Day# 27

Today I am thankful for the few good deals I got while shopping on my lunch break, I am also thankful for online shopping that I finished tonight.  I am thankful for being able to sit in my pajamas and shop for Christmas, candles lit, watching the Polar Express with Brody, with food cooking for tomorrow.  I am equally thankful for being warm & cozy on this cold winter-like night.

Day# 26

Today I am thankful that Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is coming on!  Brody has showered, we are clad in our pj's, have christmas mugs of hot chocolate & tons of mini marshmallows, and are snuggled up on the couch.  I remember doing this as a child and watching Rudolph was the start of the Christmas season!  It was so exciting for me as a child and now I can see it all through Brodys' eyes.  I am very thankful for these traditions!



Day# 25

Today I am thankful for this being a short week at work, the calm before the storm of next weeks tax due date.  Brody only has 2 days this week and with pending bad weather, maybe only one.  I am thankful this is only a 3 day week and hope the days fly by!

Day# 24

Today I am thankful that I am having my first of two Thanksgiving dinners.  Having a big, split family does have it's perks!  I've always had two celebrations of the holidays, it's just a part of life.  My mom, stepdad, brother, nieces, myself and Brody got together today and ate ourselves into a coma.  I'm most thankful that my son said the blessing for the family's meal.  He is so sweet and sincere sometimes I just want to cry.  So many things to be thankful for, my life sure hasn't turned out like I had planned it but I am really appreciating and understanding the things God has blessed my family & I with, be it what I asked for or not.

Day# 23

Today I am thankful for Brody's cousin Tizer spending the night with us Saturday night.  The boys are 2.5 years apart and they are so funny to be around when they are playing.  They come up with the funniest ideas and I love to hear them talk to each other when they don't think I can hear.  They fight like siblings but love each other very much.  I love having Tizer or Cabela spend the night and I can pile all the kids up in the bed and especially love to see them all in the morning when they wake up and realize they are here with us.  Tizer calls Brody "Brod" and it's so sweet.  "Come on Brod!  Let's go pway in your wroom Brod"  and of course Brody as the older and wiser cousin "Now Tizer, I am the adult and you will do what I say!"  This morning they were helicopter pilots flying through the jungle trying to kill the big T-rex that was running wild.  All the chopper noises, along with the screaming, stomping T-rex, it was quite entertaining! 
I remember years ago talking with my sister-in-law (aka: my sister/bff) about having our babies and it's really come full circle for us both.  We have our babies, who love each other, who we see several times a week, it's great and I couldn't ask for more!  I love those babies like they were my own and so glad the cousins get to grow up close in age and close in heart.  It's truly one of those life long dreams that have come true for me and I am completely blessed and thankful for that.

Day# 22

Today I am thankful that my middle niece Molly came over to spend the night with us.  I haven't seen her since summer and she is always a pleasure to have stay with us.  She is thirteen, sweet, quiet, loves to write and loves music.  She loves her cousin Brody, although she was pretty sick of him by the time Saturday rolled around.  We watched Hotel Transylvania Friday night and went to the mall and Barnes & Noble shopping on Saturday.  She helped me volunteer at the craft table at Brody's school for their annual holiday fundraising fair.  She's a very thoughtful and caring young lady.  I know she takes a back seat to her older sister sometimes but she deserves her own time to shine and I have every faith in her that she will.  It's pretty cool that I turn up Ed Sheeran and we both start belting out the songs, never missing a word.  She maybe a One Direction "fangirl" but she will always be my little Molly Squally.

Day# 21

Today I am thankful that the grocery store near my house started selling Christmas trees. We had to stop by to get something for a food drive at Brody's school & he was grouchy and that made me grouchy but we pulled in & saw the trees lined up & simultaneously yelled "Christmas trees!"  We stuck our faces as close as we could to the trees so we could smell that wonderful scent of fresh cut Christmas glory and after that we weren't so grumpy! I am so ready for Christmas, I'd bypass Thanksgiving completely if it weren't for the food!! 'Tis the season!

