Thankful Thursday....The Hormonal Edition

What a week.  Long.  Hot.  Sweaty.  Exhausting.  Hormonal.  Need I say more?  But despite the fact that I'm tired, crabby, and retaining Lake Erie, I do have so very much to be thankful for.

1.  My wrinkles.  While I was leaning over helping a student decode a word during tutoring this morning, said student looked up at me meaningfully.  I thought, "She's got it!  She's finally got it!"  Until she spoke.  And she said, "Why do your eyes look so crunchy today?"  Crunchy?  Really? (and she really didn't get it...for the 54th time?)  I am thankful for these crunchy eyes because they mean I have spent summers enjoying the outdoors, and I have laughed.  I have had so much fun that I've forgotten to take off my make up as I tumbled into bed.  I've let little girls play make over with me and then gone in public.

2.  Tutoring.  I will be totally honest here.  The thought of tutoring does not make me dance with joy.  I have to get up early (setting the alarm clock in the summer is so not fair, I tell you), leave my kids, and go try and teach the kids who have struggled all year.  This year, it is 7 boys and 2 girls.  Seven wiggly, giggly, rather be playing outside or swimming boys.  BUT...tutoring is a very high paid job for the time you have to put into it, and that money has come in so handy this summer already.  Every year, I say I'm not going to do it...and every year I'm glad I did.  I get to know some of my future students, and have a nice long goodbye with my students from last year.

3.  Sarah and Maddy.  My girls are in Daytona this week and oh do I miss them.  I hadn't realized how much they've grown from little girls into young ladies/friends.  I also hadn't realized how much I had come to rely on them to help with the little girls.  All week, as I've tutored, poor Hannah has had to watch movies on my laptop/play Barbie/color/eat snacks behind a makeshift room divider because I had no choice but to take her with me.  She's been good as gold, and I am so proud of her.  But it will be nice to tutor next week without Barbie Swan Lake playing in the background!

4.  Chick Fil A.  If you are so unfortunate as to have never eaten at a Chick Fil A, I am truly sorry.  Not only does Chick Fil A make the best chicken biscuits (of which I eat exactly once a week, after my Saturday weigh in), but they also serve Caffeine Free Diet Coke with the best crushed ice.(cue angels singing)  They also have a varied menu, so that I can eat without blowing my points allowance for the week.  Tonight, in celebration of Daryl's birthday, we took the little girls out to eat at Chick Fil A.

Look at my big girls not sitting in high chairs or booster seats.

 And Charlotte, so eager to be a "big girl."  She would take a waffle fry, tear it into pieces, dip it in ketchup, and then put it on her fork to put in her mouth.  So cute!

5.  My incredible, wonderful, husband, Daryl.  It's his birthday today, and I couldn't be more thankful for another year with him.  Not only does he make me laugh every single day, but he's an amazing father too.  I mean, who else would humor their five year old and hang the "pinata" that she had made out of a trash bag from the ceiling fan?

"You might be a redneck if...."

And my creative little girl...wherever did she get the trash bag?  Oh, by dumping the kitchen trash into the computer trash can, of course.  Oh how I love her creativity, but boy can the girl make a mess!



6.  Mother in laws that are willing to share their recipes.  In the past, I have tried cooking for Daryl on his birthday.  I tried banana pudding and peach cobbler, both favorites of his.  Emphasis on the word tried.  I thought they were ok, but seeing as neither of them is something I would choose to eat, I really didn't know.  Until.....they sat in the refrigerator and grew mold.  Yeah...not so much OK.  So this time, I asked Nanny for her pound cake recipe so I could make strawberry shortcake.  I made it last night, and despite my lack of mixing bowls, a good mixer, a loaf pan, and one of those rubber spatula thingys that you scrape the sides of the bowl with, I think it turned out OK. 

Daryl actually said, "You did a good job with it." which is as much of a compliment I ever get from him, cooking wise.  Only time will tell, though, if it grows mold!

7.  The alarm clock.  Every day this week, I've awoken to the distinctly annoying sound of the alarm clock.  Which for me, when I really think about it, can be a good thing.  A sleeper I'm not, and if I have to be roused from slumber by loud, staticy beeps, then it must mean that I'm sleeping.

8.  Hair.  I am the only person I know who has hormonal hair.  Not only do I get to enjoy all of the other perks of being a woman once a month, but during this time, my hair refuses to curl, wave, poof, or anything other than lay flat against my head.  It is during this week each month that I see the advantage of old lady hair.  It's short.  It's permed.  Someone else washes it, sets it, and styles it once a week and it stays. 

Speaking of hair......can you tell how much she likes it?

9. Our mailbox.  Look....it stands!

A minor miracle, considering that I backed straight into it while backing out this morning.  In front of my husband.  Who is always dissing my driving skills.  In my defense, we have four cars.  Depending on when everyone gets home each day, I sometimes have another car parked behind me.  Now Daryl and Josh have no problem maneuvering their way out of the driveway and drive through the yard to get out (again...you might be a redneck if...)  Me?  Can't do it.  But still I try, thinking I am saving time by not having to get out, move the other car out of the driveway, back my car out, pull the other car in , run in to put the keys on the counter.  And I have to do it anyways.  Every single time.

10.  22 pounds gone.  So thankful for this, because it appears that I am stuck.  I have been the exact same weight for 11 days, except for yesterday morning, when I thought I had broken the plateau and lost 2 pounds, only to climb on the scale to see it wasn't so.  Doesn't matter what I do.  Eat a little?  the same  Eat a lot? the same  Eat exactly the number of points I am allowed?  the same.  This is the same weight I got stuck at last September when I threw up my hands and went into a six month period of eating debauchery that lead to a 22 pound weight gain.  Part of me wants to just quit, but the other, rational part of me knows that it will not do any good to do so.  Plus, as Daryl pointed out, I am "financially invested."  Pass the laughing cow cheese and carrot sticks please.  sigh.