Thanks

It's been just about a year since I started doing this regularly, and I thought a little reflection might be good.  The coincidence of it occurring around Thanksgiving is a happy and welcome thing.

First of all, I am grateful to my husband, Lee.  He's given me this enormous gift of our life and our family together, and he's stuck with us through every moment.  I would find it easy to disassociate myself if he had done so, but as we learned at our wedding, this is FOR-EV-ER (Thanks, Father Kevin!) and every day, he stands shoulder to shoulder with me.  Sometimes, it's a metaphoric shoulder-to-shoulder because we're all over the place, but of all the teams I participate on, this is my core team.  Us against it all.

I am grateful for my children, and for their health.  All my boys bring me different kinds of joy, each day.  Seeing lights in their eyes, and smiles on their faces - it just makes me feel right.  I know that the "health" part sounds strange, given the original purpose of this blog, but honestly, my sons are actually quite healthy.  I don't know how long Connor would have made it had he not been to otherwise healthy.  Even on days like the past week when he's congested and his only recourse to remove the congestion from his body is a violent upchucking, he's still solid in the germ department.  And his brothers fight on those lines with him.  They've never had anything more serious than a cold, except when Drew had walking pneumonia and even that didn't seem to do much except exhaust him.  He slept that off - not a lot of coughing or other complications.

I am grateful to my family.  It's likely that most of you know that I am a part of a large family, but for those of you who don't, well, I am.  We are now 11 strong (14 if you count the boyos) and each and any of them pick up the phone when I call.  Last week, when I had a stomach virus and Lee was away, my sister contacted me and offered to come cover me between when our nanny left and when they boys had to be in bed.  No hesitation, even though the last time she was around us and there was a stomach virus it walloped her.  My siblings and my parents accept my foibles and pigheadedness and remind me that inside is a good person working hard to get out.

I am grateful to my friends who let me vent about my ridiculous first world problems.  If I didn't have anyone to talk to, this would be a much more schizophrenic blog.

I am grateful to you online who read this.  Most of you I say I know, but there are people I've known for 75% of my life who read this, and with whom I am friends on facebook, and who I haven't seen or spoken to since 1991.  Really?  Why is that?  Why am I waiting for something electronic to connect me when the audience is there?  For the people who knew me when I was 9, 13, 16 - and FAR more pigheaded than I am now, and who didn't dismiss me as that annoying girl from school, I am truly grateful.  Your support here has reminded me that the world is not as cruel as we make it out to be.  You remind me that my community goes much further back than I ever imagined it would. 

So tomorrow, I will sit with most of my family, and break bread, and be happy, and give thanks.  I hope that each of you has a similarly warm and wonderful holiday.