1 - 2 Friends and food - Depending on what day the first of the month lands on and whether or not the first Monday of the month is a holiday, there are some months where the second week of the month may be filled with more than one lunch outing with friends. This past Monday, my hubby and I ate lunch with the Empty Nesters who are members of the church I attend and sometimes their friends. (Normally we meet the first Monday of the month, but this month we postponed the lunch because of July 4th holidays.) The day after the Empty Nesters met, I had lunch with a small group of women from my church. The Empty Nesters have been eating at the same buffet-style restaurant for quite some time, while the women's lunch group tries out different restaurants each time. I am thankful for opportunities to build relationships outside of a church chapel and classroom setting as well as inside the church.
3 - 5 Opportunities to use my talents, improve upon them, and share them - There is a charity in the area that accepts donated wedding gowns for the purpose of creating Angel Gowns for infants who have died. The gowns are given to a couple of local hospitals so they are ready to be given to grieving parents when needed. The photo shows the boy Angel Gowns as I made them, using the pattern and the materials I was given, but we decided to change the buttons to smaller, flatter buttons on the vests after this photo was taken. Sometimes when a person serves, they are blessed with special thoughts and feelings and moments of personal revelation, and such was the case for me as I spent the day preparing these Angel Gowns. It was a nice opportunity to become reacquainted with my sewing machine too, which I'm sure has felt neglected, and to see if I could still sew a straight seam.
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| These two identical Angel Gowns are made from a recycled white satin-like wedding gown. They have short sleeves with flared long dresses. The seams at the middle back are left open instead of sewn. A vest is sewn on the front of each gown in the chest area. (Note: The description of the photo is for the benefit of those who are sight impaired.) |
6 - 7 Conversation starters and appreciation for the fact that no one remains a teenager - On Saturday I attended a picnic with some of those who were in my high school graduation class. Some classmates had been at another class gathering that I attended, but many I had not seen since graduation. Often the actual reunions have been held at the same time I have attended Education Week at BYU, or even further back, family reunions at the home of one of my uncles. We had a large class, and as is probably true for a lot of large classes, one becomes close friends with some, casual acquaintances with others, and never really begins to know the majority of the students. I didn't need to worry a bit about conversing with anyone in the group. The conversation often began with some comment about my eye which is still sporting signs of the black eye I received. I even bought some concealer makeup to try to hide the evidence, but it didn't do the job I was hoping it would. Oh, and I didn't see a single teenager, but I think the majority of us are probably content with what the years and experiences have done to us and for us.
8 Wonderment - I bought some brown cage-free eggs a week ago, and was amazed at the design on the shell of this egg. Do you think the hen who laid this egg was attempting to tie dye her egg?
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| The shell of this brown egg appears to be divided into thirds by two evenly spaced circular lines going around the width of the egg. The lines are about the width of an eraser on a pencil. There is also a vertical line toward the bottom of the egg. That mark isn't quite a distinct. |
9 Longevity - I continue to be amazed by the things that many elderly people are able to still do that enables them to feel a sense of joy as they share what talents and gifts they have been given. This week I also became aware of the longevity of the charge for my attachable keyboard for my iPad. I'm assuming that I must have charged it when I bought it, but I don't recall doing that, so when my keyboard wasn't working this week, it took me a while to figure out what was wrong. It was only when I noticed a port on the side of the keyboard that the light dawned. With a little bit of charging my problem was solved. Because I use the built-in keyboard almost as often as the attachable keyboard, I'd completely forgotten that there was a need to charge it. After all it was working. . . until it wasn't.
10 Cousin visit - Hubby and I had a nice visit with one of my cousins and his wife today. We arranged to meet at the nursing home where Mom stays and had a visit with her for about an hour before we left to eat out at a local restaurant and visit some more. It has been 10 years since I have seen my cousin, although I have stayed somewhat in touch with the family during those years.
Plus one extra thankful - Lessons learned
A bandaid on my face
Stuck to hair near my ear
Painful to remove it
A gasp, but not a tear
Finally got it off
But sticky stuff remained
A scissor snip did it
Now somewhat shorter maned
Wonderful things to be thankful for. That is a cool egg. Sometimes we get local ones that are light green, I forget what kind of chicken lays them, but they look colored for Easter. That is so kind of you to make the angel gowns.
ReplyDeleteOne of our daughters had chickens that laid different colored eggs. I haven't seen those kind of eggs in the stores, but I imagine there might be some like that at the Saturday markets..
