I’ve been thinking about Santa Claus. Recently, while talking with friends with younger children I learned a lot about what younger parents are doing and letting their children believe about Santa. Before I weigh in on the jolly one, I’d like your thoughts on the matter. What were you told as a child? How is that the same or different than how you are raising your children? Your thoughts please, then stay tuned.
All the best,
KK
Before we turn our complete attention toward Christmas let’s look at the difference between thankfulness and gratefulness. I used them interchangeably in the last six posts. They are synonymous. One difference is that in the definition of thankfulness uses the term “aware and appreciative”; whereas the definition of gratefulness only has “appreciative of benefit” – a little fun with words.
Let me encourage you to continue to be appreciative each day and take notice (be aware) of all there is for which to be thankful. Thankfulness can be an attitude, but it can also be an action.
Take action, be thankful.
All the best,
KK
Thanksgiving Soup
I’ve been thinking a lot about what todays grateful item would be. Reading over the previous five I am hopeful that much more of what I’m thankful for has been woven throughout. I didn’t want today’s post to be the typical things like faith, family and friends. You did read those things into the other posts, right? If not, here they are; I am very thankful for my faith the holds me steady, my family that always stands firm with me, and my friends who encourage me and add so much to my life.
Today’s post is what I like to call Thanksgiving soup – a bunch of little things that are full of goodness and laughter that come together to give great flavor to my world. It’s the simplest of things and people I encounter each day. Times and encounters that can’t be plan, Fate brings them together. We need to be paying attention to catch them.
This morning I got up to watch the Macy’s Day Parade – a Thanksgiving tradition of mine for many years. Jay got up with me and we enjoyed a cup of hot tea, the Rockettes, and marching bands from all over the country. About half way through, Cole got up and joined us. There the three of us snuggled on the couch, laughing and playfully enjoying some fun. It is these moments I have grown old enough and wise enough to cherish in my heart. You can’t trade them.
I won’t bore you with the hundreds of other examples of the simple pleasures in life for which I am thankful. But I will encourage you to slow down enough to enjoy a few for yourself.
Happy Thanksgiving.
All the best,
KK
Today I am thankful to be both a mother and a wife. I have a teenage son who is becoming an outstanding young man. Don’t get me wrong, we have our moments where I have to stop, take a deep breath and realize he will grow out of some of the typical teenage attitudes. But for the most part it brings me great joy and great challenge to raise him.
There hasn’t been a stage of raising Cole that I have liked better than the other. I loved cuddling and caring for him as an infant. As a toddler and small child he was all smiles. The worst part of my day was leaving him at daycare every morning, but the best part of my day was picking him up in the evening. He was into super heroes for many years, so I never had to fear danger because Spiderman or Buzz Lightyear was never far away. Elementary years were when things got a little challenging because his questions got bigger. I realized I needed some wisdom to help him begin to enter the bigger boy world of friends, sports, and building character. Every stage has been enlightening and has driven me to my knees more than once. Next year we head into high school; I’ll keep you posted.
Believe it or not, I sometimes feel less equipped to be a good and Godly wife than I do a mother. Five years ago I married a wonderfully Godly man who loves me and Cole with all of his heart. There isn’t anything he wouldn’t do for either of us. Getting remarried in my forties, I found myself older and smarter about how to do marriage right. First of all, I know Jay needs to know I respect him. I appreciate all of his hard work to provide for us. I love his personal convictions and character. Secondly, we work together equally. If I need Jay’s help, he is available and willing. Just about every morning I ask him if there is something I can do for him. He is a very independent sort and he may not ask me if there is something I can help with. The other reason I am mindful to ask him is that I know it’s easy for me to get lost in my own to-do list and not consider others. Cole teases us because he’s never heard us fight. We don’t. We love each other and work very hard to think of the other person first. With both of us doing this, it really makes being a wife a joy. Don’t get me wrong, there have been times when one of us has hurt the other’s feelings. In those times a little communication goes a long way. The hurt doesn’t stew, we talk about it and each of us is quick to apologize.
These two men make it very easy to serve them as mother and wife. I am very thankful for the opportunity to do so every day of my life.
All the best,
KK
Today I find myself thankful for the storms of life I have journeyed through. Yes, I said storms. It’s those rainy, cloudy and gloomy times that allow for great potential of patience, fortitude and faith to blossom. The hardest part of these storms is that there is no RADAR in which we can know how long they will last. We can be driven into a dark tunnel.
Every minute we are in the tunnel we have 
choices: to move forward and find the other end or to just sit down, never finding the joy and peace that lurk on the other side. Sometimes groping our way through the dark is uncomfortable and awkward. While we feel our way through, the rough edges leave us with a new roughness on the outside, but also leaves us different as we emerge. In the storm and the dark tunnel we find we are tougher than we thought, on the other side we learn how wonderful being changed can be.
Emerging on the brighter other side, we either move forward dragging the puddles of the storm with us, or we move forward standing tall having survived, but not without a few painless scars that only show when we choose for them too.
Today I am thankful for several storms I have overcome. They are long behind me, but today I was able to reach into the tunnel to shine a light for a friend in need of knowing the storm is only on one end of the tunnel. Today, I am grateful for being comfortable enough with the journey I have made, to be very real with my friend. I will gladly shine the light on her path until she emerges.
