Thankful

In the spirit of transparency, honesty, and vulnerability, I want to share this with you.  Today started off as "one of those days".  The kind where I found myself crying at my kitchen sink at 6:30 am while preparing my lunch. 

Nothing huge had occurred to upset me.  It was just a build up of little, seemingly unimportant things. 

Like how there were 10 little fruit flies hanging out on the wall behind my sink.  And flying into my hair.
Or the feathers covering my living room floor that had come out of my couch cushions two days prior when I took off the covers to wash, and had had absolutely no energy to sweep up. 
Or the couch cushion cover zipper that broke when I tried to put the clean cover back on. 
Or my stomach that has just not been feeling normal for days. 
Or my 2nd grade class the day before that went HORRIBLY
Or my feelings of loneliness at school while I get used to my teaching schedule and the long lengths of time where I do not teach, or see another human being, and sit and work in my freezing cold classroom by myself.
Or the all-Chinese text message from my phone company that when run through Google translate seemed to be saying I owed 600 yuan in overages.  Which made no sense.
Or the fact that my cellphone said it had no service/network.  Which made me think my cell service had been shut off.

So in order to combat all of these tiny little negatives weighing me down, I decided (after some more crying, and lots of caring, praying friends) to focus on the things I'm thankful for.  So here goes:

1. The many friends who saw me in my sadness and talked to me and prayed with me throughout the day
2.  The 2nd grade class that went really well today
3. My 5th graders (half of whom are boys), who when told they could sing higher and better than they were, actually listened, tried, and succeeded at singing higher and better
4. The chance to help out the secondary choral teacher make recordings of voice parts for practice tracks of some really awesome pieces of choral music.
5. A conversation in Chinese with the fantastic, joyful woman who cleans the music wing.
6. Catching the 3:30 bus after school to make it home by 4.
7. A cool breeze to walk home in.
8. Almost blue skies

 9. Yummy cold noodles from a street vendor: 5 yuan, or $0.82.  Take that, Dollar Menu

 10. This view while I ate my noodles.  And the open doors and windows to let in a breeze instead of using the A/C

 11. Being able to walk to go buy groceries
12. Making salad with chicken, fresh veggies, and a yogurt-dill dressing for super cheap.  I've now bought and cooked chicken the same number of times as the last time I lived in China (that was for a whole year).  Chicken is just more readily available here in Tianjin in ways I feel safe purchasing it.

 13. Finally finding and buying tape so I can put up things on my walls.

 14. Finally getting the paper for my thankfulness poster so I can remember to be thankful each day before I leave the house.

Rejoice Always, Pray Without Ceasing, Give Thanks in All Circumstances

What are you thankful for today?