I don’t like leaving things unfinished, and I do it far more than I’d like to admit. My incomplete list of November thankfulness has nagged at the back of my mind for two months, and I am now afforded time to finish it for the unlikeliest of reasons: I am stuck in the hospital with Lewis, who has a stubborn skin infection. He is better in every way as I type this, except for one: his fever is gone, he is cheerful and eating full meals, but the rash still won’t go away, and so we spend another night here.
So it is a good time to count my blessings, and perhaps give a bit of an update while I do.
17. Grandparents far away. Trevor’s parents visited for Thanksgiving, and we had such a lovely time with them. I am so thankful that they are able to hop the pond as often as they do in order to stay so present in our kids’ lives.
18. Grandparents near. As I write this, my mom is putting ten of our kids to bed for the night in her two-bedroom house. This was the plan even before Lewis got sick, only Trevor and I were supposed to have a little mini “staycation” this weekend. We were thankful for the time together, even though we didn’t get to spend it quite as we expected.
Meanwhile, my dad came to our rescue last night when I left Trevor stranded at our Star Wars movie date to take Lewis to the ER. When I called to see if my dad might be able to go pick him up at around 10pm, his genuine response was, “Sure. That’ll give me something fun to do tonight.”
I have a good, good village.
19. Holidays. It was a special joy this year to have our schoolies home for a week over Christmas. Trevor had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but we still made time for family traditions once he had a few days off.
20. Sisters. My three all came to me in my teens. For a long time, they were fun little kids that I got to hang out with, but somewhere along the way they grew into beautiful women whom I am privileged to call dear friends as well as sisters.
21. Snow days. Love these, except for the 5 am wake-up call from the school to tell us about them. I miss the days of tuning in to AM radio!
22. My husband. You know you really love someone when even spending a day with them at the hospital bedside of a sick child brings you joy. (And you know your life is a little crazy if doing that feels almost like a date!)
23. Music. I love the role that good Christian music has in steering our hearts toward the Lord and instructing our minds. Over the years, we have loved memorizing scripture using the Sing the Word series by the Harrow family. We love singing hymns and worship songs from church in the van as well. These become the songs that get stuck in our heads and that we hum around the house as we do our chores. They work their way into our souls and fill us up with truth.
In particular, I am excited about this new album we bought right before Christmas. This is the second book of the Bible paraphrased and set to music by a group called Psallos (the first, Romans, is also phenomenal). We waited for the release of Hebrews for a long time, and it has not disappointed. It has deepened my appreciation for what Christ did in presenting Himself as the final “once for all” sacrifice to pay the debt for my sin, not to mention the music is just beautiful.
Since Thanksgiving was on the 23rd, I will end my list there, though I could certainly go on! My boy has finally drifted off in the bed next to me, and I should follow him sooner rather than later.
Happy New (ish) Year to you all!