Forgive me, I’m going to post 90 minutes before 11/24 because I’ll have a house full of people tomorrow, for which I am, of course, grateful. A Happiest Thanksgiving to All Get Born fans! I’m thankful for each and every one of you. Now, on with the blog. . .
I’m a writer, but I don’t do fiction. My life has, for better or for worse, been too in my face for me to find need of fiction. So no nanowrimo for me this November. No, I went the Facebook route and posted a running list of things for which I am grateful. So, here is my list Nov. 1-24 with a preview of the last six days of the month. What are you grateful for?
Nov. 1: I am thankful I took Monday for a sick day and didn’t die in that Chicago hotel room on Sat night/Sun morning ’cause I thought I was gonna!
Nov. 2: Today I’m thankful for my patient, funny husband!
Nov. 3: Today I am thankful for so many opportunities and the fact that though my life has been hard at times, it’s NEVER been boring!
Nov. 4: Today I am thankful for that tingly good feeling I get when I throw away something that I know I don’t need and know no one else wants and I finally let it drop into the bin – tingles! Thanks trash tingles!
Nov. 5: Today I am thankful for the bond my children share with each other. I love to watch them have a relationship that doesn’t really involve me at all and know that they really do love each other, despite the bickering.
Nov. 6: Today I am thankful for time and perspective, the only things that really heal.
Nov. 7: Today I am grateful that I have a working toner cartridge and I don’t have to buy one! YAY!!!!
Nov. 8: Today I am thankful for my mom. Thanks, Mom!
Nov. 9: Today, as always, I am soooo thankful for coffee.
Nov. 10: Today I am thankful for my daughter, Moira, who stomps her feet and then her shoes light up, who whines about getting her hair fixed, then beams at herself in the mirror, who would give everything she owns to make someone else happy. She’s the hug warrior, the laugh giver, and the light of our lives.
Nov. 11: Today I am grateful for the job I left today and the job I start on Monday. I am humbled and honored to have been forced to choose between two great opportunities. I am very blessed.
Nov. 12: Today I am grateful for my husband as we will celebrate our 20th Thanksgiving together this month. Wow! Counting my blessings is making me feel so rich. Love you, Jim Adams!
Nov. 13: Today I am grateful for all the friends I’ve had over the years and the ones I’ll make in the years to come. I’m very fortunate to know so many interesting and caring people.
Nov. 14: Today I am thankful for my tenacity. Being a Taurus has its benefits.
Nov. 15: Today I am thankful for sleep and I want some!
Nov. 16: Today I am thankful for the little boys who came to our house to play w/ Liam. Football’s been all the rage at recess, and Liam can’t play (dr.’s orders) which has limited his social circle. Today he had lots of fun with five friends and it was awesome to hear him laugh and talk like “one of the boys.”
Nov. 17: Today I am thankful for all of the amazing doctors and nurses who saved Liam’s life too many times to count. When he’s making fart jokes and laughing his amazing little heart out in the back seat, I just sigh with superficial annoyance until the joy and gratitude bubble to the surface and give me the truest smile. For this I am grateful every day of his life and mine.
Nov. 18: Today I am thankful for my body that has made two children and fed at least four (I was once a dairy cow). In this time of Thankfulness, I pledge to treat my body better. It deserves it and so do I – leg up on the resolutions and leg up on the elliptical machine. 
Nov. 19: Today I am grateful for my four nieces and nephews who came before my kids and the many, many more who came after them. The early ones let me have fun being an aunt, and the younger ones taught me the continuing value of family and rediscovering the people I’ve known so long as they became parents themselves.
Nov. 20: Today I am grateful for the four kids I “adopted” off a blessing tree from the Salvation Army Angels Among Us program whose simple wishes for “A coat,” “Some sweatshirts,” and “Warm socks” remind me how lucky I am that my own children can ask for ridiculous things like yet another pillow pet because I have the means to provide what they need and can give them a childhood of wanting for things that some kids don’t have the privilege of requesting.
I hope these four kids have the most beautiful Christmas, and I’m glad I was able to get the littlest one the scooter he wanted and the middle one a Bakugan along with a warm coat, and the thirteen year old girl some “Drawing tools” and a sketch pad. I hope they each have a blessed Christmas and are some day in a position to give to others and count their own blessings because that would be the best gift of all. I am thankful they warmed my heart today, and I hope they inspire you to adopt a kid (especially a tween or teenager who gets left on the tree after all the little kids are picked up).
Nov. 21: Today I am grateful that I get paid to do something I KNOW I’m good at doing. That’s a good feeling. While I’d love to “just” be a writer doing my creative thing, even the most celebrated writers like Mary Karr and Toni Morrison have day jobs teaching. Besides, being a technical writer is not a bad gig! It keeps my brain sharp and I just learned all kinds of new tidbits about how storage systems work which make me more valuable.
Nov. 22: Today I am grateful for my absolute rage. The AHA has 26,781 elementary schools doing jump rope for heart right now and dozens of heart kids’ profiles online touting it. Yet they will spend 1.4 cents for each dollar of their $700,000,000 budget on the kids they use in 100% of their ad campaign. They might spend ten million dollars “broadly” (that means trickle down research not actual pediatric heart research) on CHD this year. I am grateful for my rage because I will never stop fighting for Liam or for other heart kids either. I AM A HEART WARRIOR, and I am grateful for my rage.
Nov. 23: Today I am grateful for technology – it employs me, entertains me, and brings out my creativity. Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow
Nov. 24: Today I am thankful for the opportunity to count my blessings and celebrate life. I’m also thankful to the amazing Heather Janssen who inspires me and gives me opportunities to share!
Nov. 25: Today I am thankful for my little turkey-sister Rhonda who grew up to be the most amazing mom and woman. (Don’t worry Megan-in-the-middle I’m thankful for you too, but today is not your birthday!)
Nov. 26: Today I am thankful for my publisher Lynn for seeing the potential in my book and guiding it to a finished work.
Nov. 27: Today I am thankful for the innocence of children, and that no matter how horrible the world and we adults get, somehow that innocence refreshes itself over, and over again.
Nov. 28: Today on his 103 month of life, I am grateful for my little boy who wasn’t supposed to live a whole month and almost didn’t. I pray for the grace to take every moment with the love it is given and put that love back into the world.
Nov. 29: Today I am grateful for the people who’ve left this earth but loved me while they were here. I’m also grateful that for all of their flaws I can still not only love them and feel their love but forgive myself my own rough edges.
Nov. 30: Today I am grateful that tomorrow there will be more things to be grateful for and that I will never stop giving thanks regardless of the month or day of the year.
Well said! Blessings to you and your family!