Sunday, December 20, 2015

Ten Things of Thankful

This past week I took a week off from blogging.  I missed it, but just needed to take a break from some of the blog hops I participate in during the week.  This Ten Things of Thankful post will probably be kind of a condensed version, but here goes.

Monday I attended a viewing and gathering of family and friends of a dear friend of many years.  I'm thankful that she can once again be with her beloved husband who passed away six years ago.

This week I made four trips to the nursing home to visit with my Mom.  One of those visits entailed listening to a guest play the accordion for the residents, and one other visit included a Christmas Dessert social for the families and residents in Mom's portion of the nursing home.  I was touched by a beautiful act of kindness and thankfulness shown by the wife of one of the residents.  At the beginning of this last year she set a goal to make pieced quilts for each of the staff who work in the portion of the building where we were gathered.   She must have made 20 - 30 quilts.  They were each unique from the others.  Those who work at this nursing home truly are saints, as is this wonderful woman who made the quilts.  She is there most days to feed her husband his lunch too, since he is unable to do this himself.  Of course the staff would do that for him, and do when she is not there, but it does lighten their load when a family member can help out some of the times.

My husband and I both had a  couple of doctor appointments this week, just routine follow up type appointments.  I'm always thankful for knowledgeable doctors and equipment to determine the condition of our bodies.

My hope was to donate blood this last week, but due to a low hemoglobin count I wasn't able to do this.  I'll try it again in a couple of weeks.  If it is still low, I'll probably make an appointment with my doctor.  Donating blood is a good thing to do if one is able.  It is also one way to learn if you might have some health problem, such as being low in iron.

The women's group (Relief Society) from church held an activity Thursday night.  Due to the Christmas concerts, etc., not to mention the deluge of rain, it wasn't highly attended.  I went, but then again I live fairly close to the church building, and I don't have school concerts to attend.   I enjoyed the friendship and effort that had gone into making it an enjoyable evening.  I'm thankful for the dedication of others in providing activities that all can enjoy.

My husband helped me a little with learning how to use one of his cameras.  His cameras are much better than mine.  It was a quick little lesson inserted in the midst of a busy day.  I hope to become more proficient in using his camera.  I'm thankful for his patience.

Because of the continued heavy rains, I found that I was faced with driving through a portion of roadway the other day that had high water.  The road hadn't been closed yet.  Fortunately, there was a pickup behind me that saw my hesitancy, and passed me.  I watched to see where he drove and how high the water was on his wheels.  That gave me the confidence to give it a try.  There wasn't really a place to turn around.  The next day the road was closed.  I was thankful to discover this week that there is an online site that shows which roads have high water and which roads have been closed. I'm guessing there is one also that indicates where they have determined the ground to be too unstable along the roadways.  Some homes have slid down ground saturated steep hillsides.

For some reason, I've been having difficulty waking up enough when my alarm goes off in the morning.  I tend to turn it off, not even waking up enough to realize I need to get up or even remembering that it did ring.  Often my husband will already have gotten up, and he lets me sleep. He doesn't hear my alarm when he is elsewhere in the house.  Anyway, today he came in to see when I wanted to get up.  That's good!  However, it was over a half hour after I should have been at church.  I'm thankful that I can take things as they come.  For several months I have been singing with the choir at church.  This being the Sunday before Christmas, there was a special service with many different musical numbers, a couple of which that were done by the choir.  Fortunately, as it turned out, there were a couple of youth who filled in for me.  Yeah for the youth!  I'm sure their young voices are ever so much better than my "old as the hills" voice.  I'm glad they were there.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and if your week involves traveling, that you will all be safe.

     




10 comments:

  1. Pat, I'm so sorry for your loss. Not that there's a good time to die, but dying close to a holiday always seems to be a bit harder for loved ones.
    I've always admired those who can make quilts. They appear so intricate. I think I just like the idea of many pieces being stitched together to make one :)
    Oh my gosh! That must have been really scary, driving in high water. You were very lucky and thank goodness the truck went in front of you. Whenever I've been caught on the highway in a snowstorm I cross my fingers there are at least a couple of cars in front of me. I hate to lead the way on a road I can't see!
    I set my alarm for 6:00 am today. Woke up exactly at 5:59, turned off the alarm and promptly went back to sleep! Thankfully, I didn't have to go to work lol How sweet of your husband to check in on you :)

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    1. So sorry to be so late in responding to your comment. Thankfully, some of the areas which had water over the road no longer have that issue, for the time being.
      I've turned up the ringer volume on my phone a little more, and that seems to help.

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  2. I am so sorry to hear of your friend's passing.
    Like Girlie said, I would love to know how to quilt but crafty is just not really in my blood. Maybe one day I'll give it a try...
    I hate driving in water at all - never mind high water! We are on the first of what is supposed to be three straight days of rain. On one hand, I love a good rainy day. But on the other hand...that's a lot of rain. Although, I suppose if it were colder and it were snow that would be much worse! Perspective...
    I'm also taking a bit of a break. My poor blog is so abandoned - I mostly only get to my TToT and the Six anymore. But I've bailed out of Facebook and the internet in general for a few weeks. Just need some head space.
    Hope your Christmas is blessed and wonderful!

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    1. I hope you have found some more "head space." I think I'm ready to get back at it too.

      Weather and perspective says a lot.

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  3. In a role reversal, let me say to just be careful driving in water. One of my friends killed her car driving through high standing water. Cars have so many computer components nowadays. She thought her car just needed to dry out, but no, that didn't work. She totaled her car.
    So, the oatmeal with blackstrap molasses trick didn't work?

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    1. The oatmeal and blackstrap molasses didn't work for me, but I'm going to try to donate again this week, so maybe having had it off and on since the last time will have helped.

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  4. Sounds like you've been having a really busy time, but so good, with wonderful things going on...all community and connection and PEOPLE things. I like that a lot. Do be careful driving in water though. I think you did the right thing to wait and follow the pickup!

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    1. I'm good at following the leader sometimes, depending on what the leader is doing. :-)

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  5. A blogging break is sometimes needed.
    How sweet that your husband will check on you and let you sleep.
    :-)
    My mother, grandmother, aunts, and great aunts used to have quilting parties all the time. I liked the sense of family and community. A quilt is a beautiful thing, work of art, and I am blessed to have a few of them of my own.

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    1. There are a lot of quilt shows in this state. I'm amazed at how much time and effort, not to mention the artistic skill that is involved in making a quilt. I've never made a hand quilted quilt, but I have made a few tied quilts.

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