Recently I opened up one of my notebooks and discovered a page entitled, “Blog Ideas.”  I instantly thought, “Cool!”  Unfortunately, not so much … I can’t figure out what half of them are about.  Here are a few … maybe someone who reads this will know what I meant!

Lottery commercial?      Other than wishing I could win the lottery, I have no clue!

Sicko?  Not only is that one disturbing, but I can’t even vaguely remember the context.

Ugh!?!  That could mean a lot of things … it’s one of my most commonly uttered phrases.

The great thing about revisiting an old journal or notebook is seeing what God is doing in my life.  I found sermon notes, quotes, and some short journal-like entries that reminded me how blessed I am.  You could surmise from this blog that my memory isn’t what it used to be … so much is lost in the confounding amount of things I deal with daily.  My journal reminded me that God is at work … He is blessing me even as I walk through my valley.  And I can see now that my valley has a decidedly upward slant to it!

One of my favorite little notebooks is full of numbered things I’m thankful for.  Here are just a few:

#11         The sound of a soccer ball being booted

#32         Laughing that I just realized I started this little journal upside down and backwards

#119      Date night with Peter

#128      Allison’s mismatched socks – everyday!

#134      Lizzie wearing 3 shirts all day and how cute she looked trying to take them all off at bedtime.

#167      Crunchy gravel under my tires

#266      Friends who loan me cars

#278      Zach texting me funny quotes out of the blue

#279      Late night talks with Emma

#295      My kids making me laugh as I slosh thru my perpetually flooded basement

#354      Big smiles at the pooll

#357      The “I love you” sign from my Allison

#400      The joy Lizzie finds in reading the same Bernstein Bears’ book over and over and over…

Even as I sit here I can think of so many more things I can add to my list. I forget to be thankful so easily.  In this very difficult single parent life, I’ve found that I’m much happier and peaceful when I focus on the things I can be thankful for rather than the things I want to run from.  Since I can’t really run from anything, I’m learning to be grateful … and I’m finding that God is very good to me and my children.

I suppose I should avoid writing a blog entitled “sicko” – which is probably a very good thing!  And maybe someday I’ll sit in front of the TV long enough to watch for the lottery commercial.  Fortunately, there are more than enough blog topics that present themselves to me daily.  I’m blessed by a ridiculous life which is simply code for blog fodder, and most definitely a big long list of thank yous, and journals full of God’s faithfulness.

What are you thankful for today?