I am thankful for . . .

In the first couple of days of November, I had the brilliant idea to go to the teacher supply store and get a big piece of bulletin board paper so we could make a Gratitude Wall for the month. (This was before I’d read Mel’s thought-provoking post regarding forced/contrived expressions of gratitude!)   I had visions of each of us choosing a different color permanent marker that we’d use all month.   Every night before bed, we’d each take our marker and write something on the Gratitude Wall that we were thankful for.   I would love seeing the things the kids were thankful for and using color-coding would make it super easy to see who wrote what!   In short, it would be perfect!

So I went to the teacher supply store (one of Stuart’s all-time favorite places in town) and bought the paper. When I got home, I taped it on the sliding glass door in the living room and asked Marin and Stuart to get the permanent markers and write “I am thankful for . . .” in really big letters at the top. Then I left the room and went running, I think (I can’t really remember what I did, to be honest.   It was two whole weeks ago. The point is that I left.)

When I came back about 30 minutes later, I saw that they had indeed written the title in big letters . . . and then they had FILLED IN the entire Gratitude Wall.   No color coding!   No daily recitations of gratitude!   I couldn’t see who had written what!

I was annoyed and I told them as much. (Hello, what kind of a mom gets mad at her kids for filling up a contrived “Gratitude Wall” with things like: Education, Family Movies, Algebra, CASA, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Hip-Hop class, and underwear??   Umm, apparently this kind . . .)   I told them what I had wanted to do and that I was disappointed that they had ruined (did I actually use the word “ruin”?   maybe/hopefully not) what I had planned on being a month-long activity.

They were flummoxed–rightly so.

I considered buying another piece of butcher paper, but two things happened:

a) I got too busy to go back to the teacher supply store.

b) I realized that that would just be so mental of me, even I knew I couldn’t actually go through with taking down their Gratitude Wall and starting over just because it didn’t turn out the way I had hoped.   The phrase “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good” works here, doesn’t it?

So I’ve been trying to remember to be grateful for my kids who turned my month-long Gratitude Wall into a fun activity that filled in the 30 minutes before dinner one night.

And I’m grateful that my kids still love me even though I am sometimes a shrew.

And underwear.   Don’t forget to be thankful for underwear.

Happy Turkey Day tomorrow!   I’ll be sharing a riotous meal with my extended family of 27: my grandmother, my parents, my sibs (my favorite people in the world) and their spouses, and 17 cousins!