Thankful on a Thursday.

      

Back in high school, I was part of a tight-knit group of four. The other three were friends long before I came around, but they welcomed me with open arms and a love for choir music. Oh yes. Yours truly was a choir geek. AND an orchestra geek, too. My geekyness was balanced out with years serving in student government and playing varsity sports, so I did have street cred somewhere.

Anyway, the four of us were pretty inseparable my senior year of high school. Two of us had serious boyfriends and two of us spent hours pining after guys who would never look our direction. We sang in the car. We toilet-papered people's houses. We screamed our heads off at football games. We debated the pros and cons of whether we'd have kids one day. We fought intensely and fiercely during the weeks that UNC, Duke and NC State would play basketball against each other. We freaked out together when we got our college acceptance letters. They taught me the rules of wearing makeup. We were your classic case of goofy, awesome and hilarious high school misfit besties. And wouldn't you know it, but one of those girls was Blair.  Yes.  Of Heir to Blair fame.  That very one.

I was thinking back on that year of high school and was reminded of these posters that we created called "Happy Lists." We would go to the grocery store around the corner from my house and buy big honkin' pieces of poster board. Then, we'd buy the Titanic-sized pack of Crayola markers. After that, we'd sit on the hoods of our cars in front of Blair's house and write out everything we could think of that made us happy. We'd spend hours on these beasts... making sure that all of the words were completely even, using our most crafty and spiffy handwriting. Every item that we wrote down was in a different color. After our monolithic lists were complete, they would hang in our bedrooms. Mine hung on the back of my bedroom door. I'm pretty sure it hung above my desk in my freshman dorm room, too.

My memory has faded since then and I regret saying that I'm not sure what started this movement (I still can't believe it was almost a decade ago. DECADE, I say).

After reminiscing about our Happy Lists, I was struck by how many things I could put on my list today... and I was deeply humbled. I'm humbled by everything the Lord has provided for me over the last 10 years. I'm humbled by the path that He has me on today and the things that he blesses me with every day. In that moment of reflection & pause, I felt a deep longing... a longing to speak thankfulness and praise with every breath. To constantly remind myself of what I have to be thankful for. To start making a list of His movement and blessings... both on paper and in my heart.

So, today I'm going to start Thankful on a Thursday. Every Thursday, I'll write out at least ten things that I'm thankful for and post them here at The Outdoor Wife. It's my prayer that you'll join me, whether on your own blog, or just in your heart. Join me in speaking words and breathing sighs of thankfulness and God's blessing.

Will you join me for Thankful on a Thursday? 

I'm thankful for...

1. The love & admiration of a faithful and strong man.
2. The little life of Rowan & his big presence.
3. The smell of coffee in the morning.
4. Blooming cherry blossoms in the heart of the city.
5. The encouragement of steadfast friends.
6. Full pages of answered prayers in my journal.
7. The way both dogs snuggle against me to stay warm in the mornings.
8. Our Netflix subscription.
9. Seasons of pause and reflection.
10. The chocolate chip pancakes we eat every Sunday morning.