Easily Excitable

I don’t know what your prayers look like. Personally? I sometimes feel like mine are similar to a fever dream. 

A holy one where I do communicate with God, for sure, but at times, a fever dream nonetheless. 

Which, I mean, really, if you think about it, chatting with the Creator of the universe is, in and of itself, a little whacky from the get-go. 

In part, the scatteredness of my prayers is flavored by my personality. Also related, most likely, is the time we’re waking up during the week. Prayer at 4:30-5:00am with no coffee can go a little wonky.  

And as a result, my thank yous to God- a part of those prayers- are a little all over the place. 

For example…

I might thank Him for both Trey and the fact that I’m wearing comfortable socks in the same stream of consciousness.

I might extol thanks for my family and green grass at the same time. 

I may praise the Lord for a job and the ability to sit outside in pretty weather in the same breath. 

Prayer looks different for all of us, and I’m just glad y’all can’t see mine because you might just put me away if you could. 

All that said, this post is similar to that vein of thinking: 

It’s a little all over the place. 

But here’s the common thread: when it comes to thankfulness, I’m of the mindset we need to be thankful for all the things: the big, the middle, and the little. 

That’s the focus for Week 2, here in November. I decided, this month, I’d focus my writing on truly giving thanks.

Here’s what I’m thankful for: those things that are big, little, andddd the somewhere in between.

The Big

The big-ticket items for which I give thanks

This week’s been about the girls

Over the summer, to get Bea Dell to go back into the ocean after being tossed about by the waves, I told her we could go out there and have ‘girl time.’ 

This girl time consisted of her floating on a boogie board and simultaneously ordering me around while I tried to keep from drowning AND keep her from floating out to sea.

She also filled me in on her nails.

If you know me, you know that I had to reach pretty far into myself to talk shop about painting nails. 

I say all that to say this: we need little girls to know and fall in love with girl time. 

It’s one of my favorite things, and this week had plenty of it!  

Tuesday- Women’s Ministry Friendsgiving 

Thursday- PowderPuff tournament. 

(Let the record state: the teenagers were having a girls’ night.  We adult Student Council enforcers were co-ed in our concession stand.)

Saturday- Paint party with the girls

Teenage girls playing football that can quickly turn into a full-on Powder Keg? 

A raucous time with friends, both in and outside of the church? 

What a week!

Heaps and Heaps of Family Time

Two weekends ago, the Mullis/ Meadows/ Churchwell crew got together to celebrate my cousin Nick and his new wife, Sloan. 

We did this the best way we know how, and that was with a pumpkin carving get-together out at Gran’s. There were scads of oysters, plenty of low country boil, lots of cuttin’ the fool, and even a puzzle-putting-together contest (of Gran’s creation). 

We had a ball.

It was at this get-together that the Meadows and Kotara crews invited themselves (ourselves??) to Thomson to see Walker, Hanna, and the kiddos. We helped them go trick-or-treating (‘helped’ is a generous term- we created more chaos) and got to stay up late talking to Hanna and a comatose Walker. 

Loaded down on a golf cart with kiddos in our laps made for the best Halloween I’ve had in a while. 

Family weekends twice in a row are something to be grateful for. 

Middle 

The kind of ‘in-between’ blessings: not necessarily big, per say, but they’re not little things, either

The Weather 

Look, we did have a rainy few days a couple of weeks ago. But beyond that? This may well be the prettiest fall I’ve ever seen. I’ve been soaking up the weather with copious amounts of sitting outside. 

I don’t know what the weather in heaven will be, but I sure hope it’s like this glorious fall of 2025. 

It almost makes you forget the hellish summers we have here in Middle Georgia. 

Almost. 

Trey’s cooking on the Blackstone

Long story short, Momma won a Blackstone in a raffle, but they already have one. Therefore, the Kotaras now have a Blackstone. 

Over fall break, Trey got it all put together, and since then, he’s committed himself to becoming a top tier Blackstone chef. He cooks a ton of food on Sundays, and that lasts us well into the week. 

We’ve been wearing Harris Grocery out. 

