Gratitudes.

I do a lot of reading of self-help books. In fact, next to parenting books, they are what I read the most. Then there are the self-help/parenting books, and the self-help/homeschooling books. What do they all say? Start with gratitude. So I do, I start each day with a little gratitude for the day. I look out my window, it's gorgeous here on Mama Earth. Especially right here, in these Coast Range Foothills. I am grateful for my warm covers right now--and that I remembered to pick up my clean comforter from the cleaners, and that they didn't throw it away or donate it since it had been there for so incredibly long.
I am grateful for the warm little body next to me, sleeping peacefully on his lambskin, looking like a cherub, and that he chose us for his family, when we didn't think we were going to have any more littles around here.
I am grateful for the Dude I live with, who gets up very early a couple mornings a week to make a not so nice drive 100 miles away to work so that I can be a homeschooling mama, so that we can eat local, organic food most days, so that our children can have all sorts of amazing opportunities like music lessons, ballet, gymnastics and days at the horse barn.
I am grateful for those ever growing children. I cannot think of another job that I would rather have right now that being present for their childhood. It IS fleeting, going so fast that I am nearly afraid to blink. They continue to be my teachers. The lessons are no less challenging than they were when they were all under 3.


I am grateful that we could spend Thanksgiving with some of our extended family in Portland. I fantasize sometimes about living close enough to share a meal weekly--or at least every other week. I don't know if it will ever happen, but it sure was lovely to be in the same room with those folks (and all the babies!) for a few hours.