Sunday, February 4, 2018

Ten Things of Thankful

Well the appearance of spring may be a little late this year, if Punxsutawney Phil's forecast is verified, but my post here for the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop hosted by Josie Two Shoes is going to be closer to the beginning of the link up day this time. There are some things I am trying to improve in my life and this is one of them, although this week I did listen to a podcast about procrastination that suggested that it isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Wendy at Josie Two Shoes would love to have you join in with sharing your on post about gratitude. Please click the link to see what others have shared this time and add your own.







1. Theme from Second Movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. I chose to practice this piece by Ludwig van Beethoven (an arrangement by John Thompson) when I practiced playing the piano this week. Although there is still much work for me to do, I am glad for the progress I've made. Since I can barely reach an octave with my hand span, it will be a "stretch" for me to accomplish this easily, but it will be worth the effort, because the music is so beautiful.



2. Daughter who had just what I needed in front of her at the time I called her. For one my blog posts this week I was hoping to find a photo of a blessing dress I had made 18+ years ago. Like so many things I have made, I didn't think to take a photo of it before I gave it away. What amazed me was that she had something so nearby, something that I would have expected to be packed away somewhere or maybe even passed on to someone. She quickly took a photo and attached it in an email. 

3. Retes (Apple strudel). One evening in the middle of the week we ate at a Hungarian restaurant and instead of eating the dessert there, I took my piece home to eat. This was the best apple strudel I have ever eaten! The dough was stretched really thin, or maybe it was phyllo, and the filling was thinly sliced granny smith apples with a very generous portion of cinnamon and as near as I could tell maybe just a smidgen of sugar, maybe. Soooo good.

4. Quick repairs. My glasses had gotten to the point where sometimes when I bent over they fell off my face. One time I almost stepped on them when they dropped. It had been on my to-do-list for a while, but I just kept putting it off, not wanting to sit in a waiting room. Finally I had the time, went in expecting a wait, and had barely sat down when the technician came and got my glasses and in a few minutes later brought them back good as new. Score!

5. Being able to participate again in some of the blog hops I used to be more actively involved. Six Sentence Stories and Finish the sentence Friday.

6. Retirement. I've been retired a long time, but this past week I appreciated how glad I was that because I wasn't working eight-hour days, it was easier for my husband and I to just go and help someone who needed help that day.

7. Those who dare to explore. If it hadn't been for our forebears, the majority of us in this country wouldn't be here. Many came here to escape conditions in their own countries and came here to explore their options for survival in a country that was still in its formative years, at least to their point of view. Today we had an explorer in our home of another kind. He had no intent to do harm, but he wasn't in a safe place either. How he got here remains unknown, but I rescued him and put him outdoors where he  wouldn't be so likely to be smashed by our shoes.



A millipede about 1-1/8" long is slowly making its way down the light blue carpeted hallway. In the photo there is a red pencil horizontally placed with the letters WRITE WRITE written on it to show how very small he is. There is a gap between the words. The millipede is positioned on the rug by that gap on the upper portion of the photo.

8. Good reports. In earlier years a good report might be grades on a report card, or words of praise given by a teacher at a parent/teacher conference, except I don't remember that there were such conferences then. Now in the more advanced stage of this existence, good reports are not the aforementioned but are reports shared by the doctor with the patient about the latest blood test, etc. Sometimes the reports are good and encouraging. Such was the case this past week for one of us in this household and also for a close friend. Such news is always welcomed.

9. Quiet keyboards on the many devices used now. Having taken a number of business classes in my day, which was way back when, the noise from typewriters could be deafening. Even the electric typewriters were noisy. One didn't carry a typewriter with them wherever they went, like is done now with laptops, pads, phones, etc., and it was a good thing. Just imagine each person in a family room using a noisy typewriter at the same time. Yikes! 

