Saturday, September 19, 2015

Ten Things of Thankful

This is my weekly post to the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop.

1. Last weekend we had a bit of a plumbing problem arise when we needed to add some media to our acid neutralizer tank.  Okay, it was much more than a bit of a  problem, but thanks to plumbers who know what to do and how to do it, on Tuesday the problem was pretty much resolved.  Yeah for plumbers!

2. I'm thankful that while we were waiting for assistance from a plumber we actual had a way to access running water inside the house, just not in the usual way, so it was a little inconvenient, but as my husband noted we were so much better off in our water situation than so many people in the world.

3. In addition to the plumbing problems, I had a very flat tire last weekend and had to wait until Monday to get the tire fixed.  As it turned out, there was no way to fix it, nor to even determine the cause of the flat tire!  Because we bought the tires less than a year ago, and I'd just been in to the dealer to have the car serviced the day before getting the flat, the tire dealer didn't charge as much for the new tire as would normally have been the price.  I'm thankful we didn't have to pay the full amount.

4. It is always amazing to me to realize that an unspoken thought is answered.  These are not even prayers, but just thoughts, kind of like it sure would be nice if.  Well at the beginning of this week one of my blogger friends said something that let me know that someone really did know how to help me with something about which I was wondering.  I really do know that prayers can be answered when the time is right, if it is right, but the little unspoken thoughts that don't seem to be that important, well that's a different matter.  Who knows though, may the small unspoken idea is more important in the total scheme of things than we know.  I'm thankful for these amazing kind of experiences.

5. Early in the week, I was thinking about how difficult it has been throughout my life to memorize anything and retain that information for any length of time.  Last Sunday while listening to a speaker at church and then pondering his message later, I thought I needed to give up my fear and negativity of memorizing.  (His talk wasn't about memorizing, but about giving up our fears.)  I would like to be able to recall scriptures word for word in case my vision is ever impaired, or for whatever reason scriptures are destroyed (remembering back to when Bibles were burned during WWII in Germany).

So I'm taking on my own challenge to memorize just one scripture each week and to practice it daily, not only saying the words, but thinking about the meaning.  So this week, I chose to memorize one from The Book of Mormon, one of the book of scriptures besides the Bible which I read.  The scripture is 2 Nephi 2:27.

6. I've always been impressed by how some people have memorized uplifting poems.  I may need to give that a try too.  As I was searching for some information this week, I discovered a talk that reminded me of the value of poetry in our lives.  I'm so thankful that there are so many easy ways to find the information we seek on the internet.

7. My husband and I went to the Octoberfest in Mt Angel this weekend.  It was fun to listen to the music and see so many people dressed in costume.  I'm thankful for traditions, whether it be of families, or cities.  Traditions have a way of bonding a family or a community together.



8. I had another quarterly focus meeting at the nursing home regarding my mother.  It is always good to meet with these kind and caring people to tend to her needs.

9. This is kind of a crazy thing to be thankful for, but I'm thankful for fly swatters tonight.  For some reason, we have had a lot of flies in the house tonight.  I'm not sure if the door was left ajar sometime today or what, but we have killed a lot of them tonight.  And this is just an aside, but those new light bulbs, that last forever and are cool to the touch, don't kill flies that land on them!

10. I'm thankful for my husband who took me to see a movie that I wanted to see, even if it might not have been his first choice.  We went to see Phoenix.  Great acting and suspenseful.

 
Ten Things of Thankful

14 comments:

  1. I like the Scripture you cjose to start with...it expresses exactly your intention of choosing to give up the fear of failure to memorize! Doing that allows us to give up perfection as well so that at least if say you dont have it verbatim you still have the essence of its meaning... What a great idea on your part. Enjoy the challenge!

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    1. Thanks, Ivy. It really is the essence of the meaning that is most important.

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  2. I laughed at the fly swatter thankful. When we first moved into our new home (25 years ago) the land had been disrupted, plus there were horse farms across the street. My first housewarming gift was a fly swatter from my Mom. I do try my hardest to shoo them out the door before I use it.

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    1. Oh, the horse flies are the worst. At least we don't have to deal with those.

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  3. Your week certainly had a rocky start, I'm glad all is well now.

    I've had more than the usual number of flies making their way into my house this year. They can be pretty aggravating.

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    1. I just now had one land on the back of my left hand, so I slapped it with my right hand and killed it. I still can't believe I was able to do that! Definitely a first.

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  4. I love how you find things to be thankful for in the 'bad' situations too and in the little things like a fly swatter! Your post made me smile, Pat. Thank you.
    Have a good week.

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    1. I'm glad that I made you smile. Laughter and smiles always lighten our loads.

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  5. I was born blind, but I am not very good at memorizing entire poems like some people.
    :-)

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    1. I remember trying to memorize something by just listening over and over to a tape. It isn't easy.

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  6. Plumbing, running water. For sure some things we sometimes take for granted that is until the time they're not working. So glad your problems were alleviated relatively quickly.
    Repetition I suppose is the key to memorization. At least that's what they say and in my experience helped me. Stick with it!
    Octoberfest in September?! Glad you and your husband had a good time. Sounds fun!

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    1. You know I didn't even think about the fact that the Octoberfest was held in September. I don't know if is always held in September or not.

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  7. I haven't seen Phoenix, but I thought it sounded interesting. Glad you enjoyed it!

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