Grateful Sunday – April 7, 2019

I’m grateful for the completion of another successful week.

I’m grateful my wife suggested that the four of us go out for Sexy Cheesy Fries after our family therapy appointment. Good food in an outdoor location allowed us to talk through issues that popped up during counseling. It was a nice way to ground us after having some tough discussions.

I’m grateful my roommates and I have decided to have “family dinner” nights. We agreed that instead of having to cook and clean for two meals each night, we would split the duties. One night I would cook and they would clean up, then the next night they would cook and my girls and I would clean up. Add their 5-month old son to the mix and these have turned into some really nice evenings together.

I’m grateful that I finally was able to catch my girls on an April Fool’s joke. Try, try as I might, I’ve never really been able to get them. It’s probably because my wife and my smiles gives it away. This time, I allowed my roommates to let my girls believe they were giving two weeks-notice. This meant there would no longer be a baby in our home. My girls were devastated, though they tried to play it off. Once they found out it was an April Fool’s joke, they weren’t sure if they should be mad at us or if they should celebrate that it wasn’t true. My youngest daughter had complained via text to her friends and my older daughter said it was so hard for her not to cry when she heard the news. Cha-CHING! April Fools!!

I’m grateful my older daughter is healing normally after getting her wisdom teeth pulled the week prior. Last weekend was very rough for her and I’m grateful her pain has subsided. I’m also grateful my younger daughter was able to give moral support for her close friend, who, the day after her father and her joined us for dinner, had to unexpectedly visit the oral surgeon due to pain in her mouth. This also ended up to having wisdom teeth removed. I’m glad my daughter has such a great network of friends that are there for one another when life gets tough.

Image by desmarsol from Pixabay

I’m grateful for the evening stroll down the River Walk in San Antonio. I’m finding nuggets of places hidden in the United States that I had never realized were there. I can’t wait for a chance to spend the day in San Antonio exploring the downtown area.

And I’m truly grateful that I had a phone conference with a mentor from Score. She gave me some insight and assignments on what steps I need to take so Together We Can Heal can leap to the next level. There’s a lot of research and learning I have yet to do, reframing my mindset and, of course, managing my own fears. Being accountable to someone while also coming up with ideas of how to grow this community into something amazing has been inspiring.

Childhood Grateful

I’m grateful for my step father’s intelligence. He was an extremely bright man who sometimes got frustrated because others were not at his level of intellect. While I may not have had the father-son relationship of playing ball, building things, and going on outings with my Dad, I learned the importance of goal setting and never giving up. He modeled a behavior of life-long learning and hard work, which is something I continue to do this very day.