An Easterbaby Thanksgiving

Happy 2 days after Thanksgiving Blog Readers! I hope that you had a great turkey day and did not overdue it. Of course, I hope as you were chowing down with family and/or friends, you took a moment to reflect on the many things you had to be grateful for. But keep in mind, true thanksgiving should occur more than once per year. At least I am certain that you are blessed more than once per year. Case and point, if you are able to read this blog, it means you can see and read, so there, you have 2 things to be thankful for and it's not Thanksgiving.

For me, I try to always give thanks for my more obvious blessings. But from time to time, I like to reflect on the things that some folks may take for granted. When I first started to blog, you may remember, I gave you a list of things I was thankful for such as caffeine and cellphone alarm clocks. Well, I wrote that blog in November 2005 and since then, I have quite a few more very key things that I am truly grateful for. Perhaps this list may seem odd but you may just see a few things that you can relate to and understand where I am coming from:

8 - TV LAND. Yes I am thankful to the television powers that be for TV LAND. I mean with regular television being garbage, I look forward to be able to turn to TV LAND for some good quality tv. Now some of yall may just think I'm getting old (which may or may not be true) but how can you not love classic tv? There aren't any shows on now that are quite as entertaining as Good Times, Sanford and Son, or Andy Griffith. And now they are showing I Love Lucy! (Vita-meat-a-vegamin). And I don't stop at the comedies, oh noooooo. I have a new found interest in stuff like Bonanza and Gunsmoke. Just last Sunday, I was late for Sunday School trying to see how Marshall Dillon was going to get out of his predicatment. It was serious!!!

7 - Mini cans of spray. Have you seen these? You know when you are in the checkout line at Wal-Mart, and they have all these items right there along with the candy and the tabloid magazines...there amongst the mini packs of tissue and the lint brushes are little cans of spray. Oust was my spray of choice but now they have little Lysols. So why is this a good thing? Well, have you ever been in a public restroom that smelled good? I didn't think so. Well now you can freshen it up. And sometimes, if you are the offender and not the offendee, you can freshen up behind yourself and avoid the funny looks. You feel me? Oh don't act like you have never offended anybody in the public restroom...

6 - The Suze Orman Show. Now I may have misled you by giving the impression only good tv comes on TV LAND. But I will say that on CNBC, I have found a new friend in Suze Orman. Talk about good money matter advice. She tells it to you straight and makes lots of sense. Now don't get me wrong, I don't have all this money lying around that I need to manage but if I ever have any, I won't squander it, thanks to Suze. I like the part of the show where she tells people what they can and cannot afford to buy based on their income, expenses, etc. Now what I learn from this segment is, (1) People are willing to spend money on some ridculous things they can't afford, and (2) No savings, credit card debt, and car leasing are three things that Suze hates. You will be DENIED!

5 - Amazon.com. Yes I have learned to love this website. At the click of a button, I can make a purchase with no checkout lines, no hassles, and no pesky sales clerks. Oh sure, Amazon has been around a long time. But sometimes it takes a minute for one to actually appreciate something. I was little skeptical about the whole online shopping idea. But being who I am, low on patience and time, I have seen the beauty of this phenomenon. Now it hasn't replaced my beloved Wal-Mart yet...there is still the thrill of seeing if I can go in Wal-Mart with a shopping list and only come out with what I had wrote down. Hasn't worked yet but the future is bright. Anyway, thank you Amazon for an alternative.

4 - MP3 players. Do you have one? You may have an IPOD but hey MP3s work the same and cost less. I love this little thing. If you are still carrying around a portable CD player or worst yet a portable cassette player, I invite you to join the age of convenience. I can download like 3 billion songs of my choosing and listen to them from a device no bigger than a business card. On the plane, it's great. At the gym, love it! (yes I go to the gym!) Waiting anywhere, keeps me occupied. It's so small and inconspicuous. If you don't have one, tell someone that is what you must have for Christmas...they are getting cheaper.

