Saturday, October 17, 2015

Ten Things of Thankful

It's the end of another week, so that means it is time to reflect on the things for which I am thankful, write a post about them, and link up to the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop.


I'm thankful to be seeing these beautiful fall leaves.  These are in Mt. Angel.


Here goes. . .

1.  We had our piano tuned on Monday.  We skipped last year, but decided to get back on schedule since I'm playing more than I did last year.  I'm thankful that there are people who have the ears and skills to do this.

2.  Early in the week my husband received the results of the biopsy on what appeared to be a little spot of skin cancer on his arm.  It was cancer, but it was just on one layer, and she was pretty sure that she got it all.  There will be a follow up in January, but she is pretty sure there is no need to worry.  I'm thankful for timely reminders of when it is time to get those yearly exams.

3. Tuesday I met for lunch at a restaurant with a few friends from church.  We go to a different restaurant each month.  It is always fun to get together.

4.  Due to the warm fall dry fall we have been having, the box elder beetles are keeping me busy.  Thanks to the old shop vac we have, I'm able to vacuum a lot of them from the large windows on the south side of the house where they love to accumulate in horrendous masses.  Once the weather gets cool enough, they will go into hibernation and I'll be able to actually wash the windows!  I'm thankful for a shop vac, truly a tool for all occasions.

5.  I don't know if it was because of reaching up high with the vacuum hose several days in a row, or something else, but I managed to tax my back a bit this week, bringing on the Chronic Myofascial Pain I'd suffered from in my back for years until a medication was discovered that gave me relief.  I've been taking the medication daily for a number of years without having the pain reappear.  Anyway, when this little episode happened this week, I was praying it wouldn't last long.  After about 24 hours of taking Tylenol and resting, the pain went away.  This is a huge YEAH and a huge THANKFUL.

6.  We've enjoyed eating fresh chard growing in our little planter box my husband built a couple of months ago.  We love fresh chard, although I noticed we are sharing it with the little yellow lady beetles. We are thankful though that they left us with more than they take.  And speaking of yummy food, I bought these very fresh eggs from a friend who lives year us.



7.  I'm thankful that there are inspiring movies to see.  My husband and I had another movie date.  He chose the movie and didn't tell me what we were seeing until we got to the movie.  We saw He Named Me Malala and then had dinner at a restaurant afterwards.  It was a very nice evening out together.

8.  Going along with #7, I'm thankful for the young people in the world who are doing wonderful, inspiring and courageous acts and are leading by not only being an example to their peers, but to the adults and those who should be their leaders.

9.  Today I attended a family history fair and found it very helpful.  I learned about a great free online tool called Tree Connect available at recordseek.com.  For those who have a family tree at more than one site, i.e. familysearch.org and ancestry.com this tool makes it possible to very easily attach the sources from one tree to the other and vice versa.  I haven't had a chance to work with this yet, but I'm really excited about trying it out.

10.  I lastly I'm thankful for our family and their love for each other.  I'm also thankful for this Ten Things of Thankful blog family, that even though we each have very different lives from one another, we are each trying to remember to recognize the many things for which we are grateful.


Ten Things of Thankful

18 comments:

  1. I always enjoy reading your posts. My daughter and I went to see The Intern on Thursday. It was really heartwarming.

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    1. Thank you. After seeing your comment, I just read an article about The Intern. That does sound like a good movie.

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  2. Glad your back is feeling better! Have a great week!

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  3. A shop vac is a very handy thing to have! Ours sees a lot of use, and in a pinch if the indoor vacuum fails, the shop vac is a handy back up.

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    1. Our shop vac has been used for so many yucky jobs, it has pretty much been reserved for those kind of jobs, although if we had to deal with a lot of water inside, I'm sure we grab it in an instant. We really need to get a new one though, because the base that had the wheels broke years ago.

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  4. He Named Me Malala was on my TToT list this week as well. The wisdom in that girl's words and heart and actions is enough to make me cry every time. Her story should be enough to wipe all the violence and weapons off the face of the earth. Wish it were that simple.

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    1. Since seeing it, I've watched some of the short video clips on line again. When is very wise for her years.

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  5. I haven't had my piano tuned in years; I really ought to call someone.
    I hope box elder beetle season is over soon!

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    1. I only remember it being tuned once when I was growing up, and I'm sure it probably needed to be tuned. Then there were all those years before we had it when you were growing up. If it was tuned then, I don't remember it happening. What I'm saying, is don't do a guilt trip over it. Since we got some rain yesterday, and it was enough to actually make the ground look wet, and the temperatures at night have dipped into the 40's, there aren't many box elder beetles in sight now.

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  6. I hope you enjoyed the movie..I was thinking of going to see that. I haven't been out to see a movie in years. I also quit getting the piano tuned when my son that played it moved out. I keep thinking I will learn to play it,but that hasn't happened. I have fibromyalgia...wondered what you are taking...

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    1. I know what it is like to "think" about maybe trying something new. I've thought about taking a water colors painting class for years, or a sketching class. So far it hasn't happened. My doctor has me taking duloxetine (generic for Cymbalta). Originally this medication was used to combat depression, but it was discovered later that it helps with neuropathic pain and fibromyalgia. At first I didn't want to take it because I feared it would cause me problems if I ever had to stop taking it, but I decided to give it a try, because nothing else was helping me with the pain. I had a few side effects (crazy scary dreams) when I first started taking it, but that is not a problem now. The medicine gave me almost instant relief from the pain. I take one pill each morning.

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  7. You always have such lovely lists! I'm surprised you have such pretty fall colors, when it's been so dry! That's a thankful right there! We have box elder bugs (although I haven't seen any this year, so maybe the nasty webworms ate them), and I wonder if we have the same ones you do? Ours are black and kind of oval and have orange markings on them, kind of outlining their wings or something. We had them terribly when my son was about 4. He called them "frosting bugs", because I had just made some witch hat cookies with Hershey kisses on top of the bottom of a chocolate dipped shortbread cookie and used some orange frosting in a decorating tube to embellish the hat.

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    1. I think that the trick to the leaves turning color, is getting the sudden change in temperature, which has started happening, plus there are some varieties of trees that are prone to turning these beautiful colors. The box elder beetles you are describing sound like the same ones we have. I love your son's description! I'm glad that you don't have the box elder beetles around this year.

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  8. I love that you're enjoying the colours of fall, and fresh, good food, and meeting up with friends. I think those things are my favourites on your list, though I'm also really REALLY glad that you have medication that works for your back, because back pain can be awful if it goes on long enough. Take it easy :)

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    1. Thanks. Taking it easy isn't one of my strong points, but dealing with pain gets my attention from time to time, when I forget to take it easy.

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  9. this time of year (here in New England) we get what we call 'slow bugs'… which are kinda semi prehistoric beetle looking things and they move very…. slowly (hence the name), but the thing about these slow bugs is that they give off an very strong and unpleasant odor when they get mad (which is often when you're in the middle of trying to hit them with something… so now we wrap them up in toilet paper and throw them outdoors or in the toilet (whichever is closer).
    looks like a pretty spectacular part of the country for the fall foliage season

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    1. We have something here that is referred to as 'stink bugs' that react in the same way you stated. Fortunately, we don't see them inside the house, unless they come in with garden produce we've picked. We do get some colorful foliage on the deciduous trees here some years.

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