thankful, day 11

today i am thankful for the freedoms that we have as Americans, and thankful for the men and women who have served in the military to defend those freedoms. i pray that the Lord heals our nation and turns hearts to Him, but until then i pray that we have the right attitude that God calls us to.

^{1 Peter 2: 13-17 
13} Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, ¹⁴ or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. ¹⁵ For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. ¹⁶ Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants^[d] of God. ¹⁷ Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

thankful, day 10

i am thankful for the friends and community we have been blessed with. we try not to take for granted the way we are served and encouraged on a daily basis by the the people God has put in our lives here in Kentucky. so thankful.

thankful, day 9

i am thankful that our first family camping trip last month was a success (minus jesse's nasty cold that kept him up all night). the kids had a blast and were sad to leave the campsite. that gives me hope for future camping trips with our family. :)

thankful, day 8

i am thankful for our small group. a collection of people who lived relatively close together for 5 years and didn't know it. i am thankful for the friendships that have developed since the start of our group, a little over a year ago. i am thankful for the encouragement, prayers, and serving that happen amongst us.

thankful, day 7

i am so thankful for melissa's tortellini soup recipe. since i have been making it for the last 2 years, it has been a wonderful, tasty, amazing addition to my soup rotation during the cold months. and bonus points for being a recipe that everyone in my family loves to eat.

thank you, melissa! i owe you.

(so thrilled to find this photo i took almost exactly 2 years ago)

thankful, day 6

i am thankful today for a fairly inexpensive trip to the mechanic. everyone panics when the "maintenance required" light comes on in their car. as my friend put it, "when that light comes on, you just see dollar signs."*

today i was thankful to find out that the message popped up for a simple oil change. i am thankful it was just $30 and not $300!

*shout out to Katie for the great quote! :)

thankful, day 5

i am thankful that Jacob had a day off of school today. i enjoyed having him around (although it does seem to make a lot more work for me :) ). we spent the morning babysitting and in the afternoon we took a special treat trip to the Lego store for their free monthly build event. we drove 30 minutes, waited in line for 90 minutes (doing homework, watching tractor videos on the ipod, jumping out of line for potty breaks) and 55 minutes in traffic on the way home....all for a free tractor mini-model that we got to build in the store. ok, we actually go 2 of them :) but in the end, it was all worth it. a fun afternoon spending time with my kiddos...priceless.