Thoroughly Thankful Thursday Link-Up, Week 4: The Reset Button

Hi everybody! I really can't believe it's Thursday already. I hope you all are having a great week!

The last week or so have been somewhat chaotic around here - I think it kind of comes with the territory; 4-month-old twins and all that. In the midst of this chaos, I've definitely slacked when it comes to being thankful for anything. Some days, it just doesn't feel like there's much to be thankful for. Take Tuesday, for example. We woke up to a freezing cold house. After some investigation, we realized the heater was off and would not turn on for any amount of persuasion. Eighty dollars later, we became acquainted with the reset button. Voilá. Heat. Simple as that. I had imagined I'd feel thankful, but I was just annoyed at the increase in the chaos factor - needing to wrap the babies in blankets for their naps, having to try and find the checkbook to pay the repairman, the fact that he showed up during the one hour I was gone. I could barely muster an ounce of gratitude for the heat.

The truth is, though, that every factor that makes life just a little more chaotic is a blessing. Being married is more complicated than being single; having children is still more hectic. Add jobs, activities, and relationships with others, and you might start to feel like you're stuck in a racquetball court, playing 1-on-20 after you've just dropped your racquet. Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I really don't think it's that far off. Yet all of these things are blessings. They fill our lives with love, and we should be thankful for them - thankful to be so busy.

Being busy feels great, up to a point. It makes us feel important and necessary. But when you get to the point where you just can't handle anything else, it's overwhelming. You just want things to be simple, and you don't really feel blessed to be so busy.

I hit this point last night. I got up to the checkout line, after a frantic trip through WinCo, trying to decide what we would eat for the next week while spending as little as possible and still getting in and out in half an hour. As an aside, this is quite possibly the most stressful way to go grocery shopping, and I absolutely do not recommend it. But back to the story. As I waited for the total to slide my debit card and begin bagging my groceries, it hit me that I was incredibly blessed to be able to pay for our food. Just that. We can afford to feed our family. Sure, money's tight, but we can buy groceries.

Like dominoes, everything else began falling into place. Blessed to have jobs, blessed to have recreation (the volleyball game Dan had last night - my reason for rushing), blessed to have children to snuggle (the reason the groceries still aren't all put away), blessed to have a house, blessed to have things to clutter up that house. Lined up neatly like that, my life felt rich and full instead of hectic and overwhelming. Sometimes all it takes is pushing the reset button. I'm thankful God remembered to include one.

Now it's your turn. What are you thankful for this week? Link up your post or share in the comments!