Counting my Blessings...

I'll be trying to continue linking up with my friend Aurie's Counting Your Blessing link-up.  I really love the opportunity to stop and remind myself of the blessings in each week, both small and large.

http://www.ourgoodfamily.org/2014/01/counting-blessings-even-in-the-messy/


Here are some of the things that I am thankful for lately....

I'm thankful for Cole's headphones that I snagged second hand after a horrible episode with Cole at the movies .... they enabled us to enjoy the fireworks on NYE with no meltdowns due to the noise.  He absolutely loved them and Summer thinks they are like glitter in the sky.  He also likes to go to the movies now! 

I'm thankful that in a year when there weren't many presents under the tree that the kids had realistic expectations of what Santa could bring and that they were actually more excited about the little crafty gifts that we made to give out to our family.  They continued by making pictures and books, whatever they could find and wrapping it up to give to people.  It warmed my heart and reminded me that gifts don't have to cost a lot to mean a lot. 

Gifts that the kids made for us at school

Salt dough ornaments that we made for our family members

I'm thankful that I got a nice review from my boss this year.  Sometimes I feel that I have so many hats that I'm never quite doing a good enough job at anything.  I'm not being a good enough worker, mother, wife, house keeper, friend and the list goes on and on.  In a year that I've made schedule adjustments at work because I felt that I needed to be home earlier for our new kindergarten, homework, activity schedule, it was nice to hear that I was appreciated as a hard worker. 

I'm thankful for an awesome movie date today with my kiddos and my sister-in-law.  We went to see Frozen (which the kids saw while I was away last month), which I thought was an amazing movie!  Very well done!  And we saw it in these amazing recliners!  So we got in some nice cuddle time while watching! 

Mother Nature has certainly thrown us a few curve balls in the last month or so, but so far we've made it through and had some fun playing in the snow when we can.  The kids have already had 3 snow days from school and we still have A LOT of winter left!  Yesterday was a real doozy!  Jim and I both left for work and didn't make it very far from home due to the freezing rain that quickly coated the roads with a layer of shimmery ice.  We both decided to turn around and come back home until the temperatures increased and the ice melted. There were 71 recorded traffic accidents in our township alone!  So thankful that we weren't in any of them! I am bummed that this made me miss my appointment with the orthopedic doctor and his next available appointment isn't for 2 weeks!  But I'll take it as a sign that I needed some more time in the boot.  What's another 2 weeks after 8... right??