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

365 Days of Blessings, Day 153, Blessed Blog Award, and Sight and Light

The Blessed Blog Award is back! I apologize for having been remiss in my giving. So many blogs are so blessed. Today, I just want to highlight two blogs. Everything Home . . . With Carol is a blog that encompasses writing, homeschooling, and thanksgiving. South Breeze Farm is a blog about homeschooling, and giving thanks! I'm especially thankful for finding the Giving Thanks project started at South Breeze Farm. I feel blessed by both these blogs, and encourage you to check them out too.

For Day 152 of the 365 Days of Blessings, I am especially thankful for light, and for sight:


1. Recently, the power went out in our town, and a friend of mine, who has a great fear of darkness, found herself in a near panic attack. She lit a candle, and prayed. Watching the flame burn strong in the darkness, she felt at peace again, reminded that Jesus is the light of the world.

2. Candles.

3. Lamps.

4. Generators, and the men in my family who know how to use them safely. Someday, I have to learn that skill.

5. Light scattering darkness into patterns of shadows.

6. The burning brightness of the sun glaring on the cover of clouds above us on a cloudy day.

7. Sight.

8. Moonlight.

9. Flashlights.

10. The Lord gives us light, and sight.

Scripture Blessings:
“Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!’
The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!’
Jesus stopped and called them, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ he asked.
‘Lord, they answered, ‘we want our sight.’
Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.”
Matthew 20:30-34