10. Sundays. I look forward to Sundays because for me it is a day of rest from the work I do the rest of the week. Not only that though, it is also the day I attend church, and the day to do things that help me focus on things that help me strengthen my spirit and my relationship with God. 

Although my earthly Father didn't attend church very many years, he did come to a point in his life when he began to see that invariably when he did farm chores on Sunday that were not an absolute necessity, something broke or went wrong. He apparently took that as a "sign" and limited his Sunday farm labors to the bare minimum after that. (As told to me by my mother.)
  




17 comments:

  1. #8 Good reports. So true. Sterling results on a blood test, at least a C. Thanks for sharing Beethoven with me as I wake up and read my first blog post of the day. It will set the tone for the rest of the day, I hope. Yay to retirement. And the millipede, yuck. A job for super-husband I think. I'm glad you put him outside. It's a kindness some would not share.

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    1. I've never had a fear of millipedes. They have a hard shell and just curl up when you pick them up. Stepping on them would make a crunching sound and a mess to boot which would be "yuck" to clean up, so for me putting them outside works a lot better.
      Glad you enjoyed listening to Beethoven.

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  2. hey! thanks for the music!
    I enjoy most classical music, but I don't know it well enough to know it by name, especially sections of larger works. And that's a real pain when you wake up with a thread of music playing in your head... then spending the morning at youtube trying to find it.
    Excellent photo caption-ationing*
    #7 especially this time of year, I look out at the woods, edit out the 21st Century stuff and try to imagine walking through the woods without anyplace to go. ayyieee.

    *really not likely to be a 'real' word and though there is a real word 'captioning' the 'ationing' suffix adds just the right amount of action

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    1. I recognize a lot of the classical pieces by the fact I've heard them, but I only am able to tell you the names if I see them in print. I don't usually keep that information tucked away in my memory. Sometimes I can recognize music as being by a certain composer.
      "Caption-ationing" is a word we need for this act!
      Although I love being in the outdoors, if I can stay comfortable, having to exist there day and night making do, would require some hardening up for me.

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    2. There's a way, thanks to technology perhaps, and it's called Shazam. It's an app you can get on your phone that records a song you come across in your day and then locates it and tells you who it is by and what it is called. Just a suggestion for those with smart phones.

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  3. I'm glad you were able to get the photo of the dress. I'd love to see it, but the link didn't work.

    I liked your explorer/millipede analogy, but then I got thinking, what if some giant came along and moved our ancestors far away from the path they were traveling? :-) I imagine your millipede is grateful for your help, though!

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    1. Thanks for the tip on the link not working. It is fixed now. I obviously forgot to make sure it worked.
      The millipede was just so teeny, that I thought I was picking up a small stick at first, and then it was me saying "come look at this little guy." Sometimes it just doesn't take much to surprise me or make me smile.

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  4. Beethoven. My absolute favorite composer! Good luck with your practice. I found Beethoven's music the most satisfying to play although I'd say Chopin comes in a close second :)
    Your #9 makes me laugh. Noisy indeed! I never would have dreamed of this technology when I was in high school. It still amazes me. I am very thankful to be able to enjoy some of these new "typewriters" :D
    That was a score on the no wait for the glasses repair. A nice reminder for me when I get new glasses to consider getting a second pair as backup. I have been known to sit on my glasses and I actually did step on them once! It's the worst feeling.
    Congratulations on the good report!

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    1. I love Beethoven's music because it is often "lively" music, whereas it took me a while to appreciate Bach.
      Yes, Chopin's music is right up there in my favorites too.
      The "new typewriters" are just an amazing advancement!
      Fortunately I do have an extra pair of glasses in case of an emergency. The thought of traveling and having something happen to my glasses, and then not being able to drive, etc. would not be a good thing. :-/

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  5. Oh no! My whole comment just disappeared when I hit publish, once again. I must learn to write my comment in Word and then copy/paste it to your blog, so it won’t vanish before my eyes! This was such a wonderful post, so let me try again. I love reading your TToT post each week because it’s like dropping by for a visit to catch up on how the week went.  Maybe your comment box is trying to tell me that my comments are too long-winded! LOL

    That is such a beautiful piece of music, I am impressed that you’ve taken on the challenge to play it!

