Melinda Franklin is the owner of Tiny Tot Boutique (www.tinytotboutique.com), a one-stop shop for fabulous baby, kiddie and mama gear, clothes and more. Here’s what this Zephyrhills, Fla., grandmother of five boys (yes, five boys!) has to say:

“Blessings from above, I think, are what I am most thankful for today. I currently have five blessings that I am thankful for: Elijah, 7; Canyon, 5; Carter and Conner, 3; and my newest blessing is Colton, 1 month. These guys are the light of my life and the inspiration behind starting our website, Tiny Tot Boutique. Creating the online children’s boutique was a way to give me the ability to work from home and thus have time to enjoy my grandchildren. Children are such a joy—I have some great customers and I love hearing about their families, and hopefully I have helped bless their lives in some small way.”

“As a new mother (my son is now 8 weeks old), I am thankful to have such a wonderful and supportive husband, family and friends to help in adjusting to our new arrival. I hoped to have a natural birth without an epidural. However, after 36 hours of labor and some erratic fetal heartbeats, I had to have a cesarean section. This wasn’t part of my birth plan at all! I expected to be back in the gym after two weeks—I laugh now thinking of that. As a C-section is major surgery, I was forced to take six weeks to recover, i.e., no exercise. During the initial weeks, even getting in and out of bed was a delicate matter as I avoided pulling stitches. Thankfully, my son was born happy and healthy, which is all that matters. During the recovery, I had to learn to slow down, relax and let others take care of things. My husband waited on me hand and foot, not letting me lift anything more than 10 pounds. I was able to offload all the household chores, even the cooking, to my husband. My sisters stepped in and took all of my workload from our business off my shoulders. My mother came to visit and cleaned my house; I actually found her on her hands and knees scrubbing my kitchen floor. Our friends brought dinners for us, coming to visit and share in the excitement over our son’s first smiles, gurgles and laughs. My husband, friends and family have made these first few weeks, even with sleep deprivation, such a joy and celebration of new life, and I am so thankful.”

Lisa Nave is the founder of www.alloparent.org, a social networking website that provides parents and families with local, hands-on services provided by other parents. The services and support are free because they are swapped or shared—just like people would do with their neighbors, friends and family members. Lisa is also a therapist, writer and the mother of two boys. Here’s what this Mill Valley, Calif., mom has to say:  

“Though I try to remember to be thankful every day—for my two sons, Jake and Aidan, who bring such love and purpose and joy to my life; for the health of my family and  friends; for the privilege of living in the beautiful Bay Area; for the meaning and  fulfillment my work gives me—this time of year, more than any other, focuses my  attention on gratitude, and on being mindful of the thousands of things, both big and small, that I have to be thankful for. 

In the course of a day, I am thankful for my morning coffee, and that my kids got dressed and had breakfast and made it out the door to school with their teeth and hair brushed, and for Obama’s presidency, and the Internet, and snacks from Trader Joe’s (especially the kettle corn), and the writing of Thich Nhat Hanh, and clean drinking water, and pink peonies, and kissing my boys when they come home from school, and making homemade pizzas with them for dinner, and reading with them before bed, and having the last couple of hours of the day to myself to be quiet and contemplative or to watch Mad Men. 

But moreover, Thanksgiving is a celebration that provides perspective, and I find that  with this gift of perspective, I can more easily expand my gratitude beyond the small structure of my personal world out to the vastness of the universal world. And that is a great relief, because it allows me to set my preoccupations aside and to open up to the mysteries and wonders of the world. And that is truly something to be thankful for.”