Sunday Gratitude – 14.IX.2025

I’m here! All five children have started school, and I’m working on trying to get everything to work one way or another. I’m grateful that they are all in school – and for the breathing room that having some quiet time during the day every weekday affords. Three of my kids are eligible for bus service, though this is still a thing where wrinkles are being ironed out, as one didn’t get on the bus roster until the 11th, and the other two have had their pick-up time moved up by 17 minutes. (Mind you, the district feels it’s appropriate to send me an email about the change after 4pm on a Sunday to boot!) Even so, I’m grateful for the break from driving, and the kids do seem to enjoy the autonomy that doing this on their own brings.

I’m grateful to have been able to catch up with a neighbor friend, get out with her, and learn a little bit about the area. It was getting close to a year where, despite living next door, we’d had the time to just do something together, and that was very nice.

This weekend was really busy, but the weather was perfect, and I think my kids had a lot of fun. I’m exhausted, but I’m grateful for that time with them, and I hope it’s something that they can remember as being happy. Watching my middle child work on getting a kite into the air, for instance, was really cool.

I am grateful that as I was driving one day at the time of evening when colors can kind of melt into the blue before nightfall that I saw something with just enough time to react in order to prevent something really bad from happening.

I am thankful for the hugs a friend of my youngest gives. Oh, five year olds! (Is it too early to be arranging this marriage? *L*)

I am thankful that with all the driving, especially on Thursday, that everything went reasonably well. I am also thankful that despite a shipping carton being beat up pretty badly, something that I ordered and was quite looking forward to was, apart from some very minor scrapes on a little-seen area – undamaged.

I’m realizing right now, with just over an hour before midnight, that this is September 14, and the twenty-third anniversary of my baptism and entry into the Orthodox church. It hasn’t all been Instagram-worthy, but I am grateful for this journey.

As always, I am grateful for all of you. Thank you for being here.

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