hands

I'm grateful for my hands. I was doing the dishes last night and as I was washing Emma's bottles I realized that there are a lot of things that I do each day that require my hands (and fingers). I am grateful that I have 10 fingers, that each work properly (most of the time) that allow me to do so many things. I can cook, and clean (not so grateful about that part, but hey... whatcha gonna do?), play the piano, hold my baby girl, type... I'm sure if I didn't have hands I would figure out ways to adapt... I've seen a girl, who has no hands, write with her feet, that's pretty skilled!

I'm grateful for the songs that we sing in primary. Today singing time was extra fun, and I love watching/hearing the kids learn the primary songs. We have been singing He Sent His Son this month, preparing it for the primary program (November) and it is amazing to hear the questions/answers that the kids have. It's very clear to me that some of the families teach a lot of good doctrine at home because their kids help teach the other kids great lessons at church. I am grateful for those examples of righteous parents/parenting and hope that as Emma grows I can be that type of parent

good deals

Around Thanksgiving Chris found a deal where if you bought a gift card to The Cheesecake Factory you got two slices of cheesecake for free. Today we were able to go redeem our coupon for the free slices, and my oh my! They were so tasty! We got S'mores and Adam's Peanut Butter Cup Fudge Ripple. Oh man, both were tasty options (which we knew, we are no stranger to those two cheesecakes). Also while we were there our receipt had a code to participate in a survey and get a $10 gift card. So you better believe that we came home, filled out our survey, and now have an extra $10 free! So we still have $35 and already got two slices (each cost about $7.50 or so). We will be enjoying more cheesecake throughout the year! Hooray for good deals, and for Chris finding this deal!

heaters

Today is the coldest day we've had here in Texas for a while. I am grateful for heaters, and water heaters to keep us warm while there is ice (somewhere) outside.

Grocery Stores

I love our HEB. It's well organized, clean, and has pretty much everything I really ever need to buy. I love that I know where things are, and that I recognize a lot of the employees. I love knowing that if I need something from the Healthy Living department and can't find it, Mario is always around somewhere and he can answer my questions. Teresa is amazing in the beauty department and has helped me a few times with finding mascara/foundation. Juan is my favorite in the produce department. He recently taught me how to pick the perfect avocado, and helped me find things after they rearranged part of the department. Priscilla and Jorge are my favorite checkers, and Brent is my favorite bagger. I wish he could teach all the other baggers the art of bagging. He knows not to put my frozen (or cold) things in with my box of pasta, and he knows to keep my cleaning products separate from my food. Brent is amazing. 

I also love our Sam's Club. It's 2 miles from our house. We're on my father-in-laws business membership so we can go to the store before it opens at 10, which is my favorite time to shop there. Most other customers are buying a ton of stuff for their businesses, and they don't just stop their carts all the time in the aisles. I prefer to use the self-checkout because it is WAY faster (10 item limit), and I love when Carol is the employee overseeing self checkout. Art is my favorite receipt-checker at the door. He always is very kind, quick, and interacts with Emma. I dislike the fact that two weeks ago they decided to stop carrying skim milk, but I'll get used to buying my milk somewhere else (but not HEB because I don't like the lids for their milk). 

cars

I am grateful that we have two cars so that Emma and I can go run errands when we'd like, without having to plan ahead and take Chris to work so we can have the car. It was hard when we only had one car (for the first few months of our marriage) and having the second car is totally worth the cost to me. Today Emma and I went to a few places and it was so nice to leave the house.

libraries.

I am grateful to have a library card to a system of libraries that has 25 physical locations. They have pretty much everything I want, and unless it's something new, I can get them fairly quickly. I also love that my library system has a great selection of ebooks. I have a pretty long hold list on kindle books, and love that right now I have 3 kindle books checked out from the library, one free rental from amazon, a physical book from the library, and a physical book I borrowed from a friend. I LOVE BOOKS.

washer and dryer

I do a lot of laundry on Mondays. I am so grateful for the AMAZING washing machine and dryer that we got a few years ago. They are reliable, and are so efficient! I love that my dryer doesn't waste my time. It can sense if the clothes are still wet and then adjusts the time automatically.

primary

I am grateful for my calling as the primary pianist right now. It's the beginning of the year so the kids all have new teachers and we have brand new sunbeams. The little kids always say/do the funniest things! I always come home from church with a funny story about what someone said. I also like that the primary presidency is super chill with me bringing Emma to primary with me. If she starts going nuts one of them takes her and plays with her. It's super nice to have extra hands who can help, especially if she goes nuts during singing time!

weekends

I am grateful for Saturday, the one day that I get to ever sleep in. Chris doesn't really know how to sleep in, so most Saturday's he gets up with Emma when she wakes up around 7 and keeps her occupied for a while so I can get a little more rest. I am grateful that he recognizes that I need the sleep, and that he loves to spend that extra time with Emma.

making a comeback?

This blog is coming back to life... at least for a little bit.

Back in December our relief society president challenged all of the sisters in the ward to do personal progress. I huffed and puffed about it at first, it seemed like it was just another thing "they" wanted us to do that I didn't really have the time for. Then I decided to at least look through a personal progress book and try to pick 12 experiences that I could do, and decided to see if any of the experiences lined up with things that I already was wanting to. There is one that encourages me to learn a new skill and suggests sewing as an idea--a goal I already wanted to do this year. The virtue project is to read The Book of Mormon, another one of my 2014 goals. I decided I could do it, or atleast I would try.

Today I started one of the value experiences. It was about the strength of youth pamphlet and the standards that are found in it. I am to select three standards from the pamphlet and work towards improving in those areas for three weeks. One of the standards I am picking to improve on is gratitude. I feel like sometimes it seems like so many things are going wrong, or that because I don't get much sleep it is really easy to get caught up in the negative things. So for the next three weeks I will post something each day that I am grateful for. Some may be deep, some may be pretty superficial, and others may be inbetween. Maybe I'll keep this habit up after my three weeks, but no promises there.

I am grateful for my microwave. This seems silly, but earlier this week the handle broke off of our microwave and we couldn't use it for 24 hours. My plan for dinner during that 24 hours was leftovers. Food I would've reheated in the microwave. I changed my mind and made something else on the stove, but now that our landlord has fixed the microwave I am so happy to be using it again! Simple things like warming up water for hot chocolate. Or Chris's morning oatmeal. I realize I have taken a microwave forgranted. Sure I could boil water on the stove, but that requires dirtying another dish that I in turn will end up having to clean. A microwave makes life easier! And I am so glad that the handle is better than ever now on our microwave!