Giving Thanks

I took some time today to reflect on some of my Thanksgiving blogs from the past and found the one from 2013, the Thanksgiving after my mom and Francine died.  So much of it is still true today. The people I am most grateful for are still a huge part of my life, but I have so many others in my life that I can now include. We still have my 101 year old grandma here with us and tonight, I will share Thanksgiving dinner, one of my favorite meals of the year, with her and many of my relatives, each of us cooking at home and bringing the food to her house to make it easy on her. Tonight there will be 16 of us around the table – a rather small gathering for us – but still a fun one!

I have been texting with friends all morning letting them know how grateful I am to have them in my life. We are sharing cooking tips and our similar thoughts on politics…knowing full well they will stay OUT of our conversations at dinner where so many of our family members have opposing opinions!

I am grateful to have DJ home from college, knowing that he is thriving on his own and creating his own friendships and relationships for which I know he is grateful for. I am grateful that Drew is finding his way as a freshman in high school. Never playing a game of football in his life, he found himself on the varsity football team at 5 feet tall and 95 pounds! That story is a blog in itself…for another time!

I am most grateful for Dave this year. He has been going through his own personal struggle with depression and with some health issues, and is finally on the road to recovery. He has found a new job and is so filled with life and energy. He is happy which makes for a much happier home. I couldn’t be more grateful to all of the people who have helped him get through this difficult time. He’s like a new person and for this, I am forever thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Find reasons to be grateful not just today, but always.

A Ball Game with Dad

Dave and my boys love going to minor league baseball games.  We have a few local teams here where we live, in fact Drew has been a bat boy for The Newark Bears for the last few summers and loves it!!  Dave and the boys try to catch as many minor league games as they can in the summers and I join them as often as my job allows.  It is a great way to get in lots of baseball without the major league prices!  This year, we started off the “2013 Summer Tour” with a game at the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Rail-Riders while we were in Pennsylvania.

Dave’s dad lives in Scranton.  It has been several years since we have seen him.  We are in touch via Facebook, but don’t get a chance to catch up very often.  We sent him a message letting him know that we would be in the area and if that if he were around, perhaps he would want to meet up at the game.  It has been so long since the kids had seen him, he did not think that the kids would recognize him!  We have seen him in photos on Facebook, so Dave and I were prepared…he has grown a full beard and it is white.  He said, “you’ll recognize me as the guy who looks like Tim Allen in The Santa Claus movies”.  He did!!  Drew said that he did not remember what he looked like, and when we thought back, the last time Drew saw him, he was probably only six or seven, so that made sense.

We got to the game about half an hour before it started and he was already there.  He was waiting for us by our seats.  I almost walked right by him!  Even with the photos, I did not recognize him right away.  He has lived in Pennsylvania for over twenty years now, and we have probably only gotten together, (either there or in New Jersey), a handful of times.

Growing up, Dave had a very different relationship with his parents than I did with mine.  Whereas my family did EVERYTHING together, (and often to an extreme), Dave’s was quite the opposite.  There was a lot of alone time, and I think Dave grew to like that.  I think it took him a long time to get used to the way my family “worked”.  He didn’t get the idea of nightly family dinners and could not believe that a typical family gathering for us, was never less than 25 people.  My parents and I rarely go a day without talking, whether it is on the phone or in person.  My mom and I used to talk a few times a day.   This again, has always been quite different with Dave’s family.  We have gone months without seeing or talking to his mom, and it has been even longer with his dad.

So today, was really nice.  A last minute plan, when we realized that we were going to be so close to where he lives.  A quick message on Facebook, led to a really nice afternoon catching up at a ball game.   Dave’s dad is not a baseball fan at all, yet he still took the time to come out and see us.  That meant a lot to all of us and now that we realize how close it actually is to the Pocono house, maybe this will lead to us meeting more often.

What’s More Important??

“What is more important, school or love?”   

One of my kindergarteners asked me this question this afternoon.  I had to think about it for a minute.  I asked her what she thought and she said, “I don’t know, that’s why I am asking you”.  Fortunately, our librarian walked in a that moment so we asked her.  Her response was, “I think that everything happens because of love”.  I have been thinking about that all afternoon.

I tried to relate it to “work/love” instead of “school/love” as an adult.  Love is what drives me. It plays a huge role in my daily life.  Loving what I do, being a mom, a wife, a teacher and a friend makes me work harder to make sure that I am being the best that I can be in each of those callings.  I love my family and I work very hard to support them, but I also love my job.  I cannot imagine myself doing anything different than what I am doing with my life right now.

If you have goals that you really want to accomplish, then I think that you can accomplish them and I am lucky that I  have a  family that supports me in all of them – no matter how far fetched some of them might be, (and some of them really are).  I think that all decisions require some element of sacrifice and to make a loving relationship work, there needs to be some give and take on all sides.

Don’t let somebody make the choice for you. If you want to have love and an education/job…then have it.  Just don’t give up your dreams for anyone else.   If you choose a person over your dreams, it is just a matter of time until you become bitter and start putting blame on them for not reaching your goals.  This is not to say you can’t have it all.  Find someone who will support you and your goals.  If you have goals that you really want to accomplish, then you will accomplish them.

It’s a decision only you can make.  Love the people who treat you right, forget about the ones who do not, and believe that everything happens for a reason.   If you get a chance, take it.  If it changes your life let it.   Love may not bring you education or a job but education can bring you love.  It certainly has for me~