Thankful for Teeth

At last! Time to sit back and blog, leisurely. What a wonderful thing Friday night is, with quiet time to spend with family playing Rummikub and Boggle, laughing around the kitchen table and catching up on the week, or listening to Ray Boltz sing "I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb" while blogging one's random thoughts.

I just finished a really great book called "It's Always Darkest Before the Fridge Door Opens" by Martha Bolton and Phil Callaway. I first saw this book at the Family Christian Bookstore on the discount rack several months ago, didn't buy it the first time, went back a couple weeks later to buy it and all the copies were gone. I was quite disappointed, but when I was in FCB on Sunday, browsing through their discounted books again, I found it! I was so happy even though there was only one copy and it was bent on the back. I'm gonna give it to my mom for her birthday (hopefully she doesn't read this post!) but decided to read it first because I needed a good laugh. It is definitely worth it! I love how they take everyday annoyances and turn them into humorous occurrences.

By the way, here's a frugal tip. FCB has one of those "preferred customer" punch cards where each time you make a purchase, your card is punched and after 10 punches you get a 25% off gift certificate that you can use for any of the items, even sale items. My strategy is to make small purchases, a book here, a card there, to get my 10 card punches. I try to be sure that I buy something on sale and use the monthly coupon that FCB mails me because I signed up for them. Then, once I get my gift certificate, I go in when I know I have a good hour or two to browse and head straight for the discount rack where I look carefully at every single book and decide which ones I would like to buy. The books usually range from $2.97 to $5.97 at the discounted price (normally, they range from $9.99 to $19.99). Once I have my selection, I apply the 25% off to get a double discount. The last time I was in, I spent $25 on books that would have cost me about $75 if I'd bought them at full price. Most of the books I'm giving as gifts, but I did find several I'm keeping for myself! I absolutely love bargains!!!

Tonight, as I stood flossing my teeth in front of the mirror, I began to feel rather annoyed that I had to spend so much time on my teeth. I did not start flossing regularly till I was in my late 20s, and only then because I realized I wouldn't have my original teeth for many more years if I didn't do so very soon! I grew up on sweets and still have an extremely sweet tooth, make that teeth! My least favourite activity used to be brushing my teeth and I would skip it if I could (I know, awful, isn't it?). And then when I read in Reader's Digest that you need to spend about 10 minutes on your teeth every day to have healthy teeth, well that just about did me in!

So as I made faces at myself while I flossed away with the mile-long strand of Johnson's mint waxed floss, I decided to take the book I'd been reading to heart and tried to think of what I was grateful for. Immediately, I thought, "I'm thankful for my teeth. I'm thankful that I have enough money to afford dental insurance. And I'm thankful that I have a nice dental hygienist and dentist that I feel comfortable with." I'm also thankful that I have an electric toothbrush that makes it easier to keep my teeth clean, I'm thankful that I can afford to buy enough floss that I can use enough to stretch from here to the moon each time I floss, and I'm thankful that brushing and flossing has now become a habit and isn't the painful chore it used to be.

I know, it's kind of funny to spend a whole post on brushing one's teeth, but think of all the people out there who don't have teeth. Or if they do, they have all kinds of problems that they can't afford to fix. Maybe they have a toothache and no money to see a dentist, or they need crowns or braces or dentures. I have a huge overbite and the only way to correct it is to do jaw surgery, but I don't have any desire at all to do something that drastic (they say it even changes your profile, and I like my profile right now, thank you very much!), but I'm thankful that I have teeth to eat with.

So I'm thankful for teeth :) What are you thankful for today?