Day #20

Today I am thankful to go through my son's school folder and see all the things that he has accomplished in school.  Today I opened up his folder and saw this picture of a "zuw".....

 

And this picture of a "zipr", a "zgizag" and a "zebur"!

 

 

His teacher has told me that she teaches the children to 'write what they hear' and he's pretty much got that down!  This all just makes me smile!  I can't wait to show him one day when he is all grown up, hopefully he will appreciate that I saved this for him, along with everything else he's ever made a mark on since he was born! :)

 

 

 

 



Day #19

Today I am thankful for the cooking and eating of food!  I am thankful that so many of my fond family memories are centered around food and fellowship.  I grew up surrounded by women (and a few men) who loved to cook and knew how to very well.  I was always in the kitchen helping when I could, working in the garden after school (which was actually more like punishment at the time), canning vegetables, watching my Granny made apple butter and strawberry jam and helping her snap beans ALL summer long.  When I would stay with my father on the weekends he would cook these huge breakfast meals, that seemed to take hours to cook before we could sit down and eat.  He always took me out to dinner for my birthday, and that was always a treat!  My mom, Aunt, and Granny always cooked huge, wonderful meals.
I have always loved to cook, to watch these women cook, to learn how to make food taste extra good when you cooked it.  We didn't have cable growing up but I loved watching Yan Can Cook and Cookin' Cheap on PBS.  I love Asian cuisine and loved that Yan would always end his show with "If Yan can cook, so can You!!"  Makes me giggle just thinking about it.
When I was in high school we attended college day at Radford University and it had all the packets of info about all the different colleges and I saw one for a culinary institute in Baltimore.  I was shocked!  You could go to college for that!  I thought to myself how easy and fun would that be, I already know how to cook! I applied and was accepted into that school.  But I never went.  Fell in love with a boy or something like that.
In more recent years, I spent my evening meals and holidays with my husbands Grandmother.  Living with her for a while, I helped with the evening meals, which were usually four courses and some of the best home cooking there was.  I helped her with every holiday meal, she taught me how to set a formal dinner table, and how to make the best chicken and dumplings & bread pudding known to man.  This time of year is especially hard for me, missing her and the all the preparation that we did for the family for the holidays. 
I have had Brody on the counter tops beside me cooking since he hold himself up.  I've taught him how to measure for recipes and crack eggs without getting in shells, he loves to help me cook.  Sometimes I will pretend like I am on a cooking show, while I explain everything that I am doing in detail to him.  I am thankful for all the time in my life spent in the kitchen, with the people I love, cooking delicious, loving meals for my family, with family, through the generations of my family. 

Day# 18

I am thankful for all the ordinary items I use on a given day that make my life easier & make me happy & healthy.  Yes, I could most likely survive without these items, unhappily, but I wouldn't die. But could you imagine if you did not have these at all?  I am thankful for whomever invented the following items:

1. Toothpaste/brush
2. Razor
3. Deodorant
4. Q-tips (I might die without these)
5. Toilet paper
6. Chapstick (specifically Burt's bees peppermint)
7. Eating utensils
8. Pam cooking spray
9. Scissors
10. Vacuum
11. Gum
12. Debit card
13. Nail clippers

Thank you to the inventors of these items, I appreciate them every day!

