Count Your Blessings

The summer continues on to be BUSY!

After we got back from our big South Dakota trip, we went right into County Fair Week… the cousins came up, Melanie and Dirk stayed with us, and the kids had a blast.  I’m so thankful even more for Instagram and iPhone pictures because we definitely took lots of pictures to remember the moments by that I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten with my “big camera”.  The best part was Nathan was able to stay with us for that whole time, and only just flew back to South Dakota yesterday.  It was so fun to have all the family and friends together for that week unexpectedly, even Nathan’s parents were home!

We truly are living the “good old days” right now.  The moments I had as a kid–the fair, the cousins, the friends, the summer days in our little hometown–I am now reliving them with my own kids, and I could not ask for more.

There are so many times I really want to stop time and really and truly look at my life and be 100% thankful and blessed and in the moment.  During the day when I’m in my office working my mind wanders and I stumble across news articles and suddenly I’m reading about something awful in the world or some sad thing that happened to a family or a child.  And then I just get pulled down and so worried and wonder “what if” something happens to me or us, and also I think how could someone hurt a child, etc… I think I have been spending too much time reading things that make me sad and hopeless, and I think it’s time to focus on what is RIGHT in the world, and take in and be thankful for what I have and appreciate every last drop of it.  Because there is hurting and sadness in the world, it’s true, but it doesn’t have to take away from what I’m experiencing in my little corner of the world. 

I look at my two boys, my family, and think… how did we get so lucky?

My kids are both healthy.  Happy.  The usual every day craziness surrounds us and we have our moments and times when I want to pull my hair out, but that’s part of life.  I yell too much sometimes and Nathan and I fight here and there.  We have stresses and concerns, but in the grand scheme of things, we are so immensely blessed with this life that sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it’s all real.

They say to count your blessings, and I think I need to do that today…

1.  As I mentioned above, my boys are healthy.  I am so grateful that they are able to run (crawl!) and play and enjoy their childhood without a care in the world.  Just think–four years ago I was so sad and didn’t even know if I would be able to have kids.  Now I have two!

2.  We are surrounded by family.  Within just a five mile radius, we have both sets of our parents, and FIVE great-grandparents.  Nathan’s grandparents live just down the road in our yard… my grandparent’s live in town, and Nathan’s other grandma lives in town.  They get to see them all regularly.  And for them to have so many great-grandparents is also a rare blessing and I’m glad for the years we still have with them.

3.  I love this town.  LOVE.  Sure, it’s small, and there isn’t a Target or a mall or a stop light for over 70 miles, but I honestly wouldn’t live anywhere else.  It’s safe, it’s easy to get from one place to another (the grocery store, gas station, post office, and bank are all within 3 blocks of each other!) and the sense of community here is strong.  We just had our All School Reunion and county fair as I mentioned above, and it was one big fun party with lots of fun events and things for the kids to do.  I loved growing up here, and to know my boys will grow up here too is wonderful. 

4.  I love this land.  It’s open prairie and wheat fields for miles and miles, yet our house is nestled amongst the oak trees with a winding river in the woods in the backyard.  I notice it even more after getting back from my travels where Nathan is harvesting how lush and green it is here in the thick of the summertime.  The grass is green, the trees are healthy, and the air is fresh and clean.  Some days it can be hot, but the majority of the time it is “pleasant”–today is in the 70s and low humidity.  There is the occasional thunderstorm or tornado warning (my worst fear!) but the last tornado was over 10 years ago… I hope they stay away for good! 

5.  Our home… our beautiful dream home… although this is more of a material thing, I feel like our home allows us to enjoy life so much more having the space and beautiful area to live in.  Life is definitely less stressful when you have lots of storage space! 🙂  There are so many things I love about our new house that I still need to write another entry about it.  For example.. I am sitting up in my office in my corner desk on the 2nd floor, window open, fresh breeze floating through, looking out over the oak trees and blue skies, rolling my chair on gorgeous wood floors while I edit photos… can this really be my “job” and my “office”?  And I’m sure you already know about my love for my front AND back porches!

6.  Speaking of my “job”–even though I’ve had some ups and downs lately feeling like I’m burning out, in the grand scheme of things, I am SO lucky that this IS my job.  I kind of want to kick myself when I complain about it, because come ON…. I get to take pictures for a living.  People are willing to come to my HOUSE.  I don’t even have to leave my yard.  I raised my prices and people are STILL willing to drive to my house and let me take pictures of them.  Even though there are triple the amount of photographers in the area there were 10 years ago when I first started out, my longevity is still in my corner.  The people come to ME without any effort or advertising!  I need to remember this when I’m down on myself about wanting to QUIT!

7.  Nathan…through it all, I love him.  Being married isn’t easy, and we’ve definitely had our ups and downs, but he is such an amazing man and father and provider.  He works hard–SO hard for us, yet at the same time he knows when to stop and when to take time to slow down and be with his family.  He is so good with our boys and they look up to him so much.  Without him, this life I described above would not be possible.  He has basically made all of my dreams come true, and I’m only 32 years old!  (That sounds weird, but I feel like we’ve still got so many more years to go!)…. I seriously cannot imagine anything more I could ask for right now, and maybe that really is the secret to life.  We’ve “made” it, and now we can enjoy it.  Beautiful family, beautiful home, beautiful life.

Thank God for all he has blessed us with!

🙂