3 - Fantasy Football. Some of yall who know me very well know 2 things about me (1) I love football and (2) my dream job would be owning a football team. Yeah owning, meaning I'd be very rich or at least married rich. Well, since I am not rich and haven't married rich (yet!), I don't think I'll be owning a team anytime soon. However, I don't know who this person is but I am so thankful for the creator of Fantasy Football. Why? Cause it is the closest I can get to owning a team as a financially challenged individual. Right now, I have 3 teams in 3 leagues in which my teams are all named...guess? THE EASTERBABY EXPRESS aka "The Train Bringin' the Pain!" Cute, right? Now, my most favorite league is the one I started called the Ladies Fantasy Football League (LFFL). Yes there are women who love football and know more about the game than just who looks the best in the tights. And I have them in my league. Twelve teams managed by some of the best female minds in football. But this league isn't for sissies cause we (mostly me) talk alot of trash. But it's all in fun and makes life a lot more interesting when you spend most of your time in the books.

2 - The GARMIN c340. Now you are asking yourself, what is she talking about? I am talking about a GPS device. I bought one of these things a few months ago and it is the coolest thing since well, Fantasy Football. My dad has one (Nellie Sr.) and I was so captivated by it, I had to have one too (Nellie Jr.). Now Nellie is a she and what she does is, tells you how to get to wherever you need to go turn by turn. GOODBYE MAPQUEST! You have been dethroned! However, as much as I love this thing, there are two things about Nellie Jr. I wish could fix...(1) like most females, she gets an attitude if you don't do what she tells you..."Re-cal-cu-lating!" and (2) she doesn't necessarily know the difference between a good area of the city and an area with some challenges. If it is the quickest route, that is the way you are going.

And what is an Easterbaby Thanksgiving without giving a shout out to the ONE who can give priceless gifts like no one else can...

1 - Divine Sense. What is Divine Sense? Glad you asked. In my 2005 November blog I mentioned that I was thankful for "common sense". However, I have come to learn that common sense is just that - common. Meaning it is common to everyone or it should be. How do you get common sense? Well I think you learn it from your environment. If you are around people who do stuff that seems exceptable, you think, "hmmmmm, that's the norm, so I'll go with it." But let's be honest, today's "norm" is not necessarily a good thing, right?. Anyway, how many times have you seen somebody do something strange and you said, "he or she just doesn't have common sense". No doubt, they have learned this pattern of behavior from other strange folks they've been around (except maybe you...cause if you have made that statement about someone then obviously you feel like you have common sense). Okay, so what about Divine Sense? Oh see that's different. You can only get that from the Good Lord. And it is better than common sense because it is God's way of giving you a small portion of His divine insight. And now if I had a choice of having common sense from strange folks like me or divine sense from the Almighty...I think the choice is clear. So what's the difference? Well here's an example:

Common sense says if you are a smoker, don't offend the non-smokers around you with your second hand smoke, go outside and puff away. Divine sense says,

1 Cor. 3:16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?

1 Cor. 6:19 - 20 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Now calm down all you smokers...this does not just apply to smoking, there are many things we all do that seem like common sense but truly takes divine sense to overcome because it is bad for us. Think back to what you ate this past Thursday...you see what I mean?

Or how about this example...Common sense says if you have kids, as a parent you should feed them, clothe them, and make sure their needs are met. Divine sense says,

Proverbs 22:6, 15 Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Proverbs 19:18 Discipline your son, for in that there is hope; do not be a willing party to his death.

Don't get me wrong, common sense is okay for a while but King Solomon said it best:

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

Divine Sense can be summed up by this scripture. I got this also from King Solomon cause he was real smart and had been blessed with Divine Sense:

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Be blessed Blog Readers and don't forget, "Everyday is a day of Thanksgiving!"

*This blog is dedicated to the Ladies of the LFFL! Thanks for putting up with all the verbal abuse and hanging with me these past 3 years.

While I have my own personal and degrading nicknames for all the teams, here is a BIG SHOUT OUT to the LFFL teams: April Showers, The Bec-taculars, Blu Bombers, Bumble Bruisers, Cashville Hitters, Huckabucks, Intrepid Synergism, Purple Reign, Road Warriors, 'SkinSquad, SS MOS (Super Sexy Mother Of Seven)

(Members emeritus: Desperado Divas, Donnica's Champs, and The Get Yo Money Playas)