Thanksgiving All November: List #3

{Click here for the explanation and here and here for the first two lists.}

Day 1: ▪ a good night of sleep ▪ having one of my favorite breakfasts: toast, hashbrown cake, ketchup, and a runny/dippy egg (in a stack). Plus Earl Grey tea with a splash of milk making a nebula. 😊 ▪ a little surprise visit from my “Silly”, her gladly coming to me after I fed her a sugar cube (shh, don’t tell her mom), the way Mom spoils/adores/interacts with her (Mom’ll make a great grandma someday 😊) ▪ the guests we had over, the food that–though the main dish was a first-time-tried recipe and its fifty cloves of garlic sounded like a lot–turned out delicious, a biscuit with butter and honey–so simply delish, my “Teddybear” saying my name (for the first and second time! 🥹🥰) and making his little snoot and giggling every time I said “blegh” at his putting toy dogs in his mouth and just being so stinking cute, good conversation and laughter

Day 2: ▪ good-smelling candles that brighten (in more ways than one) my schoolroom ▪ warm bagels with loads of cream cheese ▪ good news from a friend about her health and all the joy and answered prayers/hopes ▪ golden light spilling in through the window and making dappled sunshine on the wall ▪ no one hurt in an accident that happened just ahead of us; still making it to church on time (barely though 😅) even though Dad stopped and checked on them; Dad and his work as a volunteer firefighter and his active compassion/care ▪ the news that a guy recommitted his life to God and made some changes/steps in the right direction

Day 3: ▪ thick fog this morning and drinking London Fog 😆 ▪ discovering, trying, and liking a new drink (still needs some tweaking though) ▪ supper with my grandparents, a complete circle of held hands during prayer, Grandpa’s sense of humor, the way my grandparents interact, scrumptious rice, hot vanilla pudding with brown sugar (especially when the brown sugar made a crunchy crust)

Day 4: ▪ Oreo brownie/cake in a mug ▪ getting to go to my cousin’s rehearsal supper even though none of my immediate family have a part in the bridal party, coordinators, etc.; the mishmash of people that are somehow all “family”; “Silly” coming to me and being fascinated by “Sunny” and the monkey on his shirt; the way several of us pitched in to put together the program and map papers, the fun/struggles we had with them; coming up with a short wedding parody of “Twas the night before Christmas”

Day 5: ▪ a kinda slow/chill morning, the rain (even though it’s on J & T’s wedding day {!!}, I love rain) ▪ wedding ceremony music (Praise & Harmony’s “Behold Our God,” etc.), the simple beauty of the whole wedding/reception/etc. ▪ “Silly’s” dad bringing her to me to babysit during the ceremony, her adorableness and the entertainment she provided 😄 and the way she sometimes snuggled ▪ the honor of being a bridal table server (first time!); the way we bridal table servers put gummy worms/snakes in the bridal party’s salads ▪ delicious vanilla cake and cappuccino with whipped topping ▪ the beauty of the dark clouds and rain and the sun gorgeously shining through ▪ gorgeous sunset ▪ a little family gathering, yummy fruit, reading over half a book

Day 6: ▪ packed church (we even set up the “amen” chairs 😄😉) ▪ conglomeration of “family” (basically family and people that helped in the wedding) for lunch at church, garlic bread, rum black cherry ice cream, cappuccino (again), quite a bit of laughter and teasing and joking ▪ small group at F’s, the laughs and arguing we had about their already having some Christmas decor up, chocolate cake with blueberries in and on it, Bible study on part of 1 John 2

Day 7: ▪ my devotional time, studying Psalm 66 using Daily Grace Co.’s Seek by Kristin Schmucker and Enduring Word Commentary which I just discovered ▪ the way my sister changed/avoided the subject by saying “ooo, look at the moon” and I of course was distracted by the moon (I don’t even remember what we were talking about. She obviously knows me well.)

Day 8: ▪ the smell of a just-opened container of coffee–and coffee in general. (Not the biggest fan of drinking coffee {especially plain}, but man do I love the smell.) ▪ supper with my grandparents and a cousin and his wife, fajitas, my cousin commenting “that was a mess” and my responding “yeah, and your wife is over here just so gracefully and neatly eating hers”

Day 9: ▪ unexpected day off school ▪ the decent bit of cleaning and pantry organizing we got done at Grandma’s ▪ fresh-out-of-the-oven bread with peanut butter and jam ▪ warm weather, my sis and me riding around on the four-wheeler ▪ youth ladies (and a couple of others) getting to celebrate a friend’s birthday at a Mexican restaurant; getting food that wasn’t spicy for me (this is like, the second time that’s happened), actually eating it all (almost never happens and this was a big/stuffed quesadilla); stirring up the beans 🤣; the waiter doing a really good job

Day 10: ▪ Dad telling us when we woke up that it was foggy in the kitchen and here he had made us London Fog (thankful for the dad joke and the drink) 😂 ▪ seeing a yellow butterfly (special for several reasons), warm weather and sunshine ▪ golden hour ▪ seeing some of J & T’s wedding photos 😭🥰🥳🥹🤗 (I was not emotional, nope, not at all.)

