Grateful

I'm sitting here in the stillness of my post-bedtime house grateful for a good life. Really. Maybe that sounds trite or silly, but often I find myself neglecting basic gratitude for how blessed I really am. Sundays, especially, have not often been great days for gratitude lately, but today was a good day. So, here's a short list of the things that I am grateful for this week.

• Ryan was home today by 4:45--and didn't have to go anywhere else for Sunday night meetings. This is the first Sunday night we've had together at home in over two months. Granted, he is asleep on the couch right now, but, hey.



• I built Lego castle structures with the boys for 2.5 hours this afternoon. Literally. It's way easier to build those puppies right out the package than to dig through an entire Rubbermaid looking for exactly the right linking swiveling thingamajig. We had a delightful afternoon, virtually tease-free.



• Ben has not had one accident all week long. I hesitate to share this publicly, as this has heretofore been a sure portent for disaster, but this was a really good week. He is even going all by himself. I no longer have to sniff for gas to detect when he needs to go #2. He voluntarily admits that he needs to relieve himself. Oh, happy day.



• I love my boys. It is super-duper extraordinarily fun being a mother to boys. They are fun and silly and affectionate and wild and crazy. I love it. This was definitely the family meant for me.



• This sweet older couple who used to live next door to us in NC sent the boys rock collections in the mail this week. We sent them an annual Christmas letter, and they were so thrilled that they wrote us a personal note back the next week and then sent the rocks this last week. So very sweet. (rock collection pictured here)



• I hosted a party for 18 pregnant or recently delivered mothers in our ward on Friday night. We had a great time. And I did so happily and without any tears whatsoever. There was a time when this would not have been so. But, I'm finally at a great place in my life and trust in a greater plan than mine. If Heavenly Father wants to send us another child, we would love it. But if not, we are so happy with what we have been blessed with.



• Ben fell asleep twice this week in the most random places--something he rarely does. It is so cute to see his sweet little face all relaxed in sleep. (and his body all contorted in the most completely uncomfortable position imaginable).



• I finished a super cute bag for my sister-in-law, Lucy. I love it when a bag comes together.



• I also made a super cute bag for the above-mentioned party.



• I love home schooling. Some days are better than others, some days are definitely not good. But I have seen this amazing little seven year old learn and grow and shed some of the frustration he'd been carrying about school. He's fun to be around. Have we missed some things? I'm sure. Have we got some things that other kids haven't? Definitely. It's a work in progress.



• Ryan got stuck in a meeting after I had arranged a baby sitter for our date night on Thursday. But we still got in an hour of our date and had a great time. 5 years ago I probably would have ranted and raved and blamed him for something totally beyond his control. But I'm grateful that I've grown up a little bit. I spent two hours getting the house cleaned all by myself and then I had a nice quick dinner with my husband. Nothing better than that.



• We cleaned our garage out on Saturday. It was a beautiful, sunny, spring-like day (around 70, I think). Gorgeous. The boys rode bikes and rollerblades out front while we de-junked. This last week has reminded me of the up-side of living in Vegas. Gorgeous weather in the winter.



• I finally started diving into my 1300 page novel for book club next month, and I'm loving it.



• I had a good hair day more than once last week.

So many great things happening in our life. I'm grateful. Funny, though, I clearly remember one day about 2.6 years ago telling Ryan how great I thought our life was. We ended up moving a month later. So, this post could be the beginning of my life thrown into chaos. But I'd like to think that it's just a grateful moment in a good life. Hope you can find gratitude in the simple things around you as well.