The past few years, I have inwardly bemoaned the fact that I had not done a "Thankful Tree" with our family. I'm not quite sure how this became such a thing in my head, but it did, and this year, I was convinced it was going to come to fruition. No matter the cost.
Keep in mind that the cost would not be money. No - a Thankful Tree would cost me time, energy and effort - all of which are at a premium at the moment. But, I really thought it would be worth it, so when the car pulled into the garage after Bible Study on Tuesday, I decided to Carpe Diem.
I loaded the babies into a wagon in their car seats, which I am sure is totally the safest thing I have ever done. They were happy when the journey to the green belt behind our yard started, but that didn't last long, and then both babies eventually fell asleep, thankfully. (I'm thankful for sleeping children!)
The girls had an absolute blast. There are woods right behind our house, and it is so fun to get to see them enjoy it.
In that last picture, Lily is checking out a turtle that we found camouflaged in the leaves. Amazing. I did get William out for a bit before their little snooze and ended up with spit up in my hair, but he was really happy, so that was definitely worth something.
So, we collected our sticks and went back to the house. In my head, our Thankful Tree had leaves cut from construction paper in fall colors with things we are thankful for written on each one. So, I sent Lily to get paper, and she returned with white printer paper and glitter. Glitter that she was begging to use. Glitter that seemed sort of harmless since I was sitting at the table working on both the tree and decorating some cookies.
The girls worked on leaves. I let my vision die as white paper "leaves" with purple coloring and random glitter started to be strewn about the table. Lily and Bella loved them. They even made some "bird's nests" to hang in the tree. But, the glitter got totally out of hand. The entire bottle ended up on the table somehow. The resulting glitter disaster will not soon be forgotten.
Glitter spreads like wildfire. It seems to jump over space and maybe even time to accomplish its sparkly purposes in places you never imagined, like your couch, your floor, your pillows, your babies. John was less than thrilled, especially since he had asked the question, "Is this a good idea?"
The answer should have been no, but I was too slow and weak to see that and stop what was already in progress. I paid dearly in the 45+ minutes it took me to vacuum, wipe up and generally clean after the Glittercane.
So, at our house, we are very thankful. We are having a great time writing down things we are thankful for. It is stretching the girls to think differently about life. It is forcing me to put into words all the many things I am grateful for. So many blessings. And, right now, it is a constant reminder that my idea doesn't always need to be what we do. Little girls have some pretty awesome ideas too. In the future, they just won't involve glitter.
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