Thanksgiving - The Small Things Matter

Most years, my Thanksgiving week post is about a teacher I had who was formative in my life as an educator.  One of the things I've noticed this year is that I have been more focused on gratitude for the smaller things.  Noticing what we can be thankful for every day has taken precedence during this time.  The thing I am thankful for in this post is this set of supply cabinets.

At least a few times a year, I open this cabinet and look at the blessings I have.  

If you are not a teacher, you may not know what a rare thing it is to have a fully stocked supply cabinet in your teacher work room.  If you are a public school teacher, you are likely jealous of what you see in this picture.  When I need post-it notes, I come to grab a pack.  When I need whiteboard markers, I come grab a red and a black one out of these bins.  (When I need a whiteboard eraser, I order some from Amazon because I am really picky about my erasers and don't want to ask the school to order special ones for me.)  Staples, tape, paperclips.  Here they are.  When I worked in public school, I counted the number of sheets of paper I used every month, but here I have this amazing cabinet.

If you want to be further jealous of what I have at GRACE, note what you see in this photo.

If, by chance, there is something we do not have in the magical supply cabinet (usually less consumable things like staplers), we can write it on this whiteboard, and our office will order it for us.  

One of my favorite silly memories comes from this board.  I don't know if it will translate in writing, but here goes.  Someone had written "small binder clips" on the board.  At that time we had a Jim Halpert-esque faculty member.  He wrote, "even smaller binder clips."  Wanting to keep up with him, I wrote, "even smaller binder clips than that."  A week later, the cabinet was full of three different sizes of tiny binder clips, and I would imagine we haven't had to buy any more since then.

As you look around this year and think of those things for which you are thankful, go past the obvious and think of the small things in your daily life, those things that just make life easier.  Be thankful for those as I am this cabinet.