Thankful 2

It really has been a week since I last posted. The intervening space has felt much shorter than that.  Time seems to slip past so quickly.  At night, I close my eyes and have barely taken a breath before it's morning again.

Writing this post has made me turn my mind around and tick backwards through the days.  What have I spent my moments on this week?  In the midst of those moments, what am I thankful for?

Time spent on the phone with friends.  One who's healing well after an operation, and one who's still very ill.  Thinking about this makes me thankful for every moment of health that I am gifted with.

Reading books to my children.  Finishing one we've been reading for a while.  Saying goodbye to Paddington, and hello to another character.  I'm thankful for our times of sitting together, soaking up words and stories and phrases and plots and other eras.

Coo's inexplicable love for a second-hand pair of shiny black patent leather shoes embellished with fuchsia butterflies.  Personally, I don't care for the shoes, but I'm thankful for her individuality.

The Japanese garden my boys and I made this week.  It's called a bonkei - a miniature landscape.  I'm thankful for the minutes spent with them.  It was fun to observe their creative flashes of inspiration in placing the moss, securing the pebbles, and using the seashell for a pond feature.

As I sat in a village parish church this afternoon on an unforgiving wooden pew, breathing in the musty smell of the accumulating dust of centuries, I was thankful for today.  It was a day we've been looking forward to for a long time.  I'm so thankful that God brought the paths of these two people together to create a new journey.

[Mr J wasn't.  After a while, he voiced it.  "Mum, I just hate weddings!" That's okay.  I'm thankful he's an honest little boy.  See that sad face in the lower left hand corner of the above photo?]

I don't think the happy couple would agree with Mr J.  [Congratulations, Steve and Faye!]

And I'm thankful for these boys, who know just what to do with an ancient tree when they find it.

I'm also thankful for the date.  Because tonight, the clocks go backward!  Yay...

[Thankfulness posts inspired by Journeymama]