Ten Things of Thankful

It is thankful time! In case you haven't heard, there is a blog hop hosted by Kristi of Thankful Me who opens the link to the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop each Friday. It stays open until Tuesday. Click here to read more about how simple she makes it for people to join the other bloggers in this thankful sphere. Even if you have had a week that was filled with some unpleasant events, with a little bit of meditating, pondering or whatever you call it, you may be able to see the bright side. It is worth giving it a try. It beats the alternative. 

1. As you may remember from reading some of my TToT posts this year, we made some changes to our home. We had a new roof put on first and later new siding and finally had the house painted. This week the house survived a sudden wind storm that hit amidst lightning and thunder and heavy rain. A wind burst struck our big maple tree which is kitty-corner across the driveway from our house. Two very large branches high up in the tree broke off and and took a nosedive to the ground on the side of the tree away from our house.

Wind damaged maple tree that has two
broken branches, one of which is
appears to be upside down and the
 other one is on the ground with
 only part of it visible at the bottom
 left corner of the photo

2. The vehicles survived the storm. Had the branches from the tree fallen on the opposite side of the tree, there would have been a good chance they would  have hit at least one of our vehicles.

3. If the branches had spiraled as they fell, they possibly would have landed on the driveway causing us to do a a bit of cross-country driving around the other side of our house. In other words, we would be driving over an uneven surface of vegetation and sod which received a lot of heavy rain during and after the storm. Think muddy and slippery.

4. Facebook groups where one can pose a question or a concern can often be quite helpful. In giving consideration to the amount of “stuff” we have that now qualifies as junk, I wanted to know if there was anyone who could recommended a junk dealer in our area. Thanks to the quick responses, I was able to very quickly contact someone and arrange for a pickup time this coming week.

5. When the fluorescent bulb in a high ceiling fixture burned out, a friend and her husband came to put the bulb in for us. High ladders are something that neither one of us feel safe in using anymore. Unfortunately the new bulb didn’t light up, but we now know that what we need is a new fixture.

6. My husband and I went to see the new movie, Yesterday, this week and then went out to eat afterward. Fun date.

7. It was nice to be able to return home after the date. Seriously, it really was. When we started the car and began driving home, we realized that although the car was running, there were no lights on the dashboard. We did have headlights and turn signals working, but no way to see how fast we were driving.  We pulled into a parking lot and tried to turn off the car. The only way we were able to turn off the car was to do a hard press (or press and hold) on the on/off button. We tried several times to turn on the car, but got the same results of no lights on the dashboard. Since it wasn’t dark yet, we decided to drive home. (Any place that we could have taken the car to be serviced was closed by then.) We made it home  and got the car turned off. This morning when I went out turn on the car, it was functioning perfectly normally. I was able to schedule an appointment for this coming Monday to have it checked out.

8. I am thankful for strength beyond my own. Sometimes when it becomes apparent that I lack the ability to handle a task, I will call upon my husband to come to my aid and he will know the right tool, or the right way to do something that needs to be done. There are other times when a certain job is a little easier for me to do for one reason or another, but then it proves problematic. When I am already in the middle of doing a task and it requires that it be finished, but I am unable to go forward with it because of my lack of physical strength, then praying is what I do, and very specific praying in which I explain what it is I am trying to do and why I think it needs to be done and giving a thankful prayer after my prayer has been answered. There are other instances when I pray for inspiration or ideas as to how to solve a problem and an idea will come enabling me to complete a task by using some kind of substance that normally would not be used that way. 

9. It was fun discovering some photos this week that were taken years ago. . .and they were here all along, and most likely it was me who stored them along with some old slides. I wished I had remembered they were there when I was organizing all the photos recently, but then again, I would have missed the excitement and the joy of rediscovering these memories.

This photo of our little puppy
makes me laugh. My dark pants
blend in with the gravel and makes
me look only half there, suspended
midair above the puppy.

10. I am thankful that our bodies were created in a way that enables us to be able to smile and to see the smiles of others. What a dismal world this would be without smiles.

Six Sentence Stories - Simple

How easy or hard is it to write a story using only six sentences? Now add in the factor that in your story, you need to incorporate a prompt word. Does this make it easier or does that complicate the matter so much that you decide to skip the challenge and just read the stories others write? Every week there are many who accept the challenge, so think about it. I will be linking my Six Sentence Stories - Simple to the blog hop hosted by Denise of Girlie on the Edge's Blog. You are invited to click here to read these other stories.

He was a man of few words and she a woman of many when it came to coming up with solutions to problems. A simple yes or no, or that sounds great, let’s do it were words that rarely came rushing out of her mouth at the get-go.

