Tag Archives: thankfulness

30 Days of Thankfulness: Days 26-30

Posted in Faith, France, Holidays by

thankfulnessI have been rather busy this week and every night, by the time I get home, I have barely enough energy to put myself into bed. So my apologies for slacking so much on my thankfulness posts. I am still thankful for many things! So here are the last 5 posts of the month, all wrapped up nice and neatly in one simple blog post:

Holidays that revolve around family – Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter…it’s always fun to celebrate holidays surrounded by family (and family also includes close friends!). I’m once again thankful for being able to celebrate Christmas with my family in the States this year! It has been 2 years since I’ve seen most of them!!

Seasons – I LOVE seasons. In Florida our seasons are limited: there’s summer, hotter summer, and then if you live up north you’ll get a cold, dry winter for a couple of months in between a short autumn and an even shorter spring (literally less than 2 weeks). But where I live right now we have equal seasons! What a concept :) I just love seeing nature change constantly but slowly throughout the year.

Owning a car – You don’t really need a vehicle to get around over here in the Grenoble area, but it has been such a blessing to us to own a car this past year. We went for about 6 months or so without owning a car and I remember quite vividly having to walk to the train station every other week because half of the tram line was out of service during the summer. But now we have a car :) and we’re able to drive other people around as well, something that I have always loved doing since my freshman year at FSU when I was dependent on other people giving me rides. So thank You God for blessing us with a car!

Christmastime – I admit, we decorated our apartment for Christmas Monday night, the day after our first Thanksgiving celebration of the week. I will try to have that post up tomorrow hopefully :) I have already been listening to Christmas music since mid-November! I couldn’t stop myself after the first snow fell, but we abstained from buying a tree until this week so we could have 3 full weeks of Christmas decorations in our apartment before we leave for the States.

All of you readers! – And last, but certainly not least, I am very thankful for all of you who read and comment on my blog! I am thankful for the friends I have made and the conversations I have enjoyed having through the blogosphere. I’ve had this blog for nearly 2 years now, but until this year I didn’t really keep up with my posting but I am thankful for doing that now :)

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and a wonderful November! May the rest of your year continued to be filled with thankfulness and blessings :)

30 Days of Thankfulness: Days 24 & 25

Posted in Faith, Holidays by

thankfulnessYesterday and today I have been thankful for my family.

I know I already wrote posts for my husband and for my in-laws, but I am also very thankful for my loving and always supportive family :)

We are by no means a perfect family, but who would want that? No, our family is weird, quirky, sarcastic, and everything that is not normal! And I love that.

I’m thankful for my parents who have supported every single choice I have ever made, whether they agreed with it or not. There have been times that I will never forget when they gave me hope when I was feeling hopeless. They taught me the importance of working hard and not just expecting everything to come my way.

And I also have two great siblings who I miss seeing regularly. I remember all the under-the-table forts we used to make together and all the pretend games of school we would play. And even now, I love that we can tease each other about anything and everything (and we do!) :)

I’m very thankful that God has given me the family that I have, and I’m very very excited that I will be seeing them in less than a month for Christmas!!

Wedding

At our wedding 2 years ago :)

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 23

Posted in France, Holidays by

thankfulnessToday I am thankful for my in-laws.

Tomorrow (really, that’s already today for me), we’re having a Thanksgiving feast with my husband’s family. And it really is going to be a feast; if all goes as planned, we’ll have turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, cherry pie, and my mother-in-law made a zucchini casserole, too (so France could be represented as well!). I know that is a whole lot of food for 8 people, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I couldn’t part with anything on the menu.

I’m thankful for my in-laws for so many reasons, the least of which being that they wanted to be apart of our Thanksgiving celebration and that they graciously paid for all of the food (my mother-in-law said that she’d rather pay for it than cook it haha).

But besides that, my in-laws have lovingly welcomed me into their family. And I’m not only talking about my husband’s parents, but his brothers and my sister-in-law as well. All of them have done so much in helping me adjust to living in France; there’s no way I could adequately thank them for that. I would honestly be lost and miserable if Matt and I had chosen to live in another region of France, one that was on the other side of the country where we couldn’t spend time with his family like we’re able to here.

I can’t wait to celebrate my favorite American tradition with my favorite Frenchies tomorrow, and I hope they enjoy the day as well :) Now off to bed because I have to rise bright and early to butter up the turkey!

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 22

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thankfulnessToday I am thankful for food!

On Sunday we are having a Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws and therefore I spent a good couple of hours this afternoon getting all of my recipes in order and creating a shopping list for tomorrow.

