Today I am grateful for::

the fourth member of our household, the radiator that brings us warmth. Our house is 100 years old and if you've never lived in an old house with these old fashioned radiators, you have no idea what I'm talking about when I say "member of our household". When the radiator heats up it sounds like someone is taking a baseball bat to the radiator, it clanks, bubbles, hisses and steams. You kind of get used to it and now we hardly notice it, but it was quite alarming at first. Now, I am grateful that it makes our home so warm. Steam heat warms up the house fast and I think I like it better than forced air heat (like most of you westerners are probably used to). The low tonight is 27 and the high tomorrow is 39 and windy. It feels really cold. As I was rocking Kate to sleep tonight and listening to the heater bubble I felt really grateful to be warm and at home. I can't imagine what it would be like to not have a warm place to sleep at night. Definitely something to be grateful for.

Paul also wanted me to add that we are grateful to be able to afford heating oil. And extra grateful that we didn't lock in our rate this summer at $6 a gallon while people were speculating it would go up to $10 a gallon this winter. It's now $2.75. Our economy is crazy.