The quiet man had already mulled things over while doing mundane tasks and knew what he wanted to do, but she hadn’t been privy to the flux of ideas and aspirations that had been stirring through his mind. What now seemed to be a flawless solution to the challenge at hand for him, now required some simmering time for her to consider all the pros and cons.

While she simmered, he stewed, knowing time’s a wastin’. Meanwhile, he guessed he would give some consideration to the next project on the slate in his mind.

Ten Things of Thankful

Yeah! It is a quiet Saturday, and I am glad to be able to be here to link up to the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop hosted by Kristi of Thankful Me. 

Do you have your list written (at least in your head) and ready to post yet? I am sure you have some items that you will want to share and be able to reread sometime in the future. Things recorded now might bring you a few "I'd forgotten all about that" moments in the future. Click here to see what other bloggers are sharing this week and link up if like.

1. The painters finished painting our house. Our planters will have new soil and flowers and be back on the railing soon.

The summer makeover of the house: new
roof, cedar shakes replaced with Hardy board
siding, and a newly painted exterior

2. I survived the days of not being able to see through the windows in our home because they were covered with plastic while the house was being painted. This experience gave me a new appreciation of what it might be like to be vision impaired. I never realized how much I love being able to look outside, while being inside. I am thankful for my vision.

Windows sheathed on the
outside with plastic created a
very blurry scene

3. Although this was the week scheduled for painting the outside of the house, and June normally is warm and sometimes hot here, one day in particular had me a little concerned when there were some very light sprinkles starting to fall. That would not have been ideal circumstances for being able to get the job finished in the scheduled time, had the day become a rainy one. I was glad when the sprinkles subsided.

4. Being able to “let go” of papers carefully saved, which I once referred to quite frequently, has been quite freeing. They served their purpose at the time, but now they are free to go.

5. Many of the papers I had saved were covered with words of purple print that were so common way back when, and now quite faded after so many years of being saved in folders. I am grateful that secretaries no longer have to smell the odor associated with ditto machines.

Faded paper run on a ditto machine

6. I am thankful for the letters my mother wrote. As I came across letters from her among the papers I was sorting, I couldn’t help noting some of the things that she was doing at certain times of her life. It was interesting at the time she wrote them, but even more so now that I am the same age or older than she was at the time. Speaking of comparisons, I would love to have something written in my own handwriting when I was the age that my son was when he wrote this recipe (with added notations from his teacher).

Kashata recipe written by our son when
he was probably in the first grade

7. As my husband and I continue to each write a story for StoryWorth each week, I have come to appreciate the value of my journals, letters, calendar notations, photographs and newspaper articles as we try to recall and respond to the writing assignments for the week. This week I was able to find details for my husband that I wrote in my journal about a trip we took in 1995. So many of the details of one's life could be easily forgotten without these journal writings, unless one has a photographic memory.

8. I am thankful for timing, of being at a certain place at a given time and knowing that you had nothing to do with it. Often events unfold that make it apparent that you were the “key” that was needed, and things needed to unfold in a particular way for that to happen. I was privy to one of those “timing” incidences this week.

9. The emails and texts from family letting me know they arrived, that they are okay, that things are going better, etc. are much appreciated blessings. This week they were from all over the globe.

10. I am thankful for times to rest, and in particular for the Sabbath day, one designated as a day of rest from worldly labors and activities. For me, Sunday is my Sabbath day, and I am looking forward to it. I am thankful for my husband who respects and honors me and my desire to attend church and participate in activities on Sunday that are in keeping with the Sabbath. 

(Although I grew up in a family that for the most part did not attend church together, long after I left home, my mother told me that my father came to a point in his life when he no longer did any kind of work on the farm, except for those chores that needed to be done, i.e. milking the cows and making sure the animals had food and water. He had come to realize a pattern that had developed. To him it seemed that any time  he tried doing other kinds of work on the farm, except for the “ox in the mire” type on Sundays, invariably something went wrong. Something broke or just didn’t go as he had planned.)

Six Sentence Stories - Release

Thanks, Denise of Girlie on the Edge's Blog, for giving us this prompt for the blog hop this week. Check out Six Sentence Stories - Release to see what stories have crept out of the minds of the bloggers this week.

 

As he was squatted behind home plate, a position some coveted, he caught the missed balls and then skillfully propelled them back to the pitcher.

He was hardly inside the doorway when he was bombarded by little children clamoring, “Daddy, Daddy” as they grabbed hold of his legs before letting go so he could set down his briefcase while at the same time feeling thankful for sea legs.

On herpetology field trips he carefully picked up snakes and lizards to examine them before returning them to their habitat.

When he caught flack for something he did, or the way he had handled something at work, instead of bringing it home, he let it go.

