Thanksgiving: Day 14

326. Sutton Hoo
327. Grendel
328. Grendel's Mom
329. Dragons
330. J.R.R. Tolkien
331. "The Hobbit"
332. "The Lord of the Rings"
333. Peter Jackson
334. Film Reviewers
335. Newspapers
336. Coffee
337. Diet Dr. Pepper
338. String cheese
339. Juicy pears
340. Apples
341. Grapes
342. Oranges
343. Cuties
344. My Cutie
345. Diamonds
346. Tires
347. Brakes
348. Gas
349. Asphalt
350. Concrete

Thanksgiving: Day 13

301. Toddlerspeak
302. Sweatshirts
303. Washing machine
304. Homemade laundry soap
305. Fabric softener
306. Coffee mugs
307. Coffee
308. Photographs
309. Camera phones
310. Light
311. Digital storage
312. USB ports
313. Glasses
314. Optimism
315. Poems
316. Iambic pentameter
317. Shakespeare
318. "Titus Andronicus"
319. William Faulkner
320. Flannery O'Connor
321. "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
322. Marilynne Robinson
323. "Gilead"
324. E-mail
325. Spam filters

Thanksgiving: Day 12

276. Typewriters
277. Calligraphy
278. Steampunk
279. Cyberpunk
280. Cell phones
281. Magnetism
282. Gravity
283. The book of Isaiah
284. Prayer
285. Prayer rugs
286. Handicrafts
287. Loud keyboards
288. Quiet keyboards
289. Idiosyncracies
290. Spell check
291. people who ignore spell check
292. Grammar
293. Warm stew on a cold day
294. Family prayer time in the mornings
295. Teaching my little boy to read
296. First-time obedience
297. Glue
298. Thread
299. Needles
300. Hammers

Thanksgiving: Day 11

251. Paint.NET
252. Audacity
253. People who share their talents with others
254. Haiku
255. People who mock haiku
256. Poetry
257. Poets
258. Ezra Pound
259. T. S. Eliot
260. Emily Dickinson
261. Walt Whitman
262. e. e. cummings
263. Langston Hughes
264. The idea of revolution
265. Economists
266. Logic
267. Political science
268. History books
269. Historians
270. Museums
271. Music
272. Musicians
273. The "Amen" cadence
274. Gilbert and Sullivan
275. Charles Dickens

Thanksgiving: Day 10

226. Language

227. Writing

228. Different-colored pens to take multi-dimensional notes

229. The Silo Saga by Hugh Howey

230. Sunlight

231. Snowflakes

232. Sweat

233. Lips

234. The Internet

235. Buses

236. The Liberty Memorial

237. Running

238. Not having to run

239. www.rabbitroom.com

240. Peacemakers who sow in peace

241. Caedmon's Hymn

242. Muscles

243. Bone

244. Skin

245. Sinews

246. Nerves

247. Smell

248. Touch

249. Hearing

250. mp3 codecs

Thanksgiving: Day 9

201. Friends who bring me Starbucks unsolicited

202. Headphones

203. Squeaky hinges

204. A toilet flapper that works

205. A three-year-old who asks me to tell the story of Ruth (Every. Single. Night.)

206. "Can we hear about Ruth again in a hundred years?"

207. Iterative techniques in programming

208. Tears

209. Humility

210. Humiliation

211. Pain

212. Wisdom

213. Noam Chomsky

214. XML Data

215. Relational Databases

216. WYSIWYG editors

217. Chaotic systems

218. The wind

219. Thunderstorms in June

220. The yearly cycle of death and rebirth

221. The communion of the saints

222. Forgiveness of sins

223. Confession

224. Repentance

225. Grace

Thanksgiving: Day 8

176. The smell of ancient paper
177. Old English
178. Beowulf
179. A frothy pint shared with fellow Beowulf enthusiasts
180. "The Final Sacrifice" (Rowsdower!)
181. A younger brother who lives his own life
182. Art for art's sake
183. Landscapes that look like a Thomas Kincade painting, but without the snarky art snobs
184. Talking about child-rearing with my favorite person
185. Panera
186. Penicillin
187. Hospitals
188. The Birth and Women's Center
189. Hearing my little one's heartbeat
190. Seeing my sweet baby moving in my wife's tummy
191. Banjo music
192. My whistling two-year-old
193. Tricycles
194. Skinned knees
195. The park
196. Fixing things with the "help" of my manchildren
197. Hand-made gifts
198. Sleep
199. Mucus
200. Mucinex

Thanksgiving: Day 7

151. Vector velocities
152. Lists
153. Retroactive blog posts
154. Making up for lost time
155. A clean-shaven upper lip
156. Water
157. Wine
158. Bread
159. Weight Watchers
160. Loving the wife of my youth
161. Peace
162. Freedom
163. Sight
164. A path to the top of the hill overlooking my office
165. The trails near the governor's residence
166. The completion (at long last) of our capitol renovation project
167. Ad astra per aspera
168. Stalks of wheat
169. Combines bringing in the harvest
170. Not having to grind my own flour
171. Diapers to change
172. Fall decorations
173. Old buildings
174. People who love old buildings enough to restore them
175. Rare books

Thanksgiving: Day 6

126. 300 posts on this blog (if you count the 5 unpublished draft posts)

