Thankful

When I was in line at Barnes and Noble the other day, the book "14,000 things to be happy about" was staring at me from a book shelf along with the Lindt chocolates. I picked up the book and, randomly opened a page and immediately I saw on the left side of the page, "Portsmouth New Hampshire." I smiled-didn't need to read the book further than that. Yes, Portsmouth NH is a great reason to be happy. More importantly what this book is, is that so many things around us do and should make us happy. I'm not saying that I need to look for things that make me happy but there are many things that I take for granted. Like heat...and electricity...for example!

Well, during this insane ice storm, it is easy to look at all of the difficult pieces and complain, but what I choose to do instead is to look for and recognize the pieces of the last couple days that I have been extremely thankful for. When I was waiting in the semi-dark of my house last night waiting for Brendan to come back home, I took out my note pad and scribbled down these things in no particular order as I am equally thankful for all of them!

-After days of cold weather, Monday was a balmy 60 degrees. I opened up all of the windows in my house and the house quickly turned from 49 degrees to 56 degrees. Toasty!

-A boss who understands and has let me work abbreviated days and supported me with everything I needed to do.

-Mom and Dad Sevin who had us over from Friday night to Monday morning, who cooked us dinner, spoiled Cole to the point that he was saying he never wanted the electricity to come back on, helped with our laundry and even made us sandwichs to take to work on Monday.

-My Dad who grabbed the last power invertor and battery at Sears and helped Brendan in the freezing cold house on Saturday trying to get our pellet stove going....and then went back in the dark to try again.

-My Mom who made us dinner and offered to help with laundry and be with the children, and have us stay over.

-Our neighbor and friend Rob who kept us updated on the status of the house over the weekend.

-Many friends and family who called to see if we were OK and if we needed anything or had us over.

-The fact that we'll have a smaller electric bill in January.

-Extra time spent with Cole and Charlotte.

-No damage to our house, garage, or shed.

-The pipes were not frozen.

-The Christmas cards we received on Saturday and Monday and all of which made me smile.

-The fact that the Christmas tree was so much more fragrant in a cold house.

-That Cole and Charlotte were never cold or knew any hardship from these times.

-The Grace family who so wonderfully offered to lend us their generator and then helped us install it in such a manner that we have heat and running water and TV! : ) Without the generator we would not be home today.

I am so thankful, as this situation could have been worse for us, but due to so many people and wonderful hearts, it was not.