So, my Facebook feed full of people contemplating the end of the world. If, in fact, the end draweth neigh, I would still have some things to be thankful for.

Okay, if you are a girl who grew up in a Charismatic church hearing about the rapture and the end of the world, then this is going to be obvious. I GOT MARRIED AND HAD KIDS BEFORE THE TRUMPET SOUNDED!!!!! That’s big, y’all. If nine-year-old Adrienne’s deals with God are valid, that means technically I can pray for nothing else ever. If you’re a boy and prayed a similar prayer at nine, I hope you got a video game console and got to spend an entire weekend staying up all night, gaming and eating pizza before the Big Guy calls us home.

On that note, Sarah and Larry, y’all might wanna consider getting married RIGHT NOW. Don’t wait until sunset tonight. Heck, text your vows if you have to. You need to slide in under this door! And I’ll be thankful when you do.

Speaking of wedded bliss… I’m so grateful for all of our family that are driving in from all corners for the big day. I love celebrating this new chapter of Larry’s life together. In the event that the highways are closed and the little men in parachutes descend, our basement will accommodate.

Speaking of basements, should I decide to stock mine, I’m grateful for the warehouse shelves that currently hold the ghosts of technology’s past. I know we’re going to need some diodes and electrodes and old cell phone antennae. Once we clear the shelves to make the inevitable communication gear, we’ll have lots of room to store the pumpkin harvest growing in the woods from all of the rotten ones I tossed from the front porch. Ooooh – I’m thankful for those too! (Score 2!)

I’m grateful for satellite tv. Cable might not work. Broadcast might be shot. But nothing can get between us and the ole DTV lady in the Southern Sky. Well, except for nuclear winter. Maybe I need to rethink this one??

I’m thankful for my time with my children. If the snapshot was taken NOW, and this was all I ever got, we did well.

I’m also thankful for the realization just now that I need to remember that marker every morning in the form of a question. Don’t mock me when it shows up cleverly illustrated on Pinterest. I’m only human.

I’m thankful for the Dillard’s return policy. If the snapshot were taken now, I’d fail the keeping up the ‘ole figure test. Sequins do NOT hide muffin top. Besides, anthropologists do not need to find me fossilized in my basement, surrounded by makeshift com’ gear, holding a fermented pumpkin drink and wearing sequins. NOT a good legacy.

And finally, I’m thankful for a sense of humor. Being able to look at the most serious of things and locate the humor disarms fear. Actually, 1 John 4:18 says it’s perfect love that casts out all fear. By having found that perfect love, I can look at everything that I might ordinarily freak out over and, well, laugh. I know from where my help comes.

Keep it classy in the end y’all!

Day 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. Here goes.

I’m ludicrously thankful that my baby boy is sitting here gnawing on my finger. That’s ’cause he HAS TEETH y’all: a feat never accomplished by a Gray child before 15-months-old.

I’m thankful for the way that the morning light bounces off of leaves when the sun shines. Both for the gorgeous dancing shadows it leaves on my floor and the way that it animates the air around me.

I’m thankful for hot showers. The alternative just isn’t that appealing, y’know?

I’m thankful that I live in a family where we started the tradition of learning the alphabet with foam letters on the shower floor. We get to spend that much more time in the hot shower.

I’m thankful that Stella Gray is so stinking funny. For the life of me, I can’t remember if it’s the age or if it’s just Stella, but that little monkey keeps us in stitches.

I’m thankful for mail-order. Seriously, who has time to go shopping?

I’m grateful that the door I slammed this morning after I was interrupted three times by different family members on the same sentence was loud enough to immediately shame me.

I’m thankful that I know better than to get onto a tangent about whether or not being thankful and grateful are the same things. I’m not sure there’s any wisdom there other than to just be kind of verbose and naval-gazey.

I’m thankful for friends who are unselfish, thoughtful and just love to have a good time.

I’m thankful that we made a vow to raise our son in the Christian way until he’s old enough to make a decision for himself.

I’m also thankful for a Mimi that is obsessed with sewing fine clothes for her grandchildren. Jon Powell’s baby gown was exquisite.

I’m thankful that even though I know they are about, and the body count by yardmen continues to grow, I have yet to actually SEE a live snake at our home. God knows what I can handle.

I am thankful that our central vacuum cleaner in my garage and has direct hose access so that weekly (sometimes daily) I can efficiently deal with the explosion that takes place.

I am so grateful that our daughter goes to the kind of school that allows it AND that I have the availability to go and be a part of her classroom once a week. Being connected in that way to her education does my heart good.

I am thankful that age reveals the wisdom to know that I can’t “do it all”. It’s not that I still don’t lament it, it’s that I know to pull up before I live there and try to make the absolute best of what I can do.

I’m so thankful for the kind of life that my husband and I have pieced together. Yes, there have been edge of the cliff moments. Yes there have been moments where we’ve fallen and fallen hard. But we’ve fallen together… landed on our bony rears, gotten up and chose a different approach to the mountain. We’ll never have to say that we spent life at the base camp watching everyone else live.

I’m thankful that sitting here, even just now, thinking about all of the fallen moments, there are still infinite lessons to glean and apply.

I’m grateful that God has allowed us the grace that the journey’s still on.

I’m thankful that at any time I can stop being so deep and meaningful without fear of confusion because this is MY blog.

I’m thankful that I can make risotto without following a recipe. Butter, onion, garlic, arborio rice, white wine, shitake broth, chicken broth, shitake slices, parm, sage, salt, boom.

I’m thankful for social media. I love keeping up with people that I would inadvertently lose track of.

I’m thankful that this old dog can still learn. Few things excite me more than tackling a new project or a new method of doing things.

I’m grateful that there are infinite word combinations and ways of saying things. It makes communicating worthwhile and fascinating.

I’m grateful for Warby Parker because I’m about to get my ordering on for new glasses.

And finally, grateful that we live surrounded by trees, because after 24 thankfuls, I’m STILL enjoying their dance in the wind.