I joined Stacey
Shubbitz of Two Writing Teachers in a challenge to participate in a month of
thanks. I posted my thankful notes on Facebook, but wanted to put them all in one place here on my blog.
11-1
Today I'm thankful for rainbows! They always fill me with
wonder! I was at a meeting and would have totally missed today's gorgeous rainbow except for the fact that I stepped to the window to look at the fall color!
11-2
I'm thankful for the weekend! Always a treat to get to the
end of a week and have a weekend to renew my energy before facing another week.
11-3
Today I'm thankful for beautiful music and today's
opportunity to attend the concert of a talented colleague and his wife.
11-4
I'm
thankful for The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor which brings a poem and
a touch of trivia each day via email! Today is Will Roger's birthday. I remember Daddy taking
us to the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore, OK several times.
11-5
Today I'm thankful for my citizenship in the
United States of America and the opportunity to vote. I have so many memories
of election day! To read some of my memories, check out this week's post on my
blog.
11-6
Today I'm thankful for hot water. I know it sounds crazy, but
every morning when I hop in the shower, I'm happy that with the turn of a
nozzle - I can enjoy a hot shower. Hot water for washing dishes - hey that's
good too, but definitely not as fun as my hot shower!
11-7
Tonight I'm thankful that my job as a classroom teacher
allows me to share my passion for books with my students. We're currently
reading books selected by KCLS as possibilities for this year's Newbery Award.
It's so fun to see the excitement of my students and hear their enthusiasm as
we meet in small groups to discuss the books. A giant thanks to the MISF for funding
this project for me and my students, and to the parents who helped cover books
and are leading discussions with my students! There's no better reward than
hearing my students say, "This is the best book I ever read!"
11-8
Thankful for two things tonight - lunch from the PTSA moms
and Will's willingness to help out! We get the most delicious lunches
periodically from the moms at our school. Today it was panini sandwiches, soup,
salad, and homemade buttermilk lemon sorbet! Yum, what a treat!
Then after school I decided to do a bulletin board that
I'd been putting off doing. Will brought the papers to me at school since they
were at home on the dining room table (procrastination central). He also cooks
dinner every other night. We're totally enjoying him. It's great to have a
son-in-law who's helpful and so much fun to have around.
11-9
Tonight I'm thankful for my siblings. I was lucky to grow up
in a home filled with love. I still love talking to each of my siblings and
staying connected with them. Saturday morning is my favorite time to talk to
Karl, Kay and I talk mostly in the early evening (she knows not to call me
after nine), and Velma and I often chat on my way to school. I'm so lucky to
have a brother and sisters who are not only my siblings, but also my close
friends! I'm truly blessed!
11-10
Time for my thankful thoughts. I've been
thinking a lot of my sweet mom. She was such a generous, loving, and hard-working
woman. I've never felt that I could measure up to her. This point was driven
home to me the summer that she sewed my wedding dress and I took on the other
chores so that she could sew. I fell into bed bone weary every night.
She always made every one of us feel so loved. Going home was pure delight! My
post about the election made me think of her beans and cornbread. So I'm
thinking of two dishes that she made that I can't replicate, and I'm really
hoping that there's food in heaven because I hope my mama has chicken and
dumplings and blackberry cobbler ready for me someday! Love to my sweet mama
and gratitude for all she taught me!
11-11
Time to squeeze in another quick thankful
post. On this Veterans Day I think of the sacrifices made by so many to keep
our world safe. I'm thankful for every veteran who has served or is currently
serving in the military. My daddy was one of those men and women from the
greatest generation. He was captured as a prisoner of war and was listed as
MIA. My mom says the day she got a letter telling her he was alive was the
happiest day of her life.
I learned so much from my dad - how to have an optimistic outlook on life, how
to be totally honest (he taught me that an uncancelled stamp had served its
purpose and should not be reused), how to work hard, how to enjoy life in many
little ways, and how to wake up early and happy every single day!
Thanks for all those great lessons. Dad, I love and miss you so much! -Nubbin
11-12
Today I'm thankful for a day off work, a pajama morning, pumpkin
chocolate chip bread in the oven, the Today show on the TV, and time to read
the paper! Life's little pleasures are the best!
11-13
My
Tuesday slice of life is all about library love. The short story is I'm
thankful for libraries. For the long story, check out the post on my blog.
