t's been a pretty good week... a lot of little things add up on the grateful list this Friday night:It was a Seth week, so there you have it: grateful, grateful. We got into our school grooves, added a few little routines into our mornings to make them smoother getting out the door and having ALL of us set up for a better day, so that is wonderful. And we navigated some pretty horrendous drop-off and pick-up traffic (for some reason they've decided NOW is the time to do some road construction on one whole side of the school, so everyone has to use ONE road to get close to the school, and it has been pretty jammed up), but I think I've figured out a couple of side streets that can cut our time down. I know, not a big deal, but for me, 20 minutes in traffic is too much! Ha.
I'm grateful for the weather, which is in that very lovely place between summer and fall. I get positively giddy with the energy and happiness this kind of weather brings me. I love having the sliding doors open as late into the morning as possible, with a breeze... and last night as I wandered the fair for a bit, it seemed that maybe a light sweater would have been good after dark, but it wasn't actually cool... just very pleasant. Should make for a great fair weekend!
And speaking of the fair, how wonderful is it to live in a town where people decorate gourds and exhibit them at the fair? (It's also a little weird, especially after a few days when the gourds/squashes start to shrink and shrivel, but I'm going with wonderful at the moment.) And pick flowers from their gardens, and bake cookies and biscuits and make quilts and crochet and make lace and take pictures... I could go on. I saw a bunch of sewing by one local family I know--their boy is a sophomore and he made a suit! A suit! Crazy good, it looks. Oh, and the bunnies! There were lots of bunnies on display, and I saw some really big ones. Hilariously big. I am so grateful for the small town life sometimes, and walking the fair last night really reminded me of that.
I'm grateful that as some summer fruits are fading away, our strawberries are back. I don't think this second crop will come even close to the bounty of the first, but I picked enough to top my granola this morning, and they were very sweet. I will be a bit sad when all that's left in the stores are apples, oranges and bananas, with maybe a super-expensive pineapple and some white-in-the-middle strawberries. Sigh. Then I will switch to dried cranberries in my granola. (Just keeping you in the loop on my breakfast plans. I know that's important to you!)
I'm grateful for health. I remember when I first started doing my grateful list in 2003, right around the time I was diagnosed with "undetermined" thyroid issues. I was weirdly calm about it as it unfolded, believing that it would somehow work out. I think the faux calm, as I call it now, had a lot to do with so much other stuff going on at the time (starting a new business/getting divorced) that it was just not something I could compute, that this could possibly be something BIG. When it was all resolved that fall and I got a clean bill of health, I did realize how much I'd been holding my breath about it, and am still so grateful to feel well and healthy. I don't take it for granted and I know that it can change in the blink of an eye. I have a dear friend waiting to learn if her health issues can be resolved relatively easily or are going to need extensive effort, and I know what that waiting and watching is like. Hang in there, and keep scattering joy, lady. Prayers are going up!
Music always makes my day better, and while I'm still in some weird limbo with my iTunes (just a matter of sitting down and reimporting a lot of music to a different computer), I have been making full use of Pandora! Just started a Roger Whittaker station this week. Ha. Sometimes the music of your childhood is comforting, that's all I can say in defense of that...
But I also re-stumbled onto this duo recently, and was reminded how much I love a) her voice, and b) the arrangement for this song. I'm grateful for music that lifts the spirit.
And color, always grateful for color in my world. I love that we still have summer colors, more or less, but I know the time will come in December, January, February, where I will want nothing more than some green grass or blue sky. That makes me also grateful for places to find color, and Pinterest is still top of that list. Here are my favorite colorful images I've pinned recently...
I'm grateful for the long weekend, and that husband and I can spend some lovely days together. Love it when there's an little extra added on to each end!
Here's to rest and relaxation after a busy week, and hoping you have some of the same. What are you grateful for this weekend?
Peace.
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Good morning to the Queen of Pinterest. What a lovely collection of colourful and creative stuff. The sewing measuring tape that got sewn into the quilt... the cake that reminds me of the cushion you just made... the windmill design on the mini quilt. Very cool stuff... and fun use of colour.
ReplyDeleteAlso really enjoyed your song pick of the week..."Take Me On." Very sweet.
Today I am thankful for Sabbath and a day of rest. Concrete work is heavy, hard work... and when you make it all by hand it is double the work. So a day of rest is sooooo wonderful.
We are looking forward to a picnic today at Butchart Gardens with friends... and a chance to take some more photos. I have not been taking many photos these days except construction shots... and it will be a treat to go the church in Victoria.
I have been on Pandora all week, too! I finally figured out how to create a "blended" station and I have been tinkering with it constantly. I love it.
ReplyDeleteGracie starts school Tuesday (they just finished building her new school, so there was a two week delay) and she's very excited. I'm glad it's a tiny school- I can't imagine navigating a huge drop-off/pick-up line. When I was a kid, we had busses- even if we went to private school (ugh, me) our district provided us bus service to and from. I keep thnking if I hit the lottery, one of my indulgences is to buy the school a pretty bus and insurance and a driver. Gracie thinks she's missing out on something HUGE cause she can't ride a bus.
Our weather has been crummy (heat and rain) but I am totally okay with it as long as my plants don't die and autumn is on the other side! Just knowing it's SEPTEMBER thrills me to no end ;)
Thankful? Oh yes, I have lots to be thankful for...I am thankful that our truck continues to work so hard. I brought a load of navvy jack gravel back 3 times from town this week and that old truck just chugs up the hill and behaves like the good work-horse it is.
ReplyDeleteThankfulness comes to mind when I use my computers. I still need to learn so many features I know they are hiding under their pretty covers but I will get there too, soon.
And I am thankful for all my children who are a delight to more than me.