Can I do it? With only 3 days left of this year, can I hit the 100 mark for counting my blessings? I love this question: “How do you open the eyes to see how to take the daily, domestic, workday vortex and invert it into a dome of an everyday cathedral?” and this quote: “I know what I want: to see deeply, to thank deeply, to feel joy deeply.” Loooove these lines in Ann Voskamp’s book “One Thousand Gifts”. I continue to be inspired to look for blessings in the smallest things and moments in my life. So here goes….

53.  I am thankful for my son’s confidence. The fact that he had uber enthusiasm to participate in “Weird & Whacky Day” at school and confidently walked out the front door looking like this……I am thankful. I am thankful that he has the creativity to turn a black tshirt into his bottoms, wear a pair of underwear on top of that, turn his shirt around backwards, wear pajama bottoms as his hat and mismatched soccer socks thigh-high. Wow! It was bold. It was daring. It spoke volumes of his confidence. I am thankful that he has not yet ever been scathed by the world of insults and I pray God will bolster his self-confidence throughout his growing years to even new levels so that he can always hold onto the bold confidence of who he is,  apart from what others think.

54. I am thankful that God has given Steve an incredible vision on how to build up and encourage the staff of his school. It’s the little things and big things he does that has created a phenomenal camaraderie, a work ethic of excellence and an amazingly unified staff that works to the good of the community. I am thankful for God’s infusion of His wisdom and creativity into Steve’s principal mindset. Ordering personalized zip hoodies, asking his mom to cook everyone a prime rib staff dinner, reading inspiring books….are just a few of the amazingly awesome ideas I’ve seen in action!

55. I am thankful for a daughter who is as silly as her Mama. I loooooooove that she’s kooky and funny and dramatic and willing to make silly, fun faces with her Mama in front of the camera. She and I have a special silly bond. I love that!

Mopey face 

Bothered face

Worried face

Happy face

Angry face

Thought bubbles “Mama you’re just so silly!”

56. For my little Van Gogh. Natalie is an artist at heart. She loves, loves, loves to paint and draw! She loves to work with acrylic paint, pastels, water color, crayons, markers, you name it. One morning she felt inspired to make a painting for Tante Mitzi, my sister. When we looked at it she said she was trying to be like Van Gogh. Immediately my mom asked her if it was inspired by Starry Night. Natalie nodded her head enthusiastically- thrilled it had been recognized. I ran outside to our car to grab the book we had just picked up at the “free” table at their school. Ohhhhhh my goodness!!!! She had indeed painted Starry Night! But here’s the thing- she had painted it before we picked up this book!!!! She painted it from memory! A couple weeks prior she had watched a BrainPop video on van Gogh and then watched Jacob put together a PowerPoint presentation for his classmates all about vanGogh. She remembered it!!! I was speechless. My heart overflows with thanks for this gift and talent God has given her.

57. Starbucks Mocha.  A happy drink. A rich treat. Thankful for that yumminess and how much better it tastes than coffeepot coffee.

58. The Butchers. This family makes my heart happy. Lots of history with these fabulous folks! And they hold ‘hopefully never’ the future of our children in their hands as our family’s appointed guardians. Love it though that I can rest assured that if, God forbid, anything awful happened to both Steve and I, that Jacob and Natalie would grow up with these very solid people to call mom and dad. Hopefully that day will never come and instead we can be two families happily living life with each other! This picture of their family just melts my heart!

59. Thankful I have a sister. Thankful that Natalie has her genes for gorgeous hair. Thankful that we had a recent visit with her. Thankful that she and I can pick up wherever we last left off. Thankful that she’s as meticulous and logistics-minded as I am. Thankful we share our background and stories of growing up together. Thankful that we had such a good time together that my heart was sad and missed her when she left to go back to Portland.

60. Thankful for my “Venn Diagram Friends”! Loved it that Marti, Heidi and I showed up to school wearing similar colors. Marti was all in green. Heidi was all in purple. And I had both green and purple on. So, together, we were the Venn Diagram and I was the overlapping part of the two circles. Is that nerdy or what?! So awesomely reflective about our academic nature and how much we’ve helped each other search for great ideas and challenge our kiddos with great academic work! These are incredibly special friends of mine who I am very thankful for that I met at DVIA!!!