My Cup Runneth Over...

I know now is the time to count your many blessings and be grateful for what you have, but when I went to bed the night before Thanksgiving, I just wasn't feeling it. The girls had done nothing but fight all evening, Bode was the fussiest he had ever been, I was up to my eyeballs in sweet potatoes and I was pouting a little bit on the inside that it was not my family's year to join them for Thanksgiving brunch at Little America and instead we were meeting at my in-laws assisted living facility for dinner.
Somehow during the night I had a change of heart. When Bode woke up at 5, instead of thinking about how little sleep I had had I was grateful that it had been five hours since his last feeding instead of the usual 3.5. I looked to my side to find two little girls who had made their way into our bed during the night and instead of cursing the 4 cubic inches of my king size bed that I had been able to claim I was thankful for the opportunity to be their mother. I glanced over at Steve and was filled with gratitude that despite an alarm on it two nights in a row, his CPAP machine was still working so that he could rest. Watching him reminded me of our first Thanksgiving together nine years ago where I watched him with my then 4-year old niece and realized what a perfect fit he was in my life and decided that I wanted to be with him forever. As I tried to drift back off to sleep, I was kicked in the shin by Paige with her solid casted foot and instead of cursing the burden, I was grateful for medical technology that her feet could be fixed and for Shriner's hospital in providing her the best of treatment. It reminded me of my favorite part of the movie Hope Floats when the granddaughter Bernice snuggles up to her crazy Grandmother who simply says, "My cup runneth over". I find myself using that quote so often in my life as I have so much to be grateful for and I truly find my cup "running over".