Day 11: ▪ still morning outside, birds chirping and squawking, a rooster crowing in the distance somewhere, the chill that was enough to remind me it’s fall but wasn’t freezing my fingers/ears/nose off ▪ English muffin, poached egg, those scrumptious little sausage patties ▪ Sis and I’s run to a thrift/antique sale; getting some beautiful dishes (for cheaper than I was expecting, let’s go!); the thrill I felt for, like, hours ▪ youth group shopping for Samaritan Purse’s Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes, the adorable little girl’s clothes JM and I found ▪ hanging out at R & M’s place, the fluffiest/moistest/bestest cinnamon streusel coffee cake I have ever tasted, “Copy + Paste” waving and jabbering and just being adorable, playing Catan, good discussions

Day 12: ▪ “Buddy” can come home from being in the hospital with croup! ▪ beauty of the snow ▪ French bread, cinnamon honey butter, the smell of fresh-baked bread ▪ the lovely decorations we set up for fellowship lunch tomorrow, getting to take a candle home ▪ good soup, more French bread

Day 13: ▪ Communion and feet-washing ▪ encouraging/blessing words ▪ fellowship lunch, MM telling me she made that cinnamon streusel coffee cake again for me, conversation with KE while doing dishes ▪ JD’s inviting us to drop in on JB’s with them, sitting in a random person’s driveway while waiting for JD’s to show up, the fake arm we brought along and the fun/laughter/disgust there was over it, “Peach”‘s adorable smile and dimples, funny and serious conversations, both couples saying we can do this again and Dad joking about dropping in on them later tonight

Day 14: ▪ Earl Grey tea and Oreos ▪ a most wonderful quesadilla and sweet tea (Funny side-note: I poured myself a big glass of what I thought was sweet tea, took a gulp, discovered it was in fact unsweet tea, dumped it back in the pitcher, was disappointed/panicked for a moment because what if there wasn’t any more sweet tea, and then thankfully found the actual sweet tea. 😄) ▪ being asked to babysit “Silly” at Journey to Jesus 😁

Day 15: ▪ the housecleaning we youth ladies did at the S’s; a just-woken-up “Monkey” staring at my sister, Sis pointing me out, “Monkey” lighting up and coming to me; the little girls helping clean a bit; haystacks; brownie/chocolate pudding/whipped topping trifle; music (especially the David soundtrack and “Gobble, Gobble” 😂) ▪ RM teasing me by sending me the song “Peppermint Winter” by Owl City, me saying I’m not going to listen, listening anyway, the lyrics “I twirl through the driveway with angelic grace ’til I slip on the sidewalk and fall on my face” and “I end up with 45 new pairs of socks” 🤣

Day 16: ▪ helping at the food pantry again, a thermos of cappuccino (made specifically to share, don’t worry), D loving Sis’s frothy coffee and saying she’s going to show up at our house Friday mornings for it (since we have Frothy Fridays), seeing BE’s again, “Buddy” coming to me and snuggling on my shoulder for the longest time, mini cupcakes, the miracle of the turkeys. (The turkey story: the food pantry wasn’t going to have frozen turkeys available for the people, but my pastor was in Detroit for revival meetings and they somehow ended up with 150 turkeys, and they didn’t want them all, so a youth sponsor got a number of them and brought them to the food pantry not even an hour before they started letting people through. So people got to get turkeys for Thanksgiving!) ▪ the company we had over for supper, vanilla/cream cheese/raspberry-filled roll, laughter

Day 17: ▪ babysitting “Monkey” for a while at Bible Club, her giggling while we sang “God’s Not Dead”, her saying “aww, cute” at a little boy and his gift in the GoodLife Christmas video ▪ “Smiley”‘s adorableness, even with having food all over her 😄, and the way her uncle interacts with her ▪ “Buddy” letting me hold him, the way he at first refused to go to A (one of his favorite people) but when she started “crying” he smiled and reached for her (it was the most adorable thing ever) ▪ breadsticks and one of the best cheese sauces

Day 18: ▪ teasing D by sending her a pic of our frothy coffee and saying “it’s Frothy Friday!”, her responding with drooling emojis and “luckkyyy” ▪ ZB responding to my Instagram story question “What are you thankful for?” with “…wooly blankets” ▪ lemon tea

Day 19: ▪ Sis making frothy coffee for D, D excitedly texting me about it (aka, the mischievous joy I get out of people being happily surprised) ▪ the thank-you card I made for the youth Sunday school teacher: a drawing of a chip in cheese sauce with the words “This might sound cheesy, but we value our relation-chips with you. You’re nacho average teacher, and we love you! Thank you!” ▪ publishing my 300th blog post!

