Be thankful and be great at what you do

Once again, I find myself sitting here with too much on my mind and realize it's time to tackle the old blog. I was awoke this morning by some pretty powerful sounding storms. It was about an hour before my alarm was set to go off. At first, I was irritated that I was awakened so abruptly by a STORM. Then, as I lay there listening and watching the streaks of lightening flash through the windows, all I could think about was losing power and not waking up in time to get ready for work. Ready for work?? How would I do that if we didn't have power?? Well, work would have power, so I could bring my stuff with me and get ready there. See how my mind works? I laid there for over 20 mins trying to figure out how I would get ready for work if we lost power. Just about that time, Andon crawled into my bed because he too was awoke by the storm. I snuggled him and fell back to sleep just in time to hear my alarm go off. I get ready for work, put the boys' lunches in their backpacks, talk to Tom and Lukas for a bit before I head out the door. The rain had let up significantly. On my drive in, I was thinking how nice it was to get the rain which will hopefully help rid the air of all the allergens we've been suffering from lately. I get to work, park in my usual spot and walk across the parking lot to the door. This is the SAME routine I do every single day that I go into work. What was different about today?? Well, right then, I found myself thinking how thankful I was that I was walking into work. Thankful because I have a job (that I actually don't mind going to). Thankful that I'm able to help provide for my family. Thankful that my job is flexible enough to allow me time to spend with my boys at their school functions. Thankful that I've met some pretty amazing people during my career and made some wonderful friends. I may not be a doctor, lawyer, teacher, firefighter or police officer. I may not make as much money as I'd like. I may not have wanted to "be" this when I was a child thinking of my ideal job. There may be days when I'm irritated with things at work. There may be times when I think I step outside the "box" of my responsiblity too much for what I get paid. But one thing keeps coming back into my mind that I was once told by a co-worker: "I don't care if they ask me to scrub the toilets here. It all pays me the same". Why does that stick out so much in my mind? I'm not sure. But one thing I take away from that thought is this: I'm thankful for the job I have and what it offers my family. And my goal is to be great at what I do while I'm getting paid to do it.