I'm Thankful for Daughters Who Inspire Me to Record My Thankful Feelings!

My heart has been so full of gratitude that I am ashamed I have not taken the time to express my feelings.

• I'm grateful beyond words for three wonderful daughters who have grown into very amazing women and wives and mothers unequaled. I find great joy in being with them and feeling the love and respect they have for each other. They motivate me to do and be better.
• I am equally as grateful for a son who exceeds every desire we ever had for him. He is a man of great integrity, strength, and dedication to whatever he is called upon to do. He is a marvelous husband and father and a worthy priesthood holder.
• I am thankful for our sweet daughter-in-law, Sara, who is perfect for Matt in every way! She is our "4th" daughter and we are so grateful she graced our family with her through and through goodness! She, too, is the consummate mother. 
• I thank Heavenly Father regularly for three perfect sons-in-law who honor their priesthood and have the same goals and values as my daughters. They are amazing husbands and fathers and love me in spite of my quirks!
• I'm grateful for answers to fasting and prayer and a reaffirmation that Heavenly Father is there always, and in our extremities, opens the way for miracles to happen. 
• I'm so happy to have learned that even in what seem to be very small needs throughout the day that I can pray and receive answers on the spot! Like how to set a clock when the instructions have disappeared.
• I am thankful to have learned to trust Heavenly Father and my Savior completely...it has been years in the coming, but I think I'm there! 
• I'm so grateful that my sweet mother-in-law is experiencing peace and feeling love in her life again after so many months of misery.
• I'm thankful for a wonderful stake conference that renewed me spiritually and motivated me to set goals for myself again.
• I'm grateful for a husband who loves and respects me and expresses his love and appreciation every day. I'm thankful he takes his calling very seriously and though it weighs him down at times, is determined to do it in the Lord's way believing the promises that lives will be blessed in the process, including our own. I'm even more grateful for people who take the time to express how thankful they are for him and how much they love and appreciate council from Heavenly Father through him that has bettered their lives.
• I'm grateful for impending conference visitors that gave me the motivation to deep-clean my whole upstairs. I am so happy and feel so renewed! I'm also grateful for Greg who helped me in that process with heavy tasks I could not accomplish by myself!
• I am grateful for new friendships formed with those wonderful conference visitors from Salt Lake and their acceptance of us even after I answered the door in my grubbies and bedhead! Word to the wise...get up and ready for the day before you do your last minute chores. Your company might arrive a couple of hours early!
• I am thankful for my sweet Mom whom I enjoy being with so much. She is delightful, funny, social, and adaptive! She loves her new life in the retirement center and has taught me so much about just taking life as it comes and trusting Heavenly Father that He truly knows what is best for us.
• Can I say how much I love my warm, peaceful, beautiful home? I hope to stay here for the rest of our earthly lives! 
• I'm thankful for General Conference and technology that allows me to listen to talks during the day.
• I'm grateful for the Tabernacle Choir and the 150 songs I have recorded on my IPOD that I can set in the morning to play all day long. Their music calms me and brings me peace!
• I'm thankful for 17 perfect little grandkids! In just the last couple of days, I am thankful for a little Porter and Kaleb who ran out to the car to greet me and give me hugs and kisses and for a little Kami who came out barefoot in the cold to welcome me as well. I'm thankful for my little Cannon who asked if he could call me and then told me all about his Iron Man costume! I'm thankful for a long conversation with sweet Regan and her challenges at school and for wonderful Todd who turns 13 today.
• I'm thankful for a friend who gave me a box of beautiful Jonathan apples that I must now go make into applesauce!
• I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon that gives me clarity and understanding and helps me understand what I need to do to become more like the Savior.  I love Greg for desiring to read it and pray together every day.
• I love that families are the center of Heavenly Father's divine plan for His children and I am grateful for mine. I am so richly blessed!

Today's Gratitude List

So many specific things for which to be thankful:
 

                                  View from our front window this morning

• Being able to be at home especially on days like today when it is snowing and blowing and cold!
• Greg who goes to work even on these nasty days and is happy I get to stay home!
• A big picture window where I can stand and stare at the beauties outside without getting even a tiny bit cold!
• My kids blogs where I can read all the cute things our grandkids say! They put and keep a smile on our faces! 
• The fact that I am in the GRANDMA phase of life. I love it so much!
• My Bosch mixer that I use almost every day of my life!
• My new sewing machine that I am enjoying so much.
• Energy again!
• A new MS drug to try.
• Our new (to us) 2007 Toyota Avalon provided by Greg's company for our driving convenience.
• The heated (and cooled) seats in said car. A definite "old fogey" feature I hope never to be without. Yes, I am spoiled!
• Skype and the opportunity to visit with our Florida kids and grandkids last night! It was as if I could reach out and touch little Eva, our newest! Love technology (when used for good)!
• A husband who still calls the two of us together for FHE on Monday nights. Love the Old Testament lessons we've been studying.
• Grapefruit! Love wintertime for good oranges and grapefruit!
• Looking for and finding the perfect Christmas gift for each of our 17 grandkids and all four of our children and their spouses.  There is something that is so much fun in this for both Greg and me! (And we do appreciate those little helps from our kids in our quest for those "just right" gifts!)
• Electricity! 
• My camera!
• Everything I need to make and keep me happy...family and the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