Days # 15-17

I hate to lump a few days of thanks together, but the Beasley home was stricken with the stomach flu and life pretty much stops as you know it when that occurs.  I have not seen my son so sick in his life yet and I was in tears as he was sick repeatedly for 24 hours.  It started Friday morning after I had already left for work and being that it is the busiest time for me at work, I was unable to leave so first and foremost I am thankful to my mom and step-dad for taking care of him when I couldn't.  He was still very sick after work, late into Friday night.  Of course, once he finally passed out, I was unable to sleep afraid he would get sick in his sleep and choke.  Saturday we laid around all day catching up on sleep, washing blankets & pillows.  We didn't leave the house all weekend until this evening to go to the grocery store.  The past few days it was hard to find things to be thankful for, watching my normally cheerful, playful little boy turn into a pale, puny lump of meat & bones.  But in retrospect, I am thankful for being forced to stay at home and relax, I was able to catch up on a few movies.  I am also thankful for all the phone calls & messages from people checking on Brody & I, sending prayers and asking if we needed anything.  It's always nice to know that I have such a good support system within my friends and family.  I am very thankful that he has started to eat again this evening and seems to be feeling better.  Now lets just hope I don't get it!  I won't be able to find any thanks in that!

Day #14

Today I am grateful for this time of year, with the upcoming holidays, visiting family, decorating,  eating, snow, a new year of endless possibilities. Starting September through New Years, this is my favorite time of year. Slightly a long stretch but September kicks off fall with lots of family birthdays, into October & I just love Halloween,  next Thanksgiving full of great food & family, into Christmas! I love being a mother & an aunt during this time of year. I embrace every holiday with decorations & fun activities.  It is my busiest time of the year at work & it includes long, stressful hours but somehow I manage to keep the holiday spirit within & share that with Brody. He is at the most exciting age for Christmas & we are super excited to see Santa, get our tree, make Christmas gifts, watch movies & watch it snow. I love the hustle & bustle of the season & equally enjoy the cold, crisp winter nights where the sky is so clear & cold. I love living in Virginia where the summers are hot, the fall is gorgeous with colors & winter is snowy & magical. I am so thankful for my family & friends I will be spending these times with making memories & remembering holidays past and totally indulging in looking through my sons eyes & discovering all the magic of Christmas all over again!

Day #13

Today I am thankful for my friends. I have THE best friends ever! I have super close friends who know what I feel way deep down, who know my secrets, who have seen me cry, who have prayed with me, who no matter what I can text or call when I need to. I have a far away friend who I met at one of the worse times of our lives, discovering our first born babies had clubfeet. Whom we have bonded & share a deep admiration & love despite the 2,000+ miles between us. I have new friends that make me laugh & inspire me.  I have friends who I only see occasionally but we can pick up right where we left off last. I have old friends from school that I can keep up thanks to social networking.  I have friends I have made through my sons school.  I have friends of all backgrounds, religions,  shapes, colors & sizes.  I have friends who know way too much about me and others that only know what little I share. But each of my friends hold a special place in my heart, I love them ALL, my life would not be the same with out each of these special people in my life, no matter how big or little the role they play.  I have truly been blessed with some of the most spectacular friendships during this life & I am so deeply thankful for that!!

Day #12

I am thankful for the evenings we don't really have anywhere to go or anything to do. We can come home,  start cooking dinner (after I immediately change into my pj's), we go through my sons school folder & talk about his day, do his homework, watch a little television, have a good wrestling match on the floor and read a few books before bedtime. These nights I especially like being able to go to bed early, relaxed & not rushed. It seems a lot of our days are so routine & become lame but I am thankful for these evenings after a long stressful day at work I can come home & unwind with my favorite little human.

Day #11

Today I am very thankful I got to spend the afternoon with my dearest best friend shopping for her wedding dress with her daughter and friends. I never really got to experience that when I got married.  I headed into the dress shop, alone, and headed straight for the clearance rack when looking for my wedding dress.  Today was fun, full of laughs and was nice to just spend some time with girlfriends, sharing this special day with this very special woman.  It made me look forward to her wedding even more!  So thankful for her friendship and sharing so much of our lives together.  We have so much more to share and I look forward to it.  She is one of my friends that became family;  that you don't have to put make up on for, or clean up the house for and we are just as happy sitting on the couch watching a movie as we are going out to dinner together.  A no-frills friendship that began several years ago.  We have shared laughs, sadness, heartbreak, love, hate, blood, sweat & tears, literally. We share a deep love for our children and they have grown up together thus far.  I am so grateful for our friendship and love and the life moments that we have shared and have yet to share with each other, be good or bad, we will always be friends, forever!!

