Ten Things of Thankful - Week 25, 2017

This above image is a quote by Kristin Armstrong printed is a pastel shade of yellow. It says "When we focus on our gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out and the tide of love rushes in." The background is a picture of a dark frothy wave rushing in across a wet sandy beach that is golden from the rays of setting sun.*

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Happy last week of June! Can you believe that the year is almost half over?!

 Today has been a busy Monday, catching up on domestic duties, and I am now ready to take a break and get my thankful on!  I am so very thankful for each one of you that makes the time to write and share your own thankfuls with us at the TToT blog. No matter how out of sorts I feel, when I sit down and begin to read your posts I find myself smiling along with all the good things in your lives!

We have had so very much rain here and it is humid, but I am thankful that the rain cools things down, often as much as thirty degrees very quickly, and greens things up so I won't be complaining about dry, brown West Texas for at least a little while!  Papa Bear is thankful for how easy it is for him to pull up the weeds that have grown so large.

I am having fun getting better acquainted with our feral kitty Andy, who now makes an appearance just about every time he hears me come out the door,  to see if I might have something new to add to his food bowl.  He is becoming more trusting and sits and waits for me to return with a treat instead of hiding.  I will eventually have him willing to come up to my hand to get it. :-)  The other male feral kitty, Smoky, is more wary, and only appears on the infrared camera at night or if no one is out. I am thankful that we have sufficient resources to share food with them. Whole chickens were on sale at the grocery store today, so I boiled one for them which will supplement their dry food for several days. There were four furry "supervisors" around my feet in the kitchen while I was deboning it. :-)

I am thankful for words of encouragement that I come across online.  I read a piece last week in which the point was not to get bogged down in defeat over all that needs to be done... "Just do the next thing."  I think about how true that is, doing anything will motivate us to do something more and get us out of that deadlock of despair.  I am working to focus on just one task at hand rather than a room full of them that makes me want to surrender.  I am thankful that I have the time to work on things, no longer feeling exhausted after long stressful work days.  There is not a day that I don't thank God for the blessing of being retired, and I pray that we can continue to make it work!

I am happy and thankful with the success of my newly created Facebook group for my high school class.  The 45th reunion was held in South Dakota this weekend and classmates were able to share their photos and videos and we who were unable to attend enjoyed seeing who all was there and how they had changed over the years.  The group will give us a way to stay in touch with each other and be more supportive as others experience the trials and losses that come with aging.  Encouragement is such a blessing to both the giver and the receiver!

I am thankful for the fun things my children share with me in texts... projects they are working on, purchases they've made, home improvements, and places they go. It gives me an opportunity share more of the day to day aspects of their lives.  My son and his girlfriend found a wonderful used bed for sale that has a headboard made of baseball bats. They got it for her 7 year old son and redid his room as a surprise one day.  He loves baseball, so was very excited.  It made me happy too!  I am thankful that both my son and his mother get along well with this little boy's father, it makes life so much better for all of them, especially him.  Divorce is hard enough on children without parents being ugly to each other.

I am thankful for the sometimes uncomfortable awarenesses I am shown about myself, giving me room to work on improvement.  If we are complacent we miss the opportunities to grow, and we all have room to do a little of that!  The first step is being willing to admit you have an area in your life or your behavior that could use a little fine-tuning. :-)

I am thankful for the wonderful shoulder bag I bought with Mother's Day gift money to replace my old, very worn one. I love a purse that has lots of pockets on the outside so that I can have quick and easy access to things like my car keys, phone, sunglasses, coupons, etc, without having to dig through it. I also found a great purse organizer that goes inside and has many more pockets, now I have a place for everything and it really is awesome.  Once again, Amazon wins the day! :-)

I am thankful for the surprise cash bonus that Papa Bear's boss gave him last week as a thank you for his hard work.  Surprises like that do so much for morale, and I insisted that he use it for something fun he would like to have or do, he works such long hours and never complains, and it definitely made his day!  We all love happy surprises!

I am thankful for reconnecting with friends from long ago, and with making new ones. The Internet is such a wonderful tool for that!  There was a long period in my life when I really didn't feel that I had any friends. I can honestly say now that my life is blessed with positive friends and acquaintances, and it's such a wonderful feeling!

Blessings to you this week. Look for reasons to be thankful in your life, and remember to be a blessing to someone else!
The above photo is a click-button to the TToT link-up. It is photo of one of our beautiful Texas sunsets with blue still peeking through the clouds; yellow, orange and pink bands around the remaining sliver of bright sun, and a wide band of black earth below it on which I've written Ten Things of Thankful.*

* Descriptions of the included photos are being provided for those who may be unable to view the illustrations.

