Covered Wagons and Chaos

So I left my kindle at the nail salon last night while getting a mani pedi.  All last night I felt like I was cut off from the world.  Sure I had my iPhone and my laptop and Daddy playing cards iPad and laptop and iPhone and Little Queen's tablet and the other kindle we let the kid use...but still.  Can we take a moment of silence for my First World problems here?  I mean, really, I didn't have the Kindle Fire that I prefer to use because I left it at the nail salon while spending almost $100 on a mani/pedi combo.  What has this world come to.  But all is well, I got it back when they opened this morning.  That is after Daddy made fun of my for my world devolving into covered wagons and chaos without my Kindle. 

In all seriousness, lets take a moment to be thankful for how truly wealthy we are in this country.  I may not be a 1%, but my goodness we are wealthy according to world standards.  We have not one, but TWO working newer cars.  That we can easily afford to put gas into.  And we have never worried about going to the grocery store., or paying the cable bill or any utilities for that matter.  Sure we have debt but in the grand scheme of things its really not the end of the world.  We don't have so much that we are drowning in it like some Americans we read about.  We didn't need to be bailed out of our mortgage or risk losing our home a few years ago.  Yes I really wanted to move a few months ago and was sad that we missed out on it.  It was a learning experience. 

I took that learning experience and turned into something positive, something to be thankful for.  I learned that there really is a big difference in what realtor you pick and that Realtors DO make or break the sale of a home.  I learned that if it is not the right time to move, then it won't happen, and I learned that even though I THOUGHT I had been patient for 12 years with this house, I truly hadn't been patient enough.  So this year I am teaching myself to LOVE the home I am in, not to just be OK or satisfied with it, but to love it.  LOVE where I am at, because this place is not just a house, it is my HOME.  As part of this little endeavor I took on the task of being thankful for something different everyday.  It can be a person, or a thing, or a place, or an article, anything, just no repeats.  For an entire year.  Its only March and my task has turned out to be daunting already.  Daddy may be correct when he mentioned chaos today because that is what my life feels like sometimes. 

In the past three months I have been thankful for my neighbors and my facebook friends, my doggie cuddles, and late night text messages from my out of town hubby.  I've even found myself thankful for a random hi from a neighbor when I was having a bad day.  Its easy to be thankful for good books and warm cups of steamy chai tea.  It is NOT so easy to be thankful when three out of four of your kids are sick and the fourth one is crabby and crying and a baby and doesn't understand why mommy has a migraine and daddy is in New York and no one will hold her.  Its not so easy to be thankful when your own parents won't return your phone calls over religion that has been warped and diluted and not in any way Christ-like in the first place.  But, I push forward because I must.  For my daughters.  To be the role model for them and not the oppressor against them.  To use the good things from my parents and throw away the bad. 

So in this Wealthy First World that I am raising my girls, I WILL raise loving, thankful, thoughtful daughters.  Daughters who praise, daughters who cherish, daughters who are thankful for what they have, not who are constantly wanting for more.  Daughters who can be happy and praise and encourage their friends without being jealous.  Daughters who can strive for their best and achieve their goals while still maintaining their morality. 

So if it takes Covered Wagons and Chaos to get there, so be it.  You can have my Kindle (but get your hands off my yarn...)