grateful

       I let the whole month of November get away from me without ever doing a grateful blog post. What kind of blogger am I? Honestly.

     And what I'm grateful for is obvious, and cliche, probably because it's the most wonderful thing on this planet. My family. My husband and my children. And of course my parents, siblings, siblings in law, etc. But I want to write about my husband and children.
     These amazing, loud, goofy people I get to spend all of my days with. And when I say loud, I mean LOUD. These kids don't do inside voices. Even the baby. Especially the baby. When she sees something exciting the entire world knows it. It is probably obnoxious to all the grumpy people in the world, but it makes me laugh my head off. Today walking around WalMart she did not stop squealing and pointing at everything. Everything was, "OOOH! OOOHH!" But not a soft quiet oooh, more like a loud screeching sound that is impossible for me to reproduce with text. And if she wasn't so darn happy and cute I would probably find it obnoxious as well.
      And my kids are generally loud. They play lots, and have great imaginations, and they get way into these in depth games they invent. It's a loud process. But it takes on a whole new level of loud whenever I decide to actually answer my phone when it rings. Forget me making a phone call. I can't voluntarily subject anyone to that, unless I'm in the car, they're all strapped in and a movie is on. Speaking of gratitude... DVD players built into cars is God' gift to moms. I can't think of a single thing that makes my life easier. Best. Invention. Ever.
    But today I was talking briefly to a friend who is single, who has no children and it was SO quiet on her end of the phone. And I thought, she must think it sounds like I'm at the zoo! And I wondered for a moment if she hung up the phone and her heart felt heavy and sad because she didn't have a zoo going on in the background of her house, and I know she wants nothing more than a family of her own. So I said a prayer of thanks for all that I have. That I have these crazy, loud children that make my life rich. I couldn't imagine how hard the holidays would be if we didn't have kids to teach, be Santa to, and just fill us with so much joy.
      These little rascals of mine have kept me from sleep the past few nights. And I'm so exhausted I'm not even sure what I'm typing anymore. Aaron, if you read this, please edit for me. But I just needed to write how incredibly lucky I think I am to have these children I love so dearly, and my husband who is the most fiercely loyal, loving man I could have ever imagined. Who lives to make us smile, and does whatever he can to make me happy. I am one lucky woman indeed.