’t have these friends. I owe them my thanks many times over…

I’m struck by the the beauty in nature almost anytime I’m outside. God’s creation draws my attention and I’m captivated by it in all the big and small ways.

Our delight with God’s created world is a way we show our thankfulness to Him. It’s similar to the delight of a child opening gifts on Christmas morning. Just as a parent is thrilled to experience the joy of their child as they open gifts, God thrills to hear us exclaim over the gifts He gives us daily in the amazing world.

Today, this beauty was found in the ice covering literally everything outside…

I looked up synonyms for thankful and found indebted. Good word!

I am in debt to so many who have poured into my life in so many ways. Today, my heart was focused on my husband. He was working on preliminary research for venues to host the wedding rehearsal for our son’s May 2019 wedding and also securing blocks of rooms at hotels for that weekend.

He has always been so good to take on tasks like this. He and I work well as a team when planning events and hosting and we pull together well for family needs and crises.

I’m thankful for and in debt to Tom for all these years of working out life together

This morning, I am grateful for quiet mornings and coffee, for clouds and rain and chilly days that call for blankets and fires in the fireplace. I so appreciate days when I can ease into life, when the rush I can hear outside my door doesn’t include me.

Veteran’s Day…I stand with humble thanks for all men and women who have sacrificed and served our country to protect our freedoms as well as help many people and nations. My dad and uncle , as well as a brother-in-law and nephew, along with countless dear friends, have given years of their lives so that most of us could just live safely and freely. It wasn’t about agreeing with every decision made by the government to get involved. It was about stepping up to do whatever needed to be done for the love of family, friends and freedom.

Thank you for serving and continuing to serve. God bless you and your families.

Our trip to our alma mater’s 50th Celebration was filled with precious moments. The highlights were seeing my brother, Roger, and visiting with The Fairbanks.

I’m also grateful for all the hugs and conversations we were able to have with people we don’t have opportunity to see very often, and especially for the Hashman’s letting us stay the night and sharing two meals and some wonderful fellowship with us!

I want to take these next 14 days to focus on intentional gratitude. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, not because of food, but because of the true reason for which the holiday was created, being purposefully thankful to God for all the blessings and provisions in our lives. I also treasure family time and the less commercialization of this holiday compared to others.

For today, I want to say I am grateful for the educational opportunities I have had in my life. I’m thankful for what I’ve been privileged to learn, for teachers, classmates, professors, administrators and for students I’ve had the honor to teach.

I go today to celebrate the 50th year of my college alma mater. I look forward to seeing some people whom I love, who impacted my life immeasurably. I’m thankful for how this place was interwoven in my life from the time I was a baby and my brother was in the very first class, and my dad, uncle, and brother helped ready the campus and built a monument that is still central to campus.

I’m grateful for the education I received here as a young woman and the lifelong friends I made there, and for the professors who later became friends when my family moved back to work here ten years after graduating. Then, I am also filled with appreciation for being given the opportunity to teach here, as an adjunct, since 2001.

It’s been an up and down journey at times, but overall, I’m grateful for this place, MVNU, that made me love green and blue.