DeleteMaking the angel gowns is a small way to perhaps relieve just a bit of the pain of losing a child before his life has barely begun.
Hi Pat! I apologize for being so slow to respond to your awesome list of thankfuls! I had intended to do so yesterday morning, but I woke up to discover that ATT had shut off all our wireless phone/internet service by mistake (they were only supposed to shut off the land line that we no longer use). So I had to go to the ATT store in town to get that straightened out and ran a few more errands while I was there. It sure was a bad feeling to realize that I had no means of communication with the outside world, although I'm told that 911 still works on phones that are not in service, which I am glad to know in case of an emergency.
ReplyDeleteI often think that random lists are the most fun of all to read, because we get to know a person a little better in hearing about pieces of their week. This was such an awesome post, you were busy! :-)
Lunch groups are a fun way to catch up with people and enjoy a time of sharing. Both of the groups you talked about sounded like fun!
I first saw your little angel gowns on your Facebook post and I loved them. I've read some about this project in the past and I can't think of a nicer way to use a wedding gown that will never be worn again, much less a more precious gift for grieving parents to be given the opportunity to see their beautiful baby dressed this way. It is a precious gift and your little gowns turned out wonderful! I used to sew a lot, but my machine is a bit dusty these days too. You are so right that we are in giving mode we find ourselves being blessed in other ways!
Having your black eye as a handy conversation starter is most definitely finding the silver lining of that painful accident! I am also finding it true that it is easier to communicate/converse now with old high school classmates than it might have been back then. I think the many years give us such a variety of experiences to talk about and interesting things to find out about each other! I would not want to go through the teenage years again, or even my twenties. I feel sad for women who still long to be and look that age. Although being a senior often comes with some physical issues that aren't so wonderful, I find life makes a lot more sense now and I am able to accept it, myself, and others more easily. It is certainly more peaceful! I worry about teens who have been raised with their faces and their parents faces in a screen. So much precious interaction time lost!
That truly is a beautiful brown egg you have pictured! At first glance it looked a bit like a football! The lady we get our fresh eggs from has several different kinds of chickens so our eggs come in a variety of pretty pastel and brown colors, and range from small to jumbo size. They are free-range chickens and the eggs taste so much better than what can be purchased at the grocery store!
You did much better than I might have in figuring out why your detachable keyboard had stopped working! Papa Bear probably would have been the one to think of the solution here. I have a detachable keyboard with my Surface tablet that I use almost all the time, being oldschool about typing on keys, but thankfully it connects to the tablet power source. It seems there are so many charging cords around our house, I'm not even sure what they all charge! It is amazing that a rechargeable battery can be made to hold a power supply as long as it does. I often suspect that our technology far advances what we can actually purchase since then we wouldn't need to buy a new one so often. Remember when home appliances lasted for years and years?!
That's a first! I rambled on so long that it wouldn't post my whole comment, said I was over the character limit! Imagine that! Now I am laughing this morning at my long-winded comments. :-) Here's the rest of what I was trying to post....
ReplyDeleteYour visit with your cousin and his wife sounded really nice, and I'm sure your Mom enjoyed having company too. I live far distant from my cousins and see them only rarely, but we have also been doing a bit of catching up in recent weeks, and it's fun to remember back to the days when we were young and good times shared. Now we share support with each other when a parent passes or other life changes come our way.
I loved your little verse about the sticky Band-Aid (ouch) and it's residue. I keep a small bottle of "Goo Gone" for removing sticky adhesive residue from glass jars, old window stickers, and anything else needed, it is citrus based and works on hair too! :-) Papa Bear is "furry", so a Band-Aid placed anywhere on him is likely to require a bit of ouch in the removal, I think you were clever to do a bit of hair trimming to get rid of the sticky spot! Remember the old days when children would sometimes manage to entangle gum in their hair?!
I hope this week is going great for you, and that you've had no earthquake rumbles or shark sightings where you live in Oregon! I so enjoy all your interesting Facebook posts! XOXO
Although I considered Goo Gone, I didn't realize I could use it on hair, but then again I didn't even check the label.
DeleteHaHa, the egg does resemble a football when there is nothing to compare it to in size. How nice that you are able to get fresh eggs, and a variety at that, from someone who has their own free-range chickens.
The appliances in the past did last a lot longer than the ones we have now. We had to replace an oven, the newer kind, because a part was no longer available. Aargh!
I'm glad that your computer is up and running again. When we get so used to being able to connect with everyone in an instant, it is hard to experience those disconnects.