thankful indeed

This week I've had lots of ups and downs. Maybe it comes with the territory. Moving, change, leaving a beloved house. There have just been lots of moments that I've been straight up crabby. The wind, the crazy country wind. That smell, that awful mysterious smell. The flies, the gigantic flies in huge abundance. The kitchen, the teeny-tiny kitchen with pretty much zilch counter space. There have been a bunch of things every day that make me feel down right mad.

But I know this to be true, whether I'm mad or crabby or not, I'm here. I'm going to be here. I live here. And here's the deal, I know I'm blessed. Maybe not with counter space or sweet smells, but I'm blessed. There are a million things every day I can be thankful for. In fact as I looked back over my week, here's what I found:

A happy evening, lit by warm sunshine and filled with lounging on the trampoline eating big juicy strawberries in between bounces.

Colors, flowers, lettuce. Things are growing here.

A picture of the landscape here taken by accident while holding my camera away from me, trying to adjust the settings.

Baby birds that hatched from their bright blue eggs. 

Our front porch adorned with ferns that the boys gave me for Mother's Day. To me, ferns are in summer what peonies are in spring.

William finally let me talk him out of his ripped, holey, smelly shoes and into these new ones. Yay!

And even though I grumble about the wind, I sure do love the way it blows through those blonde locks of his. 

The directions say it takes "48 hours" to build. It's not there yet, but it's getting there. Henry loves having a platform to stand on.

Sing this one:
These shoes are made for running, and that's just what they'll do,
tomorrow these shoes are gonna
run 13.2 (oops) 13.1 (forget the corny attempt at rhyme).
The Rockford 1/2 Marathon is tomorrow. I've been spending lots of time in my shoes trying to baby my shins.
It has been a very good week after all. I'm thankful for all of the things I have to be thankful for.