Count Your Blessings

When I was little we spent a lot of time at my grandparents'.  I remember watching Wheel Of Fortune while eating homemade pizza, tacos, hot dogs, or some other kid-friendly food that my grandma made for us.  She'd always add sugar to our cereal at breakfast time and I loved it!  She always had honey buns as well, because sugar in your cereal isn't enough, you have to have a honey bun to go along with it.  My grandparents had this yard filled with trees and bushes.  My brother and I would always imagine we were on some adventure (Imagine Lord of The Rings) with swords fighting some monster.  If it was cold my grandpa would build a fire, he'd scoop up some ice cream for us.  He had these cookies he ate every morning with his coffee.  We all called them "grandpa cookies" and he LOVED when we would come to him and ask, "Grandpa?  Can I, please, have a grandpa cookie?"  He'd smile at me, lean forward and pat his cheek with his index finger. I'd kiss his cheek and he'd hand me a cookie. There are so many memories of my grandparents, including my grandma's way of teaching us to be thankful for all that we had. I remember whining about something we wanted but didn't get one day while at my grandparents'.  Grandpa was outside working on something and grandma was listening to us complain.  She let us complain for a few minutes and then she started singing from the kitchen, "Count your blessings, name them one by one.  Count your blessings, see what God has done.  Count your blessings, name them one by one.  Count your many blessings see what God has done."  I won't lie to you.  I started giggling.  Having your grandma break out in song as if you were inside a musical was strange and funny to me.  She said, "You should think about all that you have and not so much on what you don't have."  How right she was.

This afternoon I was in the kitchen peeling and chopping potatoes for a yummy, Creamy Potato and Bacon Soup for dinner.

Suddenly, I hear Logan humming and I realize what song it is.  He was sitting at his desk, eating marshmallows (his snack choice) and was just humming away.  "Count your blessings, name them one by one."  I smiled at him and said, "I like that song."  He said, "Me too!" 

So often we get caught up in everything that is going wrong.  Life is filled with little stress factors and annoying inconveniences.  And, sadly, we humans seem to think that we should have everything we want. Jacob and I both try to teach our children to be thankful for all that they have (especially this time of year when they are bombarded with new Christmas toys and games and we constantly hear, "I want that!").  It's time to stop and look around and name all of our many blessings one by one!

And . . . how very blessed we are!