Showing posts with label Gratitude Journal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gratitude Journal. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

A Few September Blessings

 I'm thankful she left kitchen door surprises
...- so enjoyed  and later moved to the garden for 
years of rebloom.  
Love shared and felt all over again
and again
and again....

 For blue treasures left behind.  
 And wild blues that climb higher every year.  
 For the company of fanciful garden spiders who weave so artistically 
that I wish they could teach me how to create such  zigzag stitch by hand.  
 For the joy of this wild gang and all their butting antics.


 
 For these amazing clouds... and colors of blue and gray and white... 
my new palette of shadow and 
light.  
 For my Love... 
and how he holds me 
close.  

For singing Redeemed together
with Big Daddy Weave, 
and driving
in his new truck.  

For God's  protection when he's on the road...
and that He has brought him home 
safe to me.  
 For provisions...
-- our needs are met,
this good food,
and the shelter of 
this old farmhouse.  
 For baked bread and 
breaking it 
together.  
 'For big ole fluffy-pink roses in September,
and so much rain that's kept things lush.  

For time with my sweets...
and a teaparty unlike any we've ever had.  
... monkeying around.

How she wants to still be carried ...
"Grammy carry me."  
--words I longed for once.  


 For home brewed vanilla 
that is ambering up beautifully and smells
so divine.  
 For sunsets like this... 
I give thanks.  
Thank you God for all these things and so much more.
Thank you for my every thing.  

I sign off with a scripture picture from long ago.  
It felt fitting for today.  
Share the love.  
Until we meet again,
<*)))><

Monday, August 24, 2020

Random Gratitudes

Counted blessings....

daily progress

that Myguy didn't get hurt when some dude ran into him on the interstate.

Time with our kids yesterday afternoon... lots of love. 

4x4ing with the family and the blast I had riding with Trent on his new four wheeler.
-found a turkey feather? with him when we rode through the woods by the slough.  

Protection when a rock slung out from under a lawn mower and hit me hard in the throat.  

Made it to another year older. 
and Myguy  baked me a carrot cake.  :) 

For good  neighbors ..- they came to help when our ponies got loose and
galloped up the road.  

For the someone who reminded me that God has a plan- always. 

That a dear friend woke up from an induced coma and got off 
a respirator.  

For spaghetti and 5 cheese garlic bread.  :) ohmy

That I now have two dressers, a chair, a  night stand, tv stand, our bed and two cabinets ..and a linen closet
 all painted.  ( photos tomorrow)

The pretty picture Blakelea colored for me.
and the "guacamole" nut she gave me for my birthday. lol 
(she meant avocado)

Her squeal.... "Grammy!"  climbing from her carseat. 
Be still my heart

The memories I found cleaning out my cedar chest.  Baby teeth, hair, report cards,
artwork, photos, birthday cards, ... reading  Mama's handwriting and still  hearing 
her voice in my heart.  

a mcdonald's ice cream cone... wonky scrumptious. 
Date night.  His love after all these years.   

Interlaced fingers ....  

2 nut goodies my sweet mother in law sent ...  all the way from South Dakota.
She remembered they were a childhood treat and we can't get them here.  

-Eating one for breakfast.  

a homemade journal from across the pond.... 
sweet friendship... and adopted sissies. 
the broken shell dust 

a city mouse. 

a 9 year old message in my facebook memories from my 
mentor Cora who lives in heaven.  It said, "I'm really missing you girl! Where have you been?"
- (I miss you more dear Cora)

The big and fierce, spotted fawn that stomped his feet:  one then the other, one then the other, one then the other...  at our cat Bash. haha

ibuprofen

watched a  decent movie: The Greatest Showman 
and texting with Trent because he wanted us to see it so bad.  
-the songs from the  movie and discovering the actress who played Jenny Lind 
was from my all time favorite movie... The Red Tent. 

New Books... and finding time to read
everyday. 

airconditioning

candles lit up

autumn clematis 
and their sweet scent...
so many blessings.

Thank you God for all these things and so much more
Thank you for my every thing.
<*)))><

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Finding The Joys, and Giving Thanks...

Journaling simple joys of these days... 
*I'm so thankful for this new place to sit and do my bible studies and read and play in paint 
and pens.  I love every moment here.  

*a garden chock full of bloomers and sitting in the middle of them 
to read the living word of God Almighty. 

black eyed susies, morning glories, roses, cosmos, zinnias, four oclocks, day lilies, tiger lilies, oriental lilies, sunflowers, shasta daisies, petunias, geraniums, gladiolas, trumpets, oxalis, zebrinas, marigolds, ... and more so many bloomers all at once.  
*blessed with time I get to  come here and sit at His feet awhile

*walking into a well watered garden first thing of the morning and feeling and smelling
the fresh coolness inside.  

