Wow!  Can you believe that today is the last day for this meme?  Crazy!

Today I just want to say I am thankful for all of you who have participated with me this month.  I am glad I wasn’t doing this all by myself.  This is just one of those things you start and just never really know how it will turn out.  I am glad so many friends have joined in.  It has been a joy to read about all of the things you are thankful for and to express my own gratitude daily.  I really think it has helped me to change my outlook.  Things haven’t seemed so gloomy, despite all the things happening in the world.  As I have pondered all of the things I have been grateful for, I realize I am truly blessed.  I can feel the love that my Heavenly Father has for me and that He truly cares about all of the crazy things in my life.

I still have so many other things that I am grateful for that I never got to mention this month.  I will just have to find a way to incorporate them into the Holiday Bliss meme for December.  It should be fun to try.

Tomorrow starts a whole new meme and I think it will be loads of fun.  I love the holidays and this time of year.  I can’t wait to see all the neat things you each do with your families.  Maybe I will find some new traditions and some great inspiration for our homeschool.  I always want December to be a fun month in our homeschool.  I haven’t been able to make that happen the way I envision.  I hope to pull it off this year.  Perhaps this new meme will  help me keep my focus and inspire me to keep trying.

Thanks again for all of the gratitude posts and encouragement.  It has kept me going in so many ways.  I really appreciate each of you and your willingness to participate and share.

Today, I am thankful for each of you.  Thanks for making me smile.

What are you thankful for today?

Today I am grateful that my first Sunday in Nursery went perfectly. For a first day, it was like a dream. The kids all responded well to me and the changes I made to the program. I had prepared a schedule for us and the kids loved having one as much as I did.

At the beginning of our 2 hour time together, one of the children asked me if they could have snack. He asked because I had the bag that held them and was putting it up. I commented that we would have a snack later. One of the other ladies that was helping me today told him that we would have snacks right before it was time to go. I immediately took charge and nicely commented that I had made a schedule and we would have snacks after music time. She said they had done things this way for the past 10 years. I sweetly smiled and said that I had made a schedule that we were going to be using each week.

Apparently, I changed things a lot. LOL! We only played with toys for the first 25 minutes. I told them they could choose one toy at a time and if they wanted another, they could trade it. That was new. But it worked well. Clean up time went quickly and we moved to Music Time for the next 10 minutes. After that we had our snack and lesson. We learned about being grateful and saying thank you. We talked about the 10 lepers and how only one man told Jesus thank you for healing him. We then talked about all of the things we were thankful for and how our Heavenly Father has blessed us with everything.

After that, we went for a short walk. This was also very new. I wanted to get the kids out of the room for a few minutes. I told them that we had to be very, very quiet so that no one would even know we were out of nursery. I also told them they had to hold hands while we walked. They were so very good. I was so proud of them. They enjoyed the walk and getting out of the room for a bit.

When we returned, we had story time. I read them a couple of books. They really enjoyed that and wanted me to read more. I told them we would read more next time. From there we did some activities. We did some finger plays and then played with my parachute that I had brought from home. They totally loved that! I can see it will be a regular activity each week.

After that, we moved back to our table and colored some picture sheets that went with our lesson. We talked about all of the things we were thankful for again and practiced saying thank you. Then we spent some time playing with the play dough I had made for them and working with some puzzles. At about 5 minutes before it was time to go home, we cleaned up our puzzles and put them away in our closet. Then I blew bubbles for them to try to catch while we waited for their parents to pick them up.

It was fun and a great first day. There were comments by my helpers on how well it went today. I think it all just happened because I homeschool and had previously led a preschool. It is amazing how those skills come in handy later on. I am thankful that it went so well.

What are you thankful for today?

Today I am grateful that I am a girl. Girls just *get* things that boys don’t. I don’t say that to be mean, as I am sure that there are just as many things that we girls don’t *get* that are boy things. I am just saying that I am grateful that in His ultimate wisdom, that God made me a girl.

I grew up as a tomboy. I loved to get dirty and climb trees and ride skateboards. I liked racing bikes with my friends that were boys. I was known to win more than one arm wrestling match. But I also liked playing barbies with my cousins and playing dress-up and pretending to get married. I loved my dolls as well as my trucks.

Now that I am grown, I still like certain things that many would consider boy activities. I love hunting and fishing and camping. I would rather mow the lawn than do dishes. But I also love to have my hair done. I love having my toenails painted a particular shade. It makes me feel girly. I like being romanced and I love to dance with my husband. I like long bubble baths and manicures. I like to feel pretty.

I like talking with my girlfriends. All of them…whether online or in person or on the phone. I like smelling good. I like to be clean. I like dressing in fun clothes and I even love finding that perfect shoe. I like things that are shiny. I like having a door held open for me and being treated like a lady. I like watching romantic comedies even though I also like to watch shoot-em-up-blow-em-up movies too. I like being called Mom. I like that I can hug someone and no one thinks anything about it. It’s a girl thing.

I like that even though some of my friends that are boys won’t understand all of this, that my girlfriends will. You ladies will totally know and understand what I mean. Being a girl is awesome. I am thankful that I am a girl.

What are you thankful for today?