Thankful, Grateful, Blessed

 

Grateful for my Husband

who loves and gives selflessly

 

Grateful to the Daughter and Son

who bring so much joy

 

Blessed for the family and friends far and wide,

making life sweeter

Thankful for this Beautiful home

to live and take shelter in

 

Grateful for this Country's Freedom and Bounty

Thankful for the Men and Women

who Protect it 

   

Thankful to the Source who provides me with everything I need during this journey

 

Blessings to Everyone who contributes

to make this world a better place

 

November Rose

Friends

Mary Grace, Linda, Carole, Jan and Me, Rodeo's Mexican Restaurant, 10/01/11

My recent road trip to Ozark was a multipurpose sojourn.  I am so glad I did this.  I accepted Linda's invitation to be a program guest speaker on the topic of Living Green way back a number of months ago.  Saying 'yes' and getting this commitment on the calendar was what I needed to motivate myself.  I had all these 'refashioning' projects to be finished and lots of recycled materials to magically transform into little works of art.  What better way to accomplish these tasks than to agree to talk on this same subject and use all my finished products to illustrate "reduce, reuse, recycle.'  This was my plan.

It worked!  The seminar was mucho fun and all my preparation paid off.  Jan and James Lisenby were gracious hosts.  As a guest in their beautiful home, I had plenty of room to spread out and organize everything before the seminar.  Only a very good friend would allow such a mess for so long.  (Thank you, Jan and James.  I enjoyed my time with both of you more than words can express.  And I loved meeting 'the girls.'  They are sweethearts...and I must say I miss that 'little dumpy' more than I thought I would.)

Since Linda allowed me to choose the date of the seminar, I chose a date close to the Claybank Jamboree weekend.  Hopeful I could attend for part of the day and catch up with more of my Alabama gardening friends.  And finally, at day's end, perhaps round up the 'best of the best' for dinner at Rodeo's before I departed town the next day.  And unlike the "best laid plans..." it came off without a hitch.  Lucky us!

I miss you all.  You are never far from my thoughts and always are in my prayers.

'bout time!

Gavin & Babka making "fungi" with new play dough!

That's what I get for waiting so long in between postings!  I just typed all about what I've been up to for the past couple of months and I got an error code and a "thankyouverymuch" and then my blog page went blank and wiped the slate clean.   Guess that will teach me for going on and on.   Rather than repeat everything I just commented on, here is the link to the blog I wrote for the Claybank Master Gardener web log, posted October 8, 2011,  describing the Living Green seminar with some photos of the workshop.  I will add that I am glad I spent oodless of time preparing.  It paid off in the end.   

(Lo' and Behold!  I found the 'missing words' in a draft copy of this blog, under a separate heading.  Here is the original:

Another billion minutes have passed without an update to my personal blog.  Now that I've posted a couple of entries to the Claybank Master Gardener site and to the LIVING GREEN blog, I feel like I can be self-indulgent and update my This 'n That page.  Here it is, in a nutshell...

I've spent lots of time these past months, preparing for my Living Green seminar.  It went very well, from my perspective.  An audience of around 50 folks showed up to hear me speak and watch me demonstrate DIY projects.   Reduce, Reuse, Recycle examples were discussed and illustrated in a myriad of ways.  I managed to fill three long tables with examples of recycled materials.  Some of the refashioned items were practical and some of them just for the sake of art & creativity.  It was a lot of work but very gratifying to reach the day of the workshop and feel prepared and revved to present.   I received excellent feedback from many of the audience members and lots of good ideas for additional ways to recycle common materials.)

Pretty Pathetic

A contradiction in terms, for sure.  But 'pretty pathetic' is exactly how I feel about seeing my last post on this blog dated in January, almost 4 months ago.  What's up with that anyway?  It's not like I haven't had time to write about what's been going on.  This blurb is just an ice breaker, in hopes that I will get back in the habit of posting short little 'This 'n Thats' and journaling some of the more extraordinary events in our lives.  Or maybe, even better, some of the small and simple day-to-day events, when added all together and viewed as one whole cloth, comprise a life. 

I am so blessed.

Christmas in Tulsa

Ho! Ho! Ho! Everyone! This year's Christmas celebration was quite different from year's past. Celebrating with Tarajean, Paul, Gavin and some of their family and friends was a holiday treat. I missed being with Jeff...and Abram is always in my thoughts...but I know they were okay and this makes all the difference. Living in Tulsa is bringing so many wonderful experiences into our realm. I cannot begin to express how much all of this means to me. Merry Christmas!

Another First

Funny how a little hole-in-the-wall problem can bring about this euphoric feeling of pride and accomplishment. Why is the hole so big? The old thermostat was larger. When I removed the old one to investigate the wire configuration I quickly discovered that the hole in the wall would not be covered up by the digital thermostat. I pondered the problem for a bit, not wanting to rush into something I'd never done before and tackled the new thermostat installation first. Already beyond my comfort zone with this small task and keeping in mind that slow and steady wins the race.

Hooked up the thermostat...set it for 70 degrees to make sure the heat would kick on properly. Let it run a bit to make sure it would turn off...and then knocked it down to 64...when I left to go south to Alabama for 10 days. Was quite the relief when I returned to Oklahoma and discovered that my new thermostat appeared to be working properly after my installation and read 64 degrees, with a chilly house to prove I'd hooked it up properly. BIG SMILE of accomplishment here.

Now to deal with the gaping hole and mounting the new thermostat. 1) Temporarily tack the new thermostat to the wall out of the way of the repair work. 2) Adhere the mesh screen across the hole, leaving enough space for the wires to pull in and out freely. 3) Spackle here...Spackle there and smooth it with a putty knife, doing my best to blend in with the textured walls around it (yeah, right....I score myself a 'C-' on this task); allow Spackle to dry. 4) Paint the Spackle to match the wall color -- in this case 'almond bisque.' 5) Follow the directions for mounting the digital thermostat. In this case, I got lucky and was able to use the existing anchors...even though the person who installed the old thermostat didn't get it hung straight. I fudged with the screws as much as I could and think I did a decent job of leveling it, so as not to drive me crazy each time I see it hanging there. Got everything put back together and mounted...and got a digital display reading of 69 degrees! Yup, still working...and is that the furnace kicking on I hear? YEAH!