I am betting most of you have had at least one person in your social media group participate in the 30 days of Thanksgiving. Last year I participated in the challenge but, by about day 15, I started having a hard time remembering to post, which was likely aided by having to think outside the box to find things to be thankful for when the easy stuff ran out. That's not to say I'm not thankful for everything and everyone around me, it just became difficult to find things to post that didn't make me sound like I was giving it a half-hearted effort.
This year, instead of posting once a day for 30 days on my Facebook account, I have decided to post all of the small things for which I am thankful for and I am doing it all in one post. I've always been told that you can't appreciate the big things in life if you don't stop to be thankful for all of the little things first. So this year, it's all about the little things.
1) I am thankful for my children no longer feeling the need to issue a "brace yourself" warning to each other when we approach the car launch ramp, I mean exit, to our subdivision during rush hour. My children have learned to make sure they have secured their belongings, tightened their seatbelts, and have a firm grip on one of the vehicle's grab bars.
2) I am thankful our dog now recognizes the need to brace herself upon seeing us make our final approach to the car launch ramp. After nearly 2 years of unsuccessfully using her claws to try to stay upright while looking out the car window as our vehicle moves quickly into an open space in the rush hour traffic, she now jumps down and lays on the floorboard of the car. My children have decided she would rather not see what's happening and is bracing for impact.
3) I am thankful for well-timed green lights. There is nothing more beautiful than driving down a stretch of highway and have the signal lights all change to green as you approach.
4) Milk Chocolate. No further explanation necessary.
5) Puffs Plus. What is more gratifying than to be able to catch your child's sneeze and not have the tissue disintegrate in your hand upon impact.
6) The scroll wheel on the mouse. It is quite satisfying to be able to scroll up or down a computer screen faster than the speed of light. I do think it would be neat if computer gurus could install a sonic boom noise which would automatically sound when you surpass a certain scrolling speed.
7) Refrigerator magnets. Those magnets hold special pieces of artwork, doctor's appointment reminders, and important school information, and they always take a backseat to everyone being thankful for toilet paper.
8) Dark chocolate. It's the healthy chocolate and therefore equates to eating a vegetable.
9) Television and its accompanying electronic components. "Barney's Super-Singing Circus" VHS tape played every 2-4 hours in my house for my son's first 4 years of life as he underwent nebulizer treatments for asthma. That tape, while it caused the loss of a great many of my brain cells, was the only thing my son would sit still to watch while allowing a mask to be placed over his nose and mouth to receive the medication. "Boom, boom, ain't it great to be crazy?!......"
10) Window blinds and coverings. I'm sure my neighbors appreciate our judicious use of our blinds and I know I appreciate theirs.
11) Sunglasses. While I'm out on sunny or bright days I get to feel like Audrey Hepburn or Grace Kelly.
12) Semi-sweet chocolate. 3 words: Toll House Cookies......
13) Shopping carts. Because having to lug a pack mule to the grocery store to carry my items would be even more difficult to load into my SUV than remembering to bring my reusable tote bags.
14) String. It can hold a Christmas tree onto the roof of a car, or prevent a car's bumper from dragging the ground. It can also be in the form of yarn which can be knitted into a cap, socks, or that ugly Christmas sweater Aunt Marge knits for you every.single.year..
15) Dish scrubbers. Whether it be a brush, scrubbing sponge, or SOS pad, they just make life easier and, because they are disposable, usually get forgotten on these kinds of lists.
16) Special dark chocolate. In case you did not know, it goes well with wine. You're welcome.
17) The words "please" and "thank you", as well as "yes/no ma'am" and "yes/no sir". Whether from an adult or a child, nothing is quite as pleasant as giving and receiving respect through our choice of words in both big and small acts of kindness.
18) Ranch dressing. Without this one small food product added to my children's vegetables when they were younger, they would have been carnivores.
19) A lawn blower/vac. This one crucial piece of lawn equipment has saved me from sweeping up the sidewalk for months on end, not to mention the reduction in the need to rake leaves in the fall since it vacuums them up directly into a bag.
20) White chocolate. It decorates strawberries beautifully when interwoven with milk chocolate.
21) Potty-trained children and pets. After having to change a diaper or clean up a pet accident on a rug, no further explanation is necessary.
22) Staples, paper clips, and binder clips. Without these essentials, we would all look like hoarders.
