I'm Giving Thanks...for Beautiful Fall Weather

For some reason I am surprised every single year when I turn the page on my calendar and it reads November.  I always feel as though we just finished the holiday season, and that I'm not quite ready to face another.  It's not that I don't enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas, but that the years seem to be flying by too quickly for my taste.  I heard a quote recently about raising children that pretty much sums up how I feel:

The days are long, but the years are short.

The days that we spend in the trenches of parenthood and marriage can seem never ending, and when we have several of those days in a row it feels as though time is standing still.  But then there are the days of complete joy and contentment when all seems right with the world and we float along on the emotional high we get from enjoying our children and our spouses, that more than compensates for all the rest.  But at year's end, the good and the bad days seem to blend together in one long blur with sporadic highlights here and there.

So here I am at the beginning of the end of 2010, and I find that I have much for which I am thankful.  I've done this challenge for the last three years, and my previous lists can be found here, here and here.  If you would like to participate in the Giving Thanks Challenge, go see Leah at South Breeze Farm and grab the button for your blog, or just update your Facebook status each day with something for which you are thankful.

This year, the first item on my list is the beautiful fall weather here in Oklahoma.  We've had a string of beautiful days and nights this fall, and they make me wish that I did not work in a basement!  The days are comfortable and sunny and the nights are cool and breezy.  We've had our bedroom window open for about three weeks now, enjoying the cool air all night.  I realize that Oklahoma does not have particularly cool weather in the fall compared to other parts of the country, but since my only real frame of reference is the Gulf coast, the temperatures are perfect!

So, what are you thankful for?