gratitude day three, four, five......seventeen.

( I truly do not like to post without photos. I feel like people are just going to skip on by in their google reader. )

Anyhow, this gratitude has been on my mind everyday. And some days are hard. I feel like thinking "I'm grateful for the roof over my head" is empty and vague sometimes. Even though I am, of course.

day three: I'm grateful for my boys' easy going nature. I hear too many stories of stubborn, patience-stretching kids. too many. I am so thankful my guys don't scream at bed time, kick and fight at doctor visits and eat (almost) anything I put on their plates.

day four: I'm grateful for my husband's ridiculous work ethic and determination. He shows me everyday just how dedicated he is to taking care of us.

day five: I'm grateful for great yarn sales. Yes, yarn. because times are tightening all over and crocheting calms me. Making a gift for someone with my hands makes me infinitely happy.

day six, seven, eight: I'm grateful for the very different ways my three beautiful sisters-in-law make me look at things, the news things they open me up to. Should I try snowboarding? I need to laugh more. PBS is truly the best station on the TV. There's so much more I need to learn. And it's so good sometimes to walk around the mall with a pretzel and giggle at the odd poses of the mannequins.

day nine: I'm incredibly grateful for Christian radio.

day ten: I'm grateful I can still afford to buy a new book. Lord knows I have the best of intentions with the library.....

day eleven: I'm grateful for Pandora. it helps my husband to not kill me for playing the same iTunes play list over and over.( and over.)

day twelve: I'm grateful for my thrifty nature. a piece with a story, a memory, is worlds better to me than a brand new -thing- from the trendy store. I like to give it a little more love. I can have more fun spending a day out with ten dollars than you'd believe.

day thirteen: I'm grateful for stories, passed down from the last generation to the next

day fourteen: I'm grateful for the variety of my friends. Always another opinion. Another recipe. Another story. Always another shoulder.

day fifteen: I'm grateful for the few minutes of peace here and there that added up to me finishing The Book Thief today. Read it, it was really something else.

day sixteen: I'm grateful for tradition.

day seventeen: I'm grateful for impromptu tea parties.