A Monday Morning Attitude of Gratitude

Its Monday morning again! Seems like its Monday morning alot lately...

I wanna start this week off on a positive note. The best way I know to do that is to stop for a moment and count my blessings. An attitude of gratitude goes a long long way.

I'm grateful that it is this Monday morning and not next Monday morning...I still have one week to put the finishing touches on my costumes, make the crowns for my Wise Men, and accumulate the necessary props for filming...like a horse or donkey for Mary to sit on...lol

We had play practice after church service yesterday, did alot of laughing...now mind you, this is not a comedy... the wife of one of the Wise Men kinda mumbled that the best we could aspire for here was a bad "B" movie! I fear she is right...this wont win any Oscars...but it has been alot of fun thus far. We are going to do it at the local nursing home also along with some caroling a week later...They wont care if we are an "A" or a "B" rated production!!!

I am grateful for my sons, all three of them, and who they are today. Now, I can recall many the day that that was not the case. I raised these three critters alone, and they will tell you that they, indeed, gave me a run for my money. Many the occasion that I asked myself, " Self, what in the hell were you thinking?"

But it is true that "What doesnt kill us makes us stronger". There isnt much that can rattle me these days...I am a veritable power house of unleashed strength! Yikes! The very idea is mind-boggling! And I truly do owe that to my three sons, who have tested me with almost every challenge known to parenthood...and taught me to be strong in the face of whatever comes along.

They truly have been, and continue to be my greatest teachers in this journey called Life.

Let me give you an example... they taught me to think on my feet...One afternoon, after work, I picked up the kids from the daycare, and stopped at the gracery store on the way home, to pick up something for dinner. Now my youngest was still in diapers...and hadnt been changed in awhile, unbeknownst to me.

I placed him in the child seat at the front of the cart and proceeded to shop. I picked up a chicken from the meat case and was headed for the milk aisle when all of a sudden I heard water spilling...I looked around to realize that Baby Christopher was peeing, and his diaper was saturated to the brim, so pee was pouring out of the side of his diaper all over the chicken I had just put into the basket...and onto the floor, forming an impressive golden pool at my feet...

Now what do you do with a raw chicken that your child has just peed on? I didn't want it...but I surely couldnt put it back into the meat case... I couldnt bring myself to tell anyone, much less the store manager, that my child had just peed on this chicken, and that probably nobody would want it...

Heads up, Mom! Think fast!

I can feel the hot flush on my face, as I recount this tale...it really did happen!!!

What did I do, you ask? Why, I went and picked out a second chicken, bought both, being careful not to confuse the marinated bird for the plain... and was off to the kitchen after a quick diaper change, of course.

I never was too convinced, while rearing these three boys, that we would all survive...They were relentless scrappers, fighting from sun-up well into the night over nothing and everything, and all three strong willed, bull-headed little mules. They were the greatest challenge of my entire life, hence, my greatest teachers.

But, alas, God is good, and today, two of my sons are Soldiers in the United States Army, and my third is a wonderful daddy of the sweetest thing this side of Heaven, my grand son, Blade.

Who could ask for more? Thank you, O God!

Thanks for listening, and be blessed, today!