Giving Thanks

This year we gave up our usual--I typically put on a massive spread and invite over whatever stragglers we can find--and travelled out to Floydada, TX to spend Thanksgiving with some good friends who live at a Baptist camp. It was AMAZING!

I am so grateful that we have friends to lean/lay on ;)

The dinner was amazing, even though Melissa was nervous about it. She had never made a Thanksgiving dinner or even really cooked for that many people, so she was a little worried, but she did a fabulous job! We were all stuffed and had a really fun time.

Of course I thought of my family who I miss so much: My mom and sisters, who define Thanksgiving for me. There are no happier memories of the day than those with my mom...always on a strange day so we could go to our dad's family's house and she could work for time and a half...always the most delicious. I am so thankful that I had them to shape my childhood!

I'm also thankful for the family I've helped to create: my husband and children who make me full and whole. I am thankful for our home and the memories we make together. I am so very blessed.

I am thankful God took care of my garden for me while I was gone. It has been so neglected by human hands, but it's obvious no tiny detail escapes my Lord.

pretty little parsley sprouts!

Who says it's fall? I just LOVE this picture. I may blow it up and frame it. Yes...I think I am turning into a farmer!

Broccoli and garlic. I cannot WAIT to eat fresh broccoli crowns. I love broccoli and I'm thankful to my husband for introducing me. He made them for me when I was very first pregnant with GraceAnne...it was the first meal he ever made me and I thought I hated broccoli. I cried when I saw he was making it. I panicked, but decided I would eat it just to be nice, since he had been so amazing to cook for me. I was HOOKED and ate it at least 2x weekly for the rest of my pregnancy and it's still one of my faves.

romaine. We've been plucking leaves and using them. I so love going outside to get things instead of to the grocery store!

sugar-snap peas. These are doing great. The picture is a couple weeks old, now they have tons of flowers and one tiny pod is developing. I'm so excited!

I'm thankful for my bible study home-group. We meet on Thursdays and have since June. They are some of our very best friends and even though we knew them all and loved them before we started the group, I can say we have grown SO close in the last few months. They have traveled ups and downs with me and loved on us and our kids and we do the same for them. I am amazed at how far we've all come together and really have no idea what I'd do without them. The weeks we can't get together on Thursdays I'm lost and scrambling to figure out when we can get together.

I'm thankful for a man who makes pancakes (from scratch, even!!) with the babies on Saturday mornings and makes any shape they want.

and for the sweet babies who get up and pile in our bed and love on us before the day begins.

the man who fixes our cars so we don't have to pay an arm and a leg!

and repairs/improves our home so we don't have to pay an arm and a leg!

and mostly for all the joy, laughter, fullness, excitement, love, peace and beauty that is our home. I am thankful that we can call wherever we land our home and that God will transfer all that over to a new place whenever/ifever we find it.

I have had a few questions about what is going on around here and I promise I'll be back in the next few days. I have 2 blog posts stewing around in my head and I'll update everyone.

Love and miss you all! Pray you had a FABULOUS Thanksgiving, surrounded by the people you love and chewing on the memories of wonderful years past.