One Thousand Gifts

Things I'm thankful for this week...
1) My newest devotional book (from the library) One Thousand Gifts is really showing me how thankfulness is the basis of Christianity. The author challenges us to write down 1,000 gifts to begin to see how God is at work in our every day. These are just a few that I saw this week...

2) tiny, juicy strawberries ready for jamming (Great-Grandma Sauder had Maria and I plus the kids over to have our annual strawberry freezer jam time. Nora helped a little with the stirring and enjoyed playing with Owen before a nice lunch together)

3) children itching to walk around the pond (our family, Maria and the boys, plus the Affholter's all had lunch out at Deer Path before Josh did mowing there. Because of all of the mosquitoes we ended up eating inside the cabin--the kids enjoyed touching the reindeer rug. The kids all wanted to walk around the pond with Uncle Josh)

4) a fun night out just Josh and I (Rachel, from our old youth group, came to watch the girls while Josh and I went out for dinner at Biaggi's then for ice cream at Coldstone then home to watch Get Smart together)

5) celebrating daddys (we had a nice Father's Day on Sunday at church, then ate at BWs, and after no nap for Nora, we went to have dinner with all the Sauder's and the kids enjoyed swimming and playing outside)

6) Nora going to VBS for the first time (she's going to the Crossview VBS and enjoys being in the same group with Hannah, Daniel, and Owen and is easily making friends of many of the older girls too!)

7) first baby bite of cereal (Penny started solid food yesterday with rice cereal. She must be going through a growth spurt right now because I can barely keep up with her appetite! I was going to start solids when she turned 6 months but I figured she was ready now and I think she likes it!)

8) moving to the beat at Zumba (I went for my one free class at Zumba with Maria and Kathy yesterday. I was happy that I kept up and was able to do most of the steps! I am pretty sore today though)