Giving thanks for our blessings

SANDPOINT  — There is much to be thankful for — simple things, really.

A hug from your mom, a cuddly puppy, a roof over your head, enough to eat, loved ones friends. It is all too easy, especially when times are tough, to focus on what’s going wrong instead of everything that is right.

It is important to remember everything for which we have to be thankful.

Below, the students of Sandpoint Waldorf School, list what they have to be thankful for:

Kindergarten

Maile Evans — I’m grateful for all the food, because we couldn’t live without food.

Lark Waldrup — I’m grateful for all the seasons.

Priya Sullivan — I am grateful for the sun and the rain!

Kailee McNamee — I’m grateful for everything in the world!

Will Carty — I’m grateful for all the animals.

Gavin Nicholson — I’m grateful for sandwiches.

Miss Karen — I’m grateful for the beautiful place we live — the trees, the mountains, the lakes.

Antonella Pietz — I’m grateful that my family is healthy.

Emory Feyen — I’m grateful for butterflies.

Payton — I’m grateful.

Ben — I give thanks for Jack Frost.

Eli Egging — I am thankful for King Winter.

Violett Ramos — I’m grateful for the puppies.

Boston — I give thanks for all the children in the class.

Koda — I’m grateful for skiing.

Grade 2

Baden Brenner — I am thankful for my dog and my family and the world.

Tom Carty — I am thankful for myself and the world.

Tea Farrel — I am thankful for my mommy and that I’m alive and that I have a kitty.

Hattie Larson — I am grateful for shelter and food and my parents.

Charlie Johnson — I am thankful that football is a sport.

Nikolai Braedt — I am thankful for my cats, myself, my family and that my grandpa had a nice life.

Nicolas Herrera — I am grateful for soccer and that I got to meet my great grandma and have the tacos at her birthday party.  I am always grateful for Pine Street Bakery.

Savannah Rumelhart — I am thankful for everything in the world, my mommy, my daddy, my cats and dogs and my grandma; she is my favorite.

Kerrancy Deprez — I am thankful for my grandparents.

Coltan Nicholson — I am thankful for my house and my family. —

Grade 3

Stella Dignan — For thanksgiving I go to Napa two times a year and we play with cousins and we have lots of fun.

Mathis Heisel — I am thankful for the smell of turkey in the oven. I am really thankful for my family and friends.

Eliana Van Cor — I’m thankful for my rats that are very cute.  I am thankful for my mom and dad and all of my pets and my house and the earth and food and Leah and Eliza.  And rats and dolfins and kittens and snakes and all plants and trees.  I am thankful for the mountains and the world.

Mathew Beasley — I am thankful for the world and my dad and mom and the sun and friends and food and my family and sports and pets and school and being alive and my house and water.  My heart is full.

Fiona Paskoff — I am thankful for a home and a mom and a dad and a sister and a kitty cat and a fire to keep me warm.  The friends that I play with, my fishes and air to breath.

Wilson Jay Van den Berg — I am thankful for the food that we eat and the football and baseball that you play but what I’m really thankful for is the families.

Addison McNamara — I like Thanksgiving because it is the time of year when the snow starts falling and it is a time of thanks and you can sit in front of the fire and talk and laugh!

Tyler McNamee — I am thankful for my mom and my dad and the house and the food and the trees and the cousins and my dog and the world.  The end. Or is it?

Leo Floyd-Preston — I am thankful for food and shelter and life and trees and my mom and dad and friends.

Samuel Lumpkin — I am thankful for my dad and mom and my three brothers and my chickens and my doggies and Spooky, my cat, and my house and Nana and Grandma and Oma and Aunt Carla and Uncle Jeff and Uncle Ned and Betting and my mom’s dad.  He was very good at building- he built roads in Africa.

Eliza York — I am thankful for God and the earth.  I am thankful for the moon and the sun.  And a home and a mommy and a daddy and a fire to keep me warm and doggies and a kitty cat and the food to eat and the friends to play with and the wind and rain and every living think on earth.

Lucia Nizzoli — I love Thanksgiving because my whole family comes or we go.  I am thankful for my family and friends.  I am thankful for my life.  I love my mom and my dad.  I am thankful for my dog and my cats.

Caspian Farrell — I love Thanksgiving because I get to go to my grandma’s.

Leah Kirby — I am thankful for the trees and the food and the world!  I am really thankful for Thanksgiving.  I am thankful for my friends and my family.  I am thankful for my cats and I’m thankful that I have a home..I’m thankful for our life.

Grade 4

Nina Welp — I am thankful for: soccer, skiing, donuts, by benny snickers, food, water and my house.

Amelia Goldworm — I am thankful for my family, my life, my home.  I am thankful for my friends and my pets.  I am thankful for the earth, I’m thankful for the human race. I am thankful for stories and my name, Amelia.

Abby Daily — I am thankful for having a family and friends, food, water, a dog and cats, a home, a good school and a good community.  I think Sandpoint in nice.

William Greenway — I am thankful for my mom and dad and my friends and both my dogs and all my cats and thankful for being thankful, and myself.

Max Poole — I am thankful for my home, parents, relatives, friends, the seasons, for being here, my cat and all our belongings, and for being me.

Gabriel Merithew — I am thankful for : my school, my parents, my dog, my brother, my chickens, my teacher, running water, a house over my head and I am thankful for being thankful. Thank you!

Maren Andrick — There are a bunch of things I am thankful for.  Here are some of them: family friends, soccer, pets, music, food, water, skiing, school, and mountains.