Day #10

This evening sitting at the dinner table, my son said "Do you know where this got it's name from?" (pointing to his hamburger) "No, where?" I replied.  Very seriously, he explained "Well, you eat this with your hands.....and it's a burger....so that's why they call it a handburger!"  Tonight, I am thankful for this explanation and the laughing that erupted afterward!

Day #9

Today I am thankful for this little spot of sunshine.  Two years ago, around this same time of year, I snapped a picture of my son playing in this sun-warmed spot on the floor and it has always been one of my favorite pictures of him.  Today I walked through and there he was driving his truck around in the sunshine square on the floor.  This time he had Clover jocking for position in that warm spot, they shared it pleasantly for a while until he crashed his truck into her and she ran off. 

Here is the picture from 2011

 

 

Here is the picture from today

 

 

Day #8

Today I am thankful that I have any hair left on my head!  I was cleaning my upstairs bathroom and little while ago and had lit a candle and set it on the sink.  I had cleaned the sink, toilet, had swept and mopped the floor, emptied the trash can...almost finished.  I was going over everything with one final Clorox wipe and was leaning over wiping the front of the sink cabinet.  I started to smell hair burning and I realized it was MY hair!!  I had my hair curly today so I had put some product on it this morning and I'm not sure if that made it worse or not but I had a singed streak of fried, frizzled little nubs of hair about 6 inches long down the side of head!!!  I literally could have lost all my hair!  Scared me too death!  I am very thankful the damage was minimal and I have learned that a candle sitting on the bank of the sink is less dangerous than the front!

Day #7

Today I am thankful that Brody draws me a picture every day.  I get one every evening when I pick him up after work.  I have saved everything that he has made a mark on since he could even hold a pen.  I have every school paper from Preschool and so far in Kindergarten.  I know I will need to stop collecting all of those at some point but right now they are all so original and he is so proud of all the work he does, it's just hard not keep them.  I have them all over the fridge and all over my desk at work.  I hope he never gets bored with drawing what he sees in his wild imagination and I hope the excitement he greets me with when presenting me with a new piece of artwork never dulls. 

Here are just a few that are currently being displayed.  Makes my heart smile!

Day #6

Today I am thankful for my mom and stepdad.  They help me everyday with transporting Brody to and from school.  They have kept him every week day since he was 4 months old, when I had to come back to work from maternity leave.  They know Brody as well as I do and have done more than I could have ever asked for without me ever having to ask.  I am so thankful for every little unspoken gesture and loving thing they do to make my life easier and Brody's more memorable.  I honestly have no idea how I could make it through this life with out them. 

Day #5

Today I am very thankful for my job. It is very stressful this time of year with all my deadlines mounting but I work with a great bunch of people and though the days can be fast paced and long, they are filled with laughter and hard working people!  I am thankful that I don't have to travel or have an extensive schedule.  I work close to home and can spend my lunch hour at home or running errands, I am home right after work and don't have far to go when I'm running behind in the mornings and between work and home is my sons school so I'm close to either all day.  It's a win win all the way around.  I'm very thankful for the blessing of a good job, as I know there are many out there that can't say the same.

Day #4

Today I am thankful that tomorrow is Election and the constant harassment of phone calls will end!  Every year it seems to get worse with the phone calls, mail, and advertisements.  Instead of having prerecorded messages, they should have a poll that asks if anyone has ever changed their vote because of a prerecorded phone call, mailed advertisement or commercial.  I can only assume that they are banking on the people who have not taken the time to educate themselves on the candidates or issues and when they blindly go to the polls, they see a name on the ballet and recall hearing that name on a message and decide to vote for them because they vaguely remember that name.  Sad, but most likely true.  Don't get me wrong, I love politics, I've never missed an election but come on....8 prerecorded messages in two days?!   

