Gratitude Gifts Today

 A whole week of November has trickled by and our lives are slowing as winter approaches.  The lamps glow golden as evening comes earlier, thanks to a change from daylight saving time, and the scents of comfort food waft through the house.  I like coming home and opening the door to smell what's cooking in the crockpot.   My life is full with blessings once again.

- beautiful weather lingering long

- excellent driving conditions on the roads

- watching the sun come up as I go to work

- an extra hour of sleep on Saturday night!

- baking cakes - carrot, pumpkin chocolate, walnut pear

- coming home with 1 slice of each kind left over

- Sunday night suppers with family around the table

- empty garden pots put away

- a beautiful cut lawn

- the stark beauty of empty trees

- pictures of places to visit like the Napa Valley

picture from a Food Lover's Odyssey

- time to do some browsing and thinking about gift giving

- reading children's classics like Little House On The Prairie again

- leftovers for lunch

- music to sing along to

- hugs from little grade one students

- current affairs discussions with tweens and their efforts to understand

- watching my husband work the land

- greeting each member of our church family as they came in

- coming to the Lord's table

- clean laundry filling the drawers

- seeing Blake play and laugh

- listening to Meadow's questions "why"

- Samuel walking back and forth through puddles (even if it's only via video camera)

- phone calls from Helayna

- Silas' laughter

- colors under my feet

- working with my sister and my niece in the kitchen

- opening jars of summer goodness

- stalks of wheat collected in a vase

- autumn candlelight

- warm apple pie

- red poppies and Remembrance Day

- praying for each of our children and their partners

- the saints in my life who have showed me how to love God and live my life as His child