69. Summer projects
70. Completed projects
71. Reading (books and on KINDLE!)
72. Friends & Family (might have listed that before. . .but reserving the right to list things multiple times)
73. Ice cream cones. . . BIG ones
74. Weddings
75. Re-connecting
76. Painting
77. The thinking time that vacuuming provides. . . and even dusting!
78. Plants that don't die. . . pretty plants. . . not weeds
79. The blessing of a job. . . and the blessing of time off
80. Forgiveness (will also be listed multiple times)
It is good for me to start a post by listing some gifts. . . it really is a daily (and sometimes hourly) choice to be thankful. There are so many blessings, and so many constant gifts from God, and yet life just IS so often bittersweet. We had a lovely time this weekend celebrating the wedding of a lovely young couple. . . dear friends. A friend asked me if it was hard to be at a wedding. . . thinking about Sara. I replied. . ."It's hard to be at everything". I miss her always. I miss her life celebrations, and even her life struggles. But I know we can't forever avoid life because of the pain of missing her. It is learning to live with the "hole". Sometimes we try to pretend it's not there and sometimes we just want to crawl in it, but by God's grace we learn to live with it. We had some precious time this weekend, visiting with several friends, and I'm thankful that we were able to talk about Sara.
So many blessings!! Sandy, my sister-in-law and friend, sent me a Kindle! And Jenny, another dear friend, loaned me a couple of her old books (two volumes of The Wide Wide World written in 1850) to read. The best of both worlds right there!! It is kind of amazing to have both sitting side by side on my desk. I love it!
I admitted to myself this weekend that I really like to clean my house. My kids are probably saying, "Wow mom! You just figured that out?" I readily admit that I like to clean. I feel like some of my best thinking time is while I'm vacuuming. Woody always cringes when I've been vacuuming and then come looking for him to share some random thoughts (and I really mean RANDOM!) But this past weekend we had some company coming to stay (for the wedding), and so I decided I should probably dust too (which I usually do NOT enjoy). For some reason, this time I took notice of so many things we have around the house that are pieces of our family. . . memories of Woody & I, and ALL of our kids. It was a little bittersweet, but tons more sweet than bitter, and I loved it. Thank you Lord.
I also spent some time in the front yard. I do not have a very green thumb, so things that we plant really need to be pretty hardy and rather independent. It is so lovely to actually have roses on our rose bushes!
Kind of funny to be amazed by that. . . but what can I say? I was also inspired by a friend to do some creative garden decoration. In my cleaning I found some flower stakes (lawn art style) that I had bought, intending to put them out at Sara's grave (but then decided not to). As I was working in the yard I found a faded sunflower stepping stone that had gotten mostly covered up due to blowing dirt. . . and ants. So I made a little project out of those and created a fresh look for our front porch. I even repainted the sunflower with Sara's paint supplies, which felt really good. Very simple, but it was fun, and it has special meaning for me. Again. . . thank you Lord!
No comments:
Post a Comment