- We’re in the never-ending process of looking for a new apartment. (Thankfully, our time in this one is not quite spent.) And I’m peering into every possible new home aching for one thing (really, two): a washer and a dryer (Not shared! Not requiring correct change!). Yesterday, after walking the courtyard steps (up and down) with August and our laundry load over and over and feeling the bitter rise up my throat, I was reminded that doing the laundry with my two-year-old is kind of fun. If we didn’t have to leave the house, he would never know the joy of stuffing the darks into the front loader. He wouldn’t look forward all week to pushing the one chair in the building’s laundry room up the three washers before us and meticulously pulling quarters out of the Ziploc bag. He wouldn’t have to feel his way into placing each quarter into the slit over and over until he can push the button and hear the machine begin. He loves it! So I’m going to try to be thankful for it (until I can move into a place with its own washer and dryer).
- My beautiful, elegant grandmother, “Cotton,” turned 88 years old yesterday. We talked on the phone about how hot it is in Dallas and how she got to eat homemade banana pudding in celebration Sunday afternoon. How many thirty-year-olds can claim all four of her grandparents still living, even as they all near ninety? It’s remarkable. I’m thankful.
- Sometimes I look over at my husband, sitting beside me on the couch, laptop resting on his legs the same as mine and I think how good our life is, and how simple.
- Today I sang 11 different verses to “Daddy’ll be coming around the corner when he comes!” my new tradition with August as he stares out the window for large chunks of time, hoping to catch a glimpse of his father coming home from work. I had a moment while we were singing when I remembered how Romantic the idea of “work” was to me when I was small and remembering that longing for Dad to arrive, how long the wait can feel, how sweet the reunion.
- On Sunday afternoon, while August played on the bed around us, Chris said, in one of his existential moments, “August, where did you come from? Where did you live before you showed up here with us?!” August thought for a minute and answered, with utter sincerity, “Space.” “Space?” Chris asked. “On a rocket.” August said. Well, of course. If you’re going to just arrive on Planet Earth from somewhere, it’s most logical that you would come from space on a rocket. I’m thankful that my child is logical.
I know I say this every week, but come on! Someone out there is thankful for something…and I’d really love to know what it is.
i am thankful for my adult children and their love for me…. their humor.
i am thankful that god keeps pursuing me no matter how much i tell him i wil hold my own hand……
I am thankful for YOU!
I am thankful that during the summer my kids have been so worn out by all the swimming, playing, skipped naps, and late nights that they’ve taken to stumbling out of their beds at 7:30 AM (they’re not allowed to get out of bed until then, but they don’t seem to know that they ARE allowed to stay in bed PAST then)… anyway, they stumble out of bed and crawl into bed with me for the sweetest, most magical snuggling of all time. Best. Thing. Ever.
Micha! I read all your posts, even if I do not respond to them all. (Okay I don’t respond to many.) (But I have been sick. Tomorrow is the three week anniversary of not vomiting in…the previous four months. I am definitely thankful for that. I am thankful I don’t have stomach cancer, which everyone worried about for awhile. I don’t!)
I am thankful my ex-student from Brooklyn can take care of my cat and I have $30 to pay him. Also a book on Chicago and a list of things to do here since he just arrived. In a weird coincidence, he got into the MFA program at the Art Institute where Adam Levin teaches, and I think he is taking his class this fall…this feels like a few bizarre but good universes colliding. I am thankful he lives here so now I have sometime to talk to about writing and I can buy him a tea once in awhile.
I am thankful I am going to the farmer’s market with him and his girlfriend tomorrow. I have never been and it is in my neighborhood. Shameful! They are vegans so it is a good place for them to know about.
I am thankful I am taking my first vacation not involving a bridesmaid dress or a holiday with a dreaded relative in 9 years, and I get to see all of the Queeneys except Bob and his wife (we will just prank call them when they least expect it; but I get my Dad and both my little and my little little sisters). We’re Irish so we can’t really beach but I have not been to Cape Cod in years, AND my friend Corey is visiting for a day. How lucky am I? I have five days to work on my writing and cook my family meals. (Maggie is usually in charge of the salads, she is very creative. They often involve fruit.)
I am thankful that ex-student and girlfriend coming over will make me clean my apartment, because it really needs to be cleaned, and I am never motivated on my own. So I am just doing my spring cleaning in August.
I am thankful for your posts. There is so much negativity in the world-and my head-and hearing from you fills me with joy. Thank you so much; don’t stop! Now that I feel better I will post more. xocaq
ps sorry if there are typos in this, Henri P spilled Sprite on my keyboard and sometimes it makes letters appear that I did not type…
Ah, CQ! So happy to hear from you and so thankful you’re getting better. Just the vague details I’ve gotten of your never ending stomach yuck have made me worried. Things sound good. I understand Henri P’s Sprite spilling. August spit up on my computer a year and a half ago and everytime I type an 0 it also types a -. Not cool, cat and child.
Have a wonderful vacation with the fam! Wear sunscreen! Enjoy the farmer’s market! Give Henri P a kiss from me! And let’s have a real email catch up sometime. Love!
I’m thankful for great friends who live in cool cities with a super comfy air mattress! Thanks for having us
You are not on yahoo anymore…what’s your email? I’m [email protected]. Tried to send you a message but it was sent back. xo
August is hilarious. Also, know that I am slightly envious of his awesome speaking skills.