My General and Long-Overdue Thankful List

In no particular order:

1. Peace in my life.
2. My husband who gives his all to caring for me and our family, and who seeks the spirit constantly to fulfill his calling. That spirit blesses our relationship.
3. The ability to get out of bed and walk every day.
4. Snow for the holidays. I have so enjoyed just standing at the window and watching the snow fall (and fall!)
5. Thanksgiving and the opportunity to be with our kids and grandkids and extended family.
6. My Mom whom I love and look up to more than words can express. I don't want a day to go by that I don't let her know how much she means to me. I want to be just like her when I grow up.
7. My Dad whom I miss more and appreciate more every day that goes by. He has been gone for nearly 6 years now and you'd think it would get easier but in actuality, it is just the opposite. However, the Plan of Salvation and knowledge that I will be able to hug and kiss my Dad again makes me so grateful! I'm so thankful my Mom also understands and gains her strength to go on from this same knowledge.
8.  Greg's Mom and Dad whom I love like my own and admire for reasons too numerous to mention. They are a constant source of inspiration.
9. Precious little grandchildren who light up our lives with the adorable things they say and do. They bring so much love into our lives.
10. My Sunday School class...great kids who want to learn and apply the gospel and do a great job of it (and also make me laugh).
11. The holidays and the heightened opportunity to think of and do for others.
12. My Savior, Jesus Christ, who suffered for me and asks so little in return.
13. A wonderful friend named Mooney who provides me the opportunity to read and study the Book of Mormon with her each day...and for her realization that Heavenly Father's Plan of Salvation is for EVERYONE...and for her being willing to try a new way of living...and for  her acknowledging the Source of the changes for good she is seeing in her own life and that of her family. I love her with all my heart.
14. Priesthood blessings.
15. My husband's steady employment and that of our son and sons-in-law in these unsettled times.
16. The safe arrival of our newest little grandchild and technology that allows us to be a part of her life until we can travel to see her.
17. The scriptures that teach me many things, but one over-arching truth: Because Heavenly Father and Christ's only purposes are to bring us safely home to them, there is eternal safety in obedience to ALL they ask us to do. Therefore, I will do my best to do just that.
18. A warm home on these blustery cold days. I hope and pray that no one in our sphere of influence is without shelter and enough to eat.
19. Two necessary surgeries behind me!
20. Great friends and peaceful, friendly neighborhood in which to live.

Gone for a Week and Still Thankful!

We've been to Sun Valley and then to our Jackson condo this last week...no computer! But I'm back and more thankful than ever for....

• Our precious little Brigham who is evidence every day that miracles still occur and our loving Heavenly Father has blessed this world with amazing medical knowledge and expertise to bless His children according to His will.
• Time spent with Lori, Brad and beautiful children in Jackson.
• Time spent watching Regan play basketball yesterday and the joy of knowing she really wanted us to be there.
• Greg's wonderful job and great people with whom to associate.
  
• Common sense.
• A most amazingly beautiful world to enjoy and each of its seasons that renews and refreshes me.
  
• A knowledge that Heavenly Father is still "in charge". That brings me great solace.
• A company car to drive with no expenditures except taxes on it.
• A dependable truck with 4-wheel drive for the snowstorms.
• The snowstorms and moisture they bring.
• Being able to travel and then experience the joy of coming home!
• My nice warm, peaceful home and an awareness of and ability to give to those less fortunate.
  
• Knowing Matt and Sara and kids are coming home in a month!
  
• My husband who willingly shops with me and for me!
  
• My husband who willingly helped me finish my craft project.
• The book called "Covenant Hearts" by Bruce and Marie Hafen.
• The book called "Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants" by Steven Harper.
  
• The opportunity to go to Park Valley for Thanksgiving with Brent, Janet, Amy, Bill, Amber, Aubrey, Shaylee, Mom and Dad Rose, and my sweet Mom.
• The whole holiday season from Thanksgiving through Christmas. I love it!
• 24 new hours in every day.
• Repentance and the Atonement that makes it possible.
  
• Greg, Matt, Sara, Luke, Emma, Gavin, Lori, Brad, Todd, Kate, Jack, Cindy, DJ, Regan, Morgan, Jordyn, Kaleb, Porter, Kamryn, Julie, Stanton, Chloe, Lily, Brigham, and Cannon! (Whew!!!!!)
  
• Forever families! (No empty chairs!)