Last weekend the last two healthy kids in the house finally succumbed to illness. I was forced to accept the fact that some well laid plans for this week just weren’t going to happen. I pouted and vented and got a little teary eyed. But my husband, rock that he is, gave me a pep talk that went something like, “Yes, this is unfortunate but we’ll work around it. Don’t let it get to you. You’ve been negative lately.”
WHAAAA?!
Of course my first instinct was to kick his sprained ankle, but I resisted. If my husband, who knows and loves me more than any one, is trying to calmly tell me that I’m been “negative lately”, it probably means I’ve been more like a bear for at least a month.
So I’m trying really hard to be more positive, accept circumstances and ask God for the grace to carry on. In that vein, here are seven things I’m thankful for this week.
(Note: I didn’t include things like God, or my husband or my kids because that stuff’s all a given. So don’t think because ‘the Blessed Virgin Mary’ isn’t listed, I somehow am less thankful for her than say, brownies.)
1. A bra that fits and is comfortable. Yes, it’s a neon blue sports bra from Target but I’m fine with that. I’ve accepted that five kids in 9 years means I will look like some lady from National Geographic. I’ve stopped trying to use under-wire to appear otherwise. It’s okay. My husband still finds me attractive and that’s all that matters.
2. Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Brownie Mix. I’d been getting sick in ways you don’t want to know about, so over Lent I gave up gluten. The good news is, I haven’t gotten sick. The bad news is NO GLUTEN. I quickly discovered that a lot of gluten-free products suck. Everyone in the house has sampled them and now, my kids make gaggy noises when I get out my “special” food. Thankfully I recently discovered that for twice the cost of a regular box of brownies I can make a much smaller pan of yummy gluten-free ones. They filled a dark, fudgey void in my life. Everyone is much happier now that Mama found good brownies.
3. Our township building inspector. I love you and I have brownies baking! ( I hope he’s reading this and will come out and inspect our new room so the contractor can start hanging drywall.)
4. Home Reserve furniture. I love this company. We bought a huge sectional from them years ago and it’s held up awesome. (No stains or tears with five kids-believe it!) Now that we’re rearranging the whole house, I was able to single-handedly take apart the pieces, move them and create three smaller sofas we can use in the rearranged space. We got a lot of physical education credits that day! BTW, Home Reserve, I can never remember the name of your company because it sounds like it should belong to a winery. You owe today’s link to my husband’s mad Google searching skills.
5. Take Your Child to Work Day. I had no idea how much quieter my house would be without the two oldest here. Especially since for the last month it’s been non-stop chatter about them tagging along with Papa on TYCTWD. I tried to point out that it’s always TYCTWD around here but I guess no one heard me.
6. My oldest son thinks I’m pretty. And no, he wasn’t trying to butter me up for something. I entered a ‘Mom of the Year’ contest ( for the $112K prize money) and was asking my kids what makes me mom of the year. First thing out of the boy’s mouth was “You’re pretty.” So even though I don’t have her followers, I got one up on Jen Piwtpitt.
7. Blog comment spam. Yes, it’s also annoying, but the spam comments I’m getting are in such broken English and are so irrelevant to my articles, I can’t help but laugh. These are my favorites from this week. Be sure to read like Balky from Perfect Strangers (or if that reference is lost on you, read like Borat.)
“I’ve joined your feed and look ahead to searching for extra of your fantastic post.”
“This subject makes me think of other things that happens to us every day, it makes me reflect a lot”
“This is very nice one and gives in-depth information. thank you very much for that extraordinarily first class editorial!” – on my post about Truck Balls among other things
“Extremely useful info specifically the last section 
I care for such information a lot. I used to be seeking this certain info for a long time, especially on escorts newzealand”
“Your writing taste has been amazed me!”
Check out all the other Seven Quick Takes and please, be sure to leave some uplifting comments of your own.
Reading the comments like “Peggy” from the Discover Card commercials works, too. “You inspire me!” (From the commercial with Lou Holtz).
Have a great weekend!
I feel that way about the spam comments too. Glad I’m not the only one!
Thanks Heidi and Jeanne! My post actually inspired my husband to go back and read through a bunch of old spam comments he’d received on his blog. We were up late laughing at the messages and the email addresses of the senders. Simple pleasures.
Those GF brownies are really quick and easy and good. And I finally saw truck balls the other day. Gross.
truck balls??