I know we're supposed to give thanks all year long, but it just seems appropriate that my November recap is on thankfulness.
Hmm, where to start? Like grandmas everywhere, I'll begin with my grandchildren. 😄 I'm thankful for these little people. I love being Grammie WAY more than I ever thought possible [for someone who was never a baby person]. It's infinitely easier to exercise patience with grands that want to "help" with painting or make big flour-y messes rolling out soft pretzels than it was with my children. Do I owe my kids an apology or did I earned this?
For some reason I've been grieving our 2 grandbabies in heaven lately, but I'm thankful for the rainbow baby expected in March. And very thankful the scare we had with Baby Miller turned into a false alarm.
I'm thankful for a good man that has stuck with me through the good, the bad, and everything in between. 31 years. We've been in it for the long haul and there is no one I'd rather be growing old with.
We didn't do anything 'far out' for our anniversary this year because we wanted to attend his niece's wedding that Saturday. We got massages, then went to our Hillcrest friends' cafe for the soft opening...
Also enjoyed good food (that pumpkin pulled pork soup was delicious, by the way!)...
The food is every bit as good as we expected. We'll be regulars whenever we get in that area.
Then we went to a concert. I had researched Christian concerts around our anniversary and found one by We are Messengers and Jorden St Cyr. The names weren't immediately familiar to me, but I discovered I had some of their songs on my Spotify playlist.
We might be showing our age, but it was quite LOUD! Not used to that kind of volume, however I have a new appreciation for the lyrics of their worship music. (I just hope the church had good insulation or the neighbors got a free concert whether they wanted it or not.) 😂
We ate at a smokehouse. Take my word for it, the food was fab-u-lous! The smell wafting from that place was enough advertisement. I had a prime rib sandwich with sweet potato fries (that little cup on the left is marshmallow creme dipping sauce for the fries. Wow!)
Richard's prime rib
And this busy little coffee shop had the best hot cocoa I ever had.
I'm thankful for hope. Let's just address the elephant in the room. It's not exactly a secret that our church is going through a rough patch. My better half is more discouraged than I've seen him in a long time. I'm super weary of it all myself. Is it TMI to say if we had other viable options we'd have walked away already? But this isn't Lancaster Co where there is a bazillion Mennonite churches. We've prayed but God hasn't opened doors to move away, so we feel stuck. Did I just say that out loud? (Who are we kidding? I couldn't move away from my grandbabies anyway.) However, this summer it came to me that when a marriage hits the rocks, it's a good practice for the couple to remember why they fell in love in the first place. I felt God prompting me to stop thinking negatively and dwell on what I like about our church. It was hard. It took awhile to come up with anything. Last month the leadership team took us [members] through the same exercise. It was good to hear other's ideas, to add to my short list. So, long story short, I'm thankful for a leadership team (and outside help/ministers) who are doing the tough job of navigating this minefield of how to 'do church'. IMO, a reset is a good idea.
Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead [on sensitive subjects]... but for a number of years I personally have been longing to be a part of a small church. Not sure if it's a 'grass is greener on the other side of the fence' illusion or not, but it sounds refreshing to me. My one experience with a tiny church (Hillcrest) was a good one. But I've had experiences before where I asked God for something and when I got it, it wasn't as nice/easy as it sounded. Here's to hoping my longing for a small church doesn't come to fruition in a painful way.
I thankful that even though our industry went from 70mph to 35 (figuratively speaking) this summer, we are still doing ok. Decent paying loads are harder to come by, but we can ride it out. When things were booming post-COVID, we knew it wasn't going to last forever so a downturn in the market is not unexpected.
I'm thankful for friends. I have some of the best! This month included a ladies road trip to Indiana. As you can imagine, it was very quiet, we didn't talk at all. 😁 We may not have solved any of the world's problems but we feel better about our own.
...and shopping...
I'm thankful for family. I didn't take many pictures of the Miller Thanksgiving this year, but here is one.
The older we get the more we are aware how rare it is to still have all 4 of our parents. None of them require full time caregiving, we haven't had to deal with Alzheimers. And we are blessed to be part of sibling groups that get along. We're relatively low-drama people. 🤷 So easy to take all that for granted.
I especially feel overwhelmed with gratitude lately with how well our DIL has fit into our family. We got off to a rocky start, but thankfully it changed. I don't know what we'd do without her now!
I'm thankful for good medical care. Menopause has not been my friend. I've struggled with hot flashes for around 8 years and I honestly thought it was going to drive me insane if I couldn't cool down. Cozy sweaters and fuzzy blankets were enough to make me panic. I tried all manner of herbs & potions over those years to no avail. The local doctor's office was zero help with their "deal with it" mentality. This fall I stumbled upon telemedicine with doctors specializing in menopause. Eureka! They put me on medication and after 1 week my hot flashes vanished. Blessed relief. So far no negative side effects. I'm waiting/hoping for the weight loss part to kick in... not thankful for 25 uninvited pounds that came on fast and refuse to budge. I never was a foodie, but this sucks ALL the joy right out of eating!
I'm thankful for my hobbies. Jeremy gave me the Lego lighthouse for my birthday, knowing I'm 😍 for all things lighthouse but too "tight" to spend the money on myself, and I just finished putting it together. It is super cool with a working, rotating light and many fun details down to the Lego teapot in the keepers house and a tiny Lego cat. 
Reading is another of the little pleasures in my life. I haven't mentioned lately any books I've read. [Dear me, I just went back and looked- not since February. Even longer than I thought.] I generally slow down with reading over summer, but in the fall -with its dark, cozy evenings- I pick up the slack again. The best I've read recently were Kidnapped In Haiti by Katrina Hoover Lee and Related by Chance, Family by Choice by Deb Dearmond (MIL/DIL relationships). Currently working on Devotion by Adam Makos which Jeremy bought this summer at the air show. It was just released as a movie, but alas I have a strict "always read the book first" policy for myself. I don't very often recommend a movie but I took time to watch Miss Potter this month and really enjoyed it. It's the story of how Beatrix Potter became a famous children's author.
The list goes on of things I'm thankful for, but I've monopolized enough of your time. Drop me a comment of something -or two- you are thankful for.
