Finding Things to be Thankful For

There is always something to be thankful for.  Even when you don’t feel very thankful.

This is Thanksgiving month.  Around the internet people are finding things every day to be thankful for.  I can’t commit to anything everyday beyond coffee, but I can find things today to be thankful for.

A year ago I lost my job and I was most definitely NOT thankful for that.  A year later, I am still unemployed, still looking for a job, but I have had an entire year to be a stay at home mom to my daughters.  I have been able to go to all of their school functions. I went to every football and basketball game they cheered.  I went on class field trips. I was able to cook real meals for them, and I have been able to be a hands on real part of their life for an entire year. That was something I haven’t been able to do at all since we moved here in 2007.  So, for that I am thankful I lost my job.

I am thankful for friends who believe in my talent behind a camera and have given me more than one opportunity to share that with their family.  Because of them, I have also been asked to do photos for other families. Through my daughter’s word of mouth at school, and me showing up at school functions with my camera, I am getting more opportunities to capture moments in people’s lives and make memories for them.

I am thankful for ex-husbands who are willing to work around school schedules and allow our daughters to enjoy and take part in school activities even when it means he has to give up some of him time with them.  I hope he understands that in giving up a little now, he is gaining so much more in the end, because the girls appreciate all he does for them.

I am thankful for our neighbor who, along with me, have made a safe little community between our apartments for the neighborhood kids to come and play and hang out and know that they have a same place to be.  We have opened our doors and our yards, and sometimes our kitchens to the kids before and after school.  Together we offer an alternative to being home along while parents work.

I am thankful for medications that keep me from going off the goofy-crap-o-meter.  They don’t always keep me from swinging from one end to the other, but they work to keep me pretty centered.  Without my medications it can get really ugly really quick before I even know it.  At least on my meds, the mood swings are a little slower, less dramatic and easier to catch earlier.

I am thankful for second chances. And third. And eleventy billion.  Especially when I don’t deserve them.  Especially when anyone else would wash their hands of me.

I am thankful that the election is Tuesday and we can get back to commercials that haven’t been approved by anyone, we can stop talking about everyone’s vagina Big Bird, bayonets, who said what and what they really meant as if we know better than the candidate knows what they meant. I am tired of people taking a phrase, out of context, and blowing it all the fuck up and out of proportion and making the candidate sound like a neanderthals or an idiot.  Vote. Then STFU.

What are you thankful this month?

I am thankful for things most people take for granted.

It’s been a year to be thankful for.   And yet, I find myself selling it all short.  I am thankful for things this year that most everyone else takes for granted.  I’m thankful that my legal issues are behind me and there will be no more weekends spent in jail.  And really, isn’t that on everyone’s list of things to be thankful for this year?

I am thankful that I finally have a place to live that is not a rat infested hell hole (there were no rats at any of the places I’ve lived.  An occasional mouse? Yes. Rats? No).  I have a place I can be proud of and I can have people over and the girls can have play dates and sleep overs and a social life.

I am thankful that I finally have my head screwed on straight.  I have finally figured out that I have to give up tanning and manis/pedis and Starbucks every day so that I can pay the rent and the utilities and buy groceries.  And see?  How this is simple basic economics that everyone else understands naturally but me?  The one who has a BS in Business Administration, who actually took economics and accounting and business management in college?  Took 42 years to get it.

I am thankful that I am on medication and makes all of the above things possible.  Sure I hate the fact that for the rest of my life I will have to be on medication just so I can function like everyone else manages to do on a day to day basis, but if swallowing a pill or two every single day means I live my life in relative comfort and security, then so be it.

I am thankful that I walked away from an accident that could have been oh so much worse than it turned out to be.  The pictures is much more horrifying than the reality, really.   Of course, now I have to deal with insurance and estimates and blah blah blah but uh, I’ll gladly do that, to be able to walk away.  Even if with a limp.

I am thankful that for whatever reason (and I don’t care the reason) for the first time since our divorce, the girls’ dad and I have found a way to be co-parents together and work together without trying to kill each other.  We have found a peace and understanding between us and that makes the girls’ lives easier too.  And frankly, that’s what it’s all about.

I am thankful that my brother won’t be home for the holidays this year.  Well, not really thankful that he won’t be home. I am thankful that he is on US soil and has the freedom to make the choice where he will be spending the holidays.  With a brother in the military, holidays are always touchy because we never know if he will get to be home or even on US soil.  And if he is, we are eternally grateful that he is, but also a bit guilty that we get him home while there are families out there who haven’t seen their loved ones in months or even years.

I am thankful that I get the opportunity to write with a great group of women over at Buy-Her.com.  I love to write, (although you can’t tell it by looking at my own blogs) and I love to shop and writing for Buy-Her.com combines the two and that rocks.  My Drama Tweens also love the idea of trying out new things and helping me write about it for Miss Britt.    So I am thankful to Britt for giving me the opportunity to combine two things I love and share that experience with two people I love.

I am thankful for my work bestie who shares her birthday with me.  Everyone needs someone in their life who is always there to remind you that your awesome far outshines everyone else’s awesome.   I know that we are good enough friends that she would take me and the girls in if we needed a place to live.  She knows we are good enough friends that I would never ask that of her.

I am thankful for all you guys too.  For the support and friendship you have shared with me this year has touched me in ways I can’t put into words.  And when you leave me with a lack of words, you’ve accomplished something.  Thank you for coming by and reading this stuff every day, thank you for leaving comment love, thank you for the kind thoughts, the heartfelt prayers, the well wishes, the swift kicks in the ass when I need them, and the friendship you all have offered throughout the year.  I cherish you all.

Now, go do a whipped cream shot (or ten) and get your thankfulness on!