Thankful Thursday

This week I have been finding many things that I'm not thankful for.  Some weeks, it is very easy when Pyrope, Obsidian and I say our bedtime prayers to list things I'm thankful of happening in my life.  This week it was really a struggle at times, but at the same time, those are the weeks I really need to remember the good with the bad (or bitter with the sweet as I was told frequently as a child, "Ruby, you can't understand and appreciate the sweet unless you also have the bitter).  So in no particular order, here is what I'm thankful for this week.

1. Friends that have a sense of humor.  I was at a meeting and trying to balance money we collected for some events.  Things were not balancing, we kept trying and it was not coming out (this should have been the last "easy" step, as each event had balanced and now we were just making sure the totals were correct).  I then realized I was literally sitting on an envelope with money in it (I had put it there because it was the first event that was done, and I wanted to remember we had already completed that event).  We laughed.  Others would have been mad at me (as we had just spent the last 10 minutes trying to figure out what was happening).
2. Quite time for me.  Pyrope started preschool and Obsidian naps during the same time.  So I'm as close to "home alone" as I have been in years on a regular basis now.  And I'm loving it.
3. The physical location of my home.  When Jet and I were looking for a house, we wanted it within a mile of a library and at least a convenience store.  We are within a mile of those two, as well as being a 1/4 mile from the K-5 school our kids will most likely go to, slightly over a mile to two different grocery stores, 1.25 miles from Pyrope's preschool, a couple different playgrounds, a bike path, and a very nice park are also all within a mile.  Just as importantly, there are sidewalks that I can safely bike with the kids to do these.  So many people I know live where they are not within a reasonable distance or there is no safe way to travel that distance (although this was a very conscious decision of our as there were MANY houses we eliminated solely for the reason they were either too far from "things" or there was no sidewalks/safe way to access those places if you were not in a car).
4. Access to good medical care.  Obsidian's cut through his lip was a pain to deal with but if it was 100 years ago, neither the ability to stitch him up so he wouldn't have problems with closing his lips for the rest of his life or the antibiotics to protect him from infections while he was healing existed as they do now.  While this was an annoyance for a brief amount of time, it will soon be a fading memory, or just a story to share.  In the not that distance past, it could have been a life threatening or debilitating event.  To this day, in other parts of the world, this would be much more serious than it is.
5. The new Radian car seats I just got.  Car seat safety is a soap box of mine, so good car seats is always something I'm thinking about.  I also drive a smaller sedan, and really don't want to get a mini van.  I don't need the space for the most part.  I hate using more gas to move a vehicle the same distance just because it is bigger when I don't need bigger.  However, I'm starting to car pool more, so I've been needing to put 3 kids across the back seat.  And 3 car seats were not fitting across with my old ones.  I can do it with Radians.  As an added bonus, both Pyrope and Obsidian like the Radians.
6. My MIL's colonoscopy came back clean.  This is the first time since the first cancer diagnosis came that a new medical problem has not come up during a screening or procedure.
7. There were 3 days Pyrope and Obsidian slept in until 8 am.  This never happens.  I get excited when they sleep until 7.  Both of them sleeping until 8, on the same days, multiple times in one weeks is unheard of.  I have never been huge on sleeping in, but it has felt wonderful.