Thursday Thanks Tank

I found this on Without Fear's blog and I was so taken with it. You can read her Thursday Thanks Tank and other's on her blog. What better way in the world is there than to devote an entire day to nothing but thanks to our incredibly wonderful Saviour and what He has so freely given me and my family...and then of, course, devote the rest of it to whatever mess happened to be made that day too!!! I am quite sure there is a way to give thanks and still bemoan all of the crap that surely had to be cleaned up that day too....all while loving and appreciating the fact I have my sweet children to create the messes.

Since it is now 2 am and I am just now beginning to write this I will make it short and sweet....but no less meaningful. Since I have backslidden in my efforts of rising at 5am I have seen the difference in my days of those that are spent quietly in the morning hours and those where I have awakened to children already up and digging into crap.......and lots of it!!! This morning as I stayed nestled lazily under the thick warm heavy comforter and lay on my squishy, cloud-like down pillows I nursed my sweet baby. The cold, morning, autumn air blew through the open windows and I had absolutely no desire to actually face the cold house but rather stayed cozied up with my new sleeping tiny baby. But, as wonderfully dreamy as that sounds and as incredibly wonderful as it felt they, unknowingly to me, got into the frig and ate every single cup of pudding we had gotten as a treat at the grocery store on Monday. Usually I make our pudding and just divide it up into little Dixie cups and rubberband Saran Wrap on top........and after tasting the stuff at the store in pudding cups I know why I do that!!! We got the cheap Wal Mart stuff and to say that it was nasty is putting it painfully mildly.......but, on a side note to pudding cups, the Tapioca Jello brand is incredible despite the fact I haven't had it in years. Anyway, instead we bought a fun pudding treat already in cups. So, with a total of 12 cups they successfully devoured every one of them in one morning. Even Garrett got in on the action and, of course, thoroughly enjoyed it while successfully smearing it in his hair and all over his face and pj's.......and then lovingly fingerpainting me a wall mural with it. It was chocolate flavor, I might add.

So, all of that to say, I am now back to my routine of rising at 5:30 am and making it work....with a nap. And seeing as how it's now 2 am I really need to sleep so I'll actually be kind to my children come morning.

So, my top 10 greatest things to be thankful for this week are......

10. My bed......seriously. I think my love affair with it is a little too excessive at times but I truly love my bed. I love the quiet little afternoon moments when I can sneak off to sleep in the quiet of the day. I love looking forward to cuddling up in it at night after the day is done, the children have been tucked in.........the fun of just enjoying time spent with Brad in the quiet of the day buried within it. Or when he's on shift, the quiet peace of a sleeping house just sunggled in reading a good book. I wait for the day I have a wireless laptop and can write to my heart's content all buried within its comfort. The big huge king size that it is, the big heavy comforter, my allergy free Primaloft down pillows and the baby soft cotton sheets. And I'm thankful for the guy who invented the Primaloft down pillows. He is surely a blessed individual.

9. Our goats, donkey and dogs. As ridiculous as this sounds and as much responsibility that they are I love that we have been so entirely blessed to have been given the home and land in which we can have large living things with room to roam such as this. It is something we always dreamed of and I'm not sure I ever really expected it to ever come to fruition. I longed for these days and here we are living them, loving on lovable goats that have been spoiled into pets, and loving on dear Fletch that will lay his head on our shoulders in an effort to get as close as entirely possible. I love listening to him bray. It just never gets old.

8. My sewing machine. I finally took it out of the box and just look at it in admiration every day. It sits on my dresser waiting to be put in it's perfect spot....which I'm still working on....and used. It sits all shiny and new and just begs to be put to good use. I'm already envisioning blankets, fleece pj's for the boys, Christmas dresses for the girls and spring fabrics for church dresses. I never dreamed I would receive it for my birthday. I only asked for a gift card in an effort to aid in my sewing machine fund. Little did I know and how extremely blessed I was to receive the entire thing. I just love looking at it sitting over there so regally in it's new shiny state beckoning to create something from my imagination.

7. My love of organizing and keeping a clean house. I look at my still somewhat newly organized closet and it just makes me feel good everytime I have to go in there. Instead of the drudgery that it was I just feel a sense of total relief, purpose and functionality when I enter. There's not really any one moment I ever go in there that I'm not grateful for the fact that the Lord has blessed me with a gift to organize and a love of doing it. And when I enter some people's homes I wonder how in the world they cope. I love that I treasure a clean house. Now....clean is used loosely and relatively here since you can ask Mother on any given day and she will more than likely refute my clean house statement. But she knows I love her more than life itself and we are completely ok with each other's definition of "clean". But I feel blessed that I have been given all of these children and that the Lord also created in me before I was even born a love of organizing. Knowing ever turn my life would take and each and every baby He would give me He formed me from the womb with an insatiable desire to run a household effectively and efficiently. He knew 32 years ago when He created me that I would need to make our cozy little 3 bdrm home work with 7 children and 2 adults. And I am forever grateful that He has extended His grace and mercy to make it work.