Ten Things of Thankful - Week 24, 2017

This above image is a quote by Karen Salmansohn at notsalmon.com printed in black lettering. It says "When you get something you've really wanted, stop to appreciate it. Don't always be seeking something better." The background is comprised of overlapping pastel shades of turquoise, green and white with a marbleized effect.*

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Happy weekend to you!  I am enjoying the quiet of this Saturday morning as I reflect on all the good things in my life. I love the quote in the above image, because it seems like it is easy to get into the habit of never being content with what we have or what we've been given. When something we've really wanted happens, we immediately start thinking of the next thing and the next thing, with barely a pause to be grateful. Maybe we don't need to want something else or something more so quickly, and just maybe we already have ENOUGH! :-)  I often ask myself if, despite some of the struggles we all have in life, I am content with just what I have. Do I need more to be happy? The answer is a solid awareness that at this stage of my life I am enough and I have enough. My life is blessed, and I am thankful for that.  I think the endless wanting of more leaves us feeling restless and unfulfilled.  Calm is a much nicer place!

This weekend is Father's Day in the US, a time to pay tribute to the fathers, step-fathers, grandfathers, and any others who have taken on the role of father or mentor in our lives. They don't have to be male, many mothers have had to fill both roles for their children.  I am thankful for my own father and for all of those who have chosen to protect, care for, provide for, and encourage the children in their lives, and their adult children too. I am thankful for the good memories I have of my father and that he always provided well for our family.

 I am also aware that many, along with Papa Bear, whose father died when he was three, grew up without a father, or never knew their father, or experienced the horror of living with an abusive father or step-father. Father's Day can be sad time for them, and my heart goes out to them and I pray that they've encountered other people in their lives that provided some of the love and direction they needed. I also think of the fathers and grandfathers who will not hear from their children or grandchildren this weekend or most weekends. Please, take time to let your loved ones know that you cherish them. Give them a gift of your time and your presence in their lives!

I am thankful for the wonderful father Papa Bear is to his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and to my children. He listens, cares, encourages, and offers advice when asked. He is never overbearing, recognizing that they have to make their own choices in life and learn their own lessons just as we did. He always ends a conversation with any of them by saying "I love you", and they will remember that long after he is gone.

We have had huge amounts of rain here this season, a very rare occurrence. I am thankful when the rains come in the early evening dropping our triple-digit temperatures by thirty or more degrees very quickly, it is so welcome! We have had several thunderstorms, with a particularly severe one on Wednesday night that left over 19,000 homes and businesses without power in the city near us and a terrible amount of damage to homes and autos with high winds and softball sized hail! I am thankful that no one was seriously injured and I am thankful that where we live, Northeast of the city, we only had a little wind and small hail with no real damage. I am thankful for the power crews, city workers, teams that come in from other areas, volunteers  and everyone who is working together to help deal with the effects of the storm. I was also thankful to learn that the city's large arena was opened by the Red Cross to provide shelter for not only people but also their pets if their home was not habitable or if the heat put them at risk. Blessings to those who remembered to include the pets!

I am thankful that my husband's daughter who returned to our city recently was able to secure a good job as a dispatcher and began working yesterday. It is a large company with room for advancement and the pay is better than average. This will enable her to begin rebuilding her life.

I am thankful on behalf of a close friend of my sister's who was received approval to be placed on the waiting list for a liver transplant.  She lost her twin sister several years ago and has been sick for a long time. This could be the miracle in her life, and all prayers are appreciated. Her name is Candi.

I am thankful for Google Photos storage!  We've been backing most of our photos up to the iCloud and it is cumbersome and problematic.  If you delete a photo from your phone it also deletes it from the iCloud storage and any other shared devices, like your computer.  Google Photos is simple to use, automatically saving photos from your various devices to one account, and accessing them is organized and easy.  It's also free for high definition photos. I am in the process of uploading photos from old laptops, etc now, and then will begin the long process of weeding out the ones that don't need to be saved so I can at last find the important ones that are mixed in. Google Photos also has several cool tools you can use to create collages, slide shows, and photo books. This is not a paid endorsement for Google, I'm just happy to find something workable at last! :-)

I am thankful that Papa Bear and I rented the movie "The Shack" to watch this week. I read the book several years ago, and most often the movie versions disappoint me, but this was an exception. It is very well done, the characters are great, and the message is intense and powerful. At points it made us both think of things in our own lives, and while that can be uncomfortable it is also a message that we need to address issues that have left hurt inside our hearts. I highly recommend it to anyone, the perspective on God is so refreshing! One of the thoughts I took away from it that I will remember is that sometimes when we forgive someone it isn't a one-time event, we may find that we need to forgive them in our hearts and minds many times if hurt or anger resurfaces. But there is power and freedom in forgiveness.

