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WAY overdue here, but better late than never.
It's time once again for another installment of my "Ten Things" to be thankful for, always varied, always random bits in positively NO particular order.
Who can believe the fall season is already upon us? We've had such a lovely summer this year, I never wanted it to end, but now that fall is here I have to say we are all sleeping so much better at night with the cool temperatures quickly returning.
The stillness by which we number our days is quite attractive to me, and it has provided a calming presence to our more structured and yet simple lives.
There is something to say about being at home more during the day, providing stability at best, well ... at least when able before the evening taxi duties begin after dinner.
Yes, there is something to say about ordering our days, and yet living with an openess to impulsive change if necessary within the more solid structure of the schooling syllabus.
Without further ado, let me present my "Ten Thankful Things", just sparks of thankfulness appearing in my days this past week.
Please know for certain that my own personal thoughts on true thankfulness can obviously never be offered, nor delivered in true completeness within one simple post. And in case you just might find it interesting and want even more today, you can always skip along to view other "thankful" posts by clicking onto the archives located - right HERE.
- 1 - I'm thankful for special artwork exchanged at the barn over the summer months, little notes, cards and artwork gifted to our daughters from the gals hanging out there.
For all the work they were involved with, the labors of the love of all things horse, it was with great admiration they would also spend much time at home thinking of those horses left behind when day was done and the shower was crying out their names. So cute!
- 2 - I'm thankful for catching glimpses of local artists at work in various locations over the summer months. We've noticed there are many artists working and selling from their home studios around our general geographical area.
Several times each year, announcements arrive for "artist's open house studio tours", complete with maps on how to get there. Some of their residences are rather secluded, and others are in amazing natural settings, all well worth the studio tour admission fee for the day. This particular artist above was sometimes seen at the water's edge, painting in real time and not inside of his studio.
My heart gets all warmed up inside when able to witness moments such as these ones, for my own husband has all the makings of an artist as well, and sold some of his paintings in an art gallery when we were first married. His unique ability to also see color in artistic form means much to me and our whole family, for it is only a very sporadic day when inspired again to pull out his paints and brushes.
Maybe if we attend more studio tours, or spot more artists working like this one, he too will paint more treasures for our home. I'm hoping anyway. (right hubby? hint, hint)
- 3 - I'm thankful for my brother being able to visit with us for the first time since our move out east. As he was already out this way to attend a work conference, the time we were able to spend together was a most perfect catchup!
Here the guys are posing with the friendly beaver, apparently from one year when beavers were the popular artwork all over town and this one was bought by the restaurant owner on his premises. Funny thing but last weekend was the "beaver races" locally. I'm not even sure on that one myself (laughing over it).
- 4 - I'm thankful for chance outdoor patio dining when the food is perfect and the company even more amazing. Summertime pleasures for my hubby and I were trying out new eateries now and then, using an iphone app on my phone to guide us along.
Some were sensational. Others were quite lousy. All were experiences for my foodie hubby and I and most met with a thumbs up. One restaurant in particular attracted foodies from near and far with his "The Chef's Daily Tasting Menu". He and his sous chefs offer a fine menu of selected organic everything, local foods and fresh from the farm ingredients, some of the items so unusual, that it is highly recommended guests arrive and allow for an entire evening to consume their personalized (and unknown!) dinner and dessert.
It's only truly for the bravest of the brave foodie in general, an attractive price for a 6-8 course meal (with some fairly weird and unusual foods!), but remember - there are no requests as he is left completely free to experiment and surprise his patrons by creating anything he feels like making. My hubby's eyes lite up at the whole thought of this strange offer, um, maybe another time...
- 5 - I'm thankful for actually doing this! We went to a drive-in double feature movie this summer, at a little country hick place near to us. Don't laugh! (I am...) We've been to one drive-in in our entire married lives some thirty-three years ago.
Remember that block buster film "Star Wars"? Yes? That was the one we attended, with a six month old baby we thought would sleep in the back seat through the whole movie. WRONG! She wailed. She cried. Hubby wanted to see the flick and asked me to quiet her down a bit. I ended up in the back seat the whole movie and with high head rests in front of me, I neither saw nor heard almost the entire movie.
Last month, we decided we had to try it again. I felt like we were in a time warp at this location, with it's fifties (read - never been remodeled) interior concession stand area. The grass we drove on was a dead give away to living in the country, and oh, the speaker poles were still there but speakers are no longer used you know. Instead one has to turn on the radio to a designated station where the movie audio plays through your vehicle's sound system.
As the full moon was overhead, and there weren't too many patrons this weekday evening, we giggled like two teenagers, content with our popcorn and water bottles. Since the mosquitoes were eventually hovering everywhere, we tucked inside the truck. Okay, so it was FUN! I'm afraid though, we are getting too old to return home to worried teens with every light on inside the house turned on for our homecoming, sometime around 2am. (snicker, snicker) and completely bagged the next day!
- 6 - I'm thankful for neat old barns all over the place! I love to think of their histories, wondering who owned them, what they used them for, how life was for them while obviously farming for a living.
As I am a tad bias and think barns should be painted red, I often wonder if an old weathered one was perhaps that very color years ago. I'm a sucker for a nice old barn.
I've accumulated a whole treasure trove file of many since our move east. Timeless, and wonderful, at least they are to me.
- 7 - I'm thankful that the woman who hit me head-on swerving at the last minute, doing only minor damage to my vehicle and no one was hurt. Shaken up a bit is all, our guardian angels hard at work at "what could have been".
I'm thankful too for the body work place, offering to vacuum suck the bump out and see what other damage would require repair. As the body of a vehicle has a "memory", it was recommended not to wait long, but after three estimates, we figured rather than just cough up a thousand dollars, or about half of that at one other place, the suggestion to try to pull it out first and then see where to go from there was well worth the fabulous fee of only - 50.00!
Nothing else required work, well except for reattaching the wire for the driving light on the bottom that was detached in the hit. I'm more than thrilled with the end result.
- 8 - I'm thankful for growing children who don't think they're too big yet not to cuddle up with their daddy during our bonfires, little girls who still revere their father as the king of his castle, loving him always from the depths of her heart and loving every second she spends with him.
- 9 - I'm thankful for new picture frames! Yes, empty photo frames offer us the gift of placing a memory under its glass frontage, and strategically resting it somewhere in sight to remember those we love and/or special memories we hold dear to our hearts.
- 10 - I'm thankful for no more BIG HAIR recently after the humidity died off and a haircut provided a new me with less poof. :) Since paparazzi abounds here in our home with others owning cameras, it was actually quite a nice change to see a summer photo of me without a poofy do.
** And a bonus one today! **
BONUS!
I'm thankful for all the little things on our goal list we were able to accomplish this summer (oh, and of course the bigger things too), all performed weather and humidity pending, those things like;
- painting the exterior of the doors a new color to match the decks
- small wooden moldings along the interior of the doorway bottoms that weren't ever stained are now done
- smaller holed metal wiring placed upon the fireplace vents for mice prevention
- more caulking for the same
- hanging more sporty photos on the walls of our sport room
- ..... and - all the rest of those nagging types of things.
Or if you prefer, even bigger stuff like having the roofing fixed, carving flower gardens, transplanting over 20 large shrubs and bushes from the front and planting them in the back, and yes, falling more trees.
My hubby is happy. I'm happy. Only a few more things left to hang up as afterthoughts and we'll all be happy forevermore. (wink)
And there you have ten more things (plus the bonus!) of thankful things... What are yours this week? Be sure to think upon even the littlest of things, for your heart will sing and your entire outlook will be more positive.
