Happy Thanksgiving (to my fellow Americans.  To my Canadian friends, please accept my more-than-a-month tardiness with the sentiment.)  And I really am thankful. 

I am thankful for my children playing on the Wii downstairs.  Little Joe ventured into the TV room downstairs today on his own.  He did not have any conditions for which doors could be open, or which lights could be lit.  He did not tell me that there were monsters in the room, or that the electronics had been turned on in the wrong order.  He just walked in.  Hoss is taking his turn, and giving his brother and sister theirs, and congratulating others for scoring.  No remotes (or fits) have been thrown.  Princess is feeling pride in the games in which she succeeds, and trying to improve in the games in which she does not, without quitting or convicing herself that the efforts are useless or that she is a lesser person because her little brothers won.

I am thankful for the homecoming festivities that will keep Hubby occupied late into the evening, and the empty bed that he will fill at his mother’s house, and the early morning golf round.  He has many friends to visit with tonight, and a short drive to a safe place to sleep.  He has the capability to walk an eighteen hole course.  He is not lying in a hospital recovering from a stroke.

I am thankful for the laptop on which I type, although it is not my property.  The organization that employs me keeps me more busy than I sometimes care to be.  Being busy, however, means that I am needed and the amount of work I am giving by the upper level people shows me that I am trusted.  “Employed and valued” is a precious place to be.

I am thankful for Vanna  White and Deborah Norville, and for the reasonably priced craft stores who carry their yarns.  There is a half-finished sock on my needles right now, destined for to be completed and matched with a mate in time to be a Christmas gift for my brother’s girlfriend.  And I am thankful for the members of my family who act like they appreciate receiving whatever projects struck me and kept my hands busy so they would not be putting unnecesary food in my mouth each evening.  Whether everyone actually likes what I give them or whether they are humoring me doesn’t even matter at this point- if they hate the stuff I make, they put up a good front.

I am thankful for this site.  I am thankful for a save haven, where no one recoils from me at the mention of having my eight year old on a twice daily dose of stimulants and anti-psychotics.  A place where, if I say that it’s a dark day, no one tells me that I just need to snap out of it or go jogging or some such thing.  I am thankful that I can read from adults who encountered their mood disorders as children, and yet made it to adulthood moderately unscathed and without a scarlet “I” for “insane” across their chests- that gives me some hope for my children to blend in and make it through their rocky childhoods.

I’m thankful we’ve all made it through another year.  2009 has been a hell of a year, and I still have one more month of it to face, but we have made it.   I’ve weathered more than I was aware I could weather.  I’ve attended more weddings this year than funerals, bought more baby shower cards than ‘get well soon’ ones.  And I have found, even in the years that seem to kick me until I feel like I can’t take another breath, that there is always something for which I can be thankful.