The small things.

Today I was really hit with how important it is to try to remember to be thankful for the small things in life. Of course it is natural to be thankful when something huge happens. Although, sometimes I am not nearly as thankful as I should be then either.
Anyway, my point is it is easy to be thankful...
When a family member that has been sick is doing a lot better.
When I feel the baby kick or remember that I have this little life inside me.
When a friend calls just to see how I am doing.
When I am having a bad day at work and my husband brings me coffee just because.
When my beautiful little niece gives me a kiss and hug before she leaves.
Well, you get the point. I could go on forever.

I don't always think about the small things that make up the life I am so blessed to have. Today while Dan was at work I decided to just sit quietly and think rather than turning on the TV or computer to distract myself from the silence. I thought about how truly blessed we are to have the chance to be parents to this little boy. I thought about my relationship with my husband and how much he loves me. I thought about my family and how important they are to me. I guess I just decided that I need to try to recognize the many ways that I am so blessed every single day.

So when Dan got home from work today I took a minute to really enjoy his hug. I enjoyed the fact that before he did anything else he came up to me and just hugged me. I decided that rather than letting go after a quick hello hug, I would enjoy the fact that he values me and our relationship more than any of the other billions of things he could do after getting home from a very long day at work.

So... it is almost humorous how easy it is to forget all of this in such a short period of time. When it came time to pack his lunch tonight and I was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed, I suddenly (surprise, surprise) did not find a thankful heart to be the first thing on my mind.
First you have to understand something about me and packing lunches...
I HATE it!
It is one of my least favorite things to do EVER. For some reason I just cannot stand packing a lunch (or cleaning the lunchbox out at the end of the day). Now, it is possible that because I hate it so much I wait until I am so tired that I make it even worse for myself... I admit to procrastinating too. I would actually rather cook a whole meal for someone than come up with things to pack in a lunch for them. Anyway, I do not think Dan has ever asked me to pack him a lunch. If I didn't pack him a lunch I am sure he would grab something quick in the morning or grab something out. (This has happened a few times) However, I feel that it is one of the ways that I show him that I love him. He has thanked me for almost every lunch I have made for him over the past few years. He has never stopped being thankful for it. I also feel that in order to keep things less expensive (and healthier) it is important for me to do this simple task for him.

So tonight as I was packing him his lunch I tried to stop the grumbling that was going on inside of me and pack it with a joyful heart instead. It probably wont taste any different because I did it with a joyful heart, :) but it sure made that 10-15 minutes a lot easier for me. I decided to be thankful that we had the money to buy the food that was in the fridge. I am thankful for a healthy husband. (I am sure that if anything ever happened to him all I would want was to be able to pack that lunch and send it off with such a hard-working man in the morning.) I am VERY thankful tonight that his new job may have him working long days, but that he seems to enjoy it and that his new schedule means I only pack THREE lunches a week. That is two less than before!

We are so blessed and fail to see it all too often. So I am going to try to learn to be thankful for the small things in life too! I am sure I will forget (every two minutes), but it is so unbelievable how rich life is when you take a minute to be thankful. I am so blessed!