Here we are. It’s the last day of November which means the 2010 Gratitude Challenge is concluding. Today I am grateful for Brenda at Garden of Learning for hosting this wonderful meme.  I already knew that I was going to blog daily, but appreciated the ability to have at least one post per day that [Read On]

Today I am thankful that the Liturgical Year has begun with the start of Advent yesterday. I took some time yesterday evening to dig out the Advent wreath so we can participate in that tradition of prayer while counting down to Christmas. I am also planning to attend a parish wide Advent night of reflection [Read On]

Have you looked at the calendar lately? Thanksgiving Day has past and everywhere you look preparations are being made for Christmas. Today I am thankful for all the great “Black Friday” sales.  In the past, I rarely went to stores beyond Walgreens or Staples as the crowds were a big deterrent.  Nothing says pending disaster [Read On]

Today I am thankful for the library! We love to read in this house and could never afford to buy all the books we read.  The same goes for videos and even CDs.  Therefore, I consider ourselves to be quite blessed to have lived in locations with good library systems where we can borrow so [Read On]

Today I am thankful for snow! Okay, I’ll admit that I am NOT the biggest lover of winter weather. But, if I’m going to live in a climate where winter abounds, I much prefer snow to ice. And, ice is what we had Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday up here in Alaska. Yep, it warmed up [Read On]

Today I am thankful for our holiday of Thanksgiving. Spending time with friends and family while remembering all the blessings we have been given is awesome.  This year we are going to a big Thanksgiving Day celebration hosted by one of Stephen’s co-workers.  Everyone is bringing dishes to share and even Stephen’s boss and his [Read On]

Today I am thankful for digital cameras and video recorders. I honestly do not even use them to their full potential.  And, I do need to do more with them, besides posting here on the blog. But, I love that no film is ‘wasted’ with bad shots.  Instead, they can just be deleted so room [Read On]

Today I am thankful for baby smiles and little boy hugs. Sadly, I do not get many from my older boys anymore.  They are just ‘too old’ for that.  And, I almost need an invisibility cloak if I want to actually capture evidence that they ever smiled or showed love towards another.  Well… they might [Read On]

Today I am thankful to have no where I HAVE to go. This might seem to overlap with other gratitude challenge posts this month, specifically that I am thankful to be a stay at home mom. But, today this is timely as I was woken up by Mr. O sharing the news of freezing rain [Read On]

Today I am thankful for music! Listening to a good tune can be pleasurable and uplifting for the spirit.  Singing along can amplify those feelings. Playing the tune as well is wonderful blessing. I am so looking forward to utilizing the digital piano for my ‘fix’ of carols this holiday season.  I am thankful that [Read On]

Today I am thankful for online banking and bill paying! Mr. O is still a little skeptical about the whole process, but I have to say it is great to have the ability to either pre-schedule a payment, check on a balance or make a payment on the due date and not get a late [Read On]

As Thanksgiving gets closer, things seem to be getting crazier. So, here’s my latest category of things I appreciated having in my life. Today I am thankful for inventions and technology that make life a little bit easier. Anything from toilets so we don’t have to personally cart out our waste (which some in the [Read On]

Today I am grateful for homeschool groups! Since we began homeschooling in 2007, we have joined different support groups near where we lived. Some have been formal with leadership and dues. Others have been rather informal with a Yahoo group for people to connect and share upcoming events. In Ohio, there was a group of [Read On]

  Day 14 of the gratitude challenge and I am already struggling with which things I should share. After all, if I really spend much time thinking about it, there are millions of things for which I should be thankful. Part of the difficulty with this gratitude challenge is that some things seem so trivial [Read On]

Today I am grateful for my Nutrimill and Bosch mixer, purchased from Wholy Living up here in Alaska. We have made homemade bread for years using a bread machine.  I’m on my third bread machine. The 1st one died a few years back, the 2nd one was gifted to my sister in MD when I [Read On]

Another Friday and the start of the weekend beckons.   I’m also feeling a need to be more creative on my gratitude posts as so many blogging buddies have similar things for which they are thankful.  While great minds could be said to think alike, I like some originality at times, too. Today I am thankful [Read On]

Today we celebrate Veteran’s Day in the United States. Guess what I’m thankful for today?? I am grateful for all the men and women who have served, are serving, or will serve in the military.  Without them, I doubt that our country would be the great place to live that it is. My first introduction [Read On]

  I can’t believe that we are already to the 10th day of November.  Time sure flies by quickly some times! Today I am thankful for having a teenager in the house! What?  Have I lost my mind? Granted, there are days when his attitude really stinks and I long for the younger boy.  Less [Read On]

Time for another Gratitude Challenge post as it’s day 9. Today I am grateful that I can stay home with my boys. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, until we had been in Ohio for about 2 years I was working part time to close the gap between living expenses and hubby’s income.  Once his [Read On]

Today we start the second week of gratitude, specifically day 8. My item for gratitude is that my husband is blessed with a good job. He has steady employment at a pay level that allows us to keep from accumulating debt just from basic living needs.  Occasionally, we even get some things from our wants. [Read On]

It’s Thursday, November 4th and the 4th day of the gratitude challenge. Over the summer, Little D had a stretch of high fevers with no known cause that resulted in a heart murmur ‘appearing.’  While I’m still unhappy about the expense to see the pediatric cardiologist, I am so glad that the murmur is functional [Read On]

It’s Wednesday, November 3rd and day 3 in the challenge. After seeing all the posts yesterday about being grateful we can elect our leaders through peaceful voting, I felt like my planned post for gratitude went poof. Yes, I do want to avoid looking like a copy cat. For the record, I did vote yesterday as [Read On]

Late last week, I noticed a few TOS Homeschool Crewmates posting about an upcoming Gratitude Challenge.  Brenda, our vendor liason for the TOS Homeschool Crew, is hosting this on her blog, Garden of Learning. You can read about the challenge here.  But, in a nutshell, the bloggers participating are supposed to post one thing each [Read On]