30 Days of Thanksgiving - Days 5 & 6

Well I rather hope this still counts - even if I'm not posting daily I should still end up with 30 thankful things.  Of course that won't cover all in my life to be thankful for but hopefully it will put me in an attitude of thankfulness.

For Day 5 - I am thankful for daylight in the mornings when I take kids to school.  It makes bus route so much easier when it is light outside.  Even though I know where all my stops are it is difficult to see them in the pitch black - and even worse when it is raining.  So...much as I dislike daylight savings time I really really appreciate the daylight in the early morning hours.  Actually....I've always liked early morning daylight.  I remember way back when I was little - like 4th grade and we lived in Ethiopia we lived outside a little village on a mission compound.  The house was tiny - only had 2 bedrooms and no indoor choo.  I originally slept on a cot in the living room - the windows faced east.  I remember waking up early when the sun came up shining in - usually being the first or maybe the second one awake after Dad.  That first peek of daylight.  Makes me think of the Scripture that says "His mercies are new every morning". 

For Day 6 - I am thankful for the freedom we have in this country.  Today we have the freedom and the privilege to vote for the people of our choice to govern.  They are not perfect people by any stretch of the imagination and I won't agree with many of their decisions.  But in this country we have freedoms that many many people in the world do not enjoy.  And for that I am thankful. 

30 Days of Thanksgiving - Days 3 & 4

I didn't post yesterday - it turned into a crazy busy day.   So...for yesterday (Day 3) I'm thankful for a wonderful visit with my son Stretch.  He came home for the weekend - spent Friday evening with friends.  Saturday morning we went to breakfast and spent about 2 hours just talking together catching up.  It was so nice to have that time.  After that he indulged me and walked through a craft show with me. 
(Not a great picture but it shows two of my boys having fun together).

For today (Day 4) - I'm thankful for a store employee who opened the door of the local hardware store for my husband and Dipstick so they could purchase me a new kitchen faucet.  I am also thankful that they installed the faucet for me so I can have my kitchen back in working order.  Having the faucet fall apart in my hand after turning it on is not conducive to keeping a clean working kitchen. 

30 Days of Thanks - Day 2

Today I am thankful for the sunshine that we had.  It was uplifting after so many days of rain.  The clouds are cool sometimes - the different shades of grey.  But sunshine is better.

30 Days of Thanksgiving

Going to try to do 30 days of thanksgiving.  Don't promise to have long posts though some may be.  Tonight as it's late and I'm beat it will be very short.

Today I'm thankful for safety on the roads.  I spent most of the day out and about - getting my bus serviced, bus route, taking Squirrel in to have his foot looked at, Grief Group tonight with Dipstick.  All added up to a LOT of driving - and plenty of traffic.  Thankfully I witnessed no accidents and were not involved in any.

Today is a cold, blustery, grey day - we've had rain, sleet and snow coming down.  The snow will not stick of course but the flakes were there in the air.  I've not accomplished a huge amount in getting the house reclaimed.  However I'm satisfying myself with baby steps at this point.  Goal for today is to get the kitchen cleaned before bed (waiting on the boys to unload the dishwasher after school).  It is improved from what it was first thing this morning but not great.  I started working on clearing off our second table for Thanksgiving.  When we bought a new table I wanted some way to expand so we could seat more than 6 around it.  Since we couldn't find one that was reasonable that we both liked we purchased 2 identical smaller tables that can be put together in a couple different ways to hold plenty of people.  I doubt we will do a sit-down meal but I know we will want both tables available since Thanksgiving is here this year.  Having said that...the thought of hosting can be anxiety causing for me - I'm trying really hard not to fret over it.  I won't have to cook everything - we will do the turkey.  Sides and desserts will mostly be brought.  The boys will likely make cookies as well.  I have not thought beyond that.  Really would like to get back to setting out a page and having people write down things they are thankful for.  Makes it really nice to go back and read later.

Just realized what time it is - guess I'd better stop and get ready for work.  Got to go tend the chickens and get cleaned up for route. 

Still Here...

Beautiful sunny breezy day today.  B has the overhead doors on the shop opened - that is a good thing as I'm in the office again today.  So thankful for windows and doors that let the light in.  I am writing this while waiting on a business call.

I've not written anything of note in several months.  A small part of that is the fact that I'm busy - back to school, sports events, bus driving...the list goes on.  A much larger part is that I fell into a deep black hole of depression over the last 6-8 weeks.  Even a bright sunny day like today could not lift my spirits much.  It took all my energy to function at basic level - get bus route done, kids to where they needed to be and the most minimal housekeeping and cooking accomplished.  I drank far too much coffee and ate too many sweets and packed on the pounds.  I can't explain exactly all the things that triggered the increased depression - shorter days, a boy leaving his teen years and renewed grief were definitely part of it but probably not all.  I finally realized something had to give the day I teared up on my morning route when I could not figure out which child was causing all the commotion in the back of the bus.  When another, younger child said "she's crying" in wonder the tears spilled over.  Thankfully I was able to get into the doctor the next day for an appointment.  That was a week ago today. He diagnosed me with a sinus infection, depression and anxiety - doubled the depression meds I was already on, gave me something for anxiety and an antibiotic for the infection.  By Monday I was beginning to see a difference in how I felt emotionally.  I've noticed I don't normally "need" as much coffee as I was drinking before - I definitely eat less sweets (and crave less).  I'm not napping as much as I was - still do occasionally but no longer long daily naps and I'm slowly beginning to reclaim my house.  Additionally B has noticed - that is huge.  The anxiety is definitely still there at times - I feel my face begin to tingle when it gets bad.  But unless it's really really necessary I'm avoiding those meds and able to deal with it other ways. 

Fall sports are over - that frees up Squirrel some.  He is still training to run a half marathon in early November so is still running alot.  He is also involved in Gospel Choir and will be helping with the fall play.

Dipstick is still enjoying attending Squirrel's school district though he is not enjoying school.  We still do Grief Group twice a month and he is getting involved in archery. 

Stretch is pretty much gone from the house.  He is enjoying his 2nd year of college - this time with no broken bones.  However he does have an extremely heavy course load this fall - he's found that rather stressful.  He has a serious girlfriend and an on-campus job, both of which also keep him busy.

That's probably enough of an update for now. 

I'm thinking the seasons are definitely changing.  It's dark out at 8:30 pm and temperatures are below 68 degrees.     I'm not sure that I'm ready for winter to come early but I suspect that it won't matter whether I"m ready or not. 

Life has been crazy busy - I will catch up in another post.  For now...it's enough that I'm writing again