Thankful? You betcha.

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In the spirit of the pending holiday, I’m sharing some of the things I’m thankful for.

Overlapping seasons. It can be tough trying to keep your clothes organized for all the different seasons. Take your favorite hoodie. Do you pack it away at the end of winter? Nope. Sometimes you can get use out of it in May, too. Especially in the Midwest.

Bargains. It’s great to stock up on things you use a lot when they’re on sale. But it’s really cool when stores have sales on things you don’t use a lot. You stock up and then you’re glad you have them (if you can find where you stored them) when you do eventually need them.

Beauty spoons. Without these clever little rubber spatula-like items, I would be wasting quite a bit of money. Now I can “scrape” every little morsel of goop and cream from the bottom of each jar.

Slip-on sneakers. These are ingenious. They even look like they have laces! No bending down. No searching for a chair so your hands will be closer to your feet. And no smooshed heels on the back of your shoes.

Global Positioning System. If not for GPS, I would be spending a whole lot more on gas than we already are trying to find my way—and using up my phone battery calling people for more specific directions.

Dad jokes. It seems like right on cue when I’m having a bad moment, I get a text from MT, a treasured former coworker, who sends me a dad joke. You know the ones where you roll your eyes but at the same time you’re laughing? They’re incredibly not funny—yet make you smile. And I continue to smile because I know he’s thinking of me. And sometimes that’s all it takes.

Gift cards. Love it when I find an old gift card in the back of a drawer or a purse I don’t use much. Love it even more when I go to use it and discover there’s still a balance on it. Win!

Paper calendars. I know most everyone uses their phones to keep track of appointments or reminders about their to-do lists. I do use my phone—but to me, there’s nothing like a little paper calendar (thanks to my State Farm agent for the nifty pocket calendar). Just flip through and see an entire month at one time. No clicking on anything waiting for it to open---it’s all there to see in one glance. Another perk of the paper calendar? You never have to worry that the battery is low.

Public libraries. I was buying paperback books. The cost started going way up and to me that was a waste of money for something you only use once. (Contrary to many others—I’m a one-n-done with books as I rarely if ever go back and read them a second time.) I started taking the books to the local library to donate them for their resale table. Sometimes I’d pick up an interesting book for a few bucks—most of the time not. But I was happy knowing someone else could pick up my 16.95 book for just a few dollars. That’s when it hit me to just take out books from the library. The librarian and I are now on a first-name basis and talk about all kinds of things when I’m there—which is now every couple of weeks. I’ve even discovered Susan Mallery, my new favorite author. Love, love, love her writing!

Containers. I’m a container freak. Not sure why—but I know they help you get organized. Especially if they have lids. I see in magazines all the little containers neatly stacked doing a beautiful job making clutter and junk look good. I aspire to have my containers filled and looking oh so organized, but alas, that’s not the case. Still working on that. But in the meantime, I’m thankful there are containers so that one day all my stuff will be in its rightful place. A girl can dream, can’t she?

You might think I’m joking about all the things I’ve listed here, but I assure you I’m not. I really am thankful for all of that.

But I’m even more thankful for family and friends—kind people, smiling people, rambunctious puppies, sunshine and blue skies, a great support system, rain when we need it (and even when we don’t), a baby’s coo, mountain views, a shoreline of sand to dig my toes into, a good medical team, funny memes, and last but certainly not least--chocolate. Lots of chocolate.

Remember to take it one day at a time—and Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!