This Thanksgiving.

This Thanksgiving we all have so much to be grateful for. Our children, our husbands, our family and our friends, all make our lives worth living. Being a member of the Happy Housewives Club, doesn’t mean you are always happy, but it means you want to try. Everyday we are trying to manage our homes, keep our children healthy, strengthen our marriages, and for most of us it begins with our faith in GOD. Having the spirit inside of you gives you the strength to get through the hard moments. So many of us moan about the housework, and whine about the monotony of motherhood, but at the end of the day its the smallest pleasures that bring us joy. Your son made the basketball team. Your daughter won her swim match. Your baby took her first step. Your husband still looks at you with that lust in his eye. It’s the hugs and kisses at the end of the day that ground you.

But its not this way for everyone. Right in our own club we have women who didn’t have the sweetest childhood. We have members who haven’t had the nicest husbands. Some have gone through hardships but we pull through.

With this recession, many of our families are going without. The unemployment rate rises and our jobs continue to be sent overseas or given to illegal immigrants. How can we stay home if our husbands can’t find jobs. The newest numbers show women make up more than 50% of the workforce now. A sign that more women choose to work or a sign that these women are forced into low paying jobs so they can try to keep their family fed because Daddy lost his job. And at this very moment the wives of our E4 Troops wonder how they can put a turkey dinner on their table on their husband’s salary.

I think we have our priorities all wrong in this country. Every active troop should be sent a free turkey. They should pay no federal taxes, and no deployed troop should worry about his family being homeless. That’s right, our National Guardsman who have been called to duty are losing their homes. They lost their civilian salaries, and since they don’t live in base housing, their families are being pushed out of their homes. This is sickening. Our troops don’t have what they need in combat because we don’t send it to them. The latest statistics show that 1/4, or 25% of Americans are in poverty. Yet so many have so much. The bling of Hollywood and their designer bags along with the bankers and their stimulus funded bonuses should make us hang our heads in shame.

Today I went to my grocery store and filled my buggy full of milk, bread and butter for the food pantry in my town. When I got there the cupboards were nearly empty. The woman said they have more families in need this year than ever before. And these are not the homeless. They are working families in need or families who recently hit hard luck with a job loss.

Look around. People you think are living fine may not be. I know a woman who drives an expensive truck but her home is in foreclosure and she is selling her jewelry. Her husband lost everything in the real estate bubble. Last night on the Housewives of Ocean County on Bravo, the women are losing their homes. They have the big diamonds and plastic surgery but are crying that they can’t pay their mortgage. Living over their heads they got caught up in nonsense that is meaningless. Money is causing one of their marriages to fall apart. How sad is that. Watching that show makes me feel better about myself

So at this Thanksgiving, if you can put a turkey on your table and your man has a job that keeps you in your home, thank GOD!

I think over the past year we have all learned that its not the bag you carry or the car you drive that matters. It’s the love and closeness of your family and friends and the small gifts that give you the greatest joy.

GOD Bless you all and have a Happy Thanksgiving!