Thankful Thursday

Things found in my thankful notebook...

• "Chili's" bottomless chips and salsa
• Dominic's giant smile that swallows my heart whole
• Nathanael's growing vocab that makes our whole family laugh out loud:  we've decided that he's bi-lingual and speaks Hungarian most of the time and occasionally we catch a word or two of English
• A hotel get-away:  swimming for hours, vending machine snacks, Major League Baseball on the TV, a hot-tub right outside our door, Johnny Carino's Italian restaurant next door, free breakfast in the a.m., reading in the car while Natey napped
• seeing college kids who are clearly in love with the Lord at Mass
• the Eucharist, the Eucharist, the Eucharist!
• belated Birthday margaritas with girlfriends
• my two biggest boys on the pitching mound making mommy both nervous and proud
• the last day of school = less time in the car, more time with my boys
• growing buds in our garden that survived the May snowfall
• Wii weekends that teach boys how to share
• suppertime devotions (when we remember to do them)
• birthday gifts from my beloved:  hiking pants that zip off into shorts and new hiking shoes
• another handsome 4-eyes in our family (Joseph now has glasses, but he prefers to wear his contacts)
• finding a special rosary that had been missing for months (the one blessed by JPII and given to me from his very own holy hands)
• new glasses and a new prescription (thanks to my optometrist brother!) :)
• getting away for a haircut
• Mass and Reconciliation date with my boys, followed by a treat at the Bagel Company
• my "J" friends---Jenny and Jody---who help me add jewels to my crown and encourage me when I'm down
• boys with the garden hose
• boys running through sprinklers in their underwear without a care
• boys reading books from the library all afternoon
• an accomplishment:  weaning Nathanael from his beloved bottle...hurray!
• summer sleep-in schedule
• meeting friends at the park
• reading a good Catholic mystery book to the boys out loud before bed
• daily Mass on Tuesdays because Joseph got asked to be an altar server---what a joy to watch my son assist the priest, what a privilege to receive Jesus an extra time each week, what a challenge (I mean, great training opportunity) for me to teach Nathanael how to sit quietly in the pew!