Why I do Thankful Thursdays

Many things have happened to our Happy Little Nut House since Owain was born in May 2008. I have recently realized that I am still recovering from the stress of being surprised 14 hours after his birth that something was wrong with his Heart, finding out about his complex Heart Defect, standing by his bed fearing for his life, watching over him after his 2 surgeries and caring for his special needs. That itself is a lot to handle, but when you combine that with our home addition that we started the week before he was born, another pregnancy, the kids dad always working out of town most of the time, and never being home, and my inability to work as much as I would like (both jewelry vending and working at home) I end up feeling Overwhelmed and Underpaid. It sucks to always be alone with the kids with almost no help.

I get stressed over money, our home addition, our back yard that is a never ending construction zone, Owain’s next surgery, the piles of laundry, dirty dishes and this strange and endless overflowing of toys that come from 4 kids. I stress over my cracked windshield, the new tires I need and the strange sensor light on the dashboard. I stress over silly little things like a house covered in Cheerios even though I just cleaned them up, along with the never ending scattering of crayons and little scraps of paper that my happy little children left behind in a frenzy of brilliant craftiness.

I sleep very little at night (although at this point much of this is due to a very huge baby in the belly) and I spend my days worrying about dozens of things. Many times, I get through the day by turning my back on all of my stress and completely focus on my kids – but then when I try to focus on things again everything is so out of control that I don’t know where to begin.

So to help me get through the week and get my head organized, I have decided to start Thankful Thursdays. Every Thursday I will post a quick list of things I am Thankful for, I would love it if you stopped back on Thursdays to join me.