10 Things!

Unfortunately, for some reason, I tend to be negative too often.  My husband balances me beautifully (isn't it neat how GOD knows exactly who complements you?!) by being an eternal optimist.  I used to defend myself by saying I'm just being a REALIST ... I've learned life is HARD sometimes, things don't often go smoothly. 

I find myself making statements like, "NOTHING goes right for me!!" and "WHY does everything have to be so HARD!?".  Yesterday was a day like that:  apparently our new pool's ring has a hole in it :(  I had hoped for my kids to have a few more days to swim after school, but alas, I am NOT finding that hole so I can patch it :(  I didn't realize the pool ring had a hole until the ring collapsed, sending all the water flooding into our GARAGE (the pool sits to the side of our garage but for whatever reason, the water direction turned into the garage!!) ... The other down side to that is my WATER BILL is going to be huge again:

When we first got this pool, I had a hard time finding a flat area for it to be on. We had several failed attempts to fill it.  If the ground isn't exactly flat, the pool WILL collapse!  Our June water bill was $48.  Our July water bill (with no extra pool filling fiasco's) was $18!!!!  Our August water bill will probably be $128 at the rate we're going.  :(  GRRRRRR!!   Do you see why I'm cranky!? 

Then there's the wireless router that IS NOT working on our old, tired desktop anymore.  GRRRRRRR!!

Then when I went to pull the window shade down in the living room last night, it CRASHED DOWN.  Now I have to fix the window shade too. 

My whole day yesterday started with my coffee maker putting out SLUDGE instead of coffee ... no wonder my day went downhill from there!!!  Thankfully, I ran vinegar through the coffee maker - and it helped clean it out - but I'm thinking this 10 year old appliance needs to be replaced (I'm planning to use my amazon credit to buy a new one!!!!  THANK YOU, SWAG BUCKS!!).

Speaking of swagbucks, may I just say (on a positive note) that since March 2010 (when I signed up for swagbucks) that I've gotten $80 in amazon gift card credit!!!!!!  $80 for just using the swagbucks tool bar to search the internet, filling out a daily poll, finding a few swag codes, etc.  EASY MONEY, people!!!  Seriously.  If you don't use swagbucks, check out my little widget on the upper left side of this blog.   :) 

OK, to the POINT of this blog entry (and no, it wasn't to vent & whine), I thought today I'd list 10 things that are GOOD today:

1)  My baby girl is having a GREAT, happy morning.  She slept from 9 p.m. - 5:30 a.m  Then I nursed her , and she slept til 8 a.m.!  :) 

2)  My 2 older kids are old enough to get themselves ready for school so I just peek in on them to say good-bye and can go back to bed!  :) 

3)  My husband is a morning person and takes care of all the morning stuff like packing lunches, feeding the pets, taking out the trash.

4)  I love the quiet hours after my family goes to bed that are ALL MINE on most nights.  It suits my night owl personality so well.  I'm thankful my husband is so understanding about my inner clock and does not force me to conform to his morning person schedule.

5)  I love Miriam's NAP TIME when I can do housework or just putter around in a quiet house for 2 hours.

6)  I am excited that our church's Wednesday night kids' program is starting up again.  My husband and I have been helping with Patch the Pirate Club since we started it up in 2002 - this is our 8th year!  :)  We selfishly started it because our then 4 year old son didn't have anything to do during Wednesday night church - but now it has turned into a program that runs 30-40 kids each Wednesday, singing and learning Bible character lessons.

7)  My kids have had a GREAT start to school this year!!  My daughter LOVES her new (to the school) teacher - and I've gotten a sweet report already that Anna is doing well and being a good helper. :) 

8)  Andrew LOVES Junior High.  For our little school, 7th & 8th grade having 16 total students is HUGE!!  Having been the only boy - or only 1 of 2 boys in his class - Andrew is loving that he can now hang out with the 8th grade boys too.  He is excited to have his own LOCKER and to change classes.  Suddenly, he seems so GROWN UP!
9)  I'm thankful for my home - even though I look around & see so many fix-it projects and stacks of stuff that we need MORE STORAGE for or need to just GET RID OF.  My house isn't big or new - but it is ours & it is enough.  :) 

10)  I'm just thankful to be alive & healthy.  My family is healthy.  No one has cancer at this time; we haven't got any major health problems.  No one has been in an accident or gotten hurt.  I know that can change in an instant, in a blink of an eye:  a diagnosis of illness or a car wreck ... but right now, we are WELL.  Thank you, God.  We don't take it for granted.