6. My dear sweet family. A Dad that calls to check up when it's been too long, Jackie and Curtis and the way God has completely turned their life upside down in order to glorify Him and bring every bit of praise and honor to His name and their incredible 8 children and what a blessing they are to my kids. How wonderful it is for my children to have such sweet friends in their cousins. And Scott........how incredibly wonderful he is and how dearly much I love him and treasure his friendship....even though I still have to get past the girls falling all over him. It's still just gross to me to watch them drool. But seeing as how we look so very much alike I do reserve the right to say he's entirely good looking. And my dear old Granny. I'm entirely thankful she's still here. After having lived through the diagnosis of her cancer right after we moved and then watching Mother take care of her during her treatment has made me that much more aware of how incredibly blessed we are to still have her in our lives. And what a blessing it is for the children to be able to know their Great Granny. I never knew any of mine.

5. Mother. I don't know how in the world I would've made it through as much of life as I have without her. She is a daily inspiration to me. I love what God has given me and provided for me in her sweet friendship. I'm not sure many others are given the gift of being able to be best friends with their mom. I am so grateful that the children are able to have the relationship that they do with her. I love that the children have in her what Grandpa was to me. I love the fact that we have the same sense of humor and can laugh for hours at the same thing. And something I find hysterically funny and am in funny tears over she's finds just as amusing and funny. I love that she cries with me, prays with me, agrees with me, is content to agree to disagree on some things and loves me so very unconditionally. I hope I can be half of the mother to my children that she is to me.

4. My children. Of course, this would seem a given but it certainly holds no less value or meaning. I am so incredibly blessed to know of and personally know some moms that have tried for many years for children of their own and still their arms longingly wait and their rocking chairs sit empty, their houses all too quiet from the lack of any little voices laughing and playing or little feet pattering down the hall. Not only were we blessed not to ever have to endure any fertility issues but we have been given 7 children.......so much more than even just 1. I look at them and just stand in complete awe.........even as I sit thinking I might go crazy listening to them fight and argue or irritate each other to death. the honor bestowed upon me to raise these little lives and the fact that God felt like He could trust me to do this insane job and give me the responsibility of his crew is just mind blowing. It exceeds any task I have ever taken on in my entire life. But I know that He has empowered me to do this and to raise them up to do great and mighty things in His Kingdom and on behalf of Him. It just amazes me to think of who I am raising and what he will call them to do and what He has purposed for each one of their lives.

3. Brad. There are no words. I am just in awe over what I have been given in a husband. The Lord truly knew what I needed in every way. If it had been left up to me I surely would have screwed it all up. I had my sights set on someone else and Brad and I barely knew each other. We knew of each other and I had gone several places with him as a group of us carpooled. But that was about the extent of it. I had my sights set on someone else that I thought was the perfect husband and surely was who God had chosen...but in stepped Brad.....my sweet, loving rough around the edges Brad who just swept in unexpectedly and it all just happened without even much time to think. In fact, had I had time to think, our relationship would have never been. I was so obstinate and so set on not bringing a man back into my life, unless it was one specific one that I had in mind at the time, that I had purposed I would not even consider anyone. I refused to expose what I had at stake to any man. But here he came and it was not love at 1st sight.....but had it been I would've turned tail and ran. It was slow and he was everything I never knew I needed or wanted. He is truly God's most precious gift to me. I have learned to see in him the unconditional love the Lord has always had for me.....but that I never saw or could receive.

2. God's Provision for us. I have written so much about this lately that I don't feel any need to go into any detail about it. but suffice it to say, I am truly overwhelmed by His love and provision for our family when we walk in obedience to what He has called us to do. Seeing Him provide in such tangible, physical ways never ever in a lifetime grows old. Everytime He steps in, which is on a daily basis in our lives with Brad's income and our 7 little mouths to feed, is simply beyond comprehension to me. It is kind of like living out your dream every day of your life. I aspire to have the faith and utter trust of George Mueller and to be at a place where we watch Him work in such miraculous everyday ways. He has not let us down and He is only showing us more as we enter into the Holy Wild of complete and passionate abandonment to Him and the calling He has placed on our lives.

1. Freedom. Words can never express the gratefulness that is in my heart for the freedom that I have. Freedom from worrying about what others think of me anymore, freedom from the prison of myself, freedom from self centeredness and self focus and the ability to see the bigger picture. But most of all freedom to teach my children about the Love of Jesus Christ and the fact He painfully died on the cross in order to free us from ourselves. I love the fact that just this morning Grayson and Evye were talking and Grayson spoke of how painful it was for Him to be nailed up there and what He must have endured. And then Evye spoke up and said that He died to save us and had He not died then we would not have the hope that we do and the relationship that His Holy Spirit gives us. I love that my children can so freely be taught these things and we will not be imprisoned for it. I love that I can homeschool my children freely and not have to worry about my children being taken away from us, as a mother in Germany is having to live through. I love that I can look at them around my table everyday and teach them whatever the Lord lays on my heart and any Scripture that pertains to whatever character trait we need to work on at that time in their lives. I am forever thankful for the freedom I have been so incredibly given. Freedom.....it says it all in every way. There is no sweeter word.