Thursday Thanksgivings #26: a new church building!

Thursday Thanksgivings will be a continuation of a weekly post I started on my weight loss blog and am moving here, in which I recap what I am thankful for every day of the week.   I used to post them on Tuesdays, so this first one will be a little longer.

I made a thanksgiving resolution to find something to be thankful for every day until next Thanksgiving.  Here’s what I am thankful for this week!

Wednesday:  It was announced at church that it is official: negotiations have settled and we are getting the new building we put an offer in for!! Pillar church of Christ formed in 2008 and we have been in a strip mall nearly the entire time.  We first tore down a wall to make more room as we grew, and now just squeeze in tighter to one another, adding chairs as necessary, as members and visitors are added weekly.  Hallelujah, praise Jehovah!  I’m excited to have a larger classroom for the toddler Bible class–right now we are squeezed into what was turned into a storage room before a toddler class was necessary.  We started with just one Bible class for preschoolers, and now we have three classes in addition to the adults, filling all the spare rooms in our tiny space !  We planted seeds in our community, appealing to those who want to learn from God’s word as it is written, and God has definitely provided the increase.  Thank you, Lord!

Jerry's wife, Jenni, took this picture as we began to file in for the gospel meeting on Wednesday night. The lesson this night was on how we can improve our home life by applying Bible principles.

Thursday:  I got off work a little early so I had time to bake a cake between work and the gospel meeting that night.  I’m a big fan of down time, as well as cake time. :)

Friday: This was the last day of the week’s gospel meeting, and I am so thankful for brother Jerry Crolius for traveling from Arkansas to bring us such wonderful lessons from God’s word.  The lessons were edifying and it’s so encouraging and uplifting to be in the daily presence of Christian brethren.  As soon as you walk through the door, it’s smiles and hugs all around!

Saturday:  I fit into a pair shorts I hardly dared to try on since I haven’t been able to wear them in two years!  I was also thankful for my husband, for coming with me to walk a 5K and annoying me the whole time.  (Annoying me is how he gets his kicks, and secretly I find it amusing too.)  He makes things so much more fun!

Wearing my old shorts and hugging cake pops...yes, you can lose weight while eating cake pops! Real girls eat cake...and count the points. :)

Sunday: Do you ever have days where you plan every minute of it and realize you don’t have any spare time leftover just to relax?  That was Sunday!  We were giving a brother a ride to and from church for both services, had the worship services themselves (we meet twice on Sunday, once in the morning and once in the evening), I wanted to stop by a dairy-allergic friend’s house after the morning service to drop some cake pops off, another brother wanted us to follow him to a sister’s house to deliver a  care package we helped pay for, we had a house warming to go to, and I needed to get to my Dad’s house to lay out his medicine for the week, go through his mail, and pay the bills.  We needed to go grocery shopping too but I knew that wasn’t going to happen.  God must have been smiling down on us, for things worked out to where we actually had a couple hours of down time and I was so thankful just to have them and squander them as I pleased!

Monday: A devastating mile-wide tornado swept through Joplin, MO, destroying a third of the city.  Most of you have probably seen pictures and coverage of the aftermath.  It is horrific.  My maternal grandparents live with my uncle in Joplin, so when I found out about it on Monday, I called them with my heart in my throat.  The first call didn’t go through and I thought for sure they’d been hit and the phone lines were down.  I tried again and the call went through.  Uncle David informed me that they are all doing fine and they were fortunate because their home wasn’t hit.  It was close but did no damage to their property.  Great Aunt Mary’s home was destroyed so she and her husband are living with my grandparents right now, but thank God everyone survived.  The death toll is at 122 right now, and there are many affected families who need our prayers.  Click here to find out how you can help financially.

Tuesday: Not a great day, but I’m so thankful that I was able to finish my enormous recipe index!  I started working on it a year ago so it’s about time.

Wednesday: That I only burned the tar out of ONE of my hands with boiling honey.  In the haze of recovering from low blood sugar, I put a partially crystallized bottle in the microwave to make some of my favorite muffins (recipe coming next week) and forgot about it.  It was boiling and the container was shrunken when I removed it and when I went to pour it, it bubbled up and exploded on my hand!  OwieEEEEEEEEEE!  I was unable to use my left hand most of the day, as it hurt to touch anything, which also makes me thankful to have hands in the first place.  Often we take what we have for granted and don’t truly appreciate them until we realize how hard life is without them!  Thankfully, the pain has subsided and I’m able to type again so I can get this posted on time. :)

Thankfully the picture looks better than real life. I have 5 blisters now, one on my pinky and the others all on my thumb and the web between my thumb and index finger.

Incidentally, this isn’t the first time my left hand has suffered a serious burn.  Upon closer inspection, you can still make out scars on my fingertips where I pulled a loaf pan out of the oven without mitts as a kid (duh!), and you can still see the scar I got when I planted my hand on a space heater to stand at six months old.  I’m so glad I can’t remember that!  Guess there’s a reason I was known as the “burn victim” growing up.  All I can say is, thank God I haven’t singed off my fingers yet!  LOL, I’m a mess.

What are you thankful for today or this week?