23) Label makers. Now when I cram things in storage containers, I actually know what is in there. It has been a budget saver as well since I don't buy 15 of the exact same thing only to lose it somewhere in my house.
24) Bittersweet chocolate. Think chocolate raspberry cake with a dark truffle icing. Every chocolate has a place among mankind.
25) Toenail clippers with the under-the-nail gunk scraper. Really, whoever came up with the idea of this essential grooming tool was a genius.
26) Vehicle turn signals...... especially when drivers actually use them.
27) Erasers and correction tape. I wish life mistakes could be removed as easily.
28) Cocoa. A cold winter's night, a fire in the fireplace, and a cup of hot cocoa. Cocoa, another life necessity.
29) Pooper scoopers. The several feet of clean air space the long-handled scooper affords makes life much sweeter......... smelling.
30) All of my family, friends, and readers who encourage and support me....... probably against their better judgement.
Enjoy the crazy relatives and the guess-what-food-that-is-casserole at your family get-togethers. Wishing you all a safe, joyous, and very happy Thanksgiving!
Written by Christie Bielss
Thanksgiving is next week, which begins our holiday season. I always look forward to this time of year because of the memories that are made, the time we share with each other, and the overall joy of the season. I also enjoy remembering holidays past and the stories passed down of my family's early holiday celebrations.
With the push for us to become more conscious of the food we eat, the memories of my grandmother and farm-fresh poultry keep flooding back into my mind. Her great love of cooking with the freshest of ingredients has to be one of my all-time favorite stories.
My grandmother's father passed away much too early in life, causing my great-grandmother to have to find a full-time job so she could feed her family . Because of this, the oldest children had to take on many responsibilities around their home since she wasn't able to be a stay-at-home mother any longer. One of the responsibilities my grandmother was given was to prepare and cook meals for the family.
My great-grandmother would pick up the fresh poultry, meat, or seafood from the local market and then my grandmother would prepare most of the meal. Beef or pork was usually prepped by the local butcher, but poultry was exclusively prepped by my great-grandmother in their kitchen. My grandmother watched many times as her mother would bring home a live chicken with a bag over its head, wring the chicken's neck, pluck the feathers, and give it to my grandmother who would have dinner cooking in no time at all.
When my grandmother got married, she felt confident she could perform the task of preparing a chicken and decided to surprise her new husband with a fantastic meal. She went out and purchased a live chicken complete with the requisite bag over its head. She brought that chicken home and like an expert, wrung that chicken's neck just as she'd seen her mother do thousands of times before. My grandmother laid the lifeless chicken down on her cutting surface and took a few steps away to retrieve some implements to assist with the rest of the prep work. She turned back to....... nothing. The chicken had disappeared!
With a quick glance around the kitchen she found the darned thing, and it wasn't dead like she'd thought. That crazy chicken was running and flying in circles around her kitchen pecking anything that came near it. That was one very angry chicken and it wasn't going down without a fight!
Not knowing what to do and being completed freaked out by this psycho-killer chicken, she did what any smart red-blooded Southern woman would do.......... she started screaming for my grandfather at the top of her lungs!
My grandfather came running ready to slay whatever dragon was trying to injure his new bride. He came running with such speed that he slid around the doorway of the kitchen. The sight which greeted him around that corner was not exactly what he was expecting. My grandmother was running and hopping around the kitchen as the very angry and vengeful chicken chased and pecked at her with that hood still clamped tightly over its head!
Not being able to control himself, my grandfather started laughing hysterically. He caught the chicken and took care of the task my grandmother hadn't quite perfected yet. He slayed her dragon and was her knight in shining armor. Ok, so it was just a chicken but I bet if you were being chased by one, you'd understand her fear and why she conveyed the title of Knight of the Realm upon him.
From that day forward, my grandmother always made sure that whatever chicken she was getting ready to prepare was thoroughly....... deceased............ and my grandfather was stood by close at-hand in case she needed any back-up or rescuing from another psycho chicken.
Wishing you many happy memories as you prepare for Thanksgiving and the upcoming holidays. And if you've got a fun memory, please feel free to share it!
by: Christie Bielss
The month of November brings to mind the beginning of the holiday season here in the USA. Last year on Facebook, as so many of my friends did, I posted at least one thing per day I was genuinely thankful for.
