thankful for the little things

Last week was a long week!  I’m so thankful that my kids have been healthy overall in their first few years.  We’ve had the occasional cold and fever, but nothing major.  This week was the first time we’ve had a fever that continued to go high to the point I was worried for health and felt like there wasn’t anything I could do for him without taking him to be seen by the doctor.  Thankfully it still wasn’t anything serious, but we had a long week of fighting this bug and keeping the fever down as best we could.  Most days were spent at home laying low, the doctor’s office, or the pharmacy.  We watched movies, took extra naps, colored, and put puzzles together.  I’m thankful he’s almost back to himself, but we are still watching him get tired out by little things.

While I loved that I had the chance to take care of him and be with him while he was sick, every night I would go to bed and look around at our house and wonder how I was getting so behind on all of my daily things just from a few days of not being able to get to dishes, laundry, etc.

I know I’ve seen lists similar to this before, but I decided to sit down and write down the things that were overwhelming me at home, and choose to be thankful for the reason I even had these “problems.” I remember so vividly during the 5 years we struggled with infertility thinking to myself, “I hope I never complain about the little things like toys all over, or crying, or anything else if God chooses to bless us with children.”  I was reminded this week of all the blessings we have in our little ones. Here is the short list I came up with:

1. Dishes in the sink mean we have food to eat.
2. Toys to clean mean we are blessed to have those things and the children to play with them.
3. Laundry means we have clothes to wear and a family of 4 to wear them.
4. Food all over the floor and table means we have little ones learning to eat themselves.
5. Exhaustion at the end of the day means we have life and another day to have lived.
6. A messy house means we have a home to live in and a family to love.

This little list was just the reminder I needed of all we have to be thankful for.  We truly are blessed and sometimes in the middle of a long day or week we can lose perspective, but it’s good to reminded of the good!