Please Make Me Thankful...Wait, I Take It Back.

One of my greatest aspirations is to be thankful. I'm not just talking about the fallback thankful things- family, friends, job, ect.- though, by-golly, those things are swell and all, but I'm talking the things that don't occur to us to be thankful for. Examples? well, alright, if you insist: having somewhere to come back to after being out all day, the sound of your mom/dad getting home, everyday things like electricity, water, food, a bed to get into at night and out of every morning, you get my drift?
      In America, lets be real, no one has to trek two miles to a well to fill a bucket for drinking water, more like: "hmm... 'Auquafina', 'Dasani', oooh 'Pure Life', or maybe whats this? 'Arrowhead'? that sounds cool, probably something Legolas would drink...but hey, you can't go wrong with 'Smart Water', right?! It has a pretty groovy bottle after all." really people? but honestly that's how the majority of us think!
      So, to not fall prey to this sort of thinking (though I do....some the time...gee wiz, okay, almost all the time) I try to pray everyday that God would make me thankful for everything I take for granted. I've been praying this same thing for quite a number of years now, and though, yes, I was definitely thankful for things of course, there didn't seem to be a whole lot of difference. I realize now that I wanted God to just reach down and -POOF- make me thankful all the time- I might as well have wished that they wouldn't label everything in the 1960's Batman!
     This year, however, God helped me to do just that, be thankful. Earlier, somewhere at the beginning- mid fall, the car I use (my precious, silver, dented Kia) started having issues so I had to switch over to using my grandmas old car she gave to my family. Don't get me wrong, my grandma is rad, she's the raddest thing since the portable tape player. but still- it wasn't my Kia. The biggest downside? The front passenger window is stuck. DOWN. Yes, you heard correct, peeps- down. So, its getting into fall, and I have to drive on the highway with it at least once a week for about 50 mins, if it didn't occur to you, this can get quite chilly. I do blast the heat, yes, or I wouldn't be here to tell you this story today.
      The weather as you, my scholarly reader, gets colder and  colder as the year goes on, so then came the mid-end of November. I was getting pretty frustrated with having to drive this car, and having to look like I was gearing up for yeti hunting every-time I went for a drive. We tried taping the window shut with plastic but every time, without fail or consulting me, it would tear off. I was lucky when the plastic would just blow off, the worst times were when I was going 70 mph, it rips and then starts flapping around, honestly, as loud as a gunshot. I had to pull over three separate times to repair/pull of the plastic because the sound was so bad, almost as bad as having the song "Gangnam Style" stuck on replay.
       I was pretty embittered that, out of everyone in my family I was the one that had to drive the dreaded red car. Then, one night, while driving home with a blanked on my lap, gloves, a hat, long-sleeves, two hoodies, a Starbucks coffee and the heat on 'hell-fire'- it hit me (not literally, of course, cause that would just be weird).

-Maybe this is God's answer to my prayer-

 You know the saying,"You don't know what you have until it's gone"? (excuse my Psych reference but-) You know that's right! I don't think I will ever take windows and car-heating for granted again (at least, one can hope). So I realized that praying for God to make you thankful seems easy but the process TO thankfulness we usually miss or misinterpret.Maybe there is something going on in your life like this, maybe less grim than this, or possibly not so lighthearted but if you are trusting in Christ, that he has a purpose for all that He does, believe me, it will turn out for the better.  
     To sum it all up, I still pray that God would help to make me thankful for things I take for granted, but I also ask that He would give me the strength to do so. <3 
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Oh, and the car window is still stuck down.  

“Perhaps it takes a purer faith to praise God for unrealized blessings than for those we once enjoyed or those we enjoy now.” 

― A.W. Tozer

  "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him, bless his name! " 

-Psalm 100:4

“Those blessings are sweetest that are won with prayer and worn with thanks.” 

― Thomas Goodwin

Post #5- A Favorite Memory

Wow, how to choose?

after mulling over this question for several days I have narrowed it down to two . But on account of a considerable amount your precious time being at stake- I will tell you about just one of these instances for this post .

