Whoever little Annabeth is, I agree with her. I’m thankful for my house and my toothbrush, too.

I’m also thankful for my husband of eighteen years, the friendship his kids and I are developing, our grandkids, my mother, my friends–both physical and cyber.

I’m also thankful for this extra weight I tote around.

Don’t get me wrong. By next Thanksgiving, I’d love to be thankful that I lost it all and can get into my old clothes again. But the extra padding has special meaning to me.

First, it means I’m healthy. Contrary to the wisdom of health professionals everywhere, all this pudge means I’m better off than I was at the turn of this century, when I was fifteen pounds underweight, when both of my doctors punctured a lung trying to set a mainline into my carotid artery with little room to miss (they missed), when I was wondering if I’d ever feel good again.

I do now, and I’m thankful for that too.

Next, it means Mom is still with me. I spent most of last year and half of the year before at her house, wondering if she was going to make it, thankful when the doctors finally diagnosed her problem, worried when she wasn’t getting well. God bless Dr. DeVoke and her diagnostic skills, and all the doctors who God sent to make Mom well again.

But what does that have to do with my weight? Like I said before, Mom doesn’t cook. So we eat out. A lot. For an example of a visit with her, read “Trippin’ with Mom” from March of this year. I think I gained fifteen pounds just that one day.

Third, it means that I’m a pretty good cook–a wonderful asset since MSB lives up to that old addage, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Of course, I’d have his heart anyway, but it helps that I can cook.

Last, and most vital, it means that God has blessed us with plenty. What I don’t have here at the house, I have the means to get. There have been times when the threat of poverty was just a breath away and the grace of God saved us.  I’m most thankful for His love.

Although I have no experience with “dieting” because I’ve spent most of my life either slender or underweight, I’m going to diet next year and get rid of this extra bulk (there it is: My New Year’s Resolution for 2010). But for this year, I’m thankful to have it because of everything it signifies.