Thankful

Yesterday while my son was off playing in another room, he had his toys set up the way he does so that little knights were fighting a dragon, a dinosaur, or riding their horses, he called to me to say, "mom, sometimes I hear Deedee meowing at heaven in God."

I replied, "I know honey. I do too."

My husband and I picked the little Siamese colored patchy runt of a kitten out from the humane society right after we got married. She was our first baby. For thirteen years I've fed her, cleaned her litter box, enjoyed her snuggles, listened to her tiny meows and for thirteen years, for our entire marriage she's been a part of our family. She's always been in little Abe's life. She's always been his beautiful, softest in the whole world kitty.

Cats are very easy to tend to. Our dogs require considerably more attention. I am far from being a morning person and I can tell you that I regularly find myself going through the morning routine with several deeps sighs, maybe a few grunts, and the occasional, "gosh I need a vacation from life."

In the morning everything needs to be done all at once: feed the dogs, let the dogs out, feed the cat, get them all fresh water, feed the kid, make sure he's got pants on (my son would be a nudist if we let him), make my coffee, get myself ready for work, and shortly after waking up my husband arrives home from work and generally wants some sort of dinner. I've never been able to prioritize my mornings. Everything needs to be addressed right off.

For the past week and a half I lament not having to feed the cat every morning. I should be happy that I've one less chore to clutter my morning right? The few times I've taken out the trash I've almost teared up at not needing to clean the litter box out before bringing the trash to the outside bin. It's not that I miss cleaning the litter box exactly. But I'd rather have to clean the litter box for 100 more years and still have her here.

This morning while deciding if I should feed the dogs first or start rolling out some pizza dough for the pizza my husband requested first thing I almost let out the normal morning sigh, "oh so much to do." Then I realized that I am so thank-ful I have to feed the dogs. That simple chore just means they are still here, that our lives have been blessed by them. I'll gladly feed the dogs every single morning for 100 more years and have them a part of our family. (for the record "feeding the dogs" is one of little Abe's chores that he does pretty often but even then a great deal of supervision is required on my part (or he'd starve one of them) and it's still work)

It's like this with so many things in life. I mean, how many horribly annoying things does your husband (or wife) do on a daily basis? I bet you'd miss every single one of those annoyances if he or she were gone. I would. What chores do the furry kids or the rambunctious two legged kids require that you wish you could just hire out for? I bet you'd be glad to do that chore just one more time if you suddenly had to say good-bye (for whatever reason).

On this Thanksgiving I'm choosing to be thankful for all the annoyances, truly. Because I'm VERY thankful for the blessings in my life and I think of great deal of our biggest blessings come with a handful of annoyances. Those people at the family gathering today that bug the crap out of you (I may be speaking for myself here) wouldn't you be sad if you weren't to ever see them again? I'm going to try and be a bit less bugged today. I'm going to try and realize even more all that I am truly thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!