Count Them One By One

It's Thursday, that means it's time to be thankful, not that we shouldn't be thankful ALL the time, but it's nice to tell God thank you publicly once in a while....or every Thursday if you've got a blog and are looking for something to post.

So, today I am thankful for these things that come to mind:

• My trainer, Jake.  Really.  I asked him to evaluate me again today.  I am down 10 pounds.  I have lost 1-2 additional inches off everywhere but my thighs and calves....and as Jake says, there is some margin of error there since he might not be measuring the exact same spot and I'm building a lot of leg muscle since he hits me hard with squats (seriously, the boy is squat-happy).  I couldn't do it without Jake.  No, I wouldn't do it without Jake.  He pushes me much harder than I'd push myself.
• Not feeling stressed about my Spiritual Formation class or my Basic Foundations class this week.  No papers were due.  I have some reading due in SF, but if I don't get it done before class tonight it isn't a huge deal.  I'm off tomorrow so have 3 days to get caught up.  Same with BF.  I have several videos to watch online and I should start thinking about my big paper, but nothing major.  What a blessing!
• A working computer!  I've had enough computer issues in the last two weeks to last me a very, very long time.
• My granddaughter and having gotten to spend time with her over the weekend.  She doesn't get to see us anywhere near as often as she does the other grandmother, but she LOVES her Nanny and Pappy. She and I are getting especially close.  She didn't want to sleep with her parents Saturday night, she wanted to sleep with Nanny.  And she cried when it was time to go home.  Her parents had to bribe her.
• The things I am learning in my SF class about being in a deeper relationship with God and becoming more Christlike.  I don't know if a difference is showing yet, but I know things are processing differently on the inside.
• My sister-in-law, who is, as of last week 5 years cancer free.  WOOT!!  She agreed to be my prayer partner for my SF class.  I have to have someone praying for me and write a paper about what it's like to be on the receiving end of prayer.  My sister-in-law is such a blessing. 
• My son, the computer geek.  While he was home over the weekend, he installed Windows Office Suite so I have Word again.  Yea!  He also hooked me up with some free anti-virus and malware protection.  I still have several months to go on Kaspersky, which I paid for, and wanted him to install that.  He asked a very good question.  "Why do you want to install the program that keeps letting you get infected?"  Good point.  I'm out the Kaspersky money, but if I stay virus free I'll be okay with that.
• That Megan's new smart phone was still under the store's 14-day return policy because on Tuesday (it was just 5 days old) it started having problems and a call to tech support proved something had gone wrong with the software.  Nice.  She took it back yesterday and they got her set up with a new phone.
• That things are looking up in my relationship with my daughter-in-law.  We've traveled a rocky road, but this last visit was our best yet.  We talked and joked, even!  We'll probably never be bestest friends or anything since our views of the world, politics and religion are all polar opposites, but it's a darn site better than when we were walking on eggshells and sick with dread over each visit.
• That at this time, two-weeks from now, Beth and I will be darn close to arriving at the Relevant Conference in Harrisburg.  I'm so excited to get to meet Beth in person and to get away while meeting up with some great Christian bloggers and learning from them.
• And last, but certainly not least....that I live in a country where I am free to believe in God and worship him freely.