Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! We want to wish you all a very happy day with your loved ones.
Whether we will be enjoying Thanksgiving with our loved ones or just with each other is yet to be determined, but we will be together and happy regardless.
And I wish for you the same – health and happiness!
As I sit back here this Thanksgiving morning, I am thinking of all of the many things that I am thankful for. Because there is truly so much to be thankful for! We have gone through so much this year, and I am just so grateful and thankful that we have come on the other side of all of our obstacles healthy and happy.
I have compiled a list of 10 things that I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving, and I’d like to share them with you.
1. I’m thankful for my beautiful, loving, and growing boy. I can no longer call my son a baby anymore because he seems to be growing by leaps and bounds each day. He is incredibly spirited and lively, and he is the single source of my endurance from day to day. Everything that I do is motivated by providing him with happiness and joy. Even on my worst days, he provides me with complete joy. I can’t imagine how my life would be if it wasn’t for him.
2. I’m thankful for being blessed with health and happiness. With so much happening in the world around us, we each have to be thankful for health and happiness. I worry for my son each and every day, and even more so after the recent announcement about the police officer not being indicted for Mike Brown’s death. I treasure him today, and I pray for his future – that’s all I can do today. Although we have had a couple of illnesses between the two of us, we are blessed to continue to walk away healthy and happy. I wish the same for all of you.
3. I’m thankful for my mom. My mom drives me absolutely bonkers – if you’ve read my blog long enough, you’ll completely understand. But she is my mom, and I love her to the end of time. I’m so incredibly thankful that she is my mom, and she continues to inspire me each day to be a better person.
4. I’m thankful for my mom progressing well. My mom’s cancer diagnosis this year has been a source of angst, stress, and worry for the past couple of months. I have spent many sleepless nights worrying about her and the future. She recently decided to start chemotherapy and radiation treatments and I’m happy to say that she is progressing well. Treatments seem to be working, as her doctors have confirmed that her tumor is shrinking with treatments. She is about half way through her 6-week treatment plan, so I really hope that by the time it’s all over, she has made significant progress.
5. I’m thankful for my amazing friends. My friends are quite amazing – they are the support system that I need through all of the rough moments, and the source of laughter and fun on those great days. When I found out that my mom had cancer, the first person I called was my dear friend Titi, and although she was about 500 miles away, she comforted me in a way that no one else could. She even had me laughing before the end of the call. Now that’s a great friend!
6. I’m thankful for Micah’s school – his amazing teachers and the friends we’ve made. I just recently found out that Micah’s school will be closing its doors next year, and it has made me truly realize how thankful I am to have him in a school where we love the teachers, the parents, and the children. I know everyone by name – I am not just Micah’s mom, I am Natasha. I have telephone numbers of fellow parents and we text each other regularly. We schedule playdates and we get invited to birthday parties, even for family members of the children that Micah goes to school with. We are one big family at his school – and we are so incredibly blessed. I was devastated by the news of the school’s closing, and I worry that we will be unable to find another school that will be so great and connected.
7. I’m thankful for my family in Florida, who are a great source of help to my mom in her time of need. It has been an incredible relief knowing that my family members in Florida have been such a source of active help for my mom during this time. With me living in New Jersey, it has been difficult to truly provide anything more than moral support to my mom. We visit whenever we can, but there is nothing like being there every day. I love them dearly just because they are family, but even more so for being there for my mom when she needs it.
8. I’m thankful for the ability to care for my son as a solo mama. For the better part of the year, child support only trickled in – sometimes it was partial and sometimes it never came. I am so thankful for the ability to care for my son on my own. Even through childcare increases, rent increase, and more, we have come through okay. I have been blessed with great jobs that allow for Micah to have everything he needs, and for us to not feel the impact from the lack of child support.
9. I’m thankful for my virtual assistants, Alyson and Kelli. Let me start with Alyson – thank you so much for being so great! I found Alyson during a time where I was trying to get back to writing again. I found myself getting lost in the mix of blog hops and link ups, and I wanted to be known for more than just that. Alyson has been so great taking on the role of promoting all of my posts on social media, allowing me to focus again on writing. Kelli is one of my dearest friends, and has been great helping me with creativity, admin support, and just all around – motivation to keep going. She definitely pushes me to do more, be more, want more. I love you both!
10. I’m thankful for this blog and all of my bloggy friends. This year, I have been evolving on this blog. I’ve been trying to figure out my focus, my niche, my center – and even through all of that, I still have the most amazing blogging friends who have stuck with me through the evolution. They support me, encourage me, inspire me, and look out for me. Without them, I probably would have stopped writing on my blog eons ago. But they encouraged me to keep going, and I’m so incredibly thankful for them. There are too many to name, because they include even those that read and comment on my blog every day. Thanks for reading my blog, sharing my posts on social media, commenting on my blog and social media, and just all in all – thank you!
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