I am thankful for Toby snuggles!  When he was a kitten he loved to crawl up on my shoulder and snuggle next to my neck. Now when I am writing at the table or sitting in the recliner, he still does that, hauling all 15+ pounds of himself up on my shoulder where he snuggles in next to my ear and his belly rumbles with deep purrs while he kneads my shoulder in contentment and rubs his nose against me. He can be such a brat at times, but when he does this he just melts my heart, no matter how difficult it is to write with a large cat hanging over your shoulder. :-)

Most importantly, of all the thankfuls I will ever list and share... I am thankful for our Father, Creator, Great Spirit, Supreme Being, Greater Power... or whatever name you choose to call God by.  Without His love I would not be. 

Blessings to you this week. Look for reasons to be thankful in your life, and remember to be a blessing to someone else!

The above photo is a click-button to the TToT link-up. It is photo of one of our beautiful Texas sunsets with blue still peeking through the clouds; yellow, orange and pink bands around the remaining sliver of bright sun, and a wide band of black earth below it on which I've written Ten Things of Thankful.*

* Descriptions of the included photos are being provided for those who may be unable to view the illustrations.

Ten Things of Thankful - Week 23, 2017

This above illustration is of a young Caucasian girl around seven years of age that appears to be done with pastels. She is wearing a fluffy knee length yellow-orange dress, gathered at the waist, with short sleeves  and a white Peter Pan collar. She is  standing on her left leg, with her other leg lifted off the ground to the right, apparently dancing with joy. She is wearing black shoes with a strap across the ankle and white socks. Both of her arms are stretched straight out to the side with her palms extended. Her dark golden curly hair is shoulder length, parted to the side, and flying out around her face  as if she is twirling. The shaded-in background is of pastel cream and sky blue and there is a dark brown band across the bottom which creates the floor she is standing on. A quote is printed to the right of the girl in the same dark brown color. It says "A joyful spirit is evidence of a grateful heart" and is attributed to  Maya Angelou, one of my favorite authors.*

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Well here I am, finally! It's Monday, the clothes washer is running, and I have settled into the quiet of the morning to work on my TToT wrap-up of last week. Papa Bear was off on Saturday, his one Saturday a month off for the month of June,  and I opted to spend my time with him rather than doing much reading or writing. I can do that when he's not home.  I am thankful for the time he has off to rest, do something fun, and catch up on a house project or two. It was a good weekend all around.

As I put my load of towels in the washer this morning I realized once again how blessed and thankful I am for the conveniences we have... good appliances, a clean water supply, money for detergent and softeners, and the ease of having the washer just down the hallway from where I write. My mother made many trips up and down the basement stairs doing laundry for the family all day every Monday, and in the early years she also hung it all outside to dry. Our lives are so simple by comparison.

Last Wednesday was Papa Bear's birthday. He got the German Chocolate cake he'd been hinting for and pronounced it the best one I've made to date. It did turn out nice and he was really happy with it. We enjoyed cake for five days. :-)  I also took him out for a seafood dinner. I am thankful he is so appreciative.

The above photo depicts Papa Bear's birthday cake. It is a tall, round two-layer cake covered in a traditional German chocolate cake cooked topping of caramel, coconut, and chopped pecans. It is setting on a white plate. On the top outer edge of the cake is a ring  of red maraschino cherries and inside of that a ring of pecan halves. In the center are two large lighted blue candles in the shape of 6 and 4 in honor of his 64th birthday. He is seated behind the cake but the photo is cropped closely so that all you see of him is the gray fabric of his knit shirt.*

On Saturday we went to the new Cinergy Theater here and enjoyed watching Wonder Woman. It is the first movie we've been to in several months and the recliner seats and food trays made it very comfortable. The movie was far better than I anticipated, and we thankfully noted there was no foul language, no graphic sex scenes, and the violence fit within the story line and was in keeping with the positive message they wanted to relay... how refreshing! A reminder that something can be interesting and done well without being trashy. The vibrating seats of the IMAX experience made the explosions very realistic and fun! :-)

I am thankful for happy phone visits with both of my kids yesterday, and for photos of their lives shared via text. My daughter has been working on her house and yard, moving into the final phase of preparing it to go on the market, so she can sell it and move to Dallas.  She and her husband found a great new apartment and got him moved into it over Memorial Day weekend. It has an open floor plan and lots of light.  I am thankful she was able to help him choose and move and that she likes it.  They will both be so glad when the move is finally done... and I will be VERY thankful, it's been a long process!

