count your blessings

The idea that really struck during conference was gratitude. There were several talks that touched on that topic. It made me stop and think about the things that I have to be grateful for. There are so many little things that I tend to take for granted or chalk them up to luck, that really are blessings. Steve and I have been working pretty consistently on our food storage since before we moved to Eagle Mountain just over 3 years ago. I have been couponing and canning things. I didn't can too much last year, but this year I was determined to. I bought 2 bushels of peaches that we put up as a family. Even the kids helped without complaining too much. After finishing the peaches, I really was feeling that we didn't have enough put away. I was wanting to can more, but as is with everyone right now, money was not in the budget for that. The next day one of my neighbors gave me a box full of pectin for freezer jam. I almost didn't take it because I didn't have any fruit left to jam, but I just couldn't say no. So here I was Saturday with a box of pectin, but no fruit. Monday I went to run an errand. While on that errand a friend called to tell me that the Church cannery had a surplus of peaches and could I please grab her some on my way home. I told her that I would. I grabbed a box on the way and then stopped at the cannery. I ended coming home with about 5 - 6 bushels of peaches. Now I was feeling grateful that I had taken the pectin because here was fruit to use it on. I called a friend and the next day she and I spent 4 hours making jam. We still hadn't made a dent in the peaches. We decided to have a canning party during priesthood session and invite whoever wanted to come. We ended up with 5 ladies. We made jam for 1 1/2 hours and still had about 1 1/2 bushels left and a ton of pectin. We decided that since we had used all of our containers that we would let someone else have the rest of the peaches and pectin. Just as we were finishing cleaning up we had 3 late comers show up, so we sent them home with the rest of the pectin and peaches. Everyone was happy and feeling blessed. Yesterday I was wishing that I had more tomatoes so that I could make and can some salsa. Today I got an email from a freecycler saying that they had a lot of green tomatoes. I was the first to respond. I came home with 2 bushels of green tomatoes. The man threw in some hot peppers and onions when he found out that I was going to make green tomato salsa. Once again I am feeling very blessed. These things have come to me when I have a lot of other things going on, but how could I not feel blessed when the Lord is giving me what I have asked for. I feel very blessed that I can put food storage up for my family and be able to do it on our budget. It makes me realize that the Lord is mindful of every righteous desire of our hearts. It is as President Eyring has said, the more you look for blessings that have come to you, the more you see that you have been blessed with. May we all look for what we have been given instead of focusing on what we don't. Even in this time of uncertainty, we can be grateful for what we have now and live in the moment as President Monson has counseled.