Never too late to be thankful...

I just read a "Thankful list" from my niece, Amberly.  I read it on her blog and cried.  It made me feel a lot like I feel every time I read "Sixteen Things I Wish I Could Do" in Jerry Spinelli's Knotts In My Yo-Yo String. (I left my copy on my shelf in Utah, so I can't tell you what page it's on, but it is one chapter, all of its own, in 2 pages -- or maybe one!). Look it up! That list, too, makes me laugh and cry!I know that Thanksgiving day has come and gone, but I love that Alma advises us to "live in thanksgiving daily."  This gives me a moment to catch up!

I don't think that my list will make anybody cry -- it didn't make me cry.  I am posting it to help me count my blessings.  I had 15 (things on this list, but many more blessings to count!), which I tried to narrow to 10, but gave up with 11 still standing. 11 THINGS I'M THANKFUL FOR  (in no particular order)...   1.  A sabbatical year to find myself (at least the parts of myself that had long been hidden). 2.  Bob, who loves me no matter what, and shows me with every word and action of his daily life. 3.  My amazing children who have been my teachers and are now my friends, truly, and my one son-in-law who is, in a new way, my friend and teacher. 4.  Autumn leaves, autumn colors, and autumn’s endings. 5.  Freshly-fallen snow and the way it sparkles in its perfect, twinkly way in the soft moonlight of a December night (I certainly hope there is snow here, in December!). 6.  My house in Utah, with it’s kitchen just the way I like it, even with its desperate need of a new floor, and its hearth room, reminding me where my heart is. 7.  Our Precious little cockapoo who thinks she’s a person and knows that our world revolves around her. 8.  My students -- the ones who come to me with their own innate gifts that they express and actualize for the good of their own students, and then stay in touch with me in order to tell me about the ways they change the world. 9.  Friends with whom I can be and express myself because they do that so well themselves. 10.  The first taste of pomegranate every November, and every single bite of the following varieties of apples (In alphabetic order): Ambrosia, Honeycrisp, McIntosh, Pink Lady and Sweetango (It's new!). 11.  Hope, because of the Atonement of my Savior, Jesus Christ.