Ten Things of Thankful

Being thankful for the little things and the big things in life are blessings.  Why?  I believe it is because sometimes people may not be able to see the bigger picture, and just need to first see the minute things.  After a while all those little things will combine and form mountains enabling people to see how much their lives have been tailor fit for them and blessed them all along the way in one way or another.   (This post is being linked to the blog hop, Ten Things of Thankful.)

For a few weeks we had been planning to go visit one of our children and his family this past week.  Our grandson was in Guys and Dolls at the high school, and one of the granddaughters took part in a living history exhibit at the elementary school.  We were able to see the musical two nights in a row and since our son was the photographer for the show, we were able to sit in the front row with him.  There were different cast members for the leading parts on the two nights we attended.  There are so many talented youth at the school, that the performances were equally enjoyable both nights.

Being with the family brought back to my mind how very busy parents are when they have children in three different schools and who have children who have busy lives.  I remembered those days of being the designated taxi cab driver who was paid with hearing the stories of the kids' lives day by day.  That is something I fondly recall, especially when I had one on one time with them.

Three days before we left on our trip, the nursing home called very late in the afternoon telling me that Mom had a broken tooth, but she wasn't in any pain.  I wasn't able to get her in for an emergency appointment until 4:30 p.m. the day before we left. It was fortunate that she hadn't swallowed her broken tooth, which we later learned was a porcelain cap that had been put on about ten years ago.  The dentist thought that it had lasted quite a while.  There was no decay on the remaining tooth, so the dentist, with my consent, just painted some protective material over the tooth that was left.  It seemed that was the best of the options, short of doing nothing.  The dentist was able to do what he did with her sitting in her wheelchair.  Recapping the tooth would have required putting her in a lift to get her into the dental chair.  That would probably have been upsetting to her and perhaps added another dimension to some of the delusions she has.

An interesting bit of knowledge I gained from going to the dentist with Mom was that teeth nerves shrink with age, and some people as young as 70 may not need any kind of pain killer when having dental procedures done.  Mom is 99, so no wonder she didn't feel any pain.

At one point we thought we'd be having sunshine the latter half of the week, but it is the northwest, so we really can't count of the weather reports.  (It rained on our trip, but was a beautiful sunny day driving back home.) We did drive over to the shoreline near the Canadian border, but after walking down to a nearby beach, I found I wasn't up to the wind, rain and cold weather.  So our son drove us around the beautiful countryside for a while.  There are so many scenic old barns in the area.  If I ever decide to paint barns, or photograph them on a drier day, this is the place I want to go.

One of our daughters learned the names of so many different breeds of dogs when she was young.  I don't know if she knew of this breed then.  This Australian Labradoodle posed for me at one of the places we stopped.  He is four months old.

  

By quickly highlighting some of those things I've been grateful for this past week, I see I should apply something from Wakefield Book of Rules, but I'll leave that up to the more knowledgeable.  Enjoy your coming week.