Chloe Braedt — I am thankful that I have my brother to play with.  And my family lives peacefully.  And that I have a house to live in. And that I have two cats and yarn to knit with. And a bed to sleep on. I am thankful that I can go to school and that I have a mom and dad.

Davey Breakey — I am thankful for being thankful and being me: David Austin Breakey.  And I am also thankful for all my friends and family.

River Feuling — I am thankful for: food, water, mom, dad, school, family, friends, my cat Zipper, snow, home, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, sleep, my birthday, sledding, skiing, snowboarding, horses, playing, soccer, myself, dill pickles, hot chocolate, sugar, marshmallows, thankful for being thankful, Harry Potter books, mountains.

Kaysia Dills — I’m thankful for: my mom, my dad, my cats, dogs, birds, bees, butterflies, flowers, the world, my friends, tuna, pickles, wheat and sugar. —

Grade 6

Lydia Welp — I am grateful for my friends and family.

Nathan Roe — I’m thankful for my very loving parents and sister (Kelsey Roe).  Also for the wonderful overjoyed look on my dog, Spike’s, face when I come home from school.

Jensen Heisel — I’m thankful for having the trust to carry a firearm in the woods with my family while hunting.

Orion Goetzinger — I am thankful for my dog, Django, who has always been there for me. If I get hurt or sad he comes and brightens my day; he’s a great dog!

Reid Golphenee — I’m thankful for the trees that produce our fruit and berries, my family, the roof over my head and my warm bed.  Thank you God for our ability to live in a good people world.

Ailsa Beggs — I am grateful for all of my friends.  I know they will always be there for me.

Gabriel Herrera — I am thankful for my family, my warm house and all our great meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Maya Pignolet — I’m thankful for my friends because when I lose my way, when I fall off the path, they are always there to gently remind me of what’s important.

Charlie Crane — I am very grateful for my friends, family and how lucky I am to be able to eat three square meals a day.

Alice Floyd-Preston — I am grateful for my friends and education in my new home town.

Carson Andrick — My family is one of the greatest things in the world for me.  They make me so happy to be by them.

Sara Kirby — I am grateful that I survived through cancer treatment, and for all the nurses and the doctor, but my parents helped me the most.

7th grade

Megan L. Murray — I am thankful for the earth, the good solid earth. I am thankful for the water that keeps our bodies flowing. But most of all, what I am thankful for, is not the earth, or water. It is my family and friends that surround me with love, peace and happiness and that’s what I am thankful for.

Julian Nizzoli — I am thankful for my mom and dad, the food I eat and for the work we do to make money that helps us live. I’m thankful for the Internet and the newspaper. I am grateful for all life.

Haley Nicholson — I am grateful for a family that loves me, food that I eat, for friends that care, and for a God that loves me. I am also grateful for a school I love.

Shilah Beasley — I am grateful for my loving family and for my friends who support me in  everything I do. I am thankful for the food we can eat and for warm clothes and shelter. I love the rain and sun and the beautiful things we have on this earth. I am thankful for the great leaders and teachers that guide us and for our schools. We should always be thankful no matter what because we may be better off than others.

Lydia Harrison — I am thankful for my family, food and water and home. I am also thankful for my friends and relatives.

Solange Marcotte — I am grateful for food on my table, a loving family that is always ready to help and friends I can depend on. I am grateful for the free will and love that was given to me by His grace and I am grateful most of all for my life and my breath!

Stuart Baker — I am thankful for the house I live in and the food I eat. I’m also grateful for having friends. I’m thankful to have nice clothes and that they’re warm.

8th grade

Brady Lux — I am thankful for the unceasing golden glow of the sun, rising at the dawn of each glorious day to the vast skies of the fat east, shining its precious golden light and nurturing warmth like a great electric peach suspended in the heavens.

Audrey Young — I am thankful for creamy, dreamy chocolate.  I love how it melts slowly in my mouth; I love its sweet flavor when I taste it, how its warmth surrounds me like sitting by a warm fire in the cold winter.

Gabrielle Earle — I am very thankful for the beautiful, charming, loving and generous friends that greatly help and encourage me, as if there was no tomorrow.

Ruby June — There is excitement in the winter air, I feel the excitement, it is everywhere, but what are we excited for? Snow! …that lies so softly on the ground, it will come, falling slowly from the dky and covering everything with its white blanket.  I’m waiting in anticipation for the day when I can run outside and look up to the sky to catch the falling snowflakes on my tongue, while I twirl like a tornado, spinning uncontrollably.

Rachel Seifert — I am thankful for all my wonderful friends who have lovingly cared for and supported me, like the unfailing bond between a mother and her child.

Kelsey Roe — I am thankful for my courageous and delightfully funny rat, Milton, who’s sweet and simple acceptance of life comforts me when I’m sad, like a tiny Buddha saying, “You’re with me. Life is good.”

Patrick Feyen — My coconut cream pie is sitting on the red table.  The extreme excitement of stabbing it with my fork and taking my first bits, of the yellowish white amazing pie, with its beautiful off white coconut shreds which look like snowflakes slowly falling to the deep cavern which is my stomach.

Cooper Spalding — I am thankful for the warmth and fullness pie gives me, which has cared and lovingly comforted me from birth, like a cuddly teddy bear hugging me next to a warm fireplace.

Pilar Herrera     — I am thankful for the joyfulness and love my family brings to me.  They have created an incredibly fun and warm living environment that makes every glorious day worth living, like an eternal flame, flaring with joyous mischief.