Project Gratitude: Day 4

Today I'm grateful for a lot of things: food, laughter, health, second chances, and a patient husband.

Today we did Eric's birthday dinner and cake since we were out of town yesterday. In hindsight, we should have done a big birthday bash at my sister's house, but I wasn't that prepared. :) But I also wasn't prepared for today either--no gifts to unwrap, besides cards from my mom and sister (thank you, both!) and not even 33 candles to put on the cake. I did get all the ingredients for his birthday dinner and cake (turkey-avocado sandwiches--except the avocados weren't ripe--and.pineapple upside-down cake with coconut whipped cream). But Eric, the one who was fasting, ended up doing all the baking today. I know he enjoys doing it, but I still feel bad that I wasn't the one doing the work for his birthday.

We had a fun moment tonight that I was so grateful for. As always, bedtime is usually very hectic and drawn out. Tonight as we were trying to herd the kids in for family prayer, Eric started singing "My hands upon my head I place..." so Henrik would respond and join us. All the kids got into it, and when Mierae's hands were up high, Eric quickly blew a raspberry on her tummy. She laughed and laughed, and of course Jolie wanted Daddy to do it to her too. But when Eric told her he'd do it later so he could restore the peace for prayer, Henrik was the one who came up to her, lifted her shirt, and planted a wet raspberry right on her belly button! That sure made us all crack up, and we kept laughing each time he did it after that! I love laughing with my kids. It's the best thing ever.

I was also grateful for Eric's patience tonight. He has been such a great example of staying calm and collected when the kids are angry and they hurt us or yell at us. Mierae was upset tonight about being assigned to give a talk at Church in two weeks because she had just been asked to do the prayer today. Eric was able to talk to her and listen to an article from "The Friend" with her. Then she calmed down, wrote her entire talk, and accepted suggestions from us about scriptures to put in and stories to tell. She has a hard time opening up about things, and I was so grateful to be with her tonight as she related scripture stories she wanted to use in her talk that I didn't even know she knew about. I'm so grateful that she listens and is learning in Primary.

And lastly, I was so grateful that when I woke up this morning I wasn't in pain. All day yesterday I had horrible stomach pain, and I was so relieved that it finally went away. I am thankful for a healthy body.