Lord of the Rings

Today I am thankful for . . .

399.  The gift of A Clean Car Inside and Out.  Due to all the rain we've had the last couple of weeks, our roads have been a mess, and as a result, so was my car.  The inside of the car hadn't been cleaned since the fall, so yes, it was definitely time for a cleaning inside too.

400.  The gift of Getting Some Yard Work Done.  The boys mowed about 10 acres of grass today; I raked leaves, cleaned out the dog kennel and did a bit of work with some flowerbeds.  It's going to take a lot of my time and energy to keep this yard up to my expectations this year, but I've got to remember that before I can go full-speed-ahead with the yard, the boys and I need to finish their school year off first.

401.  The gift of Watching The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring with the boys.  We started it last night and finished it up this evening.  I've only seen the movie one other time, and didn't really "get it".  Thankfully this time I "got it".  I think it helped that we read The Hobbit a few months ago as a family.  The boys really enjoyed the movie.  The only problems we have is keeping everyone's name straight.  We still haven't concluded what one of the characters' names was - but he died near the end, so I guess I won't lose any sleep over it.  And I was waiting for the character Eowyn to appear the entire movie, but she never showed up.  One of my nieces has the middle name Eowyn, so that's why I'm interested in knowing who she is in the movie.  Watching the movie also solidified for me why there is such hoopla over it--it was very enjoyable.  And the parallels to the Christian faith were made evident to me over and over again as I watched the development of the characters and followed the storyline.