This year, with all of the craziness and decidedly difficult circumstances my family and our nation have faced, I've decided to look at the 30 Days of Thankfulness on the lighter side of life. So here we go:
* Day 1: Thankful for Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars and for Hershey's continuing to make them in a peanut-free environment so I can consume them.
* Day 2: Thankful for the clothing manufacturer who discovered how to discreetly incorporate spandex in denim. I can now wear jeans and eat.
* Day 3: Thankful for curling irons and hair styling products. Without them I would walk around looking like a Q-Tip on a daily basis.
* Day 4: Thankful to have a husband who, while sitting at a stop light, has no compulsion whatsoever about dancing in the car to the music of the car next to us and embarrassing our children so badly they duck down into the floorboard.
* Day 5: Thankful to be able to connect with old friends on Facebook.
* Day 6: Thankful to be able to unfriend old friends on Facebook.
* Day 7: Thankful I have 2 children who were able to show me how to use my cell phone.
* Day 8: Thankful for earplugs....... so I can sit in the house "undisturbed" while my husband watches his Dallas Cowboy football games.
* Day 9: Thankful for the platypus - just because I like the animal's name.
* Day 10: Thankful for my son learning to keep his sneakers in his room. The aroma which eminates from the shoes have now made his room a completely pest free zone.
* Day 11: Thankful for my daughter deciding to play hairdresser with my hair and then having a friend come to the door when I have 32 ponytails, 6 barrettes, and 3 headbands strategically placed all over my head and told me they thought I looked great.
* Day 12: Thankful for Neutra-Air. No further explanation is necessary.
* Day 13: Thankful for Target Stores getting all new grocery carts that don't click or clack, veer off on their own, or have a wheel that wobbles enough to register as an earthquake on the USGS registry.
* Day 14: Thankful I have very boney elbows which work quite well at deterring strangers from entering my personal space at Black Friday sales.
* Day 15: Thankful for Hobby Lobby, Michael's, JoAnn Fabrics, and Hancock Fabrics. I think many will understand with no further explanation necessary.
* Day 16: Thankful for the person at the local gas station who made me feel like I was much less of a germ-a-phobe after witnessing them cleaning the gas pump handle with an antibacterial wipe.
* Day 17: Thankful I have only confused the bottle of cinnamon with the cayenne pepper once since I learned to cook.
* Day 18: Thankful for the "mute" button on the television remote control.
* Day 19: Thankful for texting as it appears to be the only way some families communicate in the same house.......while everyone is in the house together.
* Day 20: Thankful for the genius who invented dishwasher detergent packets. Now if they could just invent a way for the dishes to move themselves into the dishwasher......
* Day 21: Thankful for the F.D.A. requiring pharmaceutical companies to let me know during commercial advertisements if that particular drug will give me an undesirable side effect....... like rainbow colored urine or a black hairy tongue.
* Day 22: Thankful for Legos. Stepping on one and experiencing searing, life-altering pain running through my foot reminds me I still have feeling in that particular region of my body.
* Day 23: Thankful for the school pickup/drop-off lines which allow me to practice my Kamikaze driving skills daily. BANZAI!!!
* Day 24: Thankful for deoderant made specifically for preteens and teens. My nose is deliriously happy with the creators of this ever so necessary grooming component.
* Day 25: Thankful for junk mail. Without it spread out and completely covering every flat surface in my kitchen, I might actually have to dust.
* Day 26: Thankful for Chinese food. The one meal where I can feed my children all sorts of different vegetables and they don't complain or ask what it is.
* Day 27: Thankful for makeup because without it, I'd be scaring little children daily.
* Day 28: Thankful Lowe's and Home Depot stock gas cans year round and that I never have to wonder about how long one will last before deteriorating from old age at my house.
* Day 29: Thankful for girdles. Yes, I look like a stuffed sausage in them but they allow me to fit into those jeans that are just a wee bit too tight.
* Day 30: Thankful for this blog where I have a place to write down all of my quirky thoughts and musings and people are actually enjoying reading them if for nothing more than to allow themselves to feel normal compared to me.
And that's my 30 Days of Thankfulness. May you all enjoy the many quirks, idiosyncracies, and comedy that is before you not just for the month of November, but the whole year through.
by: Christie Bielss
