When I first get up in the morning, I get a bowl out of the cupboard, put a small plate under it, and put a quarter cup Red River cereal in it. I add a cup of water, put it in the microwave (4 minutes at 70%; 9 minutes at 40%), and wait for it to be ready. Sometimes I go back to bed to wait. However, every morning when I open my cupboard and pull out a bowl and plate, I'm thankful for my dishes.
When I first moved to Regina, shell-shocked after having my marriage fall apart so abruptly, I moved down with my clothing and personal possessions and nothing else. The church here gave me a shower and provided me with the things I needed to make a home. The Hinnergardts gave me the dishes. I use them every day and am thankful for them, and thankful for friends who knew what I needed.
Now I have to mention that I'm also thankful for the cupboard the dishes are in. I have a fairly large kitchen with lots of cupboards (not that you can ever have too many), but the wall where my dishes are stored didn't have cupboards on it before this fall. That's when I splurged and purchased some and my brother-in-law put them up for me. Now I have my dishes stored between the dishwasher and the dining room - which is the ideal location. It's so much more convenient than it was before. I'm thankful for the many storage spaces I have throughout my house - and I'm thankful for my cupboards.
After I eat breakfast (or sometimes while I'm waiting for my porridge to be ready), I unload my dishwasher. Sometimes I do up the dishes in the sink as well - sometimes I figure they'll wait for a bit. However I taught myself years ago to be thankful while I was doing dishes. It's something that has to be done pretty much every day, and it's a bit of a pain and a nuisance, however I have the choice to either complain about it or be thankful for it. I've chosen to be thankful that I have food to eat and dishes to wash. My dishwasher is very old (the serial number starts 67 - which is the year it was manufactured I think), but it still works, and I'm very thankful for that. I'm thankful I have a dishwasher so that there's not that much I have to wash in the sink.
I usually have my sister and her husband eat supper with us, and once a week (tonight in fact) I have the rest of the family over for supper. I have a dining room with a large table, and lots of chairs. I can seat 12 around the table; any more than that and we have to expand to other rooms. I bought the table, chairs and buffet off kijiji - for a really good price. Right now my table is covered with "stuff"; I'm working on recovering the chairs and have fabric and sewing implements all over it. It'll get cleared off before supper. I have a skylight in my dining room. It means that during the day it's nice and bright in here (it's where I'm typing this up right now). It's so nice to have the natural light in here - I'd love to have another skylight in my kitchen. Last week my brother-in-law ripped the carpet out of the dining room. Right now we have the original tile showing. It's a very pretty brown, but some of the tiles have lifted out of place, and some of them have nails all over them (I'm sure that they were just nailed down firmly before they lay the carpet.) But it's much easier to sweep a floor than vacuum it; especially when we regularly have small children and toddlers eat with us. When I get a job, I'll celebrate by laying a new floor. I'm so thankful that I have the space to have family and friends over; that we can share a meal and our lives together.
After supper everyone usually moves to the living room. I have a really large living room; I've had over 40 people in it at one time; I have three couches in it, a piano, two cedar chests, three arm chairs, and lots of floor space. My couches are all second-hand, and two of them have holes where the fabric's worn through. However, they are comfortable, and until I can afford something else, they work just fine. When I first moved here, my Dad made me a front hall closet, borrowing a bit of space from the living room for it; it has a book case on the back side. The living room is large enough that I don't think anyone would notice that the closet isn't original to the house. I'm thankful that I am able to have a crowd over with lots of room for everyone. I'm so thankful for my front hall closet. I'm thankful that I have such generous parents who would build me a closet. I'm thankful that I have friends that visit regularly. (I'm really a home body and would rather have people visit than go out to visit.)
When I go to bed in the evening, I'm so thankful for my bed. I just bought myself a new bed this fall. For Christmas I bought myself new sheets (300 count, really nice.) It's an added bonus that my sheets exactly match the quilts on my bed. It's such a wonderful thing to be able to snuggle into bed, with such soft, soft sheets.
Right now my house is terribly messy, from one end of it to another. My kitchen sink is filled with dirty dishes; my living room looks like it's conquered with clutter; I have trouble walking through my bedroom because of sewing machines, sergers, sewing projects, etc. piled up in it; my dining room table is covered with clutter, and the floors all need washing, sweeping, or vacuuming. Some of it will get cleaned up before people come over this evening. Some of it won't. Oh well. I'm thankful that I know how to do the cleaning (even if I don't always have the inclination). Life is good.
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