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Our youngest has a role in this year’s high school musical. They are performing “Annie Get Your Gun” this spring.
Yesterday afternoon, I took him to a couple of local thrift stores to look for a pair of cowboy boots. We found a pair that fit on sale for $14. Yeehaw!
I am letting him borrow a western-styled flannel shirt to wear in the play.
“Do you have a shirt my friend Sandy can borrow?” he asks.
As I am sorting through a pile of flannel looking for a shirt for his friend, I am struck by the volume of my collection.
Sometimes we take for granted all that we have. The roof over our heads, our overstocked pantry and freezer. The ability to buy a new shirt whenever and just because and flannel!
Even though we ended up going the thrift store route for the cowboy boots, we have the means to buy our kids new boots for a play, a suit jacket for chorus, tools for vo-tech.
Not everyone is so lucky.
“If any other kids need flannel shirts, let me know,” I tell him.
“Ok, I’ll tell the play director to let everyone know,” he says.
When W comes home that night we laugh.
We can’t wait to hear what he told the director of the play.
“My butch mother has flannel shirts for everyone!”
So stereotypical but so true.
Flannel, it’s for butches. It’s for young thespians and gunslingers and lumberjacks. Everyone, really.
So, yeah, it’s good to be butch. It’s good to share. And it’s good to remember to be grateful for all that we have.
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What are you grateful for today?
The Flannel Files 
Love the positivity in this post!
Thanks for reading and commenting! I’ve never been known for my positivity, but hey, it’s a brand new year.
Let’s see… Having you as a friend. A time to live when being prescribed Testosterone is the norm. Or will be. Knowing my support group stretches far and wide. Firmly believing someday soon I will have the dough to pursue name change and top surgery. You as a friend…Testosterone…I’m on a pink cloud. Oh, and flannel, natch.
Aw, shucks. I am grateful for your friendship, too. Grateful for all my writing friends and supporters. And look at you. Brave new world in your future, or maybe just a brave new you. You are an inspiration, and for that I am grateful.
This post made me smile today, thank you! I’m glad to be able to have time to read blogs and be apart of such an amazing community!!
Thanks! Yes, it is a privilege to be a part of this wonderful community. Here’s to blogs and to broad, beautiful smiles that light up a room.
I’m grateful that I am literate and can read and have access to millions of books to read. So many cannot even read a STOP sign. Thanks for making me count my blessings. Peace.
Yes, reading is one thing many of us take for granted. I can’t imagine not being able. It’s such an important part of my life. Thanks for checking in, Kris.
The previous owner of my current house was a receiver of L.L. Bean catalogs. Strangely, I do not usually receive L.L. Bean catalogs even though I get catalogs from every other company in the world, including catalogs for dog owners (I have no pets) and plus size women (I’m about a 4). Go figure. Maybe they all know that my shopping addiction is so bad I might just buy a dog bowl if it’s cute enough. And then I’ll go get a dog to go with it.
In the L.L. Bean catalog they were featuring fleece-lined flannel shirts. I thought of you. It’s nice to see your posts from time to time so I know how you’re getting on. Grateful that every time I move I make new friends, but I also leave friends in another place and we can think about each other.
Oh, fleece-lined flannel. And L.L. Bean is the good stuff. Friends are friends, no matter where they might live. We miss you and are waiting for your book tour to pass through.
I love the gratefulness spin of this post! I am grateful that every week I seem to learn something new about the world, the people in my life, and myself. Its truly a blessing to be always growing, like your flannel collection!
We were talking about that today. Changing and growing from year to year and how we’re glad that we have the ability and elasticity to do so. It keeps things interesting, that’s for sure.
*high five* 🙂
Back at ya!
Oh, gratitude! I am soooo grateful every day. I make it a morning practice to stop and notice,…so much, everywhere. I am grateful that gratitude itself can often bring me to tears. And grateful to know someone like you who gets it too. Thanks for putting it out there.
That’s a very valuable practice. I forget to be grateful from time to time and always need reminders. Thanks for commenting!
I’m greatful for the lessons I learned this past year though tough and difficult is still good to know who my real friends are.
Tough one, but yes. Those hard lessons make us the people we are today.
I too am grateful for my collection of flannel shirts, as well as the rest of my abundant Butch clothing collection. I’m lucky to have all that I have and am able to do. I realize that not everyone is so fortunate. Great blog! ~MB
Thanks, MB. What is it about butches and their threads? I love my ties and my boots and my flannel. Probably so appreciative now because these were all things I couldn’t have growing up (unless it was a feminized version).
I am grateful for my pension and health benefits (even though I worked at NYCT for 33 years). I am grateful that Donna loves me. I am grateful that my dog Gracie sometimes listens to me.
Here’s to partners and pets, even the ones who almost never listen.
I have to ask…was “When W comes that night we laugh.” supposed to be “When W comes home that night…”?
Today I am grateful for friends who have patience with me and for an easy commute home from work.
Now I know why your name is “Reader.” Thanks for the catch.
I work from home so am always grateful for the short commute from upstairs to downstairs.
Looks like you touched a nerve here. This message of gratitude might just be the word of the year, as I’m seeing it everywhere. I shouldn’t need to be reminded–I have so much to be grateful for, and you and our writer’s group are definitely on the list. Oh and, sorry to out you, but you are a positive person.
Yes, looks like this one resonates with most people. Many of us have so much that we forget how lucky we are. Certainly grateful for all the Just Write writers and whoever put that group together in the first place. Me? Positive? Funny how I don’t see myself that way.
When I was younger I wanted to be Annie from Get Your Gun – which was particularly worrying for my parents at the time.
JP
Hmm, doesn’t seem like such a bad aspiration, but then look how I turned out.
What am I not grateful for?? I have so much to be grateful for! And that is a beautiful thing! I love this post as I do all of your posts! You help this newbie lesbo out so much! Stay butchastically positive, dear!
Thanks so much! Sometimes I wonder if I should keep on blogging, so it means a lot to hear that my posts are making a difference. I’m grateful for everyone who reads The Flannel Files.
Holy moly, after my wife gave birth to our son, I was grateful for lesbiandad.net, who gave me hope that sometimes lesbian families are just regular families doing ok
…in the world. (My smart phone outsmarted me and posted before I was ready!) 18 months later I’m grateful that this little bundle of toddler goodness is stringing three words together and giving us more anymore insight into what he’s thinking. Turns out toddlers’ minds are always going-and with the most delightful thoughts. Thank you for writing and for posting! I love to see your new posts 🙂
So many things to be grateful for when it comes to the kids. They are all healthy, for one thing. That’s something we take for granted. Plus, they do all the heavy lifting these days, like bringing in the groceries and cat litter.
Thanks for reading and commenting. Good to hear that you look forward to my posts!