thankful Thursday: technology

Today, I'm introducing a new series on my blog: thankful Thursday.

a nice shot of him smiling and talking about airplanes in his classroom just before heading into the flight simulator, and me crying (#typical #engagedlife)

Last Thursday, I was feeling exhausted from the work week, discouraged because it wasn't over yet, overwhelmed with so much to do and so little time, and sad because I was missing my fiance. I started to realize that I feel this way often on Thursdays. In just two days, I was going to have a Saturday completely open. I would have plenty of time to tackle several items on my to do list and even time to rest, and all I had to do was look beyond the one more day of work that week.

I decided to change my attitude and choose to be thankful. I have a hundred reasons to be grateful, and I challenged myself to pick one each week for thankful Thursday. Not an hour later, I was talking with Zack on the phone, and he told me he had decided that instead of being sad because he missed me, he was thankful to have someone in his life to miss.

Technology is the first thing I thought of to be thankful for. Even though we are living two states apart, I get to "see" Zack on FaceTime almost every day. We can text and email and call each other on our phones most days; I especially enjoy talking on the phone with Bluetooth now that I have my new car. Even when Zack is out of the country, he can get WiFi at his hotel, so he can iMessage, email, and FaceTime me. We can't talk while we're working, of course, but I follow Zack's planes in the Flight Aware app. (I always say -- keeping track of your fiance: there's an app for that.) He even texted me from 40,000 feet the other day, and he frequently sends me pictures and videos of the view from up there. 

All of these things make the distance easier, but they don't perfectly substitute for real face to face conversation. Having limited time together has made me appreciate that time more. And I will be SO thankful when we finally get to live not only in the same city again but under the same roof this time.