Day 11 & 12 ~ 30 Days of Thanks

There's been a whirlwind of activity around here for the last few days!
It even included this:

That's right ... we got our 1st snow of the season on November 10.

The timing of the snow's arrival at our house was just about perfect.
Just as the boys & I were in the garage getting down all our Christmas decorations,
one of them exclaimed, "It's snowing!!"
And sure enough, it was!
Course, we all had to rush out in it for a second or two ... you know, kinda like we'd
never seen it ever before.
I don't know what it is, but there's just something fun, almost magical,
about that 1st snow.

We didn't get a whole lot, but it did flurry here & there throughout the evening
& left us enough to wake up to on Friday morning.
Never fear though ... this is Indiana!
The forecast is 50s and 60s for the next week ;)

Now on to the other big events around the Pennington place.

I'd been thinking about tackling 2 big chores on James' to-do list.
And I'll be honest, these are chores that I really would like him to keep up with.

I'll also admit that these 2 things have been quite a source of frustration for me.
I'm, by nature, more of an organizer than James & I like things just so-so.
A place for everything & everything in it's place ... that's me.
Guilty as charged.

Part of our problem is that we have no attic space for storage ... & up until last summer,
our neighborhood covenants did not allow storage barns/sheds.
So, our whole life in contained in our house & our garage.
It's only natural that both places are well used ... & well, a mess sometimes.

I can't say exactly what brought about my change of heart.
Maybe it's this season of thanksgiving ... or as one blog put it, thanksLIVING.

It's important to me to really focus on Thanksgiving during the month of November.
Not just to anticipate turkey & Black Friday shopping ... but to reflect on our many
blessings with a grateful heart.
Gratitude has been the topic of morning devotions & during our morning & supper prayers, we've been naming off the things for which we're thankful.

My annual Thanksgiving tradition is to send out beautiful Thanksgiving cards
to special friends & family  ... t0 show our appreciation to those who have impacted
our family throughout the year.
 And it was as I was making out my card list that I got to thinking.
If I were going to put someone at the top of my 'I'm thankful for' list, that spot
would, without a doubt be reserved for James.

He's a wonderful husband ... & the boys couldn't ask for a better dad.
He works so hard everyday, coming home mentally & physically exhausted, but
still leads us in family worship each evening.
In addition to all this, he prepares for Sunday's sermon which he delivers each week.

Oh, he deserves waaayy more than a card ... but he expects nothing at all.
He just loves us ... & is thankful we love him back.

It was right then & there when the idea popped into my head ...
I could clean out the garage & his closet as a way to show him my appreciate
for all he does for us.
{Yes, those are the 2 huge chores that I had been urging James to do!}

So, that's exactly what we did.
We cleaned out/organized James closet AND the garage, as a surprise to him.

When I say we, let me tell you, these 3 sons of ours are workers.
I could not have completed these 2 huge chores as quick as we did without their help.
I mentioned my idea to them at the beginning of the week & they were more than
happy to pitch-in.
We did in 1 day what I had allotted 2 days to do.
The closet & garage cleaned out & organized ... & 12 bags of donations hauled to Goodwill!

James was SO surprised ... I mean really surprised ...
& he said over & over again how much he couldn't believe it!

And for us, we felt so good doing something so big for him.
Nothing compares to the warm feeling you feel inside when you've done a good deed,
out of the goodness of your heart, for someone you love.

And for the icing on the cake, since we had gotten all the Christmas decor down while we were cleaning out the garage ... and since we had a 2nd day set aside for work,
the boys offered to help with decorating the house for Christmas, which is yet another
big undertaking!

With all 4 of us working, we finished almost all of that yesterday!
Here's a peek at the tree.

The boys even hung all the outside lights.
Worth their weight in gold, they are.

All in all, going to bed completely worn out from 2 hard days of work,
especially knowing that we'd surprised James & done something nice for him,
well, it made for a very good night's sleep.