Thanks Living

Count your blessings.  We all know the saying.  Have you ever started counting and gotten all the way to a thousand?  What started as a friend's challenge for Ann Voskamp led to her best selling book, One Thousand Gifts.

Since I haven't actually read the book, this isn't a recommendation.  I'll add it to my long list of reads I may or may not get to this year (or next for that matter). But I love the concept behind the book. My friend sent me the video clip below, and it really resonated with me because it so eloquently echos what I have been experiencing in my own personal walk with God.  Slowing down.  Opening my eyes.  Waking up.

Phoebe and I started a blessings journal.  We haven't gotten to a thousand yet, but we're working on it.  This life is a gift.  This life is beautiful.  Bountiful.

So I am thankful.

I am thankful.

I am thankful for dirty dishes because it means I am fed. I am thankful for laundry because I have clothes on my back. I am thankful for dust because it means I have shelter.  I am thankful for toys and wet towels on bathroom floors.  I am thankful for sticky fingers and chocolate milk mustaches. I'm thankful for raindrops on flowers and puffy, white clouds.  I am thankful for peanut butter cookies and purple tennis shoes.  I'm thankful for music and laughter and dance, for squishy babies and rainbows and marriage and sunset after glorious sunset!

I am thankful.

While you scurry to get the gravy in the boat and the bird cooked just right,  the kids won't sit still while Grandpa says Grace, and the life that you live seems like a colorful blur of madness...STOP.

Look right.

Look left.

Do you see them?

Abundance

Grace

Mercy

Freedom

Faith

Hope

Love

EXTRAORDINARY LOVE

Gifts

The Martins

Recently we had the privilege of seeing our dear friends, Don and Linda Martin.  This dynamic couple came into our lives when Xee helped them with a Marriott transaction.  They hit it off and soon after, I got to meet them too.  Every year they come to Ko Olina for a vacation and we get together for dinner.  Xee was out of town this year during their visit, so he missed them, but Phoebe, Ezra and I were so blessed by their visit. Phoebe was especially thrilled to have Auntie Linda around for some fancy tea and a shopping extravaganza in her royal bedroom.  What a pair!  We love you Don and Linda and we can't wait to see you next year!!!