Grateful for Unemployment

I'll be honest, I have had a hard time being grateful lately. 

 Mike lost his job on the 8th of June, and since then I've had the up and down moods that come with not knowing exactly what your future will bring financially.  Some days are diamond - some days are stone, I guess.  But lately I've been recognizing so many blessings that I have been forced to turn off my bad mood and be thankful. 

This is the most over-used line in all of mormon-dom, but we really have experienced the "tender mercies" of the Lord through this whole ordeal. 

I need to list them.

 I need to remember them. 

 I need to take them in and acknowledge how good our life is.

1. About 2 months before Mike got laid off, his company lost two of thier biggest clients and Mike realized that since they were losing so much revenue in the audit department, he was potentially on the chopping block.  We talked a little bit about what we would do if Mike actually lost his job.  We sorta made a plan, not ever once thinking it would actually happen.  

I think it helped prepare me emotionally, if nothing else. 

When it happened I was still shocked and didn't have a clue how to implement the tiny plan we had talked about, but at least we had talked.  So grateful for that.   

2.  We didn't buy a house last October.  ......need I say more? We had one picked out, preliminary papers signed and we decided it was a no go.   HUGE blessing not to have to worry about a mortgage right now. 

3.  We had a baby BEFORE the insurance ran out.  

4.  Mike only has 6 months of his MBA left, rather than 1 1/2 years. Mike chose to double up his classes and speed through before he even started. Yay. Only 6 more months until we can apply for jobs OUTSIDE of Utah (as well as in).

5.  We had some savings.  Not much, but enough.  And ps- we NEVER save....... except the few months before Mike was laid off. 

6.  We have two healthy, amazing, beautiful, bright, fun kids.  Believe me, I know that losing a job is NOT the worst thing that could happen.  

7.   Mike and I are still madly in love.

I'll most likely keep adding to this list as I remember things and editing this post, but for now, 7 is my lucky number.  And I feel lucky.

  

Inspiration

Today I was inspired by this youtube clip of the canadian tenors (the video was put together (obviously) by a canadian patriot organization, but don't worry, I still love the good 'ole U.S. of A.

Here's some of the words which seriously struck a chord with me

where there is hatred, let me bring love

where there is doubt, let me bring faith

where there is falsehood, let me bring truth

where there is pain, I'll comfort you

where there is silence, let me sing grace

where there's despair, let me bring hope

where there is blindness, let me bring sight

where there is darkeness, let me bring light

And with these words I speak

grant that I may not seek to be heard, but to hear

        to be consoled, but to console

not to be seen, but to see

        to be loved, but to love

though when we give love, we will recieve

when we forgive love, we'll find reprieve

it is in dying, we'll be released

make me an instrument of peace

This is really all I want for my life.  Even if it's a small contribution, I hope that I can lift, help, love, and serve.  I have so far to go before I am who I want to be. 

Grateful for sources of inspiration. 

Here's a few of my favorites:

Last Lecture- short version

Create

Helping Hands

We were not meant to walk through this life alone. 

God designed friendships and families to keep us connected, and we are better because of it. 

Sometimes I have a hard time recieving help. 

 I like to be the helper, but I get prideful and don't want to ask for help,  or take it when it's offered. 

But, when you have a baby the truth is- you need lots of it.

Today I'm grateful for help. 

I hope I can give back a tiny bit of what I've recieved in the years to come.

Thankful for my hubbs.  He has put up with A LOT of mood swings throughout my pregnancy, he supported me through labor and delivery, and he continues to be loving throughout the postpardum hormone extravaganza.  Love him for it.  This was the last picture of us as a family of 3- just before I went to the hospital. 

So grateful that my mom could come all the way from MT to help me for a week.  Cecily couldn't have asked for a better playmate, and I couldn't have asked for a better mom.  So giving and loving and helpful.  This is grandkid #21 for her- and she is as excited about him as she was about #1.  (and thanks to my daddy for letting her come and missing her for a whole week)

Thankful for the nurses and staff at LDS hospital.  Wierd that I don't know any of them personally, but I shared a really personal part of my life with them.  Speaking from my experience with Cecily (not as great) it really makes a TON of difference to have a supportive medical team who listens to you and doesn't make you feel like you don't know what's going on with your own body.  The whole staff was fab.  Loved it. 

I don't have any pictures............

but I'm also grateful for the meals, the phonecalls and the love and prayers from neighbors, relatives, friends, ward members, and loved ones.

Sometimes it's ok to accept help and give up the "I can do it myself" mentality.  It has blessed me over the past week, and hopefully I am a bit more humble and grateful in the future.

 

2009

I am grateful for 2009.  Here are some of the reasons:

I got pregnant in 2009.  Anyone who says that creating life isn't a miracle is seriously crazy (or sadly misinformed).  I am grateful that I've been given this beautiful experience.

I watched Cecily grow and learn a million new things.  She can identify all her letters, she's working on her numbers, she loves to sing and dance, she is full of energy, and tons of fun to be around. 

2009 moved us to Utah, and I am grateful for the new friends and experiences we've had here. 

2009 was full of fun experiences, and not too many sad ones. 

I am excited for 2010 and the good things it will bring.  A baby boy, a completed MBA degree, and more fun.

Thanksgiving

I am blessed much more than I deserve. I am a mormon (go here), and I am thankful today, and every day, for that. It makes me happy and enriches my life much more than anything else I have ever tried. Part of being mormon is believing in The Book of Mormon. There was a prophet named King Benjamin who summed up how I feel today. He says :

-I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—

- I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

-And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

- And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.

- And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast?

-And now I ask, can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you.

" I say unto you, that there are not any among you, except it be your little children that have not been taught concerning these things, but what knoweth that ye are eternally indebted to your heavenly Father, to render to him all that you have and are... (mosiah, chapter 2 if you want to look it up)


I am indebted to my Heavenly Father and to Jesus Christ. Much more so than I could ever repay.


Here's this years "THANKSGIVING LIST" although, isn't that what this blog is? But anyway....

I'm thankful for:
mike and cecily and my boy growing inside me
the ability/opportunity to grow a baby
my health
food
my apartment
my parents, siblings, and other extended family
mike's parents, siblings, and other extended family
computers
showers
art
music
good books
an education
a stable income
a comfy bed
God, Christ, and a knowledge that there is a plan and purpose for my life

A smattering of gratitude

Tonight I'm grateful just to be me. Nothing too specific, but I'm happy with my life.

I have joy in my husband and my child. I have joy in the baby growing inside me. I am grateful to know what a gift and blessing that truly is.

I am grateful that my parents taught me right from wrong. I'm grateful that I didn't grow up with a lot of money.

I'm glad that I can find happiness in hard work. I'm glad that I can find happiness in being lazy when the work is done.

I'm grateful for God. I'm grateful for Jesus Christ. I'm grateful for my turn on earth.

Little Boy Blue

I have known for a week that Michael and I are having a baby boy. I'll be honest: at one point, part of me was hoping the ultrasound tech would tell me we were having a sister for my Cecily. I love sisters. Then, as I looked over at my beaming -and by beaming I mean GLOWING, GRINNING, BRIGHT EYED and JOYOUS- husband, all my longing for a girl was right away forgotten and swallowed up in my beaming about my tiny dude inside.

Today, I read this post from CJane, who's blog is the most fun to read- she's such a great writer. Gratitude and excitement for my boy was renewed again. I even cried a little. So unlike me....... ok, just kidding....... exactly like me.

Today I am grateful for one of each. That is definitely something to be grateful for.