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Time for another installment of my "Ten Things" to be thankful for, always varied, always random bits in positively NO particular order.
I've been remiss about keeping up my nostalgic weekly thankful posts, so you'll have at least two thrust upon you over the coming week. Hope you don't mind...she says with a sheepish grin.
We've been consumed with work on our property, filling our mornings with end-of-year schooling amidst many indoor organizational and decluttering check list goals. I'll be sharing about all of it just as soon as I can. There is much to tell...
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 little visits from the forest, even though at times they are pesky and tease our dogs to bits. I snapped this photo a short while ago and since then all of the leaves are back on this tree. A chance shot for sure.
This is a "fox squirrel", high up in the tree found visiting just over three weeks ago and returning a few times since.
I caught him there, noisy as can be, perhaps calling a friend to come and play. Soon after, another did show up, and both circled round and round the tree chasing each other, all such fun entertainment when caught in action.
- 2 - I'm thankful for the view through this window near my bedside chair early in the morning when the sun seems to accent the scenery there just so.
The first photo was snapped three weeks ago, the second yesterday. and now carries an abundance of spectacular and much greener peaceful vista to gaze at through the narrow window nearby.
It's certainly been a pleasure to observe the changes every morning while sipping a hot cup of coffee, saying my morning prayers and offering up my day for whatever it holds in our family.
- 3 - I'm thankful for natural cleaners used over the years, even though they cost more, even though others make fun of me for being very careful about what enters our home chemical wise. Go ahead and laugh, or poke fun at me...snicker, but if we can all be a wee bit healthier for ridding our home of chemical airborne nasties, I'm all for it. Health of each family member becomes affected by our surroundings, both environmental and inflictions from our own hands. The question we can all explore and revisit upon occasion is; Are we possibly doing the best we can to provide a "safe" living and clean air environment for our families? I'm sure we all hope we are, and a little bit more education might not hurt to ensure it is so.
Here's a tip for you, an explosive read.... "Rub a dub dub, Cancer in the tub". I think you can google it if you're at all interested. I guarantee though, you sure won't see some things the same way afterward. I didn't.
A tip from three local RN nurses who work emergency room shifts at the local hospital...
World's WORST offender for respiratory issues - those nasty regular or plug in air freshners will send your loved ones to emergency FAST with asthma-like breathing problems, now the number one reason why one local hospital sees children in emergency. Also mentioned were pets reacted similarly.
Loving but often innocently misinformed, parents seem to place them in their child's nursery, and around their home to spray a mist of scent about to keep the air "fresh". This can actually be very harmful. I would implore you after hanging around respiratory wards over the past ten years, and having children with severe airborne allergies to learn from as well before this timing, PLEASE get rid of those just as fast as you can.
Cleaning our homes isn't about owning all the chemicals sold to us on the market, although I'm sure we all have our very favorites and find it hard to change them.
- 4 - I'm thankful for my new coffee pot, ending the saga of press button at least five times for two cups of coffee on our former one. I opted for a simple one because I'm not a flavor coffee person, taking it black as usual.
My biggest change is a latte, or a half sweet vanilla latte. My personal preference was to buy a grand expresso machine to pump out many wonderful frothy hot cuppas and then realized my latte/special drink coffee dates with my husband wouldn't any longer be as special from overuse.
Still a sweet thing for me is my photo collage mug shown in the picture. The coffee was a gift, not my usual brand at home, thankful for the thoughtfulness of the one gifting it to me.
- 5 - I'm thankful for continued attempts at artistry sessions from young ones living here. Sweet displays continue decorating the rooms of our home.
And then, one young daughter discovered the printer for copying her original art, placing it in her "art portfolio".
- 6 - I'm thankful for a relieved outcome of having to rush our older son to emergency two weeks ago. He had been fending off a very high fever, and didn't want to worry me by disclosing it. When he returned home from a work shift, he seemed so dazed to me.
When he came close to bid me goodnight, I could feel his heated skin before we connected with our usual goodnight cheek kissing. As a mother always has an instinctive adrenaline boost for what to do, I was thrust into action for the 24 hours, concerned over a grown up son thinking it was just his wisdom teeth cutting in, just as another son had happen to him with an emergency removal of all four quite suddenly.
Not sure of his direct symptoms other than a fever, his body was definitely fighting something, but what? I checked all things; ears, throat, appendix, neck, appendix thoughts, asked pertinent questions, kept tabs, cut foods and upped liquids.
When the thermometer hit 104, and he had finally disclosed he was feverish the day before I found him with on fire skin, and after he had already been placed on strict isolation here for over 24 hours, the thought of meningitis overcame me with fear, so it was off to emergency we went, and waited and waited.
I suppose the fever broke somewhere during the wait time, probably because he wasn't all huddled in all of his blankets, got some fresh air along the way, and snoozed while waiting for the doctor to check on him. Chalk it up to a probable virus he concluded, and then we headed for home where all was well again.
Maybe it was just what we needed, to explore the local hospital for the first time, to find out it costs 7.00 to use the emergency parking lot in the event of having to use it again, and to note all the staff we encountered were quite kind and sensible. All good things to be thankful for, yet still unknown for the origin of the purpose of heading there.
- 7 - I'm thankful for nature exploration on our very own property. Questions often arise, those similar to;
- "Who might be living here?"
- "Where did those little rabbits disappear?"
- "What do you suppose this is?"
- "What is that type of wild flower?"
- 8 - I'm thankful for finding a great crafty stamping lady. I've joined her monthly technique class and now have this cute personalized plastic project holder for all my future projects to bring home.
I've felt like such a complete failure with respect to finally getting my office/craft/sewing room completely settled. I guess in some ways it wasn't mean to be for me that I remain in that particular room.
Three times I rearranged the room, moving around all five "Ikea Billy" shelves, tables and other assorted heavy items, only to have them leaning forward or sideways into one another from dips and small valleys in the concrete flooring. Crazy. Why didn't we know the floor was like this before?
I have taken photos along the way through my long saga on this particular room. I've ached and yearned to "get lost in time" in this space, and eventually, I had one of those dreams where one wakes and grabs pen and paper.
Totally inspired by dreamy thoughts, I worked like a madwoman to switch around not only this room, but three in total. I exited this "too big for me" surplus spare room, and opted to switch it with our exercise area. I am very happy in my smaller and much more cozy space. Two of the rooms are as they should be, only this one left to organize.
What a great idea born in the depths of slumber! What a whirlwind of activity to move everything around! Back to back with all our gardening complete this past week, I am so thankful I've been able to pull all this off and find out I'm actually stronger than I thought (grin, grin).
I'll be sharing soon. so happy about this work bee with a few "on call and most incredible helpers enabling it all to happen.
- 9 - I'm thankful for little surprises, like finding out this son had been awarded a trophy for his hockey team's endeavors in their final playoffs.
It came by way of another person, out of the blue, as it had been awarded while we were away in Vancouver. Totally unexpected, but it sure made his day.
It will now don a lovely spot in our "family sports room".
- 10 - I'm thankful for the tips I get from two teenagers working in grocery stores. This week's special they thought we just HAD TO HAVE was;
Buy one 10inch apple pie for 3.97 (reg. 8.99) and get one box of Chapman's vanilla ice cream for free.
There were no limits placed on amounts purchased. We bought FIVE. Not a huge pie lover myself, the teens thought we needed more. LOL
So there you have it, ten more things I'm thankful for, random thoughts for sure. See you in a few days with another installment...
Blessings;
Renee
