I Am Glad for Many Things

I am glad for many things, Many things, many things.
I am glad for many things That are mine today.

Thank you, thank you, my heart sings, My heart sings, my heart sings.
Thank you for the many things That are mine today.
(LDS Children's Songbook, pg. 151)

I have been stuck on this song since Sunday - where we sang it in Primary. Some of my children may or may not have begged me to "stop singing that song!" Not because they don't like the song, but because they can't stand my voice and/or it's not cool to have your Mom just spontaneously break out into song are trying to concentrate on their homework, that they are doing all on their own free choice, without complaint, of course. ;)

Regardless of my children's opinion of me, I AM glad for many things - and I will let it be known! When I started this blog, I included a "This Week's Gratitude List" thingie on my sidebar. The idea was to change the list weekly, thus the name, "This Week's..." but it's really more like every 10 days (give or take - mostly give) and once it was 36 days! This month of Thanksgiving, I pledge to actually have "week" mean "week." (roughly) Now that I just "confessed" my sins, let me go on. This practice has actually forced me to ponder and recognize the many blessings, big & simple to me, that I have. When I change the list on my blog, I write the previous "week's" list in my journal, so I have a "hard copy" forever. Without this, I think I would tend to get an "everything-is-bad-nothing-is-going-right, everybody-hates-me-nobody-likes-me" mentality.

OK - Example time...
Thanks to caller ID, we chose NOT to answer the phone the other night when Such & Such Home Security Alarm Systems called our home - during the "witching hour" of course.
My son, who was the one who screened the call, made the comment, "WHY would we even need a home alarm system? No one would want to steal anything we have!"
He thought he was being REAL clever when he voiced his next idea.
He said that we could just forgo the threatening alarm system sign out front of our property and put up our own sign.

The sign would read:
TURN AROUND RIGHT NOW!
Warning: You won't find anything of worth inside this house.
We don't have any Plasma T.V.'s.
We don't even have BIG T.V.'s.
We don't have any game systems.
We don't have Blu-Ray players.
We don't have laptops.
We don't have iPods.
We don't have iPads.
We don't have touch screen anything.
We don't have DVR/Ti-Vo - but we do have some old VCR's.
We don't have a cell phone for everyone in the family.
We don't have cell phones with the Internet.
We don't have leather couches.
We don't have surround sound or speakers on anything.
We don't have a pool table.
We don't have fancy schmancy computers.
We don't have body bugs.
We don't have a riding lawn mower.
We don't have nice cars.
and we surely don't have any CASH laying around...unless you count the measly $0.67 in my Mom's "Girl's Night Out" jar....
(He was crackin' himself up!)

I gave him the choice to voluntarily STOP his mouth right then OR to get the "duct tape treatment."

Because I couldn't stand to listen to it - at all - anymore! I. WAS. IRRITATED. I've heard their whinin' & complainin' before, but that day....that day if affected me more. Where does he get off thinking his life sucks since it is void of the above list? Since when did the above list equate happiness? I went off on how kids in X, Y, & Z 3rd World Countries would LOVE to live the Life of LUXURY that is found in our home. "Ungrateful, Little Brat" might have come to my mind, also! :)

He tried to tell me he was just trying to make a joke.
"My sign idea is FUNNY," he rebutted.

Apparently having lost my Sense of Humor, "NO! It's NOT funny," I informed him, as the "grouch Mom" was starting to come out of hiding.

"Uuuhhh....it's not? (looks at my stern face) OK, it's not funny," he agreed with an "eat crow" type of attitude.

And THAT is WHY I will continue, without warning, to blurt out, "I Am Glad for Many Things" (or any other song I feel the need to share) whenever and wherever (but definitely in front of my children) I please. Until they won't be able to get it out of their heads. It might just sink in.