Thankful




Our Thanksgiving gathering was really pleasant this year. My brother, his wife, and their 23 month old daughter drove down from Mississippi, and my parents, our children, and our friends the Briggs family all poured into our home and filled it with fun. The children had a great time playing inside and out, and the adults pretty much relaxed and enjoyed them and each other.

Mom made her fabulous dressing and brought a cheesecake (from the Cheesecake Factory—YUM!), Kathryn brought a wonderful salad, and I prepared the vegetables and side dishes. I decided to try a new recipe for the sweet potatoes, Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Pecan and Marshmallow Streusel. I’m going to make them every year— delicious! (Our Turkey was a smoked one from Publix—all I had to do was heat it for a few hours—it was great too.)

There’s much to be thankful for this year in our lives. I’ve been thinking about this for several days now, and I have found myself giving thanks for things great and small. I thought I’d see if I could list some of them in this post:

My husband- faithful, loving, courageous
My children- I am blessed to be their mother
My parents- truly wonderful
My brother and his family- a joy to be around
The love of my Heavenly Father
Friends- they bring laughter and lightness into my life
Work- such wonderful people!
My Students- I love having young people in my life
Health- so far so good… I’m grateful
Our home
The journey of life—I’m thankful for God’s mercy and care
Things I’ve learned not to take for granted:
The beauty of the earth and sky--
Night
Day
Morning
Evening
The ocean
Trees
The wind
Birdsong
Music
Prayer
Books
Our bed
The time we have with our children
Learning

Such a list only scratches the surface of a wealth of blessings in my life. I pray the Lord will help me keep this season’s perspective throughout the year. It really is good to give thanks, isn’t it?

Simple Gifts

Last week I was run down, tired, and fighting a bug. Most of the week was spent trying to simply cope with the malaise I was feeling, keeping the family fed, the laundry caught up, teaching, and rehearsing folks at church. By Friday of last week, I was miserable, sick, and needed to stop. Trying to be a nurturing Mom wasn’t even in my thought process.

Today, feeling better with the help of the great drug Penicillin, I was breathing deeply of the fresh cool air, and finding inspiration in the sweetest of places. I finished up my deskwork about 2:30 this afternoon and looked longingly out the window at the glorious Fall weather. Marla would be dismissed from school at 3:00—I wished I could go for a walk, but there wasn’t enough time. Then the thought hit me that I could easily walk up to the school—it’s just a mile away, so I grabbed drink for Marla threw on some walking shoes and took off.

The day was refreshing—sunny, breezy, and mild. Marla was pleased to be picked up on foot and quickly took to the idea of walking home from school on a beautiful day. We walked and chatted, stopping every little bit to collect leaves, berries, and a few flowers. Along the way we saw a bitter melon vine with the most beautiful orange seedpods on it. There were still one or two pods that had yet to ripen, still green but swollen with seeds. One orange pod had begun to burst open and the seeds within were bright red. As we were walking I kept looking at our daughter’s smile. I was so grateful for the time with her—just 30 minutes of walking, laughing, and discovering, yet it was packed with bliss. I kept thinking that I need to look for more opportunities to simply enjoy her.















Once we turned onto our street it was time to skip (according to Marla), so we skipped the rest of the way home, and quickly began arranging the little treasures from our walk on the brick doorstep.
























Tonight my heart is grateful for so many things… this glorious day, a 30 minute walk with Marla, a surprise visit from Daniel and the treat of simply enjoying his company for an hour, and laughing with Sam tonight after putting Marla to bed. All gifts that I didn’t think I had time for today, and each incredibly sweet. Tomorrow will hold it’s gifts as well—I hope I might have eyes to see them too.

Never Mind...


The restaurant Dan works at has decided that there's not enough business on Tuesday nights to support paying a singer, so they've decided to discontinue the music on Tuesdays.

I'll post again if Dan takes another gig... until then, if you go to the Corkscrew Grill to eat a great meal, the music will be the standard background type.