Remember to be thankful for truly important items, like strawberry jelly

Every year, people all across the U.S. take time to reflect on the things they are thankful for in their lives, usually focusing on subjects such as family, health and their friends.

While those are all fine choices, our lives are filled with other items that are too often ignored in the Holiday Season, even though they also bring great joy and satisfaction.

So this year I am going to be thankful for these items on Thanksgiving, and I hope that you also are able to ponder these truly significant items that make us happy and grateful every day.

I am thankful for:

• Times when I am the only person at home. Family and friends are great, but being home alone sometimes is sweet, too.
• When the toothpaste tube is at least half full.
• When the dog doesn’t pee on the floor.
• Times when I am away from home and don’t have to worry about getting up to let the dog out in the morning or to clean up dog pee if we slept too late.
• Comfortable pens that write smoothly.
• Strawberry jelly.
• Strawberry jelly that comes out of the squeeze container smoothly.
• Socks that don’t slide down my leg.
• When I run out of strawberry jelly, but there is another container of it on the shelf. This can apply to anything that you run out of; it’s a good feeling when there is more of it in the house.
• Those rare times when I use a semicolon.
• Towels. How did anyone ever live before towels?
• A towel that feels extra soft either because it is new or because of some different detergent or fabric softener we used at home.
• Being an adult so that I don’t have to worry about brothers and friends snapping towels at me.
• The ability to stream television shows without commercials.
• The fact that I am often entertained by the memories of television commercials from my childhood. “Hi Loves, Carlo Summers here,” was one popular commercial in Northwest Ohio that still runs through my head and makes me smile. “Hello, you, we require jumbo savings, oh, boy,” went another; I believe it was for Highland Appliance. I think of that one often.
• Hey, another semicolon!
• The fact that I don’t need to know my state capitals at my job.
• When the children replace the toilet paper rolls.
• When I can find my car keys in a hurry.
• The fact that you can pay for gas at the pump. It was never seemed like a pain to pump your gas and then go in to pay a few decades ago, but it really is quick and easy now.
• When I can remember which side of the car my gas tank is on when I pull into the gas station. I forget this more times than I’d like to admit.
• Jim Gaffigan.
• Music on my computer or phone.
• When my phone is fully charged.
• When I turn on my computer and it doesn’t need to update so it starts up quickly.
• Two computer screens at work. I don’t know how I lived without two screens before.
• A good stapler. Bad staplers are very frustrating, but having a good stapler can make all of the difference in the world.
• An easy to use hole puncher is also great, and fairly entertaining.
• When all of the tiny circles of paper created by hole punchers don’t make a huge mess on the floor.
• The fact that I have not caught my fingers in a three-ring binder in a few years now.
• Being able to go to the grocery store with older children who do not consistently accidentally run the cart into the back of my ankles. That used to hurt with young children, and I am thankful it does not happen to me anymore.
• My soccer cleats. They are bright and ugly, but they are comfortable and I love using them for soccer and softball, even if the umpires do make fun of me.
• Not scoring any goals against my own team at soccer this season.
• Chex Mix.
• A hot shower.
• A good game on television when I am going to bed.
• The fact that the Los Angeles Lakers have been bad for a few years now.
• Marvel Comics movies.
• The smell of vanilla.
• Calvin and Hobbes.
• Cleaning the house and listening to music loudly when no one else is home.
• When the cat comes inside when call her.
• When the cat doesn’t shed as much in the winter.
• David Lee Roth songs from the 1980s.
• The Zac Brown Band.
• The smell of a basketball.
• Haircuts.
• Not having any paper cuts in quite a while now.
• Those rare occasions when the cat deems me worthy of sitting on.
• When the cat doesn’t throw up in the house or leave too much hair everywhere.
• Why did I want the cat to come in before? Maybe I am more thankful for when the cat goes outside for a while.
• The Airplane and Naked Gun movies.
• The fact that I don’t need to know calculus or physics in my work.
• Ranch dressing.
• A can opener that works well.
• Billy Joel.
• A Billy Joel themed can opener. (I am not sure if they exist, but they would be sweet
• Chocolate chip cookie dough.
• Billy Joel themed chocolate chip cookie dough. They could call it “Just the Way You Are Cookie Dough,” or “It’s Still Cookie Dough To Me,”
• When my shoes are put away neatly at the end of the day.
• The idea that I can think up so many things like this that I am thankful for while listening to music on my charged up phone and eating chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream and pushing away the cat who now suddenly wants to be my friend. Life is good.

What important items like this are you thankful for this year? Feel free to comment below. Thanks.