127. The word "no"

128. Learning how to say "no"

129. Toddlers who say "no, thank you" instead of "no"

130. Our quirky furnace

131. The instructions on said furnace (two sets: both in French, both identical)

132. That the word "explosion" is the same in French as in English

133. Teleconferences

134. Meetings that don't last as long as they were scheduled to

135. Date night

136. Error handling

137. A warm house on a cold night

138. A playground within walking distance

139. Two little boys who love being with their daddy

140. Playing music with my sons down by the river

141. Razors

142. The Amish

143. Books on World War I

144. The Treaty of Versailles

145. Farmer Hiram on the World's War

146. Python

147. Pong

148. CodeSkulptor.org

149. CourseEra.org

150. Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock

Thanksgiving: Day 5

101. Benevolent "kidnappings"
102. Two date nights in a row!
103. The Ecclesiastes 4:11 Principle
104. Old T-shirts
105. Blankets made of old T-shirts
106. My mobile phone
107. Mail merges
108. Libraries
109. Game night with friends
110. Sleepless nights filled with thankfulness
111. Carbon monoxide detectors
112. Opportunities to excel
113. To-do lists
114. Checking things off of said to-do lists
115. Owls calling to each other in my yard at 2 a.m.
116. Distant train whistles
117. Hot chai lattes
118. A headset for my work phone
119. Good corporate training sessions
120. Logic
121. Decision-making skills
122. Remote login
123. SQL
124. Massive Open Online Courses
125. Strong laptop cases

Thanksgiving: Day 4

76. Laughter

77. Music

78. Toy guitars played by toddlers

79. Empty boxes

80. Scented candles

81. Computers

82. Find and Replace

83. PDF files

84. Hu Hot

85. The following joke: "Hu Hot? My wife!"

86. Decaf coffee

87. Hair clippers

88. Soap and water

89. The light of a harvest moon

90. Clean water

91. Indoor plumbing

92. Milk

93. Maps

94. Old books

95. 8-bit graphics

96. Plans

97. The utter obliteration of plans

98. Moments when my 3-year-old still needs to be cuddled

99. A working heater

100. Pajama pants

Thanksgiving: Day 3

51. An employer that gives good parties
52. Karaoke
53. Dancing with my nearly-2-year-old
54. Winning!
55. Old friends
56. Faithful servants of God
57. Date night
58. Hobby Lobby
59. Memory
60. Memories
61. Memorials
62. Memorization
63. Memes
64. Membership
65. Ebeneezer Scrooge
66. Jack O'Lanterns
67. The Irish
68. Irish whiskey
69. Irish whiskers
70. Laundry detergent
71. Clean sheets
72. Red, green, and yellow tree-clothes
73. Football
74. Bonfires
75. Gift Cards

Thanksgiving: Day 2

26. Great co-workers
27. Wi-fi
28. Godly leaders at church
29. Shoes that fit
30. Clean clothes
31. Someone else changing my oil
32. Two pairs of glasses
33. A full tank of gas
34. Healthy blood in my veins
35. A comfy bed
36. Literacy
37. Forgiveness
38. New windows in my house
39. Punctuation
40. Video conferencing
41. A digital watch
42. Toothpaste
43. A dishwasher
44. Citrus scents
45. A belt with lots of holes
46. Light bulbs
47. Almonds
48. Shampoo
49. Pre-emptive Strikes Against Baldness
50. Sesame chicken

40 Days of Thanksgiving

It has been a hard couple of months for me. Busyness has consumed me, followed closely by a couple of deep dives into depression and occasional panic attacks. Taken together, it has drained me further than I knew was possible.

Yesterday morning, I looked in the mirror and was struck by how unhappy my face seemed. I normally have a smile, or at least a pleasant expression, but yesterday, my countenance was cast down, hollow, empty.

I think there are a lot of reasons that I'm feeling (and looking) the way I am. For many reasons, I need to sit down and rethink my life - what I'm spending my time on, how I'm interacting with people... everything. But for now, the best thing I can think of to transform my doleful heart into a happy one is to give thanks. Intentionally, purposefully, genuinely.

So, for the next 40 days (until the week of American Thanksgiving, coincidentally enough), I will do exactly that. My goal is to get to 1,000 in those 40 days. You're welcome to come along for the ride, but this will be mostly for me.

So, here goes...

Things I am Thankful For:

1. An alarmingly hott wife (like, FIRE alarmingly!)
2. Two sweet sons who always love to see me
3. Chuck Norris-strength kicks from my unborn child
4. Cuddling with said wife
5. A car with a radio that works
6. "Carry On, My Wayward Son," by Kansas
7. Seeing old friends at work
8. Knowing exactly what I have to do each day
9. Good health
10. The ability to walk
11. Daily standup meetings
12. A really nice computer at work
13. Really fast internet at work
14. Two HUGE monitors at work
15. Admin privileges on my work PC
16. A climate-controlled place to work
17. Free coffee at work
18. Reading Proverbs to my family at breakfast
19. A wife who loves patterns and order (see below for an EGGsample of this)
20. Microsoft Excel
21. My iPad
22. A Bible always available, whenever I want it
23. Prayer
24. Birdsong
25. An umbrella covered with smiley faces