Friends and family hear me say this all the time.  Personal space is important to me and the only people I enjoy being hugged by are my husband and children.

God is growing me in this area, even though I didn’t ask Him to.

Working with teen mama’s has me getting hugged more than I ever imagined {and I surprisingly don’t mind}.  I think my nurturing mama heart is triggered when those girls hug me.

And, of course, having Sweet Pea to cuddle with over the last 14 months has increased the hugging in the house.  {She does this adorable thing in the morning when I get her out of her crib where she pats me on the back, lays her head on my shoulder and says “awwww”.  She is seriously the cutest thing ever!}

Imagine my surprise when my hubby pointed out that I have been initiating hugs recently…at church, running into a friend at the store.

Weird, I tell you.

Today, I hugged a friend because I needed to hug her, to convey my love and concern in a physical way.  Tonight, another friend is arriving at our home for the Thanksgiving holiday and I can’t wait to hug her and her sweet daughter.

What in the world is going on with me?

…and the counting of gifts continues {#381-390}

~  answered prayers for David to find a forever family!

~  a week off of school for my Shayla

~  generous donation from a local church that provided Thanksgiving turkeys to our teen mom’s

~  a clean and de-cluttered home

~  homemade pumpkin pie, warm from the oven

~  a full pantry

~  one on one time with my boys

~  buying the plane tickets for Jason to come home for Christmas

~  124 boxes for Operation Christmas Child from the generous people at our church

~  dinner with a friend, catching up and eating steak with blue cheese crumbles {yum!}

It is my favorite time of year and Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.

Sometimes, we are in danger of losing the celebratory nature of this holiday in the there-are-only-SIX-weeks-until-Christmas madness that accompanies this time of year.

I fight that temptation hard in our home.  A posture of gratitude is crucial to living a happy and fulfilled life. What better place to start than the holiday named Thanksgiving?

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For his mercy endures forever. ~Psalm 136:1

Here are some things we do to commemorate this holiday and make it a special time for our family:

• Decorate the house. Yes, I bring out the Thanksgiving decorations for a week and then put them away until the next year {every year my husband thinks I’m crazy when I tell him it’s time for the Thanksgiving decor. I think he hopes I will forget}.  A lot of work but a tradition we enjoy.  Some of the decorations are homemade each year, like oranges with cloves in a glass vase and painted gourds and little pumpkins.  Indian corn and raffia can make for cute door decor as well.
• Create together.  Every year, we make turkey cookies {this year I found a new idea on Pinterest that I want to try}


Source: ourbestbites.com via Toni on Pinterest

Even now that my boys are older they still enjoy making little Thanksgiving treats with mom.  We sit up late into the night, watching home movies and assembling turkey cookies.  I hope it is a memory they will treasure as much as I do.

• Share gratitude.  One year, we made a thankful tree with leaves made out of the boys hand prints.  Another year, we made a journal with wax paper and dried leaves, yarn and a sharpie.  However we choose to list the things we are thankful for, there is power in the list.  There is joy and laughter and even tears in sharing the things that make the thankful list each year.
• Eat well and eat together.  I just finalized the Thanksgiving menu for this year and drug my hubby through the grocery store, painstakingly checking my list to make sure I didn’t forget anything.  Some recipes are the same each year {hello sweet potato casserole} and some I switch up {trying pumpkin chocolate chip bread this year}. But, getting around the table, filling our bellies and our hearts is one of my favorite times of the year.

My friend, Teri Lynne, posted about a wonderful tradition she includes in her Thanksgiving festivities.  It is such a cute idea! I may even steal the idea for our celebration this year!

What are some ways you prepare for and celebrate Thanksgiving?  I would love to hear!

Tomorrow, we will indulge our bellies with traditional Thanksgiving treats, our hearts with quality time as an extended family and my soul with having all three of my boys together in Florida for the first time since 2003.

To count all my blessings would take way more than one post, words that I don’t even know how to convey from my heart to this keyboard.

I pray that each and every one of you is experiencing a peaceful and grateful holiday.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love endures forever…in my anguish I cried to the Lord and He answered by setting me free…Open for me the gates of righteousness.  I will enter and give thanks to the Lord.  This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter.  I will give You thanks, for you answered me; You have become my salvation. ~taken from Psalms 118

Baskets overflowing with circles and sticks of sugar, awaiting little goblins and pumpkins {and the occasional Disney character} to partake.

Hand in hand with my love, handing out candy to little tykes and reminiscing of the days when our boys were small..and how we used to walk hand in hand behind three little dark haired boys as they rushed from house to house.

This night they are on their own with friends as we sit hand in hand and give out treats to neighborhood children A prelude of the years to come.

Bittersweet moments of raising teenagers, having embarked on the motherhood journey as a teenager myself.

and counting more gifts of which I am thankful (#21-30)

~smiles and giggles from Sweet Pea

~hugs from my big boys

~fall foliage

~Kay Arthur Bible studies

~dependable vehicles for all the living in the car moments I have lately

~my planner that keeps me sane

~familiar verses that comfort me

~daily devotions that speak straight to my core

~flannel sheets for cool autumn nights

~texts from my kids that say “I love you”

What are you thankful for?

People are often taken aback when I say that I am thankful for my illness.  There are many reasons that I feel that my MS diagnosis has been a blessing for me and my family.  I would have probably never slowed down and lived for the moment if not for MS.  I would not have been forced to deal with the deep-seated emotional issues I had spent my whole life holding in.  I would not have learned to let go of the small stuff and be (a tad) less controlling.

In the grand scheme of things our time on this earth is not about us.  It is about how we live our lives for God’s glory.  I spent a week or two really upset last month when I found out I also have systemic lupus. “It’s not fair” and “why me” came out of my mouth and my heart.  I was feeling very sorry for myself And then I remembered:  my trials and issues are really insignificant.  When you are able to step out of your pity party and look at the world around you, it is easy to see that I don’t have it so bad.  I have learned about the plight of chronically ill people in third world countries- hello?  How can I complain when they have no access to healthcare at all?  There are orphans in Eastern Europe that are institutionalized for life (just put in cribs at the age of four) simply because they have Down Syndrome.  Babies that are suffocated at birth because of deformities.

I think of how much this type of atrocity must pain our Lord.  How He must yearn for us to get out of our own little self absorbed box and find ways to help those that are less fortunate and more oppressed than we could ever imagine being.

What would the world be like if we all took an interest in other people’s problems rather than our own?  If we focused on loving everyone we come in contact with instead of trying to leverage situations for our own benefit?

I have been just as guilty as the rest of allowing myself to wallow in my trials.  But, the Lord is speaking to my heart so loudly lately, particularly through a passage in Isaiah 58:6-12

Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break over every yoke?  Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?  Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.  Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say:  Here am I.

If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday.

The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sunscorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Now, I don’t know about you but I am interested in feeling like a well watered garden and am thankful the Lord provides the guidelines for doing so.

And, in the midst of a season of thankfulness I pray that none of us lose sight of the true reason for the season!

Happy Thanksgiving!