My son moved out of his Nashville apartment and in with his girlfriend and her young son this weekend. They've been together for some time now and I am very content with this. We really liked her when we met her and my son adores her.  He is also really enjoying being a step-dad and they do a lot of fun things together as a family.  The move will make it possible for them to save up  money for a house.  Marriage will likely be in the future, but not the immediate one.  I'm okay with that too.  I am thankful he has met someone who suits him so well.

We set up our game cam on the deck this weekend, now that we once again have feline visitors. The following photo was captured last night, and from another shot where our resident feral kitty had his tail to the camera lens, it was apparent that "Andi" is  most assuredly "ANDY"! :-)  I am thankful there will not be kittens.  He is obviously young and sweet, and drops by early each morning, in the evening for supper, and several times during the night for another fill-up.  We are thankful we can make his life a little easier, and we are enjoying watching to see who else shows up to eat. Last night a dark cat came in the early house of the morning, probably the small black cat we've seen a couple times now.

The  above photo is of  Andy, a young orange tabby cat with a white face and chest. He is light colored and on the thin side. He is sitting on the wooden boards of our deck next to a small  plastic patio table under which there are dishes of cat food and water. The water is in a round white glass bowl to keep it cooler, the cat food is in a glass bowl placed inside of a rectangular plastic dish that has a small amount of water in the bottom to prevent ants from getting to the food (they can't swim). A couple boards have been placed against the West side of the table to keep the dishes in the shade and provide a cooler place for him to sit and eat. Andy is looking straight at the camera lens, he probably heard the whirring sound it makes when it takes a photo. Across the bottom of the photo is a black timestamp label which white lettering that says "MOULTRIECAM  - 11 JUN 2017 - 07:48 pm".

I am thankful that my younger sister and her husband got to spend several days last week in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota to celebrate their 30th Wedding Anniversary. They had a wonderful time and shared several photos of a place I love so much. One day I will be able to take Papa Bear there, God willing.

Last evening Papa Bear was collecting the trash to take out and decided to go ahead and change the furnace/AC unit filters too, since they get covered in cat fur quite quickly. When he accessed the furnace closet he discovered that the water drain line had blocked up and was dripping water unto the floor! We were both very thankful that he caught it now and not later when they floor would have been soaked and damaged. Although he was not planning to spend his evening getting the drain line cleared and working, and the closet cleaned out, it is done now and we can rest easy. I am thankful he knows how to do so many handyman things, that would have cost us a bundle if we had to call a repairman!

Last but not least this week, I am thankful for the Six Sentence Story post that came to mind on Thursday. I wasn't sure what to write, but I knew I didn't want to do something dark or negative, it is too easy for me to always go that direction.  As I pondered it while driving home from town, the prayer I wrote was given to me almost word for word, I felt as if it was something I was meant to share. Not my typical offering, but most certainly something from my heart and well suited to this time. I was thankful for the positive response it received.

And now I'm off to fold the towels and wash the bed sheets...

Blessings to you this week. Keep your eye out for reasons to be thankful, and remember to be a blessing to someone else!

The above photo is a click-button to the TToT link-up. It is photo of one of our beautiful Texas sunsets with blue still peeking through the clouds; yellow, orange and pink bands around the remaining sliver of bright sun, and a wide band of black earth below it on which I've written Ten Things of Thankful.*

* Descriptions of the included photos are being provided for those who may be unable to view the illustrations.

Ten Things of Thankful - Week 22, 2017

This is a small muted orange sunset photo
with man in silhouette standing on a high
hill with his arms upraised. Text printed
on it in tall capital letters says "It costs
$0.00 to be grateful for what you have."*

As some of you have probably noticed, I've been away from the blogsphere for the past few days, taking a little break to deal with Internet issues, and a kitty who is having a bad time with his asthma. I wasn't feeling great either, the wet weather makes me really achy, so I decided to just lay low. I asked Sophie to write this post for me, but as you can see in the photo below, she found the lack of opposable thumbs made using the keyboard a little difficult, and the only item she could come up with was being thankful for warm laps to curl up in. I wasn't sure that was one I should use. ;-) However, I am always thankful for this little kitty that is surely one of the sweetest, most gentle creatures God ever made. <3

