What are you thankful for?

Like many of you, we are preparing to travel to visit some family for Thanksgiving. I try to remind myself to give thanks for all my blessings and to praise God for all the gifts in my life. If you read my blog, you know that I am most thankful for my family. I could drone on and on about great the things in my life but thought I would post something different instead.

My daughter created a little booklet where she listed all the things she is thankful for. It is so sweet that I wanted to share it with you. I am writing it exactly as she did, misspellings and all. (Her school encourages the first-grade students to write phonetically.) I will put in parentheses the correct spelling in case you don't have your handy child-to-adult-language translation wheel.

This is what I am thankful for.
by E. Silver, 6 years old

I am thankful for
flowers and trees and buchess (bushes) and leaves and money.

I am thankful for
my mom and my dad and my family and food and drinks and frinds (friends).

I am thankful for
moives (movies) and music and love and God and Jeseus (Jesus) and crayons and mackers (markers).

I am thankful for
puzzles and Hannah Montana and Myly Cyris (Miley Cyrus) and the Joneis (Jonas) brothers.

I am thankful for
my brother and Santa closs (Claus) and the Easter bunny and my stuffed animels (animals).

I am thankful for
fredem (freedom) and rain and snow and sun and wind and clouds and books and light.

I couldn't have said it better myself except for the Hannah Montana stuff. Ya' gotta love the plug for Santa right before Christmas. We're not raising any dummies in this house, no sir!

All kidding aside, I am so touched that she is grateful for all the little things along with all the big things. I try to teach my kids to "stop and smell the roses" but sometimes as a mother, I never really know if the lesson has sunk in. Then on some random day during some random moment, they will surprise me by displaying one of my little gems of wisdom. It's those moments that carry me during the times when I feel like they-couldn't-possibly-be-my-children-because-they-are-acting-like-little-heathens. You know, those moments. Like yesterday when Jacob decided to launch his orange juice at the table next to us at the Cracker Barrel. Good times, y'all. Good times.

I digress.....

Happy Thanksgiving to you!