Thankful thinking

I meant to write this blog pre-Thanksgiving in the spirit of the holiday, but we've been so busy, it had to wait. I've been following the Steece's Pieces blog for awhile now. The author of the blog is Suz, mom to quads. Now having 4 babies comes with its challenges certainly, but she and her husband have such fantastic attitudes about everything and are just so grateful for their little ones and each other. Suz recently posted a blog about looking at the positive side of every situation. Be your own spin doctor, in the best sense, in other words. It's a matter of retraining your thinking.

For example, let's say you're not paying attention and you run out of gas. Well, the positive spin could be that you're thankful for having otherwise reliable transportation, that gas prices are about half of what they were a few months ago...and so on and so forth.

So I'll give it a try in the situation that I feel flustered because our house is a mess with boxes and I really want to feel settled. That's true and valid, sure, but I'm thankful for the fact that we have a beautiful house, got a great interest rate, the dogs have a backyard, and we're painting as we go so each room is what we want it to be.

Kind of interesting. I'll have to keep reminding myself to think this way.

So what am I thankful for this year? There's a lot for certain. It's been an eventful year and I'm very blessed in my life. I guess I can sum it up in one word, though it might sound kind of cheesy I suppose: Love. I have so many people in my life that I love and I am loved in return. Love gives things value. Yes, I could say I'm thankful for our new house, but it's love that makes it mean something. I get to share it with my husband, our dogs, as well as our family and friends when they come to visit.

There are so many things wrapped up in that word, including individual people, but I'll leave it at that. Love, in all its forms, is what I'm thankful for this year.