All the best,
KK
Today I am thankful that there is balance in the universe. Call it what you like, yin/yang, chi, ebb/flow, what goes around comes around. Our brilliant Creator put order and balance in play with His first command to take that which was formless and give it form. With each act of creation He provided opposites to balance each other out. He gave us light and separated it from the darkness; land was divided by water, creatures of the water and the land, male and female – even good and evil.
Each end of the scale has its place and purpose. In life we have seasons of serving and seasons of being served. When those seasons get too out of balance one can find themselves either exhausted from pouring out and not being poured into, or they could be found wallowing in being needy. There will always be those among us in need, but even the least of these has the ability to do something for others. Time is free.
Yes, I believe what goes around, comes around; what you sow you will reap. However, it is not our role to be continually looking around the corner to reap quickly. Sometimes it takes a while to arrive on the other side of sowing. Just as you can’t rush the oceans movement from high tide to low tide, you can’t rush the laws of natural balance. The journey between the two is what forms our character. All we can be responsible for is our role, attitude or place in the great balance of life we live in.
All the best,
KK
Today I am grateful for those long hot days at the ball field watching my favorite 13 year old player. Some think our summer ball schedule is insane, two or three nights a week on the field and tournaments on the weekend. The sunshine, fresh air would only be replaced with chores, errands and house work if he didn’t play. By the time we get home our skin is laced with sweat and remnants of dirt that blows off the field from sitting behind home plate. We get cleaned up and my son comes proudly into the living room boasting about the ring he left on the tub. The evening is filled with talking about game highlights. Even when it rains and we get soaking wet, it’s a good day.
All the best,
KK
Anyone can do a top ten list, but a top 6 list, that’s original – and it’s not because I couldn’t come up with 10 things. For the next six days, there will be a post a day with something I’m grateful for. They are not in any priority; all are equal.
Today I am grateful for those days when I give it all and at the end of it I am completely spent. The activities for the day can be full of work, writing or volunteer projects. Those days have been plentiful recently and for that I’m grateful. There is something wonderfully fulfilling about working hard, giving my all with excellence. I can do a string of these days for a while, but when I start looking forward to time off that I know I’ve maxed out.
Slowing down recharges me for the next wave.
All the best,
KK
So you know I feel strongly about giving Thanksgiving its due honor. I do. Our lives can get so cluttered that we don’t slow down often enough to give thanks. In protecting this 24-hour vigil of gratefulness, typically I don’t listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. Let’s face it, Christmas music the day after Halloween is a plot by retailers to get us shopping early and often (just ask Lucy from the Peanuts).
Well, this year I caved. The second week of November I was flipping radio stations and there was one of my favorites was playing, “What Child is This?” – such a wonderful melodic song describing the gentleness of our Savior. I was drawn in and then I was hooked. So many of the Christmas songs are as praiseful as many of the worship songs we sing in Church.
Sunday in church we had a guest worship leader, Michael O’Brien, an outstanding pianist and man of God. The pre-Thanksgiving 
Christmas music listening slope steepened when I found out that his Christ-mas CD was available. UUUGGGHHH. Let’s face it, I didn’t have a chance, there was no going back. The CD is great, and full of Christ-centered music that celebrates His arrival. Check out all of Michael’s music at www.michaelo.org (free shipping).
True confessions, my iphone, ipod and ipad are now fully loaded with Christmas music. You will find me in traffic (when alone in my car) singing at the top of my lungs as if I’m right there with the likes of Margaret Cloud while she sings one of my other favorites, “Oh Holy Night” or with Whitney Houston singing “Little Drummer Boy.” Ok, full confession is that when I’m alone cleaning (or cooking) it’s the whole singing and dancing thing.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, be grateful for the joy that music brings and the transformational message of Christmas.
All the best,
KK
P.S. — The Christmas movies stay in the box until the 29th! I think. I’m going to try…
Evidently the older I get the more I appreciate the stories my elders tell of life long ago. I am blessed to have loved ones with great longevity; so there are tales from World War II and even before that are fascinating to hear. When my mother re-married (long after I was an adult), her new husband’s mother was still alive and close to 90 years old. Visiting her in the nursing home often meant stories of her taking the train to Chicago to see a picture show. Her father was in the early film business. She told the stories in such a way that I could, feel the steam from the train breaks and picture a young girl all dressed up and riding.
War isn’t a pretty thing, but there is something fascinating about the soldiers and the attitude of the 30’s and 40’s. I don’t know if life was simpler, every generation has their challenges. But living was different. My father doesn’t tell many stories of his time in the service (WW2), but he did tell me that when they came home, people respected the soldiers and their service to the country. Are we too busy to appreciate this anymore?
My father grew up in the 1920’s in a town next to the Ohio river. He shares stories of messing around the river all afternoon with his brother; taking the trolley downtown to see a baseball game for a nickel! How fun!
My favorite shows to watch are set in other times. Ok, so I know these are cleaned up “Hollywood style”, but there is an element of truth to them.
Tell me your story of days gone by, did you grow up during the depression or during economic boom in the 50’s or the free thinking days of the 60’s or the 80’s when all women wanted was a corner office?
All the best,
KK
KK's Candor 