Thanksgiving

As I mentioned in a previous post, an evil cold virus has taken hold upon my lungs and sinuses adn has rendered me useless for these past several days. Graeme had taken vacation the whole week, and I had all my plans laid out. I even had an afternoon alone at Panera to blog in the plan. None of my plans happened. My 6 year old first grader didn't learn about the first Thanksgiving (I'm a bad homeschool Mom), we did abbreviated school at best. The house was a mess and is now in greater shambles. I have cooked for no one. I changed our Thanksgiving plans due to this illness, and here I sit, at 5 o'clock on Turkey day, holed up in my bedroom with a humidifier and a hack that can be heard all the way to Cinncinatti. Sometimes the Lord changes our plans, doesn't he?

I had noble goals for the week, doable, not overboard. We had R&R planned for both of us, a special craft to do with the big kids, a little pre-Thanksgiving Christmas shopping. I've realized this week how unimportant and insignificant "my plans" are. None of those things were done. We are all still alive. The children are happy and thriving. Graeme may be a little tired of being Mr. Mom, but he isn't complaining - he's so wonderful. I have a long list before me of un-done things, but in the short term, it really doesn't matter much to anyone but me.

I've spent a lot of time in bed the last few days. Because I have such a dry cough, talking makes it worse, so I've had to be near mute this week....it's been very hard to not speak! I have made up twenty-eleven or so blog posts up in my head because I just have pent up words. :)

From the sickbed, I caught up on the news, which I really don't follow too closely, but hey, I was bored. I read about bombings and shootings in India. I don't normally look at pictures from such events because (my own personal soapbox) I don't like all the gorey pictures. I think people need dignity and we don't need to see such things, but that' my own soapbox. Anyway, in my boredom, I strayed from my soapbox and looked at some pictures of the events. What struck me the most was the dirty conditions in India. The poor hurt people were being transported to a hospital on what looked to me like a filthy Home Depot flatbed cart. You know, the cart we put pieces of wood on? Wounded people with open wounds on a cart so dirty we wouldn't even think of using it to haul our 2X4's. There was also a picture of a crowded hospital room. It looked so primitive and to me, not the least sanitary.

We are such spoiled people aren't we? We complain about not being able to afford our fancy coffees and huge SUV's. There are headlines plastered across the news (believe me, I've read them from my sick-room :)), about how American's don't have enough money for Christmas this year, blah, blah, blah. I complain about not getting anything accomplished this week and missing the normal Thanksgiving festivities. Shame on me, I am so blessed. I can walk into a store and buy the medicine I need (not to mention, we can get free meds with coupons and rebates!). I have clean water to drink when I'm sick and to humidify my room. I have cough drops and Campbell's Chicken noodle soup, although, I think I'm going to explode from excessive sodium intake if I have any more Campbells.

Think about it, even in our discouraging moments, isn't our God good to us, and aren't we extremely blessed?

Ps 68:19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.