With camera in hand, he perfected his craft over his lifetime as he repeatedly and steadily pressed the shutter and then let it disengage.

Whether in a boat, or almost completely encased in waders in a river, he became a master of catch and release.

Ten Things of Thankful

Happy Fathers Day to all the fathers, hope-to-be fathers, and those men who play the role of a father figure to those who no longer have a father in their lives. I am especially thankful for my husband who has played such a pivotal role in our family and in the rearing of our children.

It is Ten Things of Thankful time. Each week a blog hop hosted by Kristi of Thankful Me invites all who wish to share things for which they are grateful to link up. The number specified in the title is ten, but that is not a hard and fast rule. What is important is the action of expressing thankfulness. Click the link and you will have a chance to read the posts of other bloggers.

1. Having our house pressure washed in preparation for getting it painted soon

2. Decluttering, continued

Being able to find sites that recycle batteries and learning more about how to prepare certain batteries before dropping them off

Trashing some very old pillows (I really wish there were some better options for these.)

Dropping off old prescription medications to one of the appropriate drop sites

3. Spending one day at the coast to get away from the high nineties heat in the valley mid week

4. Taking a hike part way up a trail behind a lighthouse and listening to the inner voice saying don’t go any higher

My husband was busy taking photos of the peregrine falcons on the cliffs surrounding the parking lot by the visitors center. I decided to use my time hiking up to the lighthouse area. He knew where I was going, but since my decision to hike up the trail on a high hill behind the lighthouse was a last minute decision on my part, he didn’t know the change in my plans. I was hiking alone and didn’t have a walking stick with me. When I reached a certain place on the trail, there was a step about a foot high that caused me to pause and consider if I could safely ascend and descend without falling on the graveled path. I decided not to take the risk. Next time around, I will take a walking stick, go with someone and let someone know my destination.

Looking up from the trail
toward the top of the hill at
 Yaquina Head. The hill is
covered with a lot of salal
which was in bloom. 

5. Commiserating with my husband about what were the possibilities of saving the life of a hummingbird we found on the ground

We were not sure what had caused his injury. He couldn’t fly. He may have flown into a window pane, although that would have been extremely rare. In all the years we have lived here there has not been a hummingbird that has done that. There have been some other birds that have occasionally hit one of the windows. Hummingbirds do not have a body meant for walking, so when we discovered him on the ground, his taking  a step and trying to flap his wings resulted in him just falling over on his side. Vic got a dropper and filled it with sugar water to see if the bird would drink some. After a while It did. We put the hummingbird on an old washcloth that we put in a little cardboard box. We offered him sugar water from time to time, but by the next morning he was dead. Even in the best of circumstances, like living next door to a veterinary, being able to diagnose the injury of a hummingbird and then treat it isn’t an easy task. I am thankful for my husband’s caring heart.

6. For my husband’s strength in being able to fix one of the sliding closet doors which had caused me quite a bit of frustration this past week

7. For some weeds which do not have deep roots and are easier to dislodge from the ground

8. For being able to see the rings around Saturn this past week, albeit not exactly clearly since I was just using binoculars

9. Sharing in the happiness of others

A friend was receiving a special ordinance at the temple one day this past week. Several of her friends, along with myself, were there to share this happy occasion with her. 

10. Apps and online sites that provide patient and family support to those who are facing difficult health journeys

Whether it is a life threatening illness or one that will continue throughout one’s entire life, these sites can bring a degree of peace and support to the patient and to their loved ones. Check charitynavigator.org to learn more about charities that can help. 

Six Sentence Stories - Extension

My mind has taken so many turns trying to come up with a story for this Six Sentence Stories - Extension post. I felt like I was in the middle of one of those long curly extension cords people used to have on their phones before there were cordless phones and cell phones. Our host, Denise of Girlie on the Edge's Blog, gives us a new cue each and every week, for which we can be very grateful. Can you imagine what it would be like to have to write a story every week using the same prompt each time? Click the link and read the stories of the other bloggers. See if you can find the word extension in their stories.

Why did you decide to move? Did the fumes from the factory out your way finally get to you?

Not exactly, although those fumes certainly have deterred some from giving serious consideration to making this area home. Actually, as we have seen the new subdivisions invading our open space, we decided now was as good a time as any to make a break for it. The headlines in the paper have already mentioned an impending sewer extension and that is causing a big stink in more ways than one. 

Hmm. . .I hear there is a big dairy farm a few miles away from your new home.

