November 12

Beau and I are on a little trip...not a romantic get away, not a for fun get away, not a business get away...
a family friends needs us to walk beside them while their almost 10 year old daughter is having major surgery....
pray for our friends today...
pray for their brave daughter as she goes in this morning for a life changing surgery.
pray for her parents, that wish with all their hearts that it was them and not their baby.
pray for the doctors.
pray for us as we comfort and pray with them today.

1}  Thankful for healthy kids.
2}  Thankful for doctors.
3}  Thankful that my God is the great physician!

November 11

yeah, posting a day late...

1}  Thankful for our church, our pastors, the body of believers.

2}  Thankful for our veterans.  All the men and women that have served our country, in war and in peace.  Those that have died, those that are lost & not yet found, those that were wounded, those that have been changed forever by what they have done to keep our country free.  Thanks!  

3}  Thankful for road trips with my husband.

I have so much more to say on all of these...they all deserve their own day, their own post...but it's what I was thankful for yesterday...

November 10

1}  I'm thankful for my mother...it's her birthday today....  I'm thankful that she never worried about being my friend when I was a child, she was my mother!  And because of that we are friends today.  I'm thankful that we talk multiple times a week.  I'm thankful for her faith in God and her prayers for my life.  I'm thankful for her love of my children and my husband.

my parents with my kids...
it's an old picture...maybe 2 1/2 years ago?

2}  I'm thankful for my father...it's also a birthday for him...happy birthday to the Marine Corps.  I'm thankful for a father that fought and returned from Vietnam.  Thank you Dad for your service.  I'm thankful for the patriotism that you raised me with.  Thankful that because of people like my father that willingly enlist others have the choice not too.  {can NOT imagine living n a country where my son and daughter would HAVE to serve!}

and totally unrelated...
3}  I'm thankful for laundry...that's my way of trying to be grateful...I have loads to do today and I'm thankful that my family and I have plenty of clothes to wear & that I have a washer and dryer to wash them with!

November 9

1}  I'm thankful for our home.  We're renters...we've been owners, and now we rent.  It was some hard choices that led us to that decision. {I blogged about it here}  But 18+ months later, I am so thankful.  I really love our house...its home.  It's cozy and clean, and not falling down around us. I'm so very thankful for this home.

girl child mowing our lawn!

2}  I'm thankful for a garage.  This is the first house I've lived in {E.V.E.R!} with a functioning garage. And I LOVE it.  I love that on cold, frosty mornings...like this morning...I can walk into the garage, get in my van and drive away, no scrapping of windows this morning....  that filled me with Thanks.

3}  I'm thankful for Friday's.  It's our day off.  Beau works Sunday-Thursday's...and depending on my work load and how the rest of my week went {if I took a day off with a sick kid, or to go on a field trip, etc} I usually have Friday's off as well.  It's nice that we get this day off together with the kids still at school.  Seriously, I'm married to him, I work with him {we share an office}, we usually eat lunch together, and we have these special Friday's off together...  We have tried in the past to make special days of the month for a date night...but now we realize...we have lunches and every Friday together...we are almost on one continuous date!

November 8

1}  I'm thankful for our parents and their marriages.

my parents @ our wedding

my in-laws @ our wedding

I think it may be a rarity that both sets of our parents are still married.  Both got married young and in an age when divorce was pretty normal our parents stayed the course and are still married.  I'm sure their marriages haven't been smooth sailing, but they love each other, have grown together, and love God.  Both my parents and my in-laws marriage have taught Beau and I things about marriage, commitment, and love.  Their legacy of marriage is something I am deeply thankful for.  My children see marriage as the norm, they see commitment as the option, not quitting.  I know many marriages end today because one or both parties just don't 'feel' it...they made a promise, they need to sit down and communicate and work it out, especially if they have children.  If you fall out of love...DEAL...and then try your hardest to fall back in love!  I'm sorry, that's my opinion.  I'm sure there were times in both our parents marriages that it got tough, that they may have considered not sticking it out...but I'm thankful they did our marriage is stronger because of their commitment and our children have a better chance at having strong marriages because of our parents choices!  

disclaimer:  I think divorce is the answer to SOME marriages {the 3 A's Abuse, Adultery, Addiction}

2}  I'm thankful for my family...mom, dad and sister.

family Christmas pic, cira 1984,
I'm in front holding the cat.

