Today started as an ordinary day, only better. I part-walked/part-jogged two miles in a light spring rain; so pleasant. I’m amazed how much my strength and endurance have improved because of the 30 Day Shred (I’m currently at 43 days). I returned home to find this sweet post at my friend Holley’s blog. Everyone needs a friend and cheerleader like Holley. I sure do.

And then I clicked over to my blog and it was gone—GONE—replaced by a page of advertising.

Apparently I’d missed the invoice for my domain name renewal and it expired. My blog wasn’t gone—I still had hosting—but I believed that I’d lost my domain name (the address you type in the URL field to get here) and that someone else had purchased it.

In the next hour and a half I shed many tears; sent a panicked email to my host; and envisioned a slew of unpleasant scenarios resulting from the fact that after nearly six years of blogging, my blog had effectively disappeared.

But oh, my goodness, my kids were sweet!

Their hugs and sympathy touched my heart. My 10-year-old son told me he would find a video on YouTube to show him how to make me a new blog. My 12-year-old daughter made me a cup of hot tea and then emptied the dishwasher without being asked (almost as mind-boggling as the fact that I let my domain expire).

I paid the overdue invoice, took a shower, and left for a hair appointment, hoping my eyes weren’t too swollen and I could remember what I’d wanted to do with my hair in the first place.

I’m glad I paid the invoice, although it seemed too little too late at the time. My domain name expired, but wasn’t taken, so the payment renewed it. My husband told me that our 8-year-old daughter had called him at work to tell him to pray for me, and when he and our 10-year-old son spoke a few minutes later about baseball practice, he said, “Did you hear what happened to mom?”

When I told the dishwasher story, he observed, “Wow! You must have been pitiful!” and we shared a good laugh. I almost didn’t want to tell the kids that all was well because their concern for me was so precious.

All day I felt like celebrating, although my domain name is exactly the same as it was yesterday, and the day before that, and the week before that, and the month before that. It was my outlook that changed, my perspective.

I stopped to give thanks for what I already had.

Is there something you take for granted that you might stop and give thanks for today?

[Text link is affiliate link.]