{"id":484,"date":"2009-11-25T21:57:07","date_gmt":"2009-11-26T02:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/?p=484"},"modified":"2009-11-25T21:58:12","modified_gmt":"2009-11-26T02:58:12","slug":"giving-thanks-in-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/2009\/11\/25\/giving-thanks-in-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving Thanks in 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m glad that there is a holiday dedicated to giving thanks because, quite frankly, I&#8217;ve done a very poor job of being thankful this year.  It has not been the easiest of times and amidst all the  anxiety, exhaustion, and stress, I&#8217;ve had a hard time focusing on anything that is not urgent.  That&#8217;s why Thanksgiving couldn&#8217;t have come at a better time for me. I need a couple of days to step back from it all and remember what I and my family have been blessed with.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I&#8217;m thankful to God for keeping all of us in good health and in a safe place to live.  I&#8217;m thankful we have the freedom to do as we please and worship as we please.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;m thankful for my beautiful, hard-working, and very patient wife.  I know I&#8217;ve not been the easiest person to live with lately and I&#8217;m glad she still comes home every night and instead of fleeing elsewhere.  I&#8217;m thankful she can still make me laugh even after the most frustrating and discouraging day.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;m thankful for two healthy beautiful girls.  It&#8217;s hard to believe that two years ago this time they were so small and fragile, but they are starting become strong and develop inquisitive, loving personalities.  I&#8217;m thankful that they are no longer one year olds and I&#8217;m especially thankful that in a year they will no longer be two-year olds.  I&#8217;m thankful that spending time watching them is finally starting to feel less like work and more like play.<\/li>\n<li>Whatever I say about my job, I&#8217;m thankful to still be employed. I&#8217;m thankful that I am still able to provide for my family and that I&#8217;m challenged daily with problem solving and tests on my creativity.  <\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;m thankful that we are in a stable financial state and able to put a bounty of food on our table tomorrow for Thanksgiving.  We will be eating like royalty and we must not forget that not every one will be so fortunate.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;m thankful for family that enjoys getting together for the holiday.  I&#8217;m thankful that Adriene loves my parents and I love her parents and that my parents and her parents enjoy seeing each other.  I&#8217;m thankful that we have no drama at family gatherings and we have a good time.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;m thankful for music and art that still inspires me and spurs me on to be creative, even if I don&#8217;t have much time to implement anything lately.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;m thankful that there are better days to come yet.  In the short term, there will be Christmas and a New Year.  In the long term, there will be soccer games, dance recitals, family vacations and more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m glad that there is a holiday dedicated to giving thanks because, quite frankly, I&#8217;ve done a very poor job of being thankful this year. It has not been the easiest of times and amidst all the anxiety, exhaustion, and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/2009\/11\/25\/giving-thanks-in-2009\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-housekeeping","category-thy-mercy-my-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":487,"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions\/487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedirtroad.net\/jeff\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}