Thankful Thursday

"Take time to be thankful for everything that you have.  You can always have more, but you could also have less."

~ Unknown

The struggle to improve my photography and video shooting skills has been real y'all.  My camera fell off its tripod during my DIY shoot for my JORD watch and broke.  I haven't found a budget friendly replacement and last week I started to get down in the dumps about it.  Then, I stumbled across the quote above and remembered that I needed to be thankful that I wasn't completely camera-less.

I do own a phone a with a camera.  Although, it's on its last leg due to kissing the asphalt a few times, in a pinch it gets a decent job done.  However, prayers are greatly appreciated that I as head out this weekend looking for a new replacement that I will find something within my budget.  

This week Moo came home from school talking about how some of the kids in her class were debating whose parents were the richest based on how much stuff (i.e.- toys, clothes, etc) they had.  It bothered her a bit because the situation kind of turned into some of the kids picking on one of her friends.  Also, I think it made her feel a little conscious of the fact that neither I nor her father rushes out to get her the latest toys, etc. As a parent, I've also strived and will continue to strive to instill in my children that material things don't define who we are.

I'm grateful to have had this teachable moment and to reassure her that being rich in life goes beyond how big your house is, the number of zeros in your bank account or in her case the number of Barbie dolls in her toy box.  She felt better by the end of our talk and said that she remembered that people are more important than things. Here's to hoping that as she gets older the peer pressure from her classmates to keep up with Joneses increases, she will continue to remember that.  I'm also hoping that more parents will work on teaching their children that it's not okay to shame others because they don't have as much as you do!

This weekend my little guy turned FOUR!!  Please tell my heart to slow down y'all.  I managed to keep it together on his actual birthday, but there may or may not have been a tear shed the night before his birthday.  While having kids has made me stronger and tougher in certain situations, when it comes to sentimental occasions like birthdays, I have turned into even more a sap.  I'm even more grateful that we got to celebrate his birthday as a family and that the Mr didn't have to work!

Lastly, thank God again for honest neighbors.  My UPS man is officially on my bad side.  He's been delivering all of my packages to someone else in a completely different apartment building and that poor lady has been trekking down three flights of stairs, down the sidewalk and up another couple flights of stairs to drop off my packages.  The first time I thought she'd made a lucky guess at which apartment to bring the package to because I'd expected there to be an error with the my printed mailing address. 

Nope, my address was correct.  This week, I got a really package and she was so out of breath that she had to pause outside our door to catch it as she explained that our UPS man had once again left my package at her place.  As expected my address was 100% correct.  I felt bad that she had to cart that heavy box down and up all those stairs in this heat we've been having.  At this point, I'm seriously wondering why he keeps doing this and what happened to the UPS lady we had before he started doing this route?  

Not sure if I can find out which warehouse he works at and contact the manager, but the we'll look into email from corporate isn't going to do this time. Nevertheless, I'm grateful for the reminder that we still have honest people in this often times crazy world.  I give thanks to God for this good samaritan in our neighborhood.  Also, thank you to everyone who's been entering my current PayPal Cash giveaway!

Let me know in the comments what you're thankful for this week!