When I woke this morning, the bright white snow had melted into dark puddles, the world seemed gray and wet, and the only view bringing me joy was the sight of the tree branches swinging wildly in the wind. I wished for somewhere brighter, either with white snow or blue sunshine skies. And then, I looked around me and started counting my blessings:
1. Running my hands though my dog Lady's fur, and seeing her smile with happiness from the part of her mouth, through the expression on her face, through the wiggles of her whole body tail-wagging and the way she leans into me for a hug.
2. My Beagle's big brown eyes, and the tip of his white tail like a banner of happiness. The way he unashamedly expects a big back scratch in the mornings.
3. My husband's amazing love and support in everything I do. (And the fact that he unashamedly wants big back scratches and hugs too).
4. My family. I don't think I can mention them enough. My husband, who I can talk with, laugh with, dream with, cry with, cuddle with, argue with, and who holds my hands sometimes when we fall asleep. My daughter Anna, both fun-loving and thoughtful, who gives giant hugs. My daughter Trisha who is passionate and caring, and yet takes the time to cuddle and make silly faces for fun. My mom and dad, who love life and show it in all that they do.
5. I may have forgotten to type up some of my family names on my A to Z thankfulness post yesterday, but they are written on the original worksheet I filled out in church, and as always in my heart: Kathleen, Ron, John, Anna, Trisha, Amanda, Katie, Stephanie, Jessica, Jacob, Gary, Terry, Mary, John Sr, Teresa, Ken, Holly, Kelly, Logan, Darren, Julie, Pete, Brandon, Dane, Pete, Laura, Jeff, Linda, Aunt Beverly, Aunt Gail, Uncle Tom, Cindy, Mark, Madison, Shane, Jenny, Lawrence, Kayla, Vicki, Duane, Terri, Myron, Despina, cousin Lisa, Darcy, Tim, Carder and his new brother, Big Aunt Lynn, Big Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Bob, Steve, Selena, Evan, the twins, Big Aunt Naomi, Melissa, Jamie, Jenna, and everyone who I have yet to name. I love you all, and am thankful for you.
6. I am thankful for my friends, both here and now, past and present, on-line and in person. You bless my days with joy.
7. The smell of Moroccan Mint green tea.
8. The taste of that bit of raw honey that happened to drip from the honey jar, instead of into my tea.
9. The wind I will feel on my face when I step outside for my walk.
10. I am thankful for the Creator of the Universe, who gives us each life, paints beautiful landscapes for us to walk into, and who breathes joy and hope into us when we follow him. Thank you Lord Jesus!
11. Keeping to a daily Bible reading plan, but then sometimes, just flipping open my favorite, every day book and finding passages that speak to me in the moment.
Scripture Blessings:
"I lift my eyes to the hills-
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth."
Psalm 121:1-2
Showing posts with label Windows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Windows. Show all posts
Friday, November 26, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
365 Days of Blessings, Days 170, 171, and 172
Time is flying by, and I've been forgetting to type up my blessing counts, and my thanksgiving! So here goes, for three days, in no particular order, the blessings I'm giving thanks for:
1. Windstorm stories.
2. My favorite windstorm and power outage story - as a friend of ours drew breath to blow out her birthday candles at home with her family, the lights went out. She waited to blow them out until they found a flashlight.
3. Flashlights are very useful!
4. Candles glowing in the darkness.
5. Only losing power for a minute, but keeping the candles lit just in case.
6. The sound of the wind.
7. Walking on a windswept street, with the fresh clean scent of pine from all the limbs on the road.
8. Pulling the large tree limbs off the road as we went on our two mile walk.
9. Fingers that smell like tree sap. That smell brings back so many memories.
10. My Beagle makes me laugh when he scratches his back on my husband's exercise bike.
11. One of my writing students went beyond her short writing assignment into a typed three page story. Wow!
12. All of my writing students wrote wonderful stories and created great comic strips.
13. A funny story with a moral: being yourself is best.
14. My husband has offered to teach me how to edit video . . . I'm thankful, and I think we'll need prayers. He gets everything techie in a flash, and I plod along at a turtle's pace, so it's hard for him to teach me. He has to slow down, and find all those "hidden" steps that he skips through without thinking.
15. My husband is a generous man. Last night he worked on two projects, one for children's choir at church, and one for our dance studio director.
