My kids have enjoyed adding their little hand print leaves to their Thanksgiving Tree we started last week.

Each day we’ve written one thing they are thankful for on a hand print and then taped it to the tree.  (To save a little time I traced their hands once and cut out about 10 hands at one time…)  They’ve enjoyed it so much they asked Mommy and Daddy add a few hand prints to the tree.

So, what are some of the things they’ve been thankful for?

Monkey, the toddler:

• Dog cookies (he’s said that twice now)
• Cars and Trucks (he actually has this up there 3 times)
• His sister

Peanut, the preschooler:

• Candy
• More “Daddy time”
• Her brother (She said this after he put her on his hand print)
• The dog
• Grandma and Grandpa

What about you?  What are you, or your kids, thankful for this week?

The post A Tree of Thanks first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

That’s when I heard my husband, “Peanut, come here and check this out!  It’s hailing…”  At exactly the same time the weather person on the t.v. announced a tornado warning in our area, and was talking about the way the storm’s tail was acting and how we should seek cover immediately.

I flicked off the t.v. and went back to the living room, “No, no, we aren’t watching the hail right now; everyone go to the basement,” was my reply.  They all looked at me like I was nuts.  I quickly told my husband what the news said, that the little village (there used to be a sign saying “population 52”) that we live near was mentioned on the news as being in a tornado warning.

“Mommy, why are we going downstairs?” asked Peanut.  I reassured her that I just thought they’d like to go play in their play area before bed, and off we all went.  I found the radio downstairs and turned it on so we could keep updated, and tried to relax by working on the spring cleaning I started down there and hadn’t finished.  (What can I say?  Sometime throwing stuff out or freecycling it is soothing to me.)   Thankfully the storm passed quickly and once the tornado warning was over we went back upstairs to get the kids into bed.  I wanted to check the weather again to see if there might be a need to carry our sleeping babies downstairs to sleep, and my husband found the Weather Channel online so I could see the line of storms coming through.

I haven’t forgotten that this is supposed to be a Thankful Thursday post, quite the opposite.  I have so much to be thankful for.  I am thankful the numerous storms we have had here so far have been mostly just thunderstorms and a little hail last night (I heard some of the hail was close to 4 inches, so maybe little is the wrong adjective there…).  I am also thankful for the many differences between mommies and daddies.  I have grown to hate storms so much more now that I am a mother, while my husband still finds a thrill in watching them pass, and wants to share that with our children.  They need that.  They need someone who isn’t freaking out inside – At 3 ½ and 2 they need to feel secure in their home and safe.  So even though I didn’t let them linger at the glass door to watch the hail, I’m thankful they have a daddy who wants to teach them about storms and not to just be afraid of them.

The post The Difference between Dads and Moms first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.