Happy Thanksgiving

I am looking forward to a wonderful day filled with family and food and football! Hope no broken bones are thrown into the mix.

I am also thankful for

cute turkeys

holidays

electricity

air conditioning/heating (I remember hauling wood as a kid)

baby laughter

hot breakfast

Christmas music

literacy

digital cameras

my hair straightener

freedom

good books

my talents

letters from Nate

when Ryan sleeps in

a clean kitchen

the gospel of Jesus Christ

all 5 of my senses work

my glasses (okay so that sense needs some help)

homemade strawberry jam

My Children

I can't believe I have gone most of November listing things I'm thankful for and haven't mentioned my children yet! I am so grateful to be a mother! Hannah, Nikki, and Ryan are three of the greatest blessings in my life. I am very grateful for my children. My beauties!
Our little genius

After school today, the girls just couldn't seem to get along, so I sentenced them outside to play and take care of Ryan together. What do you know -- all three of my grumpy kids got happy really quick.

(By the way, in the background is the little blue sporty car that I squished backing out of the driveway earlier this year. He's still parking in the same spot on the other side of my driveway -- doesn't seem too smart to me!)

Cooking Skills

I'm grateful for the ability to cook. My grandparents were amazing cooks. Granddaddy White served as a cook during WWII. Those were some lucky soldiers. And we were lucky to be served every Sunday afternoon by him. Grandma White made the desserts and fruit salads and sides. Oh, such good food! I loved Grandma Bass's chicken and dumplings, apple pie, potato salad (and I didn't even like half of the ingredients she put in it, but I loved her potato salad), strawberry shortcake, and she always had homemade bread and strawberry jam. I loved that! My mom was a good cook too, but she was so busy that eventually she would have Kellee or me make dinner before she got home. We ate a lot of Hamburger Helper, tuna casserole, spaghetti, and even Spam casserole sometimes. But I did learn how to cook the basic things to be able to take care of a family. I have since learned how to make bread, pies, more complex meals, and a variety of other things. I absolutely love the Everyday Food Storage website. If you haven't checked it out, it is definitely worthwhile. I was going to go to the store tonight to get a couple of things we are running low on, but then I decided I really didn't want to, so that meant I needed to make graham crackers to make a graham pie crust instead of buying either the crust or the crackers at the store. I got the recipe from that website. It's really not that hard since I've done it a couple of times before, and it's fun to be able to make it. In other pinches (can you tell I hate going to the grocery store?) I have made my own cream soups, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and cool whip. That's just what I can think of from the top of my head right now. Oh, we made milkshakes for our family night treat last night with no ice cream -- and they were really good! I have a lot of fun in the kitchen, and I'm grateful for that, too because it seems like I spend a lot of time there!

Friends and Family Traditions

It's getting late, and I want to read a little more before I go to bed. I actually got into a book today that I've been trying to read for a couple of weeks but haven't had time to sit down for it. And after I got into it I put it down to finish the laundry! I was so proud of myself. Anyway, yesterday I didn't get to post because we were pretty busy during the day and then some friends invited us over for dinner. It was really fun, and I am grateful to have good friends.

I am also grateful for family traditions. I'm too tired to make the post that I really should about this one, but we think a lot about traditions during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. However, they are important throughout the whole year. We have traditions surrounding birthdays, summertime, Sundays, Halloween, snowfalls, vacations, and thousands of other occasions. They are all important and help define who our family is and what we do. My aunt Nell sent me an email of my Grandma White's potatokin (sweet potato/pumpkin) pie, which is one of my all-time favorite holiday recipes. It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving and Christmas without that. I'm even going to try to cook my sweet potatoes this year instead of using the canned stuff. I've only done that once before and I ended up with lumpy pies. Here's crossing my fingers. We might have to take a quick trip to Nell's house Thursday night if it doesn't work out!

Answered Prayers

After almost three years, we may finally be saying goodbye to our yellow house. That's how long we have been trying to sell it. As of today, we have a signed contract. Of course, nothing is final until closing and there actually are a couple of issues to work out. But, this is the closest we have come to a sale, and it seems like we have been trying to sell it forever. I took this picture a few months after we moved in. I can't believe how little the girls were. We really loved living there, so surprisingly this feels kind of bittersweet. Well, okay, it's more sweet than bitter. We have prayed long and hard for this because it is what is best for our family. Today I'm grateful that the Lord answers our prayers on His timeframe because His plan is so much better than ours. We have learned many things in these years that we wouldn't have learned if we had sold it when we first put it on the market. We're going to have milkshakes for lunch to celebrate!

Dessert

I'm grateful for yummy desserts! Tonight will probably be popcorn, but I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner next week. Of course I love the turkey and potatoes, but I can't wait for the pumpkin pie. And I'm going to make a No Bake Chocolate Cheesecake, too. Haven't ever made it before but it sure sounds good. Here's the recipe I've had for years but haven't ever tried. I'll let you know next week how it turns out.

No Bake Chocolate Cheesecake

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup sugar
11 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups whipped topping
1 graham cracker crust

In a small microwave-safe bowl place chocolate chips. Microwave on high 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until chips are melted and mixture is smooth when stirred. Set aside to cool. In large mixer bowl beat cream cheese, sugar and butter until smooth. On low speed blend in melted chocolate. Fold in whipped topping until blended; spoon cheese mixture into crust. Cover; chill until firm. Garnish with whipped topping and some shaved chocolate.

Gratitude

"Like the leprosy of yesteryear are the plagues of today. They linger; they debilitate; they destroy. They are to be found everywhere. Their pervasiveness knows no boundaries. We know them as selfishness, greed, indulgence, cruelty, and crime, to identify but a few. Surfeited with their poison, we tend to criticize, to complain, to blame, and, slowly but surely, to abandon the positives and adopt the negatives of life.

A popular refrain from the 1940s captured the thought:

Accentuate the positive;
Eliminate the negative.
Latch on to the affirmative;
Don't mess with Mr. In-between.

Good advice then. Good advice now.

This is a wonderful time to be living here on earth. Our opportunities are limitless. While there are some things wrong in the world today, there are many things right, such as teachers who teach, ministers who minister, marriages that make it, parents who sacrifice, and friends who help.

We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues." (Thomas S. Moson, "An Attitude of Gratitude," Ensign, May 1992, 54)


I think I have been blessed even more just by this act of writing down something I'm grateful for everyday. My attitude has improved, and I have felt happier over the past couple of weeks. No trials have disappeared, I don't have roses magically growing in my flowerbeds. But the more I look for things to be thankful for, the more I see them all around me. So today, I'm thankful for the blessings that come from gratitude.

Temple

I am grateful for the temple and the many tender blessings it has brought to my life and my family.

That's Pretty Big

Yesterday got a little crazy, and I didn't get a chance to post, so here's two things I'm thankful for today. Nikki and I found this leaf on a walk a few days ago. A leaf bigger than my head?! It was pretty impressive. I'm grateful for Heavenly Father's creations. They are amazing.

And, those are some pretty big shoes to fill, Little one. I think I've already said I'm grateful for the husband Nate is, and I'm also grateful that my children have a father whose shoes are worth trying to fill. And of course, I'm grateful Ryan didn't break his neck trying to walk in these.

Mom and Dad

I am so grateful for my parents. I love them, and I am still learning from their lives even after they have been gone for all of these years.