Thankful Thursday

So many blessings grace my life that trying to write about them can be hard: where to begin? Should I write about friends, family, work, yarn, home? Today my mind keeps focusing on a very simple one, so simple that it almost seems foolish to mention it.

Warmth.

Every chilly night I change into my PJs, which are not really PJs but flannel long johns, and I slip between flannel sheets and tuck myself into a blanket and two quilts. Almost every night it strikes me that not everyone is so lucky. (I have remarked on this especially the last couple of days, after a certain evil cat did a Very Bad Thing on one of these quilts, and I had to wash them both just to be on the safe side.) I am a sucker for any charity blanket project that comes my way, because heaven knows everyone should be.

Every chilly morning I make sure the thermostats are turned down before leaving the house (note to self: get programmable thermostats and learn how to use them), and every chilly afternoon the first one home turns them back up. We don't turn them down at night because Taz sleeps downstairs, and he can't get up and get himself an extra blanket if he's cold. But when we do turn them up, the house gets warmer, because there is oil in the furnace, which we're lucky enough to be able to pay for.

Every chilly day, usually several times a day, I cook something hot for my family to eat, there being nothing like a hot meal on a chilly day. I have a stove and an oven and a microwave that work, the electric bill having been paid. I'll admit that I don't usually think that much about this one, but it is amazing. I just turn on the oven or the stove, and cook hot food.

The end of the year, when we do most of our charitable giving, is coming up fast. I'm thankful that we can give so that more people can be warm.