Thankful

I think this is about the longest I have gone with out doing a post on my blog.  There are many things I have wanted to blog about, I just have not made the time.  One of those, of course, was Thanksgiving.  We had a very wonderful and pretty much ideal Thanksgiving spent with family, good food, and relaxing.   I asked the kids to tell me some of the things for which they are most grateful.

String Cheese said:  My whole entire family, myself, and Jesus; my talents; that Jesus created this Earth; that I have a house; that I'm not an orphan; my clothes; very very thankful for all our prophets, and also the presidents of our country; the pilgrims and the Indians who were friendly to them; and the pioneers who crossed the plains.

Deedle said:  Food to eat; my clothes; myself; our brains; holidays; my house; my warm bed and warm blankets; the mountains; and nighttime.

Loumy said:  My toys; healthy food so we don't die; Heavenly Father so He can make us have our bodies; I'm glad you adopted me so I wouldn't die; my sisters; my brothers; my mom and dad; my friends; legs and arms and heads; stoplights; and headlights (he was giving me the list in the car, if you couldn't guess).

I am grateful for many things.  Right now I am particularly mindful and grateful for my good health.  It is such a blessing to be strong, capable, emotionally stable, and free from pain.   The photo below was taken 4 years ago at this time.  Loumy had just been sealed to us.  I was so happy.  You can't tell very well that I am still very yellow-skinned and -eyed from my months of colistatic jaundice after being hospitalized with Hep A.  I still could not eat much of anything other than saltines or chicken broth with out being in severe pain.  I lost my hair within a few weeks of this photo being taken.  Around that time I also began to spiral down into a deep and terrifying depression which was not controlled for about another year. 

 Four weeks ago I had strep throat that lasted an entire week.  I was good for seven days and then was hit with a stomach virus that wiped me out for another week.  My mom and sisters came and helped me out with Miles because for a few days I could hardly move out of bed and was getting dehydrated.  It brought back all kinds of frightening memories of the months of lying in bed in excruciating pain, unable to care for my home or my children.  I am grateful for all of the things I learned from going through those experiences, but ::whew:: am I HAPPY AND THANKFUL to be healthy and strong right now.  Thank you thank you thank you Heavenly Father!

And speaking of health, I am extra grateful for the blessings all of my children have had this year, but especially the health and strength that this little one has been blessed with.  What an extraordinary amount of blessings in just eight months time:

Along the same lines, still, I am grateful that Chancho's annual Thanksgiving football game with his brothers and friends did NOT end how it usually does.  They actually just finally decided they'd played along enough, rather than having to quit because somebody needed to be taken to the emergency room for a blown out knee or something like that.