I am so thankful that God has provided the food for our Thanksgiving feast, and more importantly that he has always provided food for myself and for my family. I am grateful that I have never had to go hungry, and I pray that God helps me to be more mindful and compassionate to those who do go hungry.

Furthermore, I am thankful that Jesus is our ultimate sustainer:

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” [John 6:35]

30 Days of Thankfulness: Days 20 & 21

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thankfulnessToday I am thankful for internet and for patience.

This week we were in the middle of switching our internet providers. Yesterday after I got home from work I tried to go online, but to no avail. Our internet was out all night, and we were told it might be out until the 23rd.

Writing this out now, it all seems so trivial…but I was pretty upset to be without internet, especially since that was all I wanted to do after getting home from a long day of work.

Obviously I needed a lesson in patience, something I am very grateful for, because clearly I have no self-control.

This isn’t one of those posts where I discuss a life lesson that I just experienced and I want to share it because I came out stronger on the other end. This is a post where I share something that I’m not doing so well in, but that I hope to become better at someday.

And I am thankful for that chance :)

Also, I am thankful for this video about delayed gratification, because this morning when I woke up to find our internet had been fixed already, I acted very much like Cookie Monster :)

<iframe width=”420″ height=”315″ src=”//www.youtube.com/embed/b_ubVVnWglk” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 19

Posted in Holidays by

thankfulnessI am thankful today for tomorrows.

It’s wonderful knowing that at the end of the day, I can go to sleep and wake up to a brand new day that’s full of opportunities and possibilities. Whether the day before was horrible or wonderful, it’s still comforting to know that the next day is a clean slate just waiting to be painted :)

What are you thankful for today?

30 Days of Thankfulness: Days 17 & 18

Posted in Faith, France, Holidays by

thankfulnessI missed yesterday’s post so you get a 2-for-1 today!

The past couple of days I have been thankful for good health and for living in France.

With the weather getting colder each day, several of my friends here have colds and thankfully I don’t! I usually get a cold whenever the weather starts changing, but not this time :) It’s not easy being a teacher while feeling under the weather, especially when you also have a horrible cough and a voice like the Wicked Witch of the West.

So thank You God for good health and well-being. And for any of you readers who are currently battling a cold, know that our God heals:

“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.” [Psalm 103: 2-4]

I am also thankful that I am here living in France. I love this country! Even though I have had difficult times over the last ~2 years adjusting to the culture and the language, I still love living here. This afternoon I was taking a walk around my town (something that isn’t doable where I’m from in Florida), and even though every single shop was closed (just like they are every Monday here), it was still so nice knowing that I can walk to a produce market and then stop at the library I just discovered by the Town Hall before buying bread at the boulangerie on my way back home. I love living in my quaint French village :)

What are you thankful for today?

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 16

Posted in France, Holidays by

thankfulnessToday I am thankful for my puppy!

For those of you who know me personally, you may be a bit surprised as to why it took me so long to post about being thankful for my dog ;) Matt and I love our Australian Shepherd as if he was our actual child, which may be normal for American standards but that is not very common behavior over here in France.

Han Solo (Solo for short) has brought so much joy into our lives and I am thankful for him every single day. And yes, he is named after my favorite Star Wars character!

And here are some pictures for anyone needing/wanting a puppy fix :)

Solo

He’s a little possessive…

Solo

…and he’s a scene stealer (he totally snuck up in this photo)…

Solo

…but how can you not love that dramatic puppy face!

Ok, ok…it’s clear enough that I love my dog :)

30 Days of Thankfulness: Days 14 & 15

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thankfulnessYesterday and today I have been thankful for my Bible.

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” [Psalm 119:105]

I am thankful that I not only have 24/7 access to my Bible, but that I live in a country where it is not illegal to own or read one. I am thankful for all the wisdom, peace, joy, comfort, and guidance I have found from reading God’s Word, and I am thankful for knowing that whenever I open my Bible I can find God there :)

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 13

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thankfulnessToday I am very thankful for friends. For many of us, our friends are more like family, and I definitely feel that way about my closest friends.

I am so grateful for the friends I have. Many of them have remained my friends through the good times and the hard times, and despite the thousands of miles of ocean that now separate us, I can still rely on them (and I hope they feel the same way about me!!).

“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” [Romans 12:10]

I love this verse because it encourages us to “outdo” one another in service. Friendship is not special because of what we get from it; rather, it is what we give to those we call our friends that truly makes friendship so meaningful.

Did this post bring to mind any of your closest friends? Tell them that you’re grateful for them! That’s what I plan on doing today :)