2013 Blue Jeans Week 46

This week . . . more basketball and busy life in general.  We are so looking forward to Thanksgiving here and the break.  It was a good week.  I have so much to be thankful for!  Here is a look at our week and blessings. . .

Love the sister missionaries from our church.  We try to have them over for dinner weekly, and this week one of them was moving on, so we had to get a picture to remember her by.  Great ladies who serve so well.  They bless our lives.  I am thankful for them.

One home game this week--one away game.  This was the home game, and Miss O did awesome!  I am slowly but surely figuring this basketball thing out.  I am thankful for a daughter that works hard, is willing to try something new, and for great coaches that encourage and teach.

If you ever wanted to find Miss E this week, you would find her with this book.  The Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan is one of our whole family's all-time favorites.  #12 The Royal Ranger just came out, and Miss E got it first.  She is almost finished with it and loving it!  I love how blue her eyes look in this picture.  I am thankful for good books and kids that love to read!

Mr J working on his homework after school today.  He is so good to get it done without being asked.  He is a hard worker!  I am thankful for hardworking kids and great teachers that inspire my kids!

Miss A had her cross country awards banquet this year.  This is her coach, who has been a coach for over 50 years.  He was my high school chemistry teacher and also my cross country coach.  He has since retired from teaching, but still coaches.  He is amazing!  Miss A had a great season, and she is ready for a break and then is excited for track in the spring.  He is also her track coach.  Again, I am very thankful for hard working kids--running cross country is not easy--and wonderful coaches!!!

Ben took the time this weekend to wash all the window screens (we have a lot of windows, this is only 1/2 of our screens) and then he washed every window in the house!  I am amazed to look out my windows now and see how clean they are!  I didn't realize how dirty they were until he cleaned them :)  I am so thankful for this amazing, super cute guy, for how hard he works to take care of us and everything he does for me--like washing all my windows!!!  Thank you so much and sure love you Ben!

So thankful for this past week!  So thankful you could visit and share it with me! 

I blog

Mondays--pictures from our week

Wednesdays--a favorite recipe

Fridays--focusing on my blessing this month and what I am thankful for

Come visit often!

I am linking up with The Mom Creative

Consider your blessings

     "We live in a unique time in the world's history.  We are blessed with so very much.  And yet it is sometimes difficult to view the problems and permissiveness around us and not become discouraged.  I have found that, rather than dwelling on the negative, if we will take a step back and consider the blessings in our lives, including seemingly small, sometimes overlooked blessings, we can find greater happiness.
     ". . .take an inventory of our life and look specifically for the blessings, large and small, you have received."

President Thomas S. Monson

The above quotes are the inspiration for our daily blessings/gratitude journals and for 2013 to be our year of Gratitude.  It has helped me a lot so far this year to look for my blessings especially when I become discouraged.  I am so grateful for this inspired counsel and for all the blessings, large and small, that I have received.  

Consider your blessings.

Grateful to be an American

Last week was Veteran's day.  I am so grateful to be an American and live where I do.  What a blessing.  I am so grateful for the amazing, selfless men and women who have fought and given their lives over the course of our country's history and for those that so valiantly serve today, so that I can enjoy the abundant freedom and life that I do.  May God bless those men and women and their families.  I am so grateful for you.

 Our town always celebrates Veteran's day with a parade on the Saturday following.  It is a good time to teach my kids about the blessings we have because of where we live and the many lives that were sacrificed so we can stand on a street corner on a cold November day and salute our flag and remember those who have served.

Seeing this huge flag carried by the men and women who serve and sacrifice for us always brings tears to my eyes.  We are very blessed.