16. Vanilla Tea.
17. Vanilla Candles.
18. Imaginative, colorful dreams.
19. Revising, and re-submitting three poems, and feeling really, really good about one of them, and pretty good about the other two.
20. A New Favorite Tea! Stash's Chocolate Mint Wuyi Oolong Tea. It's really sweet and tasty.
21. Having good conversations at the dance studio, and having someone tell me, "your mom is such a nice woman."
22. My Dad, and his courage.
23. My father-in-law's dedication to the things he loves: Jesus, his wife and family, and skiing. Oh, and golf too.
24. My mother-in-law's sense of humor. I sent her a link to a poem about grammar the other day, and she wanted to add just one word to the end: "whatever."
25. The Grammar Twins poem. Check it out here: Grammar Twins
26. My mom's cheery attitude in the face of opposition, "I'm not borrowing trouble today."
27. Snoopy comics about the craft of writing found in Snoopy's Guide to the Writing Life edited by Barnaby Conrad and Monte Shulz.
28. Calvin and Hobbes comics. I miss them in the paper, but I have the books!
29. Roots that go down deep. (Faith roots and tree roots that can't be uprooted by any storm)
30. God gives us hope for a new life here and now, and a hope for eternal life in Him.
Scripture Blessings:
"The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.'" Matthew 28:5-6
Normally, this is where I would end my post, but lately, I've had many reasons to pray and many prayer requests. If you can, please pray for these people. I'm only going to share their first names and a general way they need to be prayed in an attempt not to break any confidences.
So, if you pray, please send up a prayer for:
My Dad, Ron - for healing, and strength
Michelle - for healing, and strength
Jessica - for healing, and encouragement
Susan - for comfort, and encouragement
Vicki - for encouragement, and strength
1. Windstorm stories.
2. My favorite windstorm and power outage story - as a friend of ours drew breath to blow out her birthday candles at home with her family, the lights went out. She waited to blow them out until they found a flashlight.
3. Flashlights are very useful!
4. Candles glowing in the darkness.
5. Only losing power for a minute, but keeping the candles lit just in case.
6. The sound of the wind.
7. Walking on a windswept street, with the fresh clean scent of pine from all the limbs on the road.
8. Pulling the large tree limbs off the road as we went on our two mile walk.
9. Fingers that smell like tree sap. That smell brings back so many memories.
10. My Beagle makes me laugh when he scratches his back on my husband's exercise bike.
11. One of my writing students went beyond her short writing assignment into a typed three page story. Wow!
12. All of my writing students wrote wonderful stories and created great comic strips.
13. A funny story with a moral: being yourself is best.
14. My husband has offered to teach me how to edit video . . . I'm thankful, and I think we'll need prayers. He gets everything techie in a flash, and I plod along at a turtle's pace, so it's hard for him to teach me. He has to slow down, and find all those "hidden" steps that he skips through without thinking.
15. My husband is a generous man. Last night he worked on two projects, one for children's choir at church, and one for our dance studio director.
16. Vanilla Tea.
17. Vanilla Candles.
18. Imaginative, colorful dreams.
19. Revising, and re-submitting three poems, and feeling really, really good about one of them, and pretty good about the other two.
20. A New Favorite Tea! Stash's Chocolate Mint Wuyi Oolong Tea. It's really sweet and tasty.
21. Having good conversations at the dance studio, and having someone tell me, "your mom is such a nice woman."
22. My Dad, and his courage.
23. My father-in-law's dedication to the things he loves: Jesus, his wife and family, and skiing. Oh, and golf too.
24. My mother-in-law's sense of humor. I sent her a link to a poem about grammar the other day, and she wanted to add just one word to the end: "whatever."
25. The Grammar Twins poem. Check it out here: Grammar Twins
26. My mom's cheery attitude in the face of opposition, "I'm not borrowing trouble today."
27. Snoopy comics about the craft of writing found in Snoopy's Guide to the Writing Life edited by Barnaby Conrad and Monte Shulz.
28. Calvin and Hobbes comics. I miss them in the paper, but I have the books!
29. Roots that go down deep. (Faith roots and tree roots that can't be uprooted by any storm)
30. God gives us hope for a new life here and now, and a hope for eternal life in Him.
Scripture Blessings:
"The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.'" Matthew 28:5-6
Normally, this is where I would end my post, but lately, I've had many reasons to pray and many prayer requests. If you can, please pray for these people. I'm only going to share their first names and a general way they need to be prayed in an attempt not to break any confidences.
