GRATEFUL

Here's to you, Lindsay!

Monday night the male counterparts and I got together for family night and made this:

A Gratitude Tree!

We each had several little tags upon which to name any variety of things for which we find ourselves particularly grateful. I then oh-so-artistically hung them upon a dead tree branch, put the branch into a vase of very cheap/after Halloween clearance priced/quite stale but still lovely candy corns, and stood back to admire our new centerpiece.

All artistry was lost on said male counterparts. However, the humor of some of the tags was not lost on me. Check this one out, written by the one son who doesn't have a cell phone:

I also smiled at the entries "snow," "my laptop," "all electronics," and "girls" (complete with smiley face). And of course my heart warmed to read, "Mom and Dad," along with four tags printed with the word "family."

(I'll admit to being the one who did not join the crowd on that one, having already inscribed my tags with words like, "lotion," "new clothes," and "toilet paper." Yeah, I'm some sort of shining example...)

But the tag that really made me stop and think was this one, written by Michael.

Do you think there is a tag anywhere on those dried and withered branches that says, "My wife," or "The woman who makes me all those wonderful meals I eat, and irons all those clothes I wear," or even just plain "Keri"!?

And yet the dog made it up there.

Serious cause for reflection.

But, the truth is, although I would NEVER IN MY LIFE have chosen to put Sadie on any list of any thing I'm grateful for, I will admit that my heart--materialistic as it may be--was touched that Michael chose to do so.

And, though I don't have too many pictures to prove it, I think these next few photos are pretty representative of how all the fine fellows I live with feel about the dog.

(I stepped in poo yesterday, right after vacuuming dog hair off a white rug, so don't even think of asking me how I feel about the dog.)

But, truth is (enough with the truth already!) I, on my own, would never have given my husband something that would have made him a happy and grateful man, would never have allowed my children the fun they have with the fur ball, and would never go outside half as much as I do now. And that means I never would have seen things like this:

or this

or this

.

So, there may be reasons to be grateful for Sadie after all.
May be.

My husband says so.

If you haven't got all the things you want,
be grateful for the things you don't have,
that you don't want.

I like that idea. Time to fill out some more tags!