Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 What we remember.

The First Thanksgiving  Jennie A. Brownscombe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 What it probably looked a bit more like.

Thanksgiving  Hongnian Zhang

 What our family Thanksgiving feels like.

Freedom From Want  Norman Rockwell

What it actually looks like, only bigger.

Thanksgiving  Dinner Colette

 My favorite part.

Thanksgiving  Doris Lee

 What I am most Thankful for.

Jesus Painting  Akiane Kramarik

Have a Blessed Day. Give Thanks!

And he commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass; and he took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes.

Matthew 14:19

 

Always Blessed,

Gretchen :)

31 Thankful Fors

Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God,
    and keep the vows you made to the Most High.

Psalm 50:14

<sup>Looks like we are commanded to be thankful and keep our promises made to our LORD. 

Here are my 31 thankful fors....</sup>

• I am thankful for my children.

• I am thankful they are healthy, vibrant, clever children that cause all kinds of disturbances and messes in my type A world^.

• ^{I am so thankful I get to homeschool some of my children.} 

• I am grateful the LORD has grown my relationships with my children since I began homeschooling and even through the hard days we are glad we can educate at home. 

• ^{Thank you LORD Jesus for providing me the courage to say yes and the materials needed for homeschooling.}   

• ^{Thank you LORD for our home. It is too small, the paint is peeling, the windows leak, the basement floods, and the garage is listing a bit to the west but, It is ours. We have made memories here and we have made a life here. It is warm and protects us and although I don't say it often enough, I am thankful for this messy house.}

• ^{I am thankful for our vehicles. Both are actually drivable and that makes my life so much more pleasant,}

• ^{I am so grateful for my husband's job. He works so hard for us and we are blessed because he can support our family and allow me to be home.}

• ^{I am thankful for our luxuries, like internet access and cable tv. They are not necessary but they are so very nice to have.}

• ^{I am thankful for my church family because they are living and breathing God's command to love one another. They are family in all sense of the word.}

• ^{I'm blessed to be given such wonderful friends in which to pray   with and fellowship alongside.  Thank you.}

• ^{Thank you for Your Word LORD. It is my manual for life. I am still amazed at the way You speak to me through it.}

• ^{Thank you for chocolate, coffee, and ice cream.}

• ^{Thank you LORD for providing me the motivation, funding, and knowledge to move our family to a more whole foods diet.}

• ^{Thank you for intrducing me to modesty, LORD. My heart is changing and it is because I finally see I am worthy of respect and love.}

• ^{Thanks for letting the skirt wearing thing be almost painless. :)}

• ^{Thanks for opening doors that should be opened and closing doors we should not be entering into.}

• ^{I'm grateful that you spoke of law tempered with love.}

• ^{I'm blessed to having good health. Thank you LORD.}

• ^{Thanks for the joint pain, it will keep me humble and asking for help.  It will allow me to enjoy every moment that is painfree  with true thankfulness.}

• ^{Thank you for the change of seasons! What a wonderful Creator that He sought to give us beauty so different and yet so divine in each of our changing seasons.} 

• ^{Lord God, Thank you for the Great Outdoors. Thank you for the creatures that crawl, walk, run, slither, swim, gallop, trot, and fly.}

• ^{Thank you for camping.}

• ^{Thank you for my parents and the faith they instilled in me.} 

• ^{Thank you for never letting us 'feel poor' growing up. Help me to teach that to my own children.}

• ^{Thanks for books. For reading. For all forms of the written word which can be used for the enriching of the soul.}

• ^{Thank you for snow days!}

• ^{I'm thankful for my sister and brothers. They are my closest friends.}

• ^{Thank you Lord God for my wonderful husband.}

• ^{I'm blessed that you put us on the same path together and that we can share the burdens and joys found on this journey called marriage.}

• ^{Thank you Lord, For bringing The Hubs and I closer together even though we are for a time living far, far apart.} 

 

 So they removed the stone. Jesus looked up and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me^."

John 11:41

         

^{Thank you Lord for hearing me.}

^{Always Blessed,}

^{Gretchen :)}  

A Day In the Life....

Today we spent time making bread, baking buns, and assembling quick mix meal kits. It was so warm and cozy in my kitchen working alongside my children. Measuring and mixing. Kneading and rolling. Waiting. It is so very hard to wait for that first slice of warm bread out of the oven! There were many misshapen hamburger buns but the outcome was still a lovely tasting concoction just begging to be cracked open and buttered. What a fine day inside.

Mixing the dough.

Kneading.

Princess Petunia helping knead some dough.

Beautiful!

Sir Bean adding raisins for a loaf of cinnamon bread.

Making some soup mixes.

We got to be a little creative making our 'fast food' mixes. 

This became Beef Noodle Mix.

A worthy days work!

Bow-tie Helper, Veggie Soup Mix, Lentil soup mix

And the reward for all the hard work! Nom!

While we were toiling away inside in our smallish, toasty-warm kitchen, outside it was windy and damp. The trees are all quite bare and there is such a starkness in the air. It smells of dirt and snow all mixed up together and we just wait for those thin bits of sunlight to break through the gray skies that permeate our November days.

"Have you ever noticed a tree standing naked against the sky,
How beautiful it is? 
All its branches are outlined, and in its nakedness
There is a poem, there is a song. 
Every leaf is gone and it is waiting for the spring. 
When the spring comes, it again fills the tree with
The music of many leaves,
Which in due season fall and are blown away.
And this is the way of life."
-   Krishnamurti 

I'm reminded that there is a season for everything and that we are called to appreciate it for what it is. Even dark and dreary days are beautiful to our LORD. 

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

1 There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

How was your Saturday? 

Always Blessed,

Gretchen :)

Princess Peony, the Photographer.