Thankful Thursday

"Our deepest fears are like dragons guarding our deepest treasures."

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

These last two weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind with the start of school, I had a cookoff to prepare for,  and my family came to visit.  Somehow in the midst of all that business and running around, I forgot to post my Thankful Thursday post last week.  And if you're a long time reader of my blog then you know I haven't missed a Thankful Thursday in over two years!  While things around here aren't slowing down, I'm working on getting this blog and my social media back on track.  So let's hop into this, shall we?

Fear has been something that I've struggled with for a while.  As much as I can be spontaneous at times, there are just times when I overthink certain situations and allow fear of "What if I can't" to creep in.  However, when 2015 started, I said that one of my words for this year that I wanted to live up to was going to be FEARLESS.  And I was just that this past weekend.

A few weeks ago, Food Lion reached out to me to see if I would be interested in participating in their bloggers vs bloggers Iron Chef-ish style Food Lion Frugal Cookoff at the Southern Women's Show.  If you follow me on Twitter, then you would know that I have two favorite grocery stores- Food Lion and Publix.  I had already fulfilled my dream of working on a campaign with Publix and couldn't believe my luck that Food Lion decided to reach out to me as well!  So of course I said yes to being in the cookoff.  How could I pass up that opportunity?!

Long story short because I'll be doing a full post about the cookoff this weekend, my team ending up winning!!  Even if we wouldn't have won, I would still be thankful for this experience.  Not only did I get to cook in front of a live audience, I got to share this opportunity with some of fellow blogging friends and make some new ones.  Most importantly I'm thankful that I was able to work with a brand that I really trust and believe in and that's local.

Also, I'm grateful that my family was able to witness me partake in what has been the best moment of my blogging experience this year.  I love being in the kitchen and cooking.  Cooking always been a comforting and soothing activity for me.  It also helps me to remember the good times I had in the kitchen with my father, whom I no longer have a relationship with, before he decided a family wasn't what he wanted.

And while I'm talking about my favorite grocery stores, Publix has also reached out to work with me again.  I'm debating on whether or not to take the offer because I'm not sure if I want to add anything else to my plate right now.  I've already missed one deadline and am playing catchup.  I'm going to sleep and pray on it.

I'm thankful that Moo has had a good almost two weeks of school.  She likes her teacher, has made a new friend because none of her friends from her old school were moved to her new one and she kinda like most of her classmates.  She did catch me off guard the other day when she informed me that her teacher couldn't get a few of the kids in her class to listen and that they had "interrupted her learning environment."  Moo takes her education seriously and she can't understand why some kids don't listen to/respect adults.  I'm praying that her teacher finds a technique that will help her to regain control of her classroom soon.

JJ had another evaluation this week and I'm grateful that all went well.  He did throw a bit of a tantrum at the end.  However, the therapist was prepared for that as we had already discussed some of his triggers and issues over the phone beforehand.  I'm thankful that with each evaluation I get better feedback on how to parent him.  I want to make sure that I'm doing everything in my possibility to help him learn how to manage his Autism and speech delay because some day he will leave the nest. 

I don't like to think about it, but I have to prepare him to be as independent as he can so that he doesn't limit himself.  My hopes and dreams for JJ is that he will have the opportunity to do everything that I've had the chance to do, everything that Moo has the opportunity to do.  He's different sure, but I don't want him seeing his Autism and speech delay as issues that are crippling him.  I want him to feel empowered and to go after his dreams.

Lastly, I'm thankful that my baby brother celebrated another year of life!  We weren't able to be with him on his birthday, but he still enjoyed it and had a good time. 

What are you thankful for this week?