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Gratitude Monday #42

 

Okay, you noticed.  I have NOT been at Gratitude Monday for 42 weeks.  I just decided to match up my week with Laurel’s over at Alphabet Salad where I link up with other grateful readers/writers.  Oh, I’m so happy I no longer need to come up with a catchy title for the week.  Such a clever woman!  Wait.  How many weeks did it take me to come up with that?

 

So here’s my list in no particular order:

 

  • Siblings:  I still have all eight of mine and all of my siblings-in-law.  No one’s lost a born child.  Divorce is the only loss we’ve suffered.

 

  • Children:  All are healthy and happy and employed.

 

  • Black-light 5K and glow in the dark powder.  The 11,000 walker/ runners put off quite a glow as me, Beanie and her 5 children walked the 5K.  It was really, really dark and I didn’t get home until 1 AM.  I can’t remember the last time I stayed up that late.  I had a great time, but once was enough.  Not because of the walk, not because of the hour.  Because of the dark.  It’s hard enough keeping track of five happy kids in daylight, but dark, I mean really dark.  Well, I was definitely like a mother hen protecting her chicks from a hawk.

 

  • Vine-ripened tomatoes, basil and eggplant from the garden.  All of these alone are great, Melanzane alla Parmigiana, baked aubergines with Parmesan cheese.  Mmmmmm….Heaven.

 

  • Ethan Hawke. My he’s pretty.  I watched a 4 star movie, “Before Midnight.”  Lots of dialog and hardly going anywhere, but EH was really nice to look at.

 

  • Dairy Queen, FitBit, Lose-It, and Bicycles.  Yes, these three go together.  Loved-One and I bicycled to Dairy Queen for a Peanut Buster Parfait.  Thanks to my aps, I know the PBP was 700 calories.  That’s okay because it was my dinner, and I burned 600 calories getting there and back.  Plus, we had a great time finding some new bike paths.
  • Jenny, the editor at M-U Times.  I have four articles to write this month.  Yay!
  • Duckie, who kindly woke me up in time to get to 8:00 church service six hours after I got home from the 5K.  Okay, yes, I am grateful even though I grumbled a little.  I love starting the week with the people of this “Intentional Parish,” who know me and support me in my journey.
  • Sharing a favorite breakfast restaurant and new fare: key-lime pancakes for me and a steak skillet for Love-One.
  • Baseball and Good Luck:  This week Wrestler #2 and his three kids invited us to Cougar game.  The oldest grandchild, the baseball lover, caught a fly-ball.  Lucky!  The other two caught one of those squishy baseball looking things they send up with a slingshot.  And the Cougars won in the final inning.  Woot! Woot!  (Plus, the weather was shirt-sleeve warm.)photo Friday#X 3
  • Smart-phone video and connectivity.  This week I saw my Beanie get doused with a bucket of ice-water by her son; part of an ALS challenge.  Oh my, the anticipation on his face and the giggles made me laugh out loud.  And, Wrestler #2 recorded his daughter releasing a fish into shallow water.  She chucked it as hard as she could, followed by her father’s uncomfortable laugh, “That’s not how you do it.”  She put her had on her hip, looked straight into the camera and said, “That’s how I do it.”  Such intimate moments that I would probably never see if it weren’t for smart-phone video, texting and social media connectivity.

Haven’t had enough gratitude?  Check out some some other people sharing their list.

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