Practicing Gratitude; or, It could always be worse

Last Monday I became very angry with my two sons over their ungrateful attitudes. I googled "teaching gratitude" and got some good ideas about how to help them realize their many blessings. One included starting a gratitude journal. In this you have to list a few things each day that you are thankful for. I thought I would join them in this exercise. "Do as I do" sort of thing. Well, last night was a real challenge for me.

As I stepped in the door from yoga, Rachel was anxious to show me something in her mouth. She had fallen into the treadmill and let her mouth break her fall, resulting in top two permanent teeth snapping off. Roots were still firmly attached and stubs remained. Four calls to the dentist's emergency pager at Monarch Dental went unanswered. I do have a call currently in to the office manager asking for an explanation.

I tried to hop online and get advice about the dental emergency and noticed our entire network was down. This sort of thing gets extremely frustrating for my IT husband to deal with. He's about to turn 40 tomorrow and was already dealing with his youngest daughters dental issue, I thought this might set him over the top.

Little did I know it wasn't the end our troubles. I had been a quite chilly all day. Having very little willpower, I knew if I walked over to the thermostat I would jack it up, so I chalked it up to my low blood pressure and poor circulation. If I'd checked earlier, I would have realized that the furnace was malfunctioning. It was down to 61 degrees at 9 p.m., the time my dear husband investigated the matter. At this moment, I am eagerly awaiting the Mitchell's Heating and Cooling serviceman to arrive for his noon-2p.m. appointment.

Corrie Ten Boom in her book, The Hiding Place, writes about how after reading 1 Thessalonians, her sister gave thanks for the fleas that infested their dwelling because it kept the guards away. I am in no way insinuating my circumstances are anywhere near as bad as what they had to endure, I am only following their example.

I am thankful that:

1. we are lucky enough to have a dental plan to cover most of the cost of her two caps. Only $120 out of pocket.
2. there was enough tooth left that they could be capped
3. today is payday
4. I had someone to cuddle with to get through the cold night
5. the furnace issue came up before the weekend
6. today is payday
7. my thoughtful neighbor who has not secured his wireless network, allowing me to post this
8. last and certainly not least, my wonderful, gainfully employed, sexy, hard-working, ever patient, calm, thoughtful, generous, handsome, healthy, athletic, intelligent, optimistic, uncomplaining husband

Monkey go "Arf, Arf"

Today on the way home from church 21 month old George was practicing his vocabulary. He was rambling through all the words he knew. I recognized a lot, then he said "Mon." A second later he said "MonKEY!" Then he said it again and went "Arf, Arf." The rest of the kids cracked up! The rest of the ride home they made LOUD monkey noises to set their baby brother straight.