Ode to Bisquick and Other Thanks
By Tiffany Lewis

Amid the hustle and bustle and bursting waistlines last Thursday, we failed to honor a long-standing Thanksgiving tradition of going around the table and saying what we’re thankful for.  My grateful list is ever-evolving and a mile long.  So here it is, a young mother’s list of thanks:

• “Kissing it all better” – Whoever thought of this ouchie-soothing technique deserves the Nobel Peace-in-my-house Prize.

• Bisquick – Surprised it made No. 2?  Well, it took me four years of marriage to discover it, and now I can’t live without it.  In one week I used Bisquick to make chicken pot pie, pizza, chicken fingers, and pancakes.  There’s nothing this mix can’t do.  This year we’re thinking of using it to flock our Christmas tree.

• Disposable diapers – worth every cent and every square inch in the landfill.

• Stain stick, air freshener (for Chernobyl diapers), and double heavy-duty carpet cleaner.

• Caldecott Medal-winning books – You can’t appreciate them until you’ve read some real children’s doozies, like What Made the Snowman Smile, over and over and over and over again.

• And on the subject of books, all the good, uplifting books I’ve read this year, Dr. Seuss excluded, that have allowed me to stretch my mind and return to my own life with fresh outlook.

• Book of Mormon stories – Both the song, which includes a lot of fist pounding, and the actual stories, which include a lot of Lamanite-pounding.  Nothing piques a child’s interest more than a heavily muscled missionary chopping off a few arms.  We’re hoping our children’s love for the scriptures will morph into something less carnal, but for now we’re just grateful they’ll listen.

• Naps! – A mother’s saving grace.

• Fruit snacks – guaranteed to get your child to follow you out of the most tempting toy aisle.

• All of life’s modern household appliances – dishwashers, washing machines, microwaves, toasters, and pacifiers.

• Double jogging strollers, snap-in car seats, washable bibs, onesies, bouncy seats, board books, disposable wipes, Desitin, sippy cups, Play-Doh (as long as I’m not scraping it out of the carpet), and jumbo-size boxes of Goldfish crackers.

• And on the subject of food, bananas (we average about 20 a week) and Cheerios, too.

• Cheap long-distance calling cards, which allow me to call my mom daily with questions about tantrums, biting, sleeping issues, and whether that large gash on my son’s forehead qualifies for stitches.

• Real-metal Tonka trucks – inspired by and for young boys everywhere.

• A yard with grass, a fence, and flowers – I don’t have one, but someday I will.  This is preemptive gratitude.

• Really great parks with shady trees, a generous sandbox full of toys, long-chained swings, squirrels, and minimum plastic playscape.

• That magical 18-month-old moment when your child goes to nursery … or at least that magical moment when your child lets you leave nursery without going into hysterics.

• Itsy spiders, wheeled buses, twinkling stars, and all the other children’s songs ever written – which have saved me in many shopping lines and traffic jams.  For those songs unwritten, I thank my parents for giving me the creativity to come up with my own tunes about string cheese, castles, jeeps, cement trucks, and candy.  (Sample verse: “Candy, candy, it tastes really dandy, but it’ll rot your teeth – blech!”)

• Hardy houseplants (and husbands) that can withstand severe bouts of neglect.

• And, of course, I thank the Lord for blessing me with two wonderful boys who keep my life crazy, messy, loud and full of laughter.

I’m also grateful I didn’t share this list on Thanksgiving.  We’d still be eating our way through the turkey.