After the rain....the rainbow

As I described in my last post - we had a pretty rocky couple of months.  However, I've learned to really look for my blessings during hardships.  There is always, always something to be thankful for. 

Here are just a *few* small things I've been grateful for -


I'm thankful for this beautiful world.  After Sheryl passed away, we were all in shock and Jason and I just needed to spend time in nature.  We headed up to our local mountains and spent an hour or so at a reservoir.  The next week while all my kids were in school, I put on some relaxing music and spent the morning walking through the Thanksgiving Point Gardens.  I shed some tears as I thought about Sheryl and her passing.  I also soaked in the beauty of the gardens, and was grateful for my time on earth.  I felt an overwhelming feeling of peace and gratitude.  I felt a strong impression that NOW is part of heaven.  Life right now is a blessing that should be lived to the fullest, not just endured. None of us know when our last breath will occur, so its so important to just cherish our life now - exactly as it is.  Time is too short to wish life away, waiting for the next big event in life.  Its too short to be jealous.  Its too short to be grumpy.  I'm trying my hardest to slow down and just appreciate life RIGHT now.   There is so much beauty all around us - we just have to look up once in a while. 

I'm grateful for family.  Moving out of state and loosing loved ones really puts life in perspective.  I cherish the times I get to spend with them so much more because our moments together are rare. 

Wesley took this picture of Chase and I, and it cracks me up 

I'm grateful for my kids, and that I can stay at home and make so many memories with them.  I love watching them experience life.  I love watching them grow, and learn and find their own passions.  They are wild and exhausting, but they bring me so much happiness. Even though our lives were being bombarded with trials and sadness, beautiful moments were still happening everyday.

The boy's school put on a fall festival, and even though it wasn't anything terribly exciting - I was so happy to be able to be there.  I feel like an old lady when I say this, but watching my kids embrace life is the best gift I could receive. 

I'm grateful for insurance and for remediation companies.  It has been a long process getting our house back in order after the flood, but it could have been a lot worse.  Even though it was a pain, in hind-sight everything actually went very smoothly and easily.  Sure, the carpet guy quit on us after ripping everything out and left us with a torn up basement.  However, the remediation company quickly hired a new carpet installer, and the restoration was only delayed by a week.  Sure, the garage guys forgot to install a few things on our garage, but after a quick phone call, they were back out within two days and had everything fixed.  I'm so thankful to have a working house again (for the moment) *knock on wood.*