My parents were amazing parents to my passionate personality.  They didn't control me, they taught me to control myself.  They reinforced over and over that I was responsible for the choices that I made, that I had free will, and I would have consequences if I broke the rules!  And BOY did I have consequences...but I'm thankful for those lessons learned at a young age because life consequences for bad choices {sin} at the age of 10 is way  better than life consequences for sin at the age of 16...18...21...  Their parenting taught me responsibility for myself and helped guide my life to where it is today.

3}  I'm thankful for my in-laws.  I am 100% totally blessed with great in-laws.  Those 'mother-in-law' jokes don't make sense in my world.  I have a mother-in-law that I love, who raised a great son, who loves my children and who only gives her advice with love and tenderness.  The rest of them are great too.  I also really appreciate my sister-in-law, she's an amazing aunt to our kids.  Both my mother-&-sister-in-law have taught me how to be a better wife and mother and I am so very grateful for them.  I personally think the Chambers Men marry amazing women!

a shot with the in-laws 2010...
we all look younger now, except the kids are all older

And this is posting a day late...I wrote it yesterday, but forgot to post...

November 7th

1}  I'm thankful for my Jesus being the same yesterday, today and forever. {Hebrews 13:8}

That verse was on the wall of our polling place, that happened to be a church, the boy child pointed it out when we got to the car...wish I would have seen it and taken a picture...
he said, "did you see what was painted on the wall in there?  It said Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever Hebrews something!"....
it's such a reassuring thing to know!  No matter who and what you voted for yesterday, {or even if you didn't vote}...no matter who won or didn't win, no matter what props passed or didn't pass.  Our Jesus Christ is never changing!  Amen...thanks boy child for being observant of the things around you!

2}  I'm thankful that we live in a country that says my children, and every child, have the right to learn!  My lower middle class children, boy & girl...both deserve an education!  I don't think I thought much about my right to learn as a child or even until I had my our children.  But it is such a blessing that not only do they offer an education to my children, it's the law that they MUST learn!  If I choose to not send them to a public or private school, I need to prove to the government that I would be teaching them in my home!  That's crazy awesome!

3}  I'm thankful for my job.  I have a job I never dreamed I'd have.  I never once thought, "hey when I grown I want to work with kids!"...yep, not even once.  God did place it on my heart in high school and college that I might be in the ministry somehow, someway.  And now, not only am I as 'pastor's wife,' I also am the Early Childhood Director {in charge of birth-kindergarten} at our church.  It's such a great working environment...my boss is pretty HOT...and my boss's boss is a great man to work for.  The office staff are all amazing women.  And I have a job that works around my life.  I work while my kids are in school...I'm home when they're home, I can take days off for field trips, I volunteer in my son's class once a week, I can take them to piano lessons & volleyball games.  Sick kids, no problem...I get to be mom and take care of my kids.  And on the work side...I seriously love working with babies-kindergartners...they are great!  I love watching the things their little brains process through.  I love hearing their hearts when we talk about God!  I thankful that I get to play a part in them learning the language of God!

November 6

1}  I'm thankful that I am a woman living in the US in 2012.  Having degrees in History and Social Science I have read, studied and written papers about the struggles of women throughout history.  I also know women around the world today are still fighting for basic human rights.

2}  I'm thankful for the right to vote.  If you are not a white, property owning man you need to make sure you do not squander your right to vote.
{BLOG WARNING...History Nerd alert!}
We live in one of the free-est places in the world and yet a mere 50 years ago black men and women in certain parts of our country would face death when they headed to the polls.  The 15th Amendment passed in 1870 allowed black men to vote, so they had the federal law behind them, but they had to face state laws and angry mobs to cast their votes.

My grandmother was born before women had the right to vote, she was 16 when the 19th Amendment was added to our Constitution giving women the right to vote {passed in 1920...less than 100 years ago}.  I had the privileged of talking with her in 1999 about women voting {I didn't grow up near her}, I asked if she was excited to vote when she was old enough, her exact words that still shock me, "Nice girls just didn't do that!"...

3}  I'm thankful for clean, hot, running water.  What does that have to do with voting?  Nothing besides the fact that I can drink a glass of water before I go vote, I can even take one with me if I want, and I can take a hot shower before I go cast my vote today, and that is a privileged that those first women voters probably didn't have. {From Home Things Past:  Sears Roebuck was selling showers by 1915. By 1965 a study of one thousand American middle-class homes found that 85% had both a tub and a shower.}.  
And today, in the year 2012 780 million people on our planet lack access to clean water

I am so very thankful that I was blessed to be born in this country in this time.  And as a mother of a girl, I remind her often that she is very blessed.