Day 20: ▪ morning sunlight ▪ Sunday school teacher crying over the thank-you gift we gave ▪ reading in bed ▪ A’s and G’s life stories/testimonies, the redemption that has happened and is happening and we believe will happen ▪ fellowship afterward, tacos/burritos, doing dishes, “Monkey” sleepily snuggling ▪ stars

Day 21: ▪ biiig cup of my favorite tea (Ahmad Tea’s Lemon & Lime Twist) ▪ getting excited about spices (I’m helping at the spice booth at Journey to Jesus, and for some reason researching this stuff excites me), M saying we should have pepper for people to smell 🤣 ▪ beating my brother in chess after he was so confident about winning (I lost the next two games but oh well) ▪ T calling to ask if we wanted old-fashioned sugar cream pies! absolutely yes! ▪ eating old-fashioned sugar cream pie

Day 22: ▪ the fun we three kids had while Mom & Dad were gone for a bit, saying “while Mom and Dad are away, the kids will play”, blasting the David soundtrack, trying to catch marshmallows in our mouths, the hot chocolate incident, Sis saying “hot chocolate is supposed to be soothing, not traumatizing” 🤣 ▪ the song “Jael” by Jamie Soles, sharing it with Jaime and wondering why I’m jamming out so hard to it, Jaime saying it’s cause she wrote it, my GIFS of eye-rolls

Day 23: ▪ cookie party after church, boughten chocolate milk ▪ seeing BW again after she’d been sick and not around for a while, her hug ▪ conversation about the David soundtrack and other stuff

Day 24: ▪ sleeping in ▪ H. family get-together, Aunt G’s lovely table decorations, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, French bread and cinnamon honey butter ▪ AH sitting on the pool table to hit the ball and still missing and us three girls laughing so hard, me doing the same ▪ teaching MC how to make stickers, her making me one ▪ HH reading a lovely writing called “A Liturgy for the First Glimpse of New Hope” from Every Moment Holy

Day 25: ▪ no school ▪ youth at a gym, playing volleyball, actually playing decently well, the volleyball getting stuck on top of the fan ▪ pizza, old-fashioned sugar cream pie ▪ SW’s pic of “Silly” after he (in true uncle fashion) vacuumed her hair up into a mohawk ▪ conversation about stirring the beans and intrusive thoughts and childhood memories (yes, they all tied together) ▪ so much laughter and teasing and encouraging and yelling

Day 26: ▪ studying Ruth 3:9, specifically the word skirt {Okay, so this excited me, so I’m going to spill it here. So the Hebrew word translated here as skirt is kânâph, which can mean edge, extremity, wing, etc. It’s also used in (among many others) Ruth 2:12 and Malachi 4:2. Someone was talking about Malachi 4:2 and said that kânâph could also mean borders, referring to the long tassels on a Jewish prayer shawl; the woman with the blood issue (Luke 8:43-44) touched the hem/border of Jesus’ garment. Sun/Son of righteousness, healing, wings/borders–ya see? The word wings also made me think of Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34, where Jesus laments over Jerusalem, saying He would have gathered them as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but they would not. The main thing I got out of this was the reminder that the Bible all ties together and all points to Jesus. Again and again, through so many people and things and words, It draws us to see Jesus. Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer in Ruth, points to Jesus–Jesus is our Kinsman-Redeemer. And our response should be a humble “I am Your servant. Spread Your skirt, Your wings, over me. Protect me, take care of me, love me, cover me with Your righteousness and strength, etc. You are the One.” Anyways, I’ll shut up (for now 😜).}

Day 27: ▪ full church, Living Praise singing, KC’s hugs ▪ “Silly” fussing when her mom took her from me to leave ▪ B. family get-together, sopa, butternut squash casserole, pumpkin pecan cheesecake, “Silly” obtaining food from several people and dancing/vocalizing to the toy music and greeting us with a smile after her nap, laughter, playing Scum

Day 28: ▪ making hot chocolate with milk and not having an incident like last time 🥳🤣 {The incident was that I was warming up milk with hot chocolate mix in it, and I was distracted by the music (see Day 22), and suddenly realized my milk was overflowing. And apparently, it had been overflowing for a while because there wasn’t even an inch left in the cup. 😬 Thankfully, the microwave plate had caught it all, so there wasn’t a huge mess to clean up! My sister asked if I was going to make more, and I was just like “nope, too dangerous; I’m traumatized now.” But I tried again today, and both my hot chocolate and I survived quite well! 🤣}

Day 29: ▪ sleeping well (there’ve actually been several nights this month that I’ve slept better than normal, so that’s been great!) ▪ lemon tea ▪ singing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

Day 30: ▪ Dad ordering/buying a book for me that I so badly wanted (might not get it till Christmas, but at least I know I’m getting it) ▪ my brother giving me a hug ▪ Sis and I making supper (pizza, and mustn’t leave out the cottage cheese and sweet tea) ▪ continuing our tradition of a countdown-to-Christmas box of “prizes” (snacks, socks, notebooks, glowsticks, etc.)

What are you thankful for? I’d love to hear! 😊