    How awesome that your daughter was able to find the little blessing dress that you wanted a photo of. That tells you how precious it is to her, that she knew right where it was! It also means that her house is much more organized than mine is at the moment. That remains my goal for this year, to get it done!

    I haven’t eaten apple strudel in years, the piece you had sounded so good! When I lived in Germany I was amazed to discover how much less sugar they use in their baking, and yet everything tastes wonderful.

    I had to chuckle at you putting off your glasses repairs because I do that, and then when I finally get around to it, I wonder why I waited so long. I can’t read much of anything without mine, so when they start sliding off my face it becomes annoying. It was nice that you got in and out quickly!

    I often realize, as you have, what a blessing retirement is. Not only does it give me more time and energy to take care of the house and Papa Bear, and do the things I enjoy doing, but it also frees me up to do the things God places before me. I like that a lot!

    How lucky for the little millipede that you found him and safely relocated him back outside. Wouldn’t you love to know what journey brought him into your house? You are right about the majority of us being descendants of those who were brave enough to come to America to start a new life. My maternal grandmother’s family emigrated from Sweden when she was only seven years old. Imagine what an adventure that was for her!

    Good reports definitely take on new meaning as we get older, and our friends and family do too. Please join me in praying for a good report this week for an unnamed friend we both know and love.
    I laughed at thinking what homes would be like today if all the keyboards we write on sounded like typewriters, imagine how noisy that would be! I remember our High School typing class all too well! Other associated blessings are spellcheck and autocorrect, even if it sometimes creates strange messages!

    Have a great week ahead Pat, you are a blessing to me! I also note that you now have your new profile picture posted on your page… and it is so beautiful!!

    Josie Two Shoes ~ TToT

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    1. I'm so sorry that you had trouble posting your comment the first time. How frustrating!
      Did you have the pleasure of being around your Swedish grandmother and learning about any of her adventures?
      Well sometimes I've been known to tackle a challenge slightly beyond my reach, or even way beyond my reach, but I'm taking it slow and easy. Instead of plowing through the entire piece of music I'm try to perfect part of it before going on to the next section. It doesn't seem quite so cumbersome that way.
      I've eaten Danish pastries (like eating pastry in Denmark) and remember being surprised at how "not sweet" they were, but still delicious.

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  6. So glad about the good news from the doctor, and that your daughter had just what you needed. Good for you, working on a piano piece that will be a stretch.

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    1. I'll take good news any day.
      I'm finding that I need to watch my posture as I play the piano so my back doesn't rebel. There are some youtube videos about this very problem that musicians can have while playing their instruments.

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  7. Ha! I am chuckling over the thought of multiple family members pecking away on typewriters as they gather in the family room to watch a TV show. We might have all gone insane by now!
    I had to click over to see the blessing dress, and I was glad I did. I love that!

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    1. I'm glad you enjoyed seeing the blessing dress. That was the first time I'd every tried such a thing as combining two different patterns and using crocheting and knitting in the same pattern. Come to think of it, it is the only time. HaHa

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  8. Piano practice. Yay Pat.

    Yes, I love movies like The Post or Darkest Hour I've seen recently or the show Madmen for that sound of all those typewriters in the typing pool. It's better now, but not if you are blind and might be using a computer that talks. When my brother and myself are in the same room, this sometimes happens. We try to limit it though because it is rather distracting.

    Who doesn't love a peaceful Sunday?

    Hope you've had a productive week, enjoying retirement all the while.

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    1. That would be hard for you and your brother to be in the same time you were both using a computer that talks.

      Thanks. I can use all the encouragement I can get to make my weeks productive by not overachieving in one area and completely failing in another. :-)

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