Color me thankful....

We are counting our blessings here at the Carter home. ......humble yourselves even unto the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye may live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you. (Alma 34:38) I have been pondering on the many, many blessings that I receive daily. Sometimes, when life gets difficult, it is easy to only notice the hard things. I keep a journal that I write down things that I am blessed with so that I can go back and read them when I feel like things aren't going my way. I also try to write down where I have seen the Lord's hand in my life. These are a few things that I have been thinking about lately............... It's been raining here in AZ the last couple of days. The smell of the rain in the desert is something amazing. It smells so wonderful. The weather is a little cooler and it feels fabulous! Cleetus has left me....and he took his kooky son, Billy Bob with him....... Craig is back with beautiful new teeth. Billy Bob has promised to visit, but Cleetus says he is never coming back. My Craig is such a wonderful man. I love him for all that he is. He works so hard to provide for his family. He totally cracks me up. He has little nick-names for me (and everyone else, for that matter...). My favorite..."Yerma". It's short for "your my wife".

My children never cease to amaze me. They inspire me to be a better person. They absolutely bring so much joy to my life. Their personalities are all so different and unique. I am eternally grateful for each one of them. My life is richly blessed because of them.

Even though they do naughty things when I am not here......

Like this magic marker fight that Mark and Ragan got into one day. Each one declared themselves the "winner".

I am very thankful for our home. It is comfortable with plenty of room for all of us, plus more. It makes me feel so good when it is packed with family and friends.

We had a small group for dinner yesterday. Justin was here with us. His family went out of town. We also had the missionaries here. Elder Horrocks is still here after 6 months. We are glad because he is so fun. We have a new missionary...Elder VanWagoner. He has only been out for 3 weeks. We were supposed to have some other people on our guest list but when they found out the missionaries were going to be here, they decided not to come. It made me feel so bad. These young men are away from their families. Sometimes very far away. Please, if you ever see a missionary...say hello. Don't be afraid of them. All they are doing is sharing the sweet message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They love to talk to everyone and anyone.

Here are all the kids playing a game.....

Elder VanWagoner played the piano for hours. Since we are more of the singing variety in this house, it was a nice change to hear beautiful music coming from our piano. We are what I call "plunkers" when it comes to piano playing. :)

In preschool, Our little Thanksgiving feast went off without a hitch. Most of the kids liked the food. Of course there are some that don't like to eat much, but I have come to expect that. On the menu we had,

Chicken legs (our turkey)

corn (Squanto taught the pilgrims how to plant corn)

corn muffins with butter

dried fruit (we talked about how the pilgrims did not have refrigerators and they had to have a way to make their food last through the winter)

and of course, pumpkin pie.

The children came dressed as a Pilgrim or an Indian.

The children set their own place at the table.

It was so fun. I am grateful that these little children are in my life. They bring me so much happiness. They each have fantastic parents that I proudly call my friends.

I am also thankful for all the friends that I have made here in Blogland. Thank you for "visiting" me and saying such kind things. It has really restored my faith in human nature!

And, you should all be happy to know that our $20 washing machine is working famously. It actually spins the clothes so well that the drying time is so much less than before!

I am so thankful that the price of gas has gone down. I can't believe how much! Here the cheapest I have seen is $1.79/gallon. Now I can finally fill the suburban for less than $100! It hasn't had a full tank in I don't know how long!

Of course there are many more countless things that I am thankful for. I hope I will always be worthy of my blessings.

Have a fantastic day!