Ten Things of Thankful

Although I wasn't one of the very first bloggers to participate in the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop at its onset, thanks to my daughter, Kristi of Thankful Me, the current host of this blog hop, I was gathered in, so to speak, back in June of 2015. I dipped my toes into blogging beginning in 2011 for a few months before life got crazy for me and I dropped out. My daughter's encouragement was contagious and I started in again in June 2015. Lizzi Lewis, of Considerings, was the host of the TToT blog hop then, and she and other bloggers were so welcoming of my participation, especially given the fact I was most likely many years their senior. I have found this blog hop group to be such a welcoming and encouraging circle of individuals coming from all walks of life. I am linking up for Ten Things of Thankful's Sixth Anniversary!  


Welcome back to all who are here for this special weekend of giving thanks, and a hearty welcome to all the newcomers!

1. For our Internet service that is finally up and running again

2. For the hazardous materials facility where I was able to drop off some things that I couldn’t put in the trash, recycle or in some other way repurpose

My husband did this Russian
embroidery recycling logo on his shirt
 years ago when he was very involved in
promoting the concept of recycling.

3. For the samples of paint to try out on the new siding on our house

Versatile Gray, Heron Plume, and
Swing Brown paint chips

4. For that smell that warns you of impending lightning and thunder storms

5. For getting lots of steps in every day this past week

6. For the astounding ways that all living things are able to function

7. For possibilities to see things differently and to do things differently

Two kinds of barberry plants.
The plant with the red tinged
leaves gets quite large, while
the one with the bright yellow
leaves is diminutive by
comparison.

8. For dinners out and ways to take home the leftovers

9. For family and being able to see a bit of oneself in them and a bit your ancestors in you

10. For the blessings that come from being able to forgive

Ten Things of Thankful

After being without our internet connection and being unable to link up to the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop this past weekend, I am posting it now even though it is too late to link it to the site hosted by Kristi of Thankful Me. If you click here you should still be able to read the posts others did link. 

Weather in the 70’s  all week (great weather for beginning to replace the siding on our home and getting new windows)

Going back in time while I sorted through photos, greeting cards and letters

Questions - If you died tomorrow, what would they be left with? 

This was a note I jotted during a BYU Education Week class I took back in August of 2010. The class was titled Creating a Personal History That Will Engage Your Posterity. I came across this note during a day of purging unnecessary paperwork this last week.

Getting my StoryWorth story submitted before we lost our internet connected due to an accidental cutting of a wire during the work being done on our home

Being able to organize and file paperwork and photos, and shred, recycle, and discard other papers and having the things and services that make doing so easier, i.e. a shredder that is fast, recycling cans that can be picked up at the end of the driveway, acid-free photo boxes, big binders, and filing cabinets.

My husband who is very patient when my Type A personality shines forth more strongly at some times than others

The innate characteristics we are born with but which through our experiences and choices we can modify and improve

Singing in a choir and the feeling one has when individual voices become united as one that has the power to not only stir the hearts of those singing but also those in the audience 

Things to ponder such as mentioned by Paul as written Philippians 4:8 in the New Testament

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Moments of clarity when one is reminded of those things that matter most in this life and everything else pales in comparison

Six Sentence Stories - Mountain

Sometimes it is sort of like scaling a mountain to write a story using only six sentences, while other times getting that story written is like being on a inner tube that is hell-bent on getting down the mountain and has left you on your backside not far from where you started. If you actually managed to stay on that slippery beast, the words were most likely tumbling fast and furious in your mind hoping you wouldn't forget a single one.

I am linking up to the blog hop Six Sentence Stories - Mountain, hosted by Denise of Girlie on the Edge's Blog. I hope you give this writing venture a try. Check out her site for the details. In short, there is a different prompt word each week and participants must keep their stories to only six sentences. (Note: Because I had prepared this post before it was time to link up, and then we lost our internet connection for over a week, you won't see my SSS there, but you will be able to read the other bloggers' posts.)

At last the baby was asleep in the portable plaid plastic bassinet in the back seat of the blue VW bug as they were driving back over the mountain range toward home.

Every once in a while, when there was a clearing among the fir trees that bordered the winding highway, they could see the full moon outshining all the stars combined dotting the firmament.

They still had another hour or more of traveling to do before reaching their destination, when all of a sudden, the engine stopped running and they had no lights.

“It’s a good thing I know this road like the back of my hand and there seems to be hardly any traffic, so maybe I can just coast to that old gas station by the fork in the road,” he said, trying to sound confident.

“Yes, and thank goodness we are on the downside of the pass. . . with patches of moonlight ever so often just like stepping stones guiding us there,” she thought to herself.

As they turned into the station, the owner rubbed his eyes, and stepped out of the weathered log house to see what he could do to assist these stealthy night owls and prove to his wife that he could make an honest night’s living, even after all their years of living apart.