This past week? He cooked so much, I didn’t have to cook at all. 

It was glorious. 

The most idyllic Saturday 

I told y’all about going up to Thomson last week and all the fun we had on Friday. 

Now, let me tell you about last Saturday when we woke up in Thomson. 

That morning, Trey and I set alarms and were out on the road running by 6:45.

It was approximately 37 degrees- just slightly chilly. 

I decided I wanted to make the plot a little more interesting: my choice of dress for that cool morning was a tank top and shorts. 

Glutton for punishment, thy name is Emmie. 

I mean, really, it was Trey’s fault: he’s always asserted that running without layers is best for cold weather. 

About a mile and a half in, I would have thumped him, had I been able to feel my fingers, other than intense prickles. 

Andddd had I been able to catch up with him. 

We went to little coffee shop in downtown Thomson, then entered into a more *pleasantly* painful part of the morning:

We got back to Walker and Hanna’s and first did a 16 minute sauna at approximately 190 degrees. Properly cooked, I then did my first attempt in a cold plunge at 47 degrees. 

It was agonizing and I made it 30 seconds or so. Trey made it longer, and that’s all I’ll say because I’m competitive and he’s always finding ways to beat me at things. 

All of this was done by 9:20. We showered up and then headed out to golf at 10:00. 

It was a beautiful day of nonstop family time. We wrapped up at 12:30ish, and Trey and I made the trek back home. 

We then did our normal: watched football, cooked, and enjoyed beautiful weather. 

What a day! 

Little 

The small, but highly important, things I’m thankful for. Superfluous, but special all the same.

Hey Dudes

Up until three years ago, I had to wear orthopedic shoes because being a teacher means being on the feet all day. 

And this school floor? Ain’t got a lick of give in it! 

But a few years ago, I was introduced to Hey Dudes. I can attest that, for a teacher, these are the best shoes you could wear if your feet typically bother you. 

Personally, I come from a family of weak ankles, so good shoes are a must. 

The white leather (pleather) sneakers have been *chefs kiss* bellissimo! 

Mini Coke Zeroes 

Look, I know they aren’t healthy. I get that. But I bought the flat from one of my FFA kids, so my philanthropy does balance it out, right? 

RIGHT?!

Again, it’s not my best habit, but here is one of my third/ fourth tier core values: there is something about an afternoon Coke Zero that’s hard to beat. 

That’s all I have to say about that. 

A JBL Clip Speaker 

Again, this is a minute thing that honestly just adds a little panache- a little fun spice- to my days. Trey got me this speaker so I could use it when I’m running. 

While I’ve not done much of that (I still favor headphones), I’ve gotten much use out of it in my classroom. 

Many days, I’ve had tunes playing in my classroom because, no matter the day, music is always a mood booster. 

And since we still have a bit to go to Thanksgiving? We need that mood boosting. 

Congealed Salad Discussions with my Gen Z kiddos

This might have been my favorite thing that happened this past week. 

One of our vocab words was ‘congealed.’ We do vocab activities throughout the week, and on Thursday, we kicked off with an activity. 

The bellringer was such: 

“What do you think is in congealed salad? If you had to eat a congealed salad, what would you want in it?” 

Y’all…this did not disappoint. 

I assumed they didn’t know what it was because these kiddos were born in 2011ish (which is a whole ‘nother situation that makes me *personally* feel like a dinosaur). 

See, folks my age- millennials- were probably the last crew to suffer a congealed salad. 

So, these kids’ answers? 

To this question?? 

To what they think is in a congealed salad OR what they would like in a congealed salad? 

Their best answers were as follows: 

• Chicken
• Zaxby’s 
• Chicken alfredo
• Green beans
• Hot dogs
• Yum-yum sauce
• French fries
• Ranch
• Olives
• Beef jerky

I then showed them pictures of what congealed salad actually looks like. They found it revolting. 

It was my favorite part of my school week. 

Big, Middle, Little: this was a Bit of a Hodgepodge. 

But that’s what top-to-bottom thankfulness is, in my opinion. 

Praise God from whom all blessings (even congealed salad) flows.