Thankful...

I'm sure everyone and their mother/brother/sister/friend is posting about being Thankful right now, so why not me?

Obviously I have plenty to be thankful for. I mean, I found a dude that would marry me even though I'm sort of passive-aggressive, very sarcastic and go a million miles a minute. I have wonderful, sweet, very intelligent children who really don't make my life hard. Seriously, I've said this before, if I could have 12 kids like my 14 year old I'd be ON IT. But, with my luck I'd have another Mini-Maija and butt heads with her.

I have a house over my head (that leaks in the winter and shifts in the spring). I have a bed to sleep in (and a husband who snores, but my children are always eager to have him snore because they'll find me climb into bed with THEM on particularly loud nights!). I have food in my cupboard and freezer (and probably too much food, I better start using it up!). I have a vehicle to bring me to work (even though the doors don't work and everyone complains about the permanent Child-Lock!). I have family who loves me (they're as crazy as I am). And I have a job at a corporation that doesn't look like its going under anytime in the near millennium (nana.com, check it out).

How do I show thanks? This was brought up at church on Sunday. How DO I show thanks? Thanks for the leaky house and the old food and the crazy family? Do I yell out to them, "THANK YOU!" What?

I think, or I'd LIKE to think that when an elder (or you, my coffee deprived friend) wants a latte, I'd just give them one for free. And if you had a newborn son and tried to pay for a warm hat with a strap, I'd just give you one for free, becuase really, that hat took me 10 minutes to make with scrap fleece...and besides, your son is so cute in it. And maybe someone really would like to make their OWN hat, so I'd take the time to actually show them how to do it, instead of doing it for them.

People ask me all the time, where I have the TIME to do all this "stuff." I don't know. Some days I am as drained as the rest of us, but I put on a happy smile when you come knocking at my door, and put aside my ever-present cleaning so I can help you do/make/get something. Some days I just want to sit at home next to my husband and watch a movie, but I come when you call because I feel like I should.

A long time ago, I got into an accident. I was flipped over the side of the vehicle and unconscious for a while. I don't want to admit, but it was probably self-inflicted. Emotional distress being the cause of the recklessness. (or so is my excuse now!) Anyway, I lived.

And every day since that day I have said a prayer for the two men who happened to be on the trail back to Kotzebue that day. Every day since that day, I have thought about what I could be doing to help others. When I go to bed, I actually wonder what I did that day to help someone else out.

Because I am THAT Thankful for my life. I am THAT Thankful that I am still alive. I am THAT Thankful that I was allowed to continue to make mistakes and cry and laugh and get married and have another child and sew and bake and be as busy as I possibly can. I am THAT Thankful.

And even if this didn't happen to me, I would still have plenty to be thankful for. So, I'll just give you a list and some web-shout-outs!

Dean: Thank you for caring about me. Thank you for sharing your life with me. Thank you for putting up with my (sometimes) horrible ways. And most importantly, Thank you for peeling through my very tough exterior and pulling out the fun I always knew was in there!

Mom and Dad: Thank you for sticking together and raising me like you did. It wasn't perfect. But I'm not perfect! Mom, thanks for doing my laundry for the past month while my Washer/Dryer was "on order!"

Koy and Kaisa: Thank you for making me a better person by allowing me to be your mom. Thank you for understanding my temper and patience level and Thank you for calling me out on it when I'm being ridiculous. (Oh yes, a 7 year old can call you out on your behavior, even when you're a mom!)

Emily: Thank you for allowing me to marry your son. Thank you so much for everything you do for us. It is you who I want to be like, forever helping others, putting our needs in front of your own. Someday I will figure out a way to repay you for everything. Someday I only hope to be as great a person as you are.

Sisters: Thank you for fighting with me and making me human. Thank you for being messy, so I don't have to be the only one. Thank you for letting me be the boss all the time, even when you don't want me to be the boss! Thank you for having kids so I could spoil them the way I wanted to spoil you when you were growing up.

Grandmothers: (Aana and Grandma) Thank you for inspiring me. Thank you for showing me how important it is to be creative and crafty and make your own clothes! I am one of few who can whip up a Christmas Dress for my child, and then make a pair of Sealskin mukluks to match it. Without patterns. Thank you two for being such perfect Grandmothers. Even though I used to get in trouble all the time for talking too much.

Friends: Thank you for listening to me rant and rave and cry and complain and gossip and moan and groan and lie and exaggerate and laugh and smile and sleep and drink good wine with you. Thanks for not telling me what to do and letting me learn my life lessons on my own. And thanks for listening when they didn't go the way I wanted them to!

And lastly...Thank you to my readers who come day after day to read my silly, sometimes, hard to understand posts about life above the Arctic Circle. I appreciate all the blog love!