This is the second of my thankful lists. Keep in mind, these are the things for which I was thankful for today.

1. Tums

2. Stretchy pants

3. A walk in the park (literally!)

4. My Mom

5. Police Officers (don’t ask)

6. Under-eye concealer

7. A garbage disposal

8. Slippers

9. Snuggling dogs

10. My family

I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving!

To make it easier on myself (and, oh my, for anyone who is actually reading this blog on Thanksgiving) I will be listing items for which I am thankful…with a twist. These items won’t be generalizations, but rather, specific to today.

Today, I was thankful for:

1. Ibuprofen

2. Blue Sky

3. The WaterPik SinuSense (This is a battery-operated sinus rinse that I got for free at the BlogHer ’11 conference and you would not believe what it got out of my son’s head today. They’re not paying me to talk about them, but I SAW the sinus infection come out of his nostril, onto a tissue and it was kind of amazing. I’m not kidding. After days of yellow globs, during multiple sinus rinses a day, tonight a thick green PLUG came out. You’re welcome.)

4. Caffeine

5. The mailman (Is there anything better than having Christmas presents delivered to your door?)

6. My iPhone

7. The ability to walk, without pain or disability

8. Our church

9. Sleepytime tea (counteracts #4)

10. A gas stove

11. My readers! Happy Thanksgiving!

And, so it begins.

A few days ago, the weather turned colder. This is the time of year when I dread walking outside because the wind bites, the sky is gray and we have two enormous trees that make one, big mess. You have never seen a run on lawn bags, until you’ve see us hit the hardware store.

Things inside the house aren’t much better. That biting wind? That’s the same thing that comes out of my husband’s mouth when he sees I’ve changed the thermostat again.

This morning, amid the sound of my son’s chattering teeth, I saw that my husband had set the heat at 65F. See how I put that “F” there? That’s for mah Canadian peeps. Holla! Oh, sorry. Holla, eh?

Now, if we lived in Canada, maybe 65F would be a heat wave, but here in Ohio I was just getting used to the 90F, August days, with humidity so high you could boil pasta, when September came along with her…fall weather. Shudder.

After I saw the thermostat setting, I did what any good wife would do; I turned up the heat behind my husband’s back and hoped he wouldn’t notice. That lasted…oh, about an hour, and 45 of those 60 minutes we weren’t even home.

Last night, after I protested, I got him to crank that baby to 67F. Then, I donned a short-sleeved shirt, a long-sleeved shirt, socks, pants, a heavy sweatshirt and a blanket.  I was finally comfortable.

That is, until my husband brought me a glass of his homemade wine. I took three sips and I started sweating. Clearly, I have found the solution to lower heating bills.

Drink more wine.

One of the benefits of Catholic school is that my kids and their classmates do a lot to serve the community and those less fortunate. I am NOT saying that public school kids don’t serve their community, so don’t start hatin’ on me.

I am, however, speaking from my own public school experience and we didn’t do diddly squat.

It wasn’t until I was in high school that I even knew what a service project was and it usually involved picking up trash down by the river. Last year, my daughter’s class spearheaded a project that raised $8000 to build a well and clean lavatories for a school in Afghanistan. Hmm…picking up gum wrappers vs. clean water for third-world schoolchildren? It’s a toss up.

There are collections for toys, clothing, toiletries and once a month, every child brings in canned goods. It teaches the kids early, and often, to give of themselves.

Yesterday, my daughter and some of her friends visited a local soup kitchen to serve lunch. Before they went, they had to write a “pre-reflection” on what they were about to do. Here is what my kid wrote:

I’m really excited to go to the soup kitchen. I really want to learn and experience the act of giving to others. My goal is to really, truly understand what it means to help out the community and be able to come back, and not just say, “I liked helping because it made me feel good”…but, maybe something along the lines of, “I really enjoyed helping out at the soup kitchen because I could see the joy and thanks on their faces.”

See that? It wasn’t about her…it was about them.

And, that makes the tuition bill a lot less hard to pay.