My first favorite memory would have to be when my whole family and I used to go on vacation together every year . Nowadays we still go on vacation but with jobs , hobbies and life in general we can't all go together like we used to . Vacation , for us , was going up to visit my cousins who live in the Rocky Mountains , about a full days drive with all of the bathroom and food stops . Really , it was a relatively short trip , but it was no slight task when the car was full of seven very energetic kids . My parents were so brave . We would stuff bags with coloring books , stories , mini-games , mazes , and toys until the bags were at their maximum capacity and then stuffed more in . But the classic activity we would ALWAYS get when going on vacation were- PIPE CLEANERS . We got them in almost every color , which was several bags worth and they filled several hours worth of time . Oddly shaped glasses and masks , little figures , crowns , weapons and jewelry were shaped from these magical pipe cleaners while driving in the van . Stickers were also thoroughly enjoyed by us all- though not so much by my parents . Bearing in mind the time when one of my older brothers decided to plaster the ceiling and around the window with them . What made this even more memorable was that the stickers stayed there for many years, up until the poor, beloved, blue van saw its final day . Some of the best times were had on the road trip up to see my cousins , oh yes , there were fiascoes and world war III equivalent fights but we always seemed to make it there in one piece . On the way home every year , we would always go just a little out of our way to a specific place that sold the best peaches in the world , western-slope peaches . Munching on peaches and reminiscing about the good times had with our cousins over the past days , we headed home . It was always quite an adventure .

The Great Escape! -old poem by Miranda

~WEEK 3~

"Do you remember the two kids that were cool?

And they they were so cool that they left school?

Well do you know what happened after that?

They almost got caught like a mouse and a cat!

'But how?' you might ask... well here is how-

after they grabbed their stuff they ran and POW!

They hit into the principle Mr.-(confidential), oh no!

But they had a plan...one cool kid sang and it started to flow

And the other sang background and principle fell asleep

The two cool kids over the principle leaped

They rejoiced outside with a 'YAY!' and a 'WOO!'

For thier close escape they both said 'Phew!' "

THE END

Two Cool Kids Who Escaped the Scary Building- old poem by Mirdanda

*I am going to start to periodically post old poems that I wrote while in a study hall at my school once a week. And don't get me wrong about the school (regardless of what the poems might claim), I LOVE the school and the people there but when I wrote these it was the hour before lunch and I was STARVING and sometimes bored. So, without farther ado, here is the first one! :)

~WEEK 2~

(I misplaced week 1)

"There is a scary building built upon the ground

And if you dare to walk past it, you wont hear a sound

But inside this scary, feared building of brick and concrete

There are many unaware children sitting in their seat

They sit and study the whole day through

Day or night, summer, winter, they have no clue

They don't look up from their books or pages

If you saw them they looked like they were in cages!

But two of these unaware children were cool

They knew no one should have to sit all day in school

So as the teachers called for them to sit down, they grabbed their stuff

and when they reached the door they said, "We are leaving in a HUFF!" "

A Taste of Good Times- Part One

By Miranda H.

I know these days young kids (up to age 7) entertain themselves differently than even I did as a child not so very long ago. Their Time is taken up by computers, cell phones (what seven year old needs a cell phone?!), unenlightening TV shows (mainly Disney Channel, sorry) and video games. Once upon a time I too was seven, here’s just a taste of the things my siblings and I did for “fun” in the not-so-very-long-ago good days.

First off, computers weren’t used only for Facebook and celebrity dress-up games. I recall only using the computer when I was seven to travel the old west while trying not to let my whole wagon train die off. Two words, “Oregon Trail”, people. If you have never played it then you should. Not only was it a lot of fun but it also had at least some shreds of history to learn from it; like whether to use Epsom salts to treat a rattlesnake bite, which we both know is a futile attempt. He’s a goner. If it was Cholera he was suffering from that would be a different story. Complete with getting to name the people in your posse (usually made to represent members of my family) made it even better, when trying to get them through.

Unlike the annoying, mindless, head-ache inducing children’s TV shows these days, (yes I’m talking about you ‘Yo Gabba Gabba’) Saturday mornings were enjoyed with legendary figures such as ‘Blues Clues’, ‘Wishbone’, ‘Chip 'N' Dale Rescue Rangers’, ‘Bear in the Big Blue House’ and the iconic ‘Sesame Street’ (ya gotta love Oscar the Grouch).


Getting away from technology stuff though, that’s when I had the times that I most enjoyed and have the fondest memories of. Picture this, five or six unruly kids, an ill-tempered rooster and a large space. Sound dangerous? Very. but f-u-n (if you weren’t so slow as to be caught by the rooster). Growing up with four older brothers may have had something to do with it, but we (mostly them) would proceed to annoy and anger the red rooster until finally it would snap. Fittingly the rooster was dubbed Prince. As planned Prince would turn and begin to chase any and all of us, flapping and sounding quite possessed. Screaming and arms flailing we all would race desperately to the safe haven of piled tree limbs or nearest fence which we proceeded to climb until safe from the talons of the vengeful poultry. The creepy thing was that the rooster would circle us for a few minutes like a wolf and glare up at us with his shifty, beady eyes.

If you ask me, this is SO much better than anything requiring batteries or a plug. Plus, we got tons of exercise. The only down about it: We may have caused a chicken to have severe psychological issues.