Ten Things of Thankful

The Ten Things of Thankful blog hop feels like my wrap up post each week and what a great way to end the week. Josie Two Shoes' provides a place for us to link up each weekend, well actually, clear until Tuesday evening. Click either of the links above to read more about this blog hop and to read the posts of other bloggers. As always there is just so much for which we can each be thankful. That doesn't mean that we each don't have our share of challenges from time to time, but that we are willing to step aside from them to reflect on what makes life worth living and to express thanks.

By the way, it is okay to share more or less that ten items. The rules for this blog hop truly make participating easy peasy. We'll see if I make it to ten.

1. I'm feeling grateful for the nurse at the nursing home where my mom stays. She will be leaving the middle of the month. I will miss her and the service she has given there. The nurse who will be taking her place will do a good job too, I am sure. After so many visits there, I not only get attached to the other residents and their family members, but to the many nurses and aides.

2. It was good for me to finally get back to a sewing project this week. I'm thankful for that boost of energy to get in there and do it! Although it is not finished yet, I did take out an area of stitching that I was really dreading, because of the type of fabric. Does anyone else dread undoing a mistake to the point of postponing the project way longer than one should?

3. Speaking of projects, my husband and I did a we project this week. We went together to pick out some flowers for some planters on our ramp, worked side by side to get them planted, and then followed up with setting up an automatic watering system for them.   Usually we have just hand watered them, but this is going to make things more convenient when we are gone a day or two on hot days. 

4. It was fun to go with a friend to The FarmHouse Show that was held locally. This is the kind of show that has lots of old/antique items, some of which might have been found on farms or in farm houses. There were quite a few craft items for sale, including a huge assortment of things made from old rusty corrugated roofing materials. We had a great time looking, and I managed to make it home without buying anything, so yeah for me!

5. I'm thankful that another grandson graduated from a university this week. It will be interesting to see what he does from this step forward. There are so many options in one's life.

6. Exploring some mixed up family history records presented a challenge for me this past week. When one has a great uncle who was married several times, and one or two of the wives had previous marriages, the children listed on census records can easily be confused as children of the parents shown on that census. Anyway, it  takes some untangling to straighten things out, and I think that I did it, I guess until proven differently.

7. There are some other blog hops in which I participate for which I have been thankful for the prompts these past few week. Check out Six Sentence Stories at Denise's Girlie on the Edge's blog, and Finish the Sentence Friday hosted by Kristi Campbell at Finding Ninee and co-hosted by Kenya G. Johnson at Sporadically Yours. It is good for me to explore some of these other writing avenues. 

8. I am thankful for this little reminder of some northwest history. A few years ago a friend gave us one of his Lewisia plants. This is one of many kinds of native plants that were encountered by Merriweather Lewis in 1806 when he and William Clark were on their expedition traveling in Oregon Country. Merriweather named it after himself.

A fuchsia colored Lewisia with a darker fuchsia color toward the center of the flower.

9. Our blueberry blossoms are a hopeful sign there will be blueberries to pick in the future, if the deer decide to share. 

A cluster of blueberry blossoms

10. I am thankful for the very air we breathe, and for this beautiful piece composed by Bach.





I hope that you have a very peaceful week and take time out to just breathe and relax if things do get stressful. I am grateful for my husband, family, and friends, including those of my blogging friends.