Thankfulness - January 15

I don't know about this thankfulness post on Tuesdays. I thought it was a good idea to move my 2 weekly post apart and do them Tuesday/Friday instead of Thursday/Friday. But I keep getting to Tuesday and feeling like off about writing this one. Maybe I'm just like my son who doesn't like change at all.

1. I am thankful for the time to teach my girls to cook. There are so many home management things I've wanted to teach my girls, but with 7+ hours shut away in school, I didn't have the heart to pull them away from their very little free time. Now that we homeschool, we've got plenty of time. We put in a full day which is 3 hours of schooling interspersed with 3 hours of playing, so requiring ODD to spend another hour learning in the kitchen isn't an onerous burden for either of us. My girl made sloppy joes and our favorite homemade buns. Next time she wants to try the meal while I sit on a stool at the breakfast bar. I'm thankful for that, too.

2. I am thankful for art class and my husband working part-time because it means we get 2 hours to ourselves every week. We're trying to make it date time for us, and to that end today we're going to make a list of things we like to do together. I am thankful that we have this time each week without needing to arrange for childcare. It will go away once DH starts working fulltime, but we have it now and I'm thankful.

3. I am so very thankful for DH's smooth post-transplant journey. We have been so blessed with no setbacks or return hospital stays.

4. I am thankful for my calorie counting tool, Lose It. I need to be very careful about not losing weight quickly because that will send my porphyria into instability. I have been amazed at the sense of freedom calorie counting has given me. If I can't fit exercise into my day, I feel no guilt because just sticking to the calorie intake plan, I will lose the weight by November. I want to exercise more and I am working on that, but I used to just feel awful if I missed exercising for a day or 3 and now I don't. I also don't feel guilt about dessert. If I have the calories for it, I eat it and enjoy it. I am so thankful for the sense of freedom that it makes the work of calorie counting worth the effort. I have been so discouraged and unsuccessful in my efforts for 2 years that I am so thankful for the freedom and success I've experienced with calorie counting.

5. I am trying to be thankful, fully thankful, that DS is on track for getting this semester's work done on time and he has all A's and B's. We are a week away from finals and 2 weeks from the end of the semester. Historically this has been a HORRENDOUS time period. Yet this time for the first time ever, DS is on track and has good grades. I am thankful but unable to relax. I keep waiting for the snag to show itself, and I keep reminding myself to appreciate the situation. So I am trying to be thankful and I'm partially successful.