 

This is a photo of Sophie, the 13 year old matriarch of our kitty
clan. She is a very small Maine Coon cat with long thick fur in
various shades of cream, gray, brown and black. She has beautiful
facial markings and light green eyes. Sophie is sitting on my gray
 desk chair at the table at the dark oak table. She is staring intently
at my Surface tablet standing on the table in front of her.*

Toby, our male Maine Coon kitty, made a return visit to the veterinary clinic this afternoon to check on his breathing and was given a stronger dosage of his medication to help with the lung inflammation that triggers his asthma attacks. I am thankful that he is resting more comfortably now, and is keeping me company while I write. I am also thankful that he loves cream cheese, making it easy to administer a broken tablet of medication in a tiny bit of food that he quickly gobbles up.  The other furkids are now wrestling to decide who gets to nap inside the open cat carrier on the floor. :-)

 

After a second visit to ATT on Saturday afternoon, followed by a call to tech support on Sunday, and a visit from a technician today, I am thankful that we now have our Internet issues resolved. I would be a bit happier if each of their employees knew the same information, and that it was accurate. Living in a rural area gives us limited options, but we did end up with full unlimited access for all of our devices and streaming, something I am very happy about. :-)

 

I am thankful for not having to work outside of home, which made is so much more difficult to accommodate trips to the vet, visits from repair technicians, etc. since we live thirty minutes from the city where I used to work and where my husband works. I am also thankful that our vet clinic is only five miles away, and our veterinary staff are friendly and caring. They love my extra-furry cats. :-)

 

I am thankful for the tremendous amount of rain we've had so far this season. We actually have green weeds flourishing instead of dry brown ones! :-)  Friday night we had the most beautiful stormy sky ever, as it occurred just as the sun was setting. Here are a couple photos Papa Bear took, no filters were used, the colors truly were this vibrant... breathtaking!

 

This is a photo taken Friday night from our back deck of a storm
moving in from the North just as the sun is setting. Flat rangeland
 fills most of the bottom half of the photo. It is brown with patches
  of green prairie grass and sage, and the tiny farm buildings of our
 neighbors can barely be on the horizon line. To the left is an oilfield
 pump jack sitting on a small gravel lot. The top half of the photo is
covered with a huge thundercloud in shades ranging from light gray to
 dark blue, on the right half of the photo one can see a dark downpour
of water coming from the cloud, while the left half has small streaks
 of rain coming down in front of a brilliant pink and yellow sunset.*

 

This photo is of the same storm scene but facing Northwest. The
pump  jack is centered and enlarged, and the entire sky is filled
with brilliant sunset colors. The heavy dark blue thundercloud
looms overhead across the very top of the picture.*

I am thankful for the feral kitty that continues to show up on our deck each evening for a dish of good food and grows more tame with each passing day. Yesterday Papa Bear was outside doing some yard work with the noisy weedeater and she (?) was undeterred, sitting in the tall grass less than fifteen feet from him, waiting for me to come out with her bowl. We can't approach her yet, but she makes eye contact, and keeps our furkids very entertained as they watch her from their cat tree in the window (although Gracie vocalizes some concerns about having to share their food with her.) LOL

I am so thankful that my older sister reminded me about my younger sister's 30th wedding anniversary this week. We chipped in on a gift they will enjoy. Apparently my calendar notifications aren't working, and I would have forgotten all about it!

Papa Bear's birthday is coming up Wednesday, and I am thankful that he is so easy to please when it comes to gifts and celebrating. He's been showing me photos of German Chocolate Cakes online these past couple weeks, his very favorite, hoping that I'm getting the hint he'd really like me to make one for his birthday.  :-)

Returning to the TToT linkup today, I was delighted to find so many folks linking up posts this week! Now I have the pleasure of settling in to begin reading each post, and commenting. If I don't get to yours today, I will tomorrow. I am so thankful for your sharing and for the way that reading everyone's gratitude post makes my heart happy!

Blessings to you this week. Keep your eye out for reasons to be thankful, and remember to be a blessing to someone else!


This is a click-button to the TToT
link-up. It is photo of one of our
 beautiful Texas sunsets with blue
 still peeking through the clouds;
 yellow, orange and pink bands
around the remaining sliver of
bright sun, and a wide band of black
earth below it on which I've written
Ten Things of Thankful.*



* Descriptions of the included photos are being provided for those who may be unable to view the illustrations.