I am thankful that my son got the last summer speech evaluation appointment. I feel a million times less worried, just taking that first step.
I am thankful that yesterday, after a day with a chest full of weird dread and sadness (feeling a bit lonely) and wrestling with a bout of SAHM angst, I breathed a prayer to our good Father…and felt the heaviness lift away. He is so good .
I am thankful to have a little project for August (August Break) on my blog. We have several weeks before preschool begins, and I was dreading these child-care-free weeks, but now I have something fun to direct my attention towards.
And MOST of all, I’m thankful that my mom and dad are taking my son for the weekend! His first weekend away with grandparents! My mom is thrilled but obviously no one is more thrilled than ME.
I’m 31 and have both of my paternal grandparents still here (my maternal ones died before I was born) and my husband’s grandparents are also still living. My grandpa is probably one of my least favorite people, though, and I have wickedly wished him gone more than once. Maybe even threatened never to speak to him again. He’s just a difficult person, you understand. But my grandma, she’s a sweetie.
Hello again!
I have been on an internet fast, which was lovely. So I’m thankful for that.
I’m ALSO thankful for coming back to this blog and getting to read, all in one sitting, the Come, Holy Spirit hymn, your piece on why you are a Christian, and these sweet stories of parenthood. Moved, inspired, and moved again.
I am thankful for interesting and thought-provoking books.
I am thankful for unexpected days off from work.
I am thankful for a new commitment to healthy eating (and hopeful that a commitment to exercise can’t be far behind…)
i am thankful for my new niece!!!
i am beyond thankful that a dear friend can come off of bedrest and hopefully live the rest of her pregnancy with at least some activity!!!!
micha! i’m sorry i never comment. i have been reading though…
i am thankful for so many things these days…
- i am thankful that after all the studying and 80 hour work weeks and heartbreaking cases, i get to work in a place i love that has paper mache flamingos and bright colored walls and fun patients who make me smile daily. i also get to sit on my couch at night and put my feet up and read blogs and plan Italian vacations. God is good.
- i am thankful for old friends, because new ones are hard to find and depth takes so long to develop.
- i am thankful that beagles are so cute, because they are rotten puppies. Lila is no exception to this rule. her looks will save her life.
- i am thankful for thursdays. thursdays for me are like finding unexpected money in your pocket. except i know it’s coming… but somehow it surprises me every week.
- i am thankful for my husband’s dimples.
- i am thankful that i can run again. there is so much disappointment in injury. thanks to physical therapy and molly’s pilates suggestion, i will be back to the races in no time.
i really could go on and on. thanks for writing, Micha. it’s always good to hear your voice in your blog, even if we don’t get to talk super-often. love you!
waters
Hi Micha,
- I am thankful that you brought me my book from the pool 2 years ago and the words from Mother Theresa about darkness and light therein that rent my soul
- I am thankful for the gift of words that you have and I adore
- I am thankful for red-leather clad 80s coverbands called FLASHBACK HEART ATTACK and how much fun my comrade in dance and I had last night (oh to be 38….)
- I am thankful for the constant work of the Spirit in the lives of my friends, believers and not and how he draws them. I am awed just like all those years at Saranac this week as my dear friend is drawn to Him for the first time
- I am thankful for Amy and Lia who remind me of you each week and make me feel connected to your sweet family.
- I am thankful my husband straightened the fence posts
- I am thankful for science. and health. and the joy of making healthier lives for my friends.
Have a great weekend Micha!
I hate the heat. I was raised in a ski resort town where 85 degrees is burning hot in the summertime and we have to turn our air conditioners on and cool off on the couch. I don’t know how to deal with 105. Our air conditioning can’t even keep up with that so it never gets below 80 in our house during these triple digit days - ever! I’ve spent 7 summers now enduring the August temperatures in Texas, cranky and irritable because there is just no place to help us cool off. That is, until we purchased a blow-up pool from Albertson’s. Yes, Albertson’s as in the the grocery store. The past few weeks, we have been filling the pool every afternoon during hottest part of the day, donning our swimming suits, and sitting in the warm, grass-strewn water. Fortunately, we have a privacy fence because what a sight. The 2 and 4 year old make sense. However, Mommy and Daddy make it incredibly comical. Let me elaborate… the pool is blue with yellow, red and green trim. Kind of like what you might expect to see at the circus. It has a HUGE inflated rainbow arching over two connecting pools with a slide in-between. Again, it’s inflatable. I hope you are getting a picture of how horrendous this is. However, just when I start rolling my eyes about all 4 of us sitting in that pool with bathtub-warm water coming out of the hose every afternoon, I see how the faces of my little boys light up when they know Mommy and Daddy are getting in. My husband and I are able to talk - legs crossed around each other’s - with only a few interruptions, which doesn’t happen as often as it should. And I notice that I’m not so irritable when I’m immersed in the shade with my boys splashing beside me. It’s actually a little therapeutic. Someday we may be able to afford a house with a real pool. But I really wonder if, when that time comes, we’ll miss and remember fondly the afternoons together as a family trying to stay out of the heat. And so, I am thankful for our circus-themed inflatable pool and for memories that I hope will last forever.
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