So, if you pray, please send up a prayer for:
My Dad, Ron - for healing, and strength
Michelle - for healing, and strength
Jessica - for healing, and encouragement
Susan - for comfort, and encouragement
Vicki - for encouragement, and strength
Sunday, August 8, 2010
365 Days of Blessings - Day 71
Do you have blessings in your life that you would be willing to share here at my blog?
I would love to hear them, and if possible post them in my shared blessings section. The Shared Blessings section has been a spot at the end of my posts for a week or so now, made in the hope of encouraging others to share their blessings.
If you have some that you wouldn't mind sharing, please post them in the comment section or e-mail me.
For the next few weeks, the Shared Blessings are going to be right here at the top of my blog. I would love to hear from you. What has blessed your life lately?
Shared Blessings:
1. My husband is thankful for having good enough health to play the last softball game of the season yesterday. We had a great time at the game.
365 Days of Blessings, Day 71 (from me)
1. God set aside a day for rest. Thanks God!
2. A really fun, hard fought softball game. We lost, it rained on us, but we cheered for each other, and ended the season with smiles.
3. My husband played yesterday and had fun sliding into third base. Why does he slide? Because that is just the kind of player he is . . . and thankfully his back is good enough that he isn't limping around because of it.
4. Taking all of yesterday afternoon as a rest stop for myself and my daughters. We snuggled, and read our library books all afternoon.
5. My husband installed a used dishwasher to replace our really old one, and it works so far.
6. Thankfully, after the game, and the dishwasher, my husband took some time and rested around the house and then went and cheered for a few more softball teams that were still in the tournament last night.
7. Our dogs and our cat are always happy to see us get going in the morning.
8. Hot water for cereal, tea, and anything needed. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, not every place in the world has clean water of any kind. Our country is so blessed.
9. Bananas, just getting the brown spots that mark them as perfectly ripe (for my tastes anyway).
10. Windows. They open our eyes to the world around us.
Website for the day: World Vision International One of many places that is working to give people clean water, food, long term training programs, education, and hope. They save children from diseases related to unclean drinking water, and young girls and women from sexual human trafficking. Check out their website, and make a difference in someone's life. I know I sound like a commercial, but I really believe that the work they do is worthwhile.
Scripture Blessings:
"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgement of God rather
than burnt offerings." Hosea 6:6
I would love to hear them, and if possible post them in my shared blessings section. The Shared Blessings section has been a spot at the end of my posts for a week or so now, made in the hope of encouraging others to share their blessings.
If you have some that you wouldn't mind sharing, please post them in the comment section or e-mail me.
For the next few weeks, the Shared Blessings are going to be right here at the top of my blog. I would love to hear from you. What has blessed your life lately?
Shared Blessings:
1. My husband is thankful for having good enough health to play the last softball game of the season yesterday. We had a great time at the game.
365 Days of Blessings, Day 71 (from me)
1. God set aside a day for rest. Thanks God!
2. A really fun, hard fought softball game. We lost, it rained on us, but we cheered for each other, and ended the season with smiles.
3. My husband played yesterday and had fun sliding into third base. Why does he slide? Because that is just the kind of player he is . . . and thankfully his back is good enough that he isn't limping around because of it.
4. Taking all of yesterday afternoon as a rest stop for myself and my daughters. We snuggled, and read our library books all afternoon.
5. My husband installed a used dishwasher to replace our really old one, and it works so far.
6. Thankfully, after the game, and the dishwasher, my husband took some time and rested around the house and then went and cheered for a few more softball teams that were still in the tournament last night.
7. Our dogs and our cat are always happy to see us get going in the morning.
8. Hot water for cereal, tea, and anything needed. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, not every place in the world has clean water of any kind. Our country is so blessed.
9. Bananas, just getting the brown spots that mark them as perfectly ripe (for my tastes anyway).
10. Windows. They open our eyes to the world around us.
Website for the day: World Vision International One of many places that is working to give people clean water, food, long term training programs, education, and hope. They save children from diseases related to unclean drinking water, and young girls and women from sexual human trafficking. Check out their website, and make a difference in someone's life. I know I sound like a commercial, but I really believe that the work they do is worthwhile.
Scripture Blessings:
"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgement of God rather
than burnt offerings." Hosea 6:6
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