Thankful

Okay, so when I said that I was going to share recipes all week, 
I think I only meant I was going to share three. :]
We have to eat the leftovers sometime because there are only two of us.
Tomorrow evening, I'll be back with Friday's Fabulous Foods,
but for now I'm joining in on what I'm thankful for this week.

After a terrible tragedy in my hometown this week that left everyone
completely shocked {and I think that may even be an understatement},
it made me even more thankful for my life and the blessings God has given me.
I'm not going to go into details about what happened, but if you're one of those types
that just has to know, you can read about it here.
Just awful.
If you think about it, please pray for the families affected as well as our small town.

So now, for the happy part of the post!
This week has just been kind of "blah" for me.
Nothing spectacular happened, but I'm still thankful.

I am so thankful for the family that God has blessed me with.  They are incredible people who love Jesus and who make me want to love Jesus even more than I already do.  I wish I could go back 10 years and have the relationship with them that I have now...but all teenagers are bratty, so it probably wouldn't have worked.

I am thankful for the opportunity to meet 4 wonderful ladies who've been my Instagram friends for a long while.  I'm thankful for the time we had eating cupcakes last Saturday while we talked about weddings, families, life, and everything in between.  {One of the four ladies was unable to come to the cupcake eating event, but I met her at the Cardinals game last Tuesday and is equally as amazing as the other 3.}

I am thankful for the ability to create for my little shop.  If you haven't visited it, you can find it here.  I love sitting down and being able to craft in my spare time, and praying for the person who will purchase the item as I create it.

I am so excited {and thankful} that the Cards are in the playoffs!! :]  It's so fun watching them play {via my ESPN app that I ONLY use for baseball, but it might also get used for Missouri State basketball} because we don't get the channels the games are played on and because they play during the work day. GO CARDS!

This week, I'm also thankful for my small town.  I hated it growing up.  There wasn't anything to do.  We had to drive to Joplin to do all the fun things.  But this week, I'm so grateful for the sense of community.  I'm thankful that it's still the same conservative, small town in which all the people gather to pray for the ones in need.  I'm thankful that the people invested time in my life and supported all of my activities.  I'm thankful that the current students are still getting to feel that sense of support.  I hope it will never change.

I'm most importantly thankful for my Savior.  There are a lot of bad things going on in this world.  But to know that I have Hope when all is said and done brings me more joy than anything.  I have something way better than this world could ever offer.  And I pray that same Hope for you.

Today I'm linking up with Carina.