This post brought to you by the number 10 and the letter C.

Okay, I got C for the grattitude thing. Let's see...

1. Costumes. I'm such a dork, but I LOVE Halloween. I also love dress-up and watching my kids play. Add to all that the fact that my brother has a pretty cool costume collection which has made him a favorite among my kids.

2. Children. I'm very grateful for my 3 (and hoping for another). And while we had some issues with creating/having them, I realize our path was not nearly as frightening as it could have been.

3. Challah (the bread we eat on Shabbat). That stuff is GOOD. I also love that I can make it with my kids. They just love braiding the dough to make it themselves. And FTR, the apple challah our shul has for Rosh Hashanah is FABULOUS.

4. Cats. I'm an animal person and always have been (note the picture of a 3-year-old me with my fuzzy sisters* *photo removed). If we weren't military, we'd have a dog too (traveling with dogs and caring for them by myself when dh deploys does not sound like fun), but for now, we just have the cats. Even though they can drive me nuts, I love 'em. And besides, sometimes, they provide me with fodder for the blog. You've gotta be thankful for that.

5. Calculators. The public school system crushed my ability to do math in my head once we moved on to pre-calc and all that stuff. So now I rely on calculators in order to do any math at all.

6. Camera. I adore taking pictures. Without my camera, I wouldn't have been able to document so much of dh and my life together as well as the lives of our kids. Very few pictures exist from my childhood, so I'm particularly thankful for all the pictures I've been able to take of my kids.

7. Candles. Whether it be shabbat, Chanukah or a yarzeit, I'm so very thankful to be able to sanctify the day with candles. I light the candles and say the blessings with my kids just like so many other Jews around the world have done for centuries. There's nothing like sharing that connection.

8. Cousins. Family is hugely important to me. I'm so very thankful that I'm close to my cousins. I'm also very VERY thankful that my children have a chance to know their cousins and to form friendships with them.

9. Cloth diapers. They've saved us a ton of money they help save the environment and they're cute as hell.

10. Coffee. I have three children, insomnia, and until recently, a deployed husband. Coffee is my friend.