Thankful Thursday

We attended the funeral of Gary's grandma and I learned there that her motto was "In everything give thanks" and I think that really is behind what I am doing here, too. I'm not saying that life is one big party and I need to be thankful for every junky thing that happens BUT learning to look for the little items of gratefulness in each day does help my mental health. So, as per usual, here I am practicing my gratitude. Today I am thankful for:


1. Being able to watch Kai's basketball tournament. It meant an extra hour of driving on Tuesday (on top of the 2.5 hours I was already doing) but I'm so glad I went. I love seeing my kids use the bodies they were given to work hard and enjoy it. I did not love Nya saying she felt carsick on the freeway.

{I just like this picture because Nya is eating snacks and colouring and not even looking at the game for a second. Kai is #9 and headed to the net}

2. A friend being able to watch baby for us. Thank you to L for coming over and watching our sweetheart as we had to cross the border for our Nexus interviews and can't bring her across. Child care is one of the greatest stressors in my life. What would it be for you?

You're not allowed pictures inside the Nexus office so here Kai is outside of it.

3. Nya having great friends. She enjoys school and seems to have made a lot of wonderful connections. She is a bit of a social butterfly and really wants to be with people.

4. You. Thank you for checking in and reading over here. For real. It means that you care and I appreciate you taking the time to do that because there is a lot of information each day screaming for your attention.

5. Hockey. We had our last game and I will miss it so much. Thankful that I faced my fears of joining a sports team where I knew no one–so worth it! We were playing for third place and it went into overtime! We moved our strongest player from defense up to forward and her assist won us the game. So much fun. There is a chance I'll be able to play in the spring league but it will be wild with my two boys playing 2-3 times a week each as well. 

6. This Is Us. If you are to watch any show that I recommend, this is it. Clean. Wholesome. Real. It's like Parenthood if you ever watched that. Tears will flow. It covers topics like eating disorders, loss, adoption, fostering, sibling relationships. Love it.

7. Sunshine. On Super Bowl Sunday we had sunshine so Kai and I went to shoot some hoops together. We played HORSE and, um, I won. We may need a sports psychologist as I'm pretty rusty at it so it didn't do well for his self esteem. His ball handling skills are much better than mine though. Hands down.

8. Coffee. Each morning I down two black cups of coffee by 8:15 AM. Usually it ends up being chugged but it sets my day in motion. I am seriously grumpy before it. The boy standing is my daycare boy with permission to post photos otherwise I would not post photos of someone else's child.

9. Nya's new art station. She loves working upstairs in her "art studio" making creations for everyone in the family. I was looking for a nice bulletin board but we just went with an $8 one from Walmart which will do the trick for now. 

10. Gary making meals. He has usually done the weekend cooking but with life being too much for me right now (2-5 kids at all times and so much driving) he will make an extra 1-2 meals a week in the evenings. The meals he makes are awesome and more effort than I'm willing to put in.

All right, friends: What is something that you are thankful for today?

Love,

Louise