11-14
Tonight
I'm thankful for my book club. I hadn't read the book, but had listened to a
bit of it on CD. It's fun to spend an evening with this group even though I
hadn't read the book. Some of us have been together since 1998! And before
that, I was in a great book club in Houston for about ten years. Some of my
happiest memories are the times spent with these book loving friends. I started
my firstbook club out of fear. I heard a woman say she hadn't read a book since
she'd had kids. As a young mother, I feared turning into a woman like that. So
my book club kept me in touch with the world of books and connected me with
adult friends who loved to read - books and friends - definitely a winning
combination! This thankful post tonight is for all my book loving friends.
11-15
Tonight I'm thankful that a parent
at our school found his lost son! Turns out the activity bus was just 30
minutes late, but there's something about darkness that arrives way too early
in the NW and lost children that scares me to death. It was only a little after
five, but already pitch dark. There were just two teachers at school when the
dad showed up, but we did our best to check around. Had the student gone to
homework center after school? And in the middle of checking, the dad received a
phone call from his wife. All was well!
11-16
So tired tonight . . . skipped
school today to attend a national Social Studies convention right here in
Seattle. What am I thankful for? Not my 12 hour day which started at 7 a.m.,
but for public transportation which got me there and back without having to
fight the traffic or the rain. I love riding the bus! And the best bonus -
seeing my cousin Darrell Thompson at the World Book booth! He let me eat lots
of Tootise Rolls and watched over my very heavy book bag while I walked around
the exhibition hall. Don't ask how the book bag got so heavy!
11-17
Leaving at 7 a.m. for another day of
professional development. I love attending conferences and workshops. Today I'm
thankful to be a teacher! I'm so glad the NCSS is in Seattle this year so I can
enjoy the conference each day, and come home to my own bed each night.
I wish my beautiful niece, Kara, were here to enjoy the
day with me.
11-18
Just getting ready to do my post and saw that my brother,
Karl and I are on the same wave length. I'm thankful for Sundays, a beautiful
day for worship and rest (my Sunday afternoon nap is sacred time at my house).
Today we sang, "Welcome, Welcome Sabbath Morning" and it made me
think of Sundays in McAlester branch, the congregation where I grew up. I
remembered Edna Wilson, our SS chorister, who always made us memorize the words
to the practice hymn, Hazel Duff as my SS teacher, Billie Thompson as my
Beehive teacher, Donna Marchant as my seminary teacher, Aunt Edna as my Primary
teacher and many more too numerous to mention. Happy times growing up and
learning the gospel in that small congregation filled with so many extended
family members!
11-19
11-20
Tonight I'm grateful for sixth grade
students who are improving every day! Tonight I got to make eight "good
news" calls. When a student scores a 100 on a test, they get a good news
call at home. It's fun to see the progress they are making. Here's the chant
the counselor taught my class this year: "Little by little, bit by bit,
we're improving every day!"
11-21
Happy
Birthday, Lance! Today I'm grateful for my husband who introduced me to so many
of the finer things in life - foreign flicks, art museums, Great Courses,
Masterpiece Theater and travel. I like to think that our dual personalities
complement each other - his sense of humor, my serious nature; his owl
tendencies (although less than in the past), my morning lark tendencies; his
the glass is half empty outlook, my the glass is half full outlook; his man of
few words disposition, my let's talk every issue to death disposition. Our
greatest accomplishment - two wonderful young adults (more on them later this
week)! He's a great dad! I count myself lucky that I said yes to this giant of
a man when he asked me to share his life.
11-22
Just
finished first shift in the kitchen - poured cranberry salad into the mold
(fresh cranberries and oranges), made another pan of cornbread for the
dressing, and boiled the yams (peeled and ready for cooking). I love that we
share the cooking at our house. Shared tasks make for a fun day for everyone.
Today I'm especially grateful for a mother who was a fantastic cook! I'm trying
out a new poetic form, a thanku, that I learned about from Teaching Authors
blog. It offers thanks in the form of a haiku with three lines, composed of 5
syllables, 7 syllables, and 5 syllables. This thanku honors my mom and the
place where I feel closest to her.
I don my apron,
Retrieve treasured recipes,
And feel Mom's presence.
11-23
Tonight I'm thankful for leftovers.
I love a day with no cooking and good food in the refrigerator.
11-24
Tonight
I'm thankful for my daughter. Long before she left home, I realized that she
was more organized than me, more dedicated than me, more focused than me, and
definitely smarter than me. I laugh at students in my classroom who recognize
my scattered tendencies and help me out (usually because they have moms who are
just like me). Today Sara cleaned out two drawers in the kitchen. She knows
just
how to take everything out, let me see it, and gently persuade me to release it
into the circular file or drop it off at the thrift store. With some extra time
coming up at Christmas and no grades due the week after, we might make some
real progress around here.
