The small things...

I am a simple person, a plain Jane if you will. I always tell the family it's the little things that make me happy and grateful. Waking up to my little smiling faces makes me happy. Catching my kids hugging each other when noone is looking. Watching the birds at the bird feeder enjoy the seed my son threw out to them. Listening to prayers at night and hearing them asking for blessings upon their pets. Discovering my husband mopped the floors just to be helpful. These little things grow the gratitude in my heart. Recently Blaise asked me to read him one more story at bedtime just to "spend more time" with me. I melted and of course consented. It's the little things...

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.
-Mother Teresa

Employees

Tony just let me know it is Employee Appreciation Day at work! He is thankful for all his co-workers and all the stuff they put up with!

TGIF

Thank goodness it is Friday! We made it thru the week...the kids are feeling better...Tony only has to work a "little" bit tomorrow....and the sun is shining right now!

Art

Imagine her surprise when she opened up her art book today and saw her activity for today. "this is perfect mommy"

Jan

Well the brain cells are on fire around here this morning. Everyone is thinking of what they can be thankful for. Collectively as a group we all mentioned grandma Connell at one time or another. She is so encouraging to the kids always sending them positive tidbits of mail and little things from garage sales. She keeps Tony on his toes by reminding him how to stay healthy and for me well she is faithful, humble, sweet and content. We love you grandma Jan and I know she would rather have me post a picture of a card she sent Julia then one of herself so here goes:

Laptop

Julia is still under the weather but has managed to come up with something she is thankful for. Her laptop. She loves to email her grandma Connell and her nana. She can write stories on it and do her school work as well!

Muscles

Benedict is thankful for the strong men in his life!

My faith

Emerson pondered all morning what she was thankful for and then piped up "I love my catholic faith" that was good enough for me.

Legomania

Blaise is thankful for his legos. He builds the biggest trucks and buildings. From morning until night this is where we find him constructing things.

Keurig K cup

Ok so this isn't an endorsement merely opinion. Today's attitude of gratitude stems from a week of little or no sleep. We seem to have a cold virus running thru the house and every night I have had one or more children wander in my room. This has resulted in a lack of sleep. If it was not for my Keurig ohh I don't know what I would do. I feel like I have my own little barista in my kitchen. I spin the carousel, pick a flavor, and get ready to face the day....

Hot Water Bottle

Tony is thankful for his hot water bottle. He has always had to use one to sleep. He has Never gone to sleep without one. It goes with him on trips and he recently bought a second one when kids started getting headaches too!

Naps

Benedict is thankful for naps and Mommy is too!

Soup

Julia's turn...she is thankful "that I have a good mother that makes me my favorite soup when I am sick"! Which she is sick today!

Tony

My turn....I am thankful for Tony. I am not normally a gusher but here goes: Thank you dear for going to work 6 days a week without complaining just so I can stay home. Thank you for always respecting our family values and faith and setting an example for the kids. Thank you for making me laugh when I don't feel like it and letting me cry when I want to! Most of all thank you for being respectful of me as your wife and never losing sight of what God has planned for our marriage.

Lily

I am thankful for my rabbit lily. God made her and she is mine to take care of.

An attitude of gratitude

The family every year makes a big turkey cut out and every morning we write on feathers what we are grateful for. By thanksgiving Tom turkey is filled with all our gratitude and it helps us to remember how blessed we are. This year Julia and Emerson requested that they get to post their thoughts of thankfulness with a picture instead. I thought we could change it up a bit too...so from now until thanksgiving we will be thinking of what we are truly thankful for. It will be nice to look back at end of month and see all the things, people, and ideas that we are gracious for! I told Blaise he can go first and I would help him! He told me he is thankful for Benedict because he is a boy! And because he gets a bunk bed now in his room!

Snail mail

Today in school Emerson will be learning the finer points of writing a friendly letter. When I gave her the heads up she sighed and said "but I don't know anyone's email address"! I realized a year ago I didn't have a cell phone, a consistent email address or a blog. I didn't want one as I felt the old fashioned method of a stamp and envelope was fine for me. Then Tony bought me an iPhone strictly for emergency use! Ha! I am a bona fide techie now! The art of snail mail will never die in our house though. I love writing to my grandmothers, girlfriend in Cleveland, and getting the homemade envelopes from my mother in law wondering what surprises she has sent. Emerson will learn the proper form of letter writing today. She will learn salutations and punctuation. Not because I expect when she is older that she will prefer to handwrite her notes or even afford the cost of a stamp! Simply because I think she should know how to compose thoughts with pencil and paper. Luckily God is easily accessible...could you imagine the postage on that letter?!?!? I know we are in trouble if she asks me his email address though!

Just a few more...

My mom gave me a few more from her side to remember and I also discovered I forgot some. So here goes and if you see a familiar name you may get nostalgic and want to submit a memory of that person.
John O'Green
Grace Clyde
Charles Clyde
Peter Connell
Roy Koppela
Shirley O'Green
Henry Wallace
Beulah Wallace
Betty Jane Robinette
John Koppela
Sophie Koppela
Pearl Knudsen
Ivy Christie

Prayer for poor souls

Julia wanted me to add her project from today. She made this poster for month of November and on each headstone we tried our best to write all names of the dead in both families. Julia has decided to offer up a sacrifice or do a good deed daily for each deceased person and then to pray for them.

"as a little child runs into arms of his mother, so we, at the time of death, run into the arms of Jesus."-St. Anselm

Emerson Reid Wallace

This was my mom's dad. He passed away when she was 18ish. He was a tall drink of water. I have often been told he was a very hard worker and a doting father. He was handsome and a true gentleman.