Happy New Year!

So, how's it been so far? :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day celebration with your friends and family and that you don't overindulge :-) Thankfully I don't have to cook today, my sister does Thanksgiving and I do Christmas -- it makes it a lot easier on both of us.

I thought I would share with you some of the many blessings for which I'm thankful to God:

I'm thankful that there is a God in heaven who cares about each of us and sent his Son to pay the penalty for our rebellion against him. I'm thankful he is a personal God who cares and watches over me, protects me from harm and has drawn me to him.

I'm thankful I live in a country where I can proclaim that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and that my fidelity is to him.

I'm thankful that I live in a country that acknowledges our right to believe in any god or no god.

I'm thankful for a supportive and loving family, for the love of my husband and my children and the ability to share my love with them.

I'm thankful for my brothers and sisters in Christ who travel this road with me and who share in the comfort we provide each other. I'm thankful for their support.

I'm thankful that the Lord has blessed me with a warm home and the availability of plenty of food.

I'm thankful to live in a country where we can be a blessing to others by providing for their needs when they do not have a warm home or food.

I'm thankful for this blog and the ability to share my opinions with you and to rant about the news of the day or poke fun at the politicians.

I'm thankful for our readers because I can't see investing the time if no one reads it :-) Thank you for reading our blog!

I'm thankful for each of our regular commenters, yes even the liberal commenters. I appreciate each of you taking the time to share your opinion even when you don't agree with me.

I'm thankful to the blogging community who link to our blog and to particular posts. I'm thankful for their support.

I'm thankful I didn't break my nose yesterday!

I'm thankful we can all share in one day a year where we give thanks to the Lord for our many blessings.

Psalm 50:23 The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
to one who orders his way rightly
I will show the salvation of God!”

Psalm 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Philippians 4:6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

1 Timothy 2:1
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people

Does this teacher know the purpose of Thanksgiving Day?

Sorry, this sounds more like a meal than a thanksgiving feast:

Robyn Gioia doesn't look like a troublemaker. Far from it.

Gioia is a wife, mother and teacher, and her green eyes twinkle when she talks about her fifth-grade students at the Bolles School just north of here in Ponte Vedra.

But Gioia, 53, has written a children's book, and just the title is enough to peeve any Pilgrim: America's REAL First Thanksgiving.

"It was the publisher who put real in capital letters," she says, "but I think it's great."

What does REAL mean? Well, she's not talking turkey and cranberry sauce. She's talking a Spanish explorer who landed here on Sept. 8, 1565, and celebrated a feast of thanksgiving with Timucua Indians. They dined on bean soup.

If you do the math, it is 56 years before the Pilgrims sat down and shared a meal with natives at Plymouth Rock.

Who knew? Not even Gioia, until she attended a teachers' workshop two years ago and heard Michael Gannon, a retired history scholar from the University of Florida, tell the story of Pedro Menendez de Aviles.

Gannon, 80, first laid out the premise of an earlier Thanksgiving in his scholarly book The Cross in the Sand in 1965, but few picked up on it. He says his mention of Menendez's meal was a "throwaway line that lay fallow for 20 years."

That was, until a reporter for the Associated Press in 1985 exposed Gannon's academic findings to the world, which caused what Gannon remembers as "a storm of interest. I was on the phone for three days straight."

Traditionalists, especially in New England, dubbed him "The Grinch who stole Thanksgiving."

(via)

This teacher appears to miss the point of Thanksgiving Day, it's not about who ate here first, it's about giving thanks to God and acknowledging him for the many benefits we have in this great nation. Here is George Washington's Thanksgiving proclamation:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

A big thank you to our veterans

Thank you for your service to our country and your sacrifice. We are thankful today and everyday. And thanks to you, dad for your twenty years of service to your country.

Happy Father's Day!!

I hope all the dads enjoy your day today, especially my husband and my dad.

Here's a little present for you, Doug:

And Dad:

Tags: Father's Day

A picture for Memorial Day

Here's a picture that reminds us of the cost of war. Even though I believe that we have no choice but to fight this war until the Iraqis are ready to fight their own battles, I realize that it comes at a great cost.

Memorial Day

I think that this video comes the closest to what we believe is the experience of the American military.

I'm thankful that there are men and women who are willing to sacrifice all that they have so that Americans can remain free of the tyranny experienced by the citizens of other nations. We do not deserve their sacrifice but I'm thankful they've made it. Whether we support the war or not we should all appreciate that there are men and women who care enough about our freedoms to be willing defend them and should honor them for their service. We should be thankful that they believe that America is a nation worth defending.

I know that there are many who believe that the freedom of the Iraqis isn't worth the blood of any American soldier, I'm glad that there are those in the military who disagree. I'm thankful that they are willing to sacrifice their lives so that others can be given the chance that we have been given and hopefully be able to teach them what it means to be free. That freedom comes with a cost and a responsibility. That freedom extends to everyone, not just a select few. If the Iraqis learn that lesson, they will be country worth defending too.