I'm amazed at how efficient she is and how much she can accomplish in a short
time. Thanks to her I got lots of grades entered today, we made our turkey
sugar cookies (a Thanksgiving tradition), and cleaned the kitchen together
several times. How does it get messed up so quickly? I'm grateful for this
beautiful daughter who is always so willing to help me, even when she has lots
of her own stuff to do. I'm one lucky mom!
11-25
Tonight's thank you goes to Ken
Burns who teaches us so much history through his documentaries. We've been
watching The Dust Bowl, but have enjoyed many of his documentaries through the
years. I wish Mama and Daddy could sit and watch it with it us, so we could
hear their stories of this time as they experienced it. I do have Mama's story
of how they went on the road to pick crops in New Mexico and Colorado and
didn't make it home until December. That's how Grandpa was able to buy feed for
his cattle that winter when so many lost their cattle.
11-26
11-27
Tonight I'm grateful for crisp, fall weather, beautiful sunrises, and
the past few days without rain. This morning we enjoyed a walk to QFC to
purchase food for holiday baskets, a fun yearly tradition at IMS. It's amazing
how fun it can be to shop with sixth graders! They are just learning about unit
prices and how to shop for the best value. It was a great morning and they
managed to complete the task without purchasing anything for themselves. Way to
go, Fantastics!
11-28
Tonight I'm thankful
for my favorite son! Blake always makes me laugh! When he became much taller
than me, he loved to stand in the kitchen, peer over me, and call out,
"Where'd you go, Mama?" He likes to shop, but only with a very
focused plan. He's not agreeable to an afternoon of browsing, but is always
willing to accompany me to Costco, his happy place. Everyone loves Blake and
it's fun to be his Mama. I
loved making chocolate chip pancakes in his apartment at the Aston and meeting
all his law school friends. He's a hard worker, loves people, and enjoys
traveling, hotels, and finding the perfect gift. I love his sweet wife, Stefi,
and I'm glad that she loves Christmas, cupcakes, and Blake! Blake is super
organized. He can call from DC and describe the exact bin where I can locate
the item that he wants me to retrieve and mail. He's easy to please, and as
long as I can keep making chocolate chip pancakes and chicken casserole, I
think he'll keep coming home occasionally. I love to pick up the phone and hear
him say, "Mama Bear, what's going on?" And the best news I've gotten
recently is when he told me he would be coming home in March. I saw him in
September when I went to DC for the National Book Festival, and I've been
trying to be stoic about the fact that I probably wouldn't see him again until his
graduation in May. For now I'm counting down the days and weeks until I get to
see Boo Boo again and looking forward to phone calls from the other Washington.
11-29
I can't believe that I've posted my
gratitude all month and not one mention of my favorite indulgence - chocolate!
My current fave is Ghiradelli intense dark sea salt soiree singles! So thankful
they come in singles and go on sale periodically.
11-30
I’m thankful for two
things today: the newest member of our family, and my friends.
My daughter-in-law, Stefi, is a delightful addition to our family. I love that
she adores baking, traditions and blogging! I gave her an apron for the
official, “Behnke Woman Welcome.” I simply must love a girl who can cry over
sprinkles and baby cupcakes, and chooses to share her life with my adorable
son!
I’m also thankful for my friends. I have a favorite quote, from the book,
Creeker: A Woman’s Journey by Linda Scott Derosier. “… I have left no one
behind. Instead my sense of family has simply expanded to include a lot of
folks I have met along life’s way. …Indeed if you are ever in my life, you are
always in my life.” And that sums up how I feel about my friends.
I love this time of year when I come home on a dark December evening and open
my mailbox to the warmth of “real mail” from friends far and near. I’ll even
count your greetings sent over the internet as real mail because I’ll print a
copy to put in my red Christmas basket. I like to linger over the cards, the
photos, your notes. I often wait until I’ve made a cup of tea to open the
envelopes and savor your updates. It’s truly one of my favorite parts of the
Christmas season.
Finally, thanks to the Two Writing Teachers blog who suggested this journey of
gratitude and to each of you, my friends and family, for putting up with my
daily ramblings.
As I walked in the door, Patty and Karen were already working on the pretzels topped with kisses and soon to be adorned with Christmas M&M's after a quick warm-up in the oven. Sara was mixing up the dough for press cookies while my friends noted my vintage cookie press in its original box, with the recipe torn from Mom's vintage Betty Crocker cookbook . As soon as I open this box each year, I'm a little girl again in the kitchen on Tyler Street baking with my mom. 
Around six we gather around the table for a bowl of steaming soup and cheese bread before heading back to the kitchen for a few more rotations of cookie sheets and cooling racks. Thank goodness for double ovens (a luxury this baker loves)!