Day #3

"Hey Mom, Look how big my muscle is!!"

 

 

Today I am thankful for this little muscle, because it has kept me entertained all day! He has asked me to look at his muscle several times, each time making the funniest faces and making me laugh.  I'm very thankful that no matter how stuffy and stressed my head gets, he always finds a way to keep me laughing!

Day #2

Today I am most thankful for my son.  He was a dream of mine my entire life.  I always wanted to be a mother.  I always longed to have a son.  For years, I had his name picked out, long before he was ever even close to being conceived.  His first name, Brody, was chosen from the movie Jaws, after the Chief of Police, Martin Brody.  I always thought it would be adorable to call my little son Chief Brody and could picture him running around with a toy pistol shooting bad guys.  His middle name was carried down from the paternal side of the family, being the same middle name of his Great-grandfather, Grandfather and Father.  I was never more sure of anything, what my sons name would be. 
After our child was conceived, I anxiously awaited the ultrasound that would determine if I was in fact having a boy.  I had a quite miserable pregnancy, far from glowing.  We wanted to know the sex, and after the all the physical developments were examined, she scanned past something that I thought looked like an "indicator", then when she asked if we wanted to know the sex, I knew what I saw and I burst into tears.  I was having my son!
He was due in August but came 4 weeks early, unexpectedly.  I researched the traits of a Cancer astrological sign.  They are described as loving, gentle, sensitive, imaginative, loyal homebodies. He is exactly all of those things.  He LOVES his family so deeply, he is super sensitive and can easily get his feelings hurt, he is so funny and intelligent, he loves just being around the house playing and singing, or just snuggling on the couch with me watching a movie.  He loves cooking with me and helping me do chores.  He is quite the responsible five year old.  He draws me pictures, brings me every little rock, pine cone, or brightly colored leaf he finds in the yard.  If he finds me a heart-shaped rock, he is more excited than I.  He says our blessing at every meal and blows kisses up to the heavens.  He is respectful and well behaved, very wise beyond his years and so kind and loving. 
Selfishly and regretfully, he has experienced many things that children his age should never go through.  He has wiped away my tears many times but tells me several times a day just how much he loves and how good I am to him. 
I've always heard parents say 'you never really know love until you have a child'.  I can honestly say that is the truest statement I've ever experienced.  I had never felt such an intense range of emotions as when I became a mother.  The deepest, fullest, strongest love I have ever know, the most heavenly sense of pride as I watch him thrive, the most fierce fears, the intense desire to protect him.  It's nearly indescribable.  My life has changed completely because of my son.  He is the most peaceful, satisfying, prideful, truly, completely happiest part of my world.  I love him more than words could ever describe.  I could not be more blessed to be a mother, especially a mother to a wonderfully caring and thoughtful little boy as my son.  Everyday, I am so very thankful that God gave him to me and I am completely honored to be his mother. 

Day #1

Two years ago, in November, I wrote about what I was thankful for each day.  I have decided to do it again this year because I have so much to be thankful for!  So much has changed, just in the last year.  Today I have been trying to decide just which blessing I will write about on my first entry for this year and let me tell you, it's been truly hard to decide.  But I must give all my thanks to the good Lord.  He wakes me up every morning, He surrounds me with the absolute best family and friends I could ever have, He loves me, forgives me, provides everything I need in this life and thereafter. 
He gave me my son and keeps him healthy and happy and thriving.  We have a roof over our head and we are fed.  He gives us beautiful leaves on the trees and gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, especially this time of year.  Many times, I get down and my faith will waiver, but I continue to pray and He always provides.  He has carried me through the roughest of storms and picked me up off the floor when I was on my knees sobbing and crying.  He kept me strong when I was weak and lonely and reminded me of what was really important and worth the strength to carry on.
So, thank you Lord, on this first day of November, for my son, my family, my bestest friends,  my home, my career, the past, the present and for the future.