30 days of thankful...days 25-27

Further and further apart these posts come...I know.  I so easily lose track of time these days!

Ok...I only have 3 more days left to fill, and I am realizing how difficult it will be to narrow it down.  What do I leave out?  I look around, at my life and my home and my blessings and realize I could count every day for a lifetime and still there would not be enough days to thank Him.

Eternity sounds even sweeter as I realize this.

#25...quiet.
Now I know that may seem impossible in a household of seven.  I remember before children, how I would weep over the barrenness and cry out "I am tired of having a quiet house."
And I was.
I guess the quiet I speak of now is different.  It is the quiet of 5 little hearts content.  It is the quiet of everyone occupied with work or play and just being.  It is knowing that the quiet will not last more than 30 seconds very long and that the lively sounds of feet running down the stairs or a voice or three yelling "Mom!" will pierce the silence and the cacophony that is our normal will resume.  This type of quiet is respite...it is catching my breath before the next adventure and maybe even getting the chance to sit and be with Him for a few stolen moments.

#26...lotion on brown skin
Winter can be brutal on the skin of my children, making their skin ashen and dry.  But a palmful of lotion, rubbed and massaged and scented in all sorts of fabulous scents, is like watching a miracle.  Their skin transforms and becomes like dark chocolate or caramel, depending on which child I am applying it, and I cannot resist the urge to plant a kiss on that suddenly smooth knee or that creamy little belly.  I love those moments.

#27...our anniversary
It is coming soon...for the sixteenth time.  I look at my calendar and marvel that I was once 23 and cute and unwrinkled and he was 22 and a total dream and thought I was worthy of his name.  I marvel even more that he still looks at me that way...and I thank God for these years.  Things did not turn out like we expected...not even close.  We had no idea what God would do, but does anyone?  We both have changed, but we have changed together.  I love this time of year and the memories it evokes.  And I would marry him all over again, yes I would.