Gratitude

I believe that being thankful for what we have is one of the biggest contributors to our happiness. I’ve been thinking a lot about this, and last night just realized how true it is. About 5:00 pm nearly every day, I get so cranky. Cranky with my kids, cranky the house is a mess, cranky that I have to make dinner, cranky that Dillon doesn’t get home until 7 most nights so I still have 2 hours to stay sane, etc. etc. I could go on about the things I get ornery about, but we’ll just stop there.

Anyways, last night was much the same. Bailey was really fussy, the kids were fighting and hungry, I was trying to make dinner all while looking around the mess and getting quite overwhelmed with life, once again. I said a prayer to help me stay patient and not be so upset. I tried to focus on things like, “Well, at least you have food to even make dinner, at least you have children, even if they drive you nuts sometimes…” You know, that way of thinking. I wasn’t being so successful at ‘feeling the love’, however.

Then one of my visiting teachers came over to meet me and chat. I have known of her but honestly never talked with her much. It was an eye-opener. She was telling me how her first marriage was just horrible. She got divorced and moved in with her parents here in Utah. She had two little boys. She got remarried to a man who had a boy and girl, very close to the same age as her own kids, so she has one in 4th grade now, two in 5th, and one in 6th. Her hubby got a job in Vegas right after they married, so she was left here for about a year (I think) with the 4 kids, all in this new marriage and thrown together, alone while her hubby was in Vegas. She said it was the hardest year. NOW, she works full time, and her husband is out of a job. She was telling me about how hard it is that they all depend on just her income, and that her hubby doesn’t cook hardly ever and doesn’t do laundry and stuff like that. She was being funny about a lot of it all, not like a sob-story, but just like, “Wow, this is my life! It’s crazy!”

SO, then I was thinking about husbands. I realized how thankful I need to be for Dillon. I am, always, but this just made it stronger. He doesn’t watch a lot of TV, thankfully. He’ll watch the superbowl, but that is really it as far as sports watching goes. He loves sports, but he loves to PLAY them rather than watch them. He works so hard for us. I am so so SO thankful that I can stay home and raise my children! I really have always not loved working, so this is really my dream come true. I’m so thankful that he even has a job. After talking with Steph, she was telling me about all these people who are losing their jobs, and also the spouses having to get jobs to get money. So I am thankful that things are working out in that aspect for us right now, not to say that couldn’t change very quickly. I’m also thankful that our marriage is happy. Another friend in the ward is getting a divorce, and how hard and horrible that would be, especially with children involved.

So, I have nothing to complain about. We don’t have much savings, we don’t have much extra, but we have what we NEED. I have my kids, my spouse, a warm home, food, employment, and we are equipped with the gospel, which is the ultimate source of our happiness.