Gratitude List, Friday

Lined up in my freezer are 20 bags of chicken stock. I’m gearing up for the cold weather that’s suddenly upon us now in mid-October.  My kids have been sick already this school year, but not as much so as this time last year.

1. Thank you for my kids’ growing immunity.

We’re in Asheville visiting my inlaws this weekend. The drive yesterday was over 6 hours in the rain. While my husband drove, I used all my wits, plus every cheap drug-store toy I could grab, to repair my kids’  fraying morale in the back seat. We ate things we don’t normally have in our house, in all of its carbohydrate and sugary goodness.

2. Thank you for pharmacies that sell food and toys.

I overbooked my morning yesterday before our noon departure. Schedule denial rivals only caffeine as my most addictive drug. In three hours’ time, I woke, fed, and clothed the kids, took them to their schools, hit the store, filled the gas tank, went to the bank, came home, shut down the house, packed the family, and then made snacks and lunch for the drive before picking the kids up again. I didn’t have time to get in the hour of work I’d assigned myself for the morning. The night before I’d been up late working and had hoped for a little more polish on what I’d drawn. No time. I emailed my work to the architect I do consulting for. I wrote, ‘Here it is, more to come tomorrow.” When we got to my inlaws’, we got our overtired kids in bed, and at 10 pm I finally had a chance to check email. There was a note from my colleague about what I’d done. It read, “Looks good. Keep going.”

3. Thank you for advance work credit with an old colleague.

My son’s current obsession is pendulum clocks. My inlaws have three, only one of which works. My son runs from clock to clock, beseeching the nearest tall-person to open the glass door and get it going again. His cheeks jiggle when he jumps up and down in eager glee.

4. Thank you for my son’s name for clocks: “tick-tock time machines.”

My father-in-law’s hard of hearing. His phone ringer is turned up so high, you can hear it all over the house. It’s an exciting ring, kind of like an electronic cowboy song. As in hook your thumbs in your chap loops and kick your legs out from side to side. My mother-in-law yells “Get it! get it! Get it quick!”

5. Thank you for a husband who, upon hearing this ridiculous ring, joins me in pumping my devil-horn hands in the air like metal heads at a Motley Crue concert.

Amen.