Thankful

• for the chance to spend Thanksgiving with dear friends
• for the final CSA veggie installment, beauteous greens and baby beets and fragrant fennel
• for the final CSA guilt installment, in which I wonder: will I eat all of these beautiful organic vegetables before they deliquesce?
• for leftovers from a delicious and frugal dinner: thinly slice a large onion and brown it in hot fat; add 3 shredded carrots, 3 cloves of slivered garlic, and a small head of thinly sliced cabbage; sprinkle with soy sauce, juice of one lime, powdered ginger (fresh would be better but powdered was good), and toss until cabbage is tender; drizzle toasted sesame oil on top and serve with a pound of browned ground beef over which you have squeezed more lime juice. (We usually try to cook meat separately to accommodate a vegetarian kid.)
• for small steps forward in the office
• for a respite from teaching
• for the rain
• for a laughing boy in another room
• and two sleeping children upstairs
• and of course the two other kids whom I love with equal ferocity
• for recently read diverting books: Crosstalk, Bellwether, Today Will Be Different, This One Is Mine (that last one had some pretty sordid stretches but was ultimately worth it)
• for the anticipation of a Wednesday morning in which no one needs to be hustled out the door. A good day for pumpkin muffins, maybe.
• for an online Al-Anon meeting
• for dental insurance
• for Night Prayer