It’s been quite a week, yes it has. From a house full of family and squeals and giggles and elephants tromping on the floors and sticky fingers touching everything, then watching that van full of family drive away on a Monday morning in the rain, to going back to work to begin the week with one less employee/friend who moved on, to a CASA child in total meltdown and turmoil, to gargantuan lymph glands that decided to sing Adele’s new song, “Hello,” to a throat that refused to be ignored, to horror on the TV in the middle of my sick day and delirium in bed, to a flat tire gone unnoticed except for the fact that in my delirium I had to visit the Minute Clinic for the magic penicillin and happened to discover said flat tire as I walked out of the store…

It’s been quite a week.

So, this morning, as I sit at the kitchen table in the quiet after being told by my bosses to GO BACK HOME AND DON’T MAKE US SICK, I am reminded how beautiful life is.

I am grateful for this warm sunshine that is filling the room, making the ornaments sparkle.

I am grateful for the breeze outside that is making the stubborn leaves, still hanging on for dear life, shimmer and dance.

I am grateful for the smell of hot tea and dryer sheets.

I am grateful for a new thermometer that works.

I am grateful for easy to obtain medicine.

I am grateful for people who are good at their professions who know how to deal with foster children in turmoil, especially my CASA child’s attorney who has less than 10 seconds in her day to volunteer and give more time, but she does it anyway, because she cares and loves our girl. And especially for law enforcement and EMT’s and firefighters who train and respond in tragedies and run to, instead of running from.

I am grateful for safe trips home and families back in normal.

I am grateful that Dad isn’t sick and grateful that he vacuumed and cleaned up and made the house back to itself once again.

I am grateful for a husband who is the best caregiver, who covers with blankets and asks if I need and offers that cup of hot tea and handles the mountain of bedding laundry.

And I am grateful for less than gargantuan lymph glands.

This is a picture taken this morning AFTER four loads already done. I am fairly certain the stack was 4 1/2 feet high.

I am grateful for laundry and the washing machine and dryer to get it all done.

I am grateful for Jared and his little troop of helpers who brought all of the bedding downstairs before they left to go back to Oklahoma and Texas.

I am grateful for little memories of pine cone turkeys and puppet shows and fingerprints and laundry and primary color plastic cups for small hands and random cards and dice and dominoes found around the house from games in the cupboard and notes hung on our Thanksgiving tree to cherish…a beautiful Thanksgiving weekend.

I am grateful for bedtime stories and goodnight kisses and “Now I lay me down to sleeps” and three grands who played choo choo train through the house and “Ama! Ama! Ama!” constants and little boots and shoes at every door and hearing my girl sing her song again and a secret bubble gum stash and my daughter and her family spending time playing Bingo with my assisted living friends and slurped spaghetti and orange peels in a pile and Sharpie marker mistakes on the wall and the table and Topsy’s popcorn and more pie than we know what to do with and hearing Jared and Karissa “talk shop” and baby smiles and wet diapers and hearing two littles say “Papa” and a signature tablecloth adorned with lots of scribbles and late night game laughter around a table and a daughter who insists on pictures taken and dear friends who spent time talking on Saturday night in the quiet of the living room about the memorable high school years at Central Christian and life and another dear friend who ran the kitchen on Saturday and is like a sister to me and on and on and on.

I am grateful for 46 friends and family who braved the cold and the wet and the ice and gave up part of their Saturday to come have breakfast with us, new friends and long time friends, people who have given us so much joy and who are very much a part of our lives.

I am grateful to be so…