* for my patient and very understanding  husband
when lately tears would stream from somewhere deep. 

*That he's learned my love language and knows how to listen even
when I don't have the words.

*That he insisted on digging Addie's hard,rocky,rooty  grave while
I wrapped her in her blankie and picked mint and flowers
to line her resting place.  

For Olaf who had to be in the thick of things and somehow
this white rabbit lightened a darkness. 

* And that our little friend is now buried right here where she liked  to lay in the shade 
of the Pines.   

*I'm thankful for friends who reach out and pray for me. 

  
*for Francois and that he's still in pretty good health 
even though he's a little old man and also  13.  

*that he's starting to follow me around a little more instead of 
being in a sad slump missing his sidekick.  

*for a new mercy... every morning.   

* For the first tomatoes of the season... they aren't so pretty but taste really good.

*pulling a bag of homemade bread out of the freezer.  

*walking barefoot on clean floors.

*crawling into the most comfortable bed in the world. 
thick featherbed, down comforter... 
sheets dried in pure sunshine.

*his squeezing bear hug after a hard days work. 
Not letting go til he does first.   

*my friend with cancer and the  long note she wrote even though it hurts to sit up and write. 
*sharing her uncertainties ... and feeling the fleeting...ness of life and reminder 
how every day is this great gift. 

*the joy of  this very ordinary, Tuesday. 
This beautiful ordinary 
extraordinary day.
I will rejoice and be glad in it. 

 *That lots of new chicklets hatched. Sooooo  much chirpy cuteness.
Watching around 20 chicklets sit ontop of their Momma and stick out under 
her breast and wings.  Momlife.

*This adorable vintage, St. Catherine arrived in one piece. 
Can't wait to bring her to the greenhouse and find a special place for her in
my shabby olde garden sanctuary.  

*So much richness and goodness I'm enjoying and finding reading about the saints and 
digging deeper and deeper  into my Catholic roots.  

*and this cool leather, Latin theology book.  
 Of course I can't read Latin but I can photo copy pages to add to my 
 art journals. I sure wish someone could read the first few pages
to me... I'd love to know what it says. 

*the joy found holding a book in my  hands from 1776.. the year our nation
became a nation... crazycool.  
   
 *walking across the yard and doing a double take.
Turning around to photograph parasol fungus.  
They look like you could just pop one into an adult beverage. 
What a wonderful, glorious world we get to live in.  


*Butterflies everywhere.  Dragonflies everywhere... 
My camera is chockful of bugs and flitters. 
The ones with tattered wings have my absolute heart.  
Such beauty in imperfection and endurance to run the race set before us. 


*Inspiration to paint today.... 



*Because our Creator lavishes us with so much beauty.
Leaonie, look into the flowers.  They are your glimpse into heaven, she said. 


* He is truly everywhere ... 

Thank you God for all these things.. thank you for my every thing.  
<*(((>< 



Thursday, June 25, 2020

The Little Ordinary Things - Beauty and Goodness

Hi friends,

Many years ago my  Mother in law once said to me, 
"Lea, you can always choose to be happy."
No matter what kind of day you've had or 
what has happened, you can choose to be happy." 
She spoke life to me.

Years later; visiting with a friend, the friend  said
 "Don't focus on what you don't have Lea,
focus on what you do have."  
She too spoke life to me.  

I think both those things  stem from a grateful heart.  
Choosing to find the good and focus on 
blessings, and the joys we have that truly 
grow a life.  

My random gratitudes that I share here 
are those  sweet little things in this simple life.  
Like heart rocks and 
that I found another just this morning when Myguy 
pulled in mid morning to grab an envelope he needed.
He texted me  to say he was almost home for a second and I ran out to 
greet him and steal a good kiss ... we found his envelope and 
when he drove away I looked down and there

was a heart rock in the gravel.  
Sweet joys... in ordinary life.  
For these; I'm so grateful. 

 I wish I would have learned to just choose joy sooner in life.   
Those younger years when life was hectic raising little boys.  
Money was stretched so thin and tight and yet always God provided.
His math... his ways... it  goes beyond imagination. 
He can multiply beyond our understanding  and 
somehow always we made it like loaves and fishes.
If only I could go back and tell the younger me... "Hey girl,
everything is gonna be alright.  
Focus on all the beautiful blessings you have in front of you." 
Now; here I am at the age of 54 or 55ish..
and I can look back and see it all.  
 Now I  realize the  beauty and goodness
It's all here... and it was always here all along.
You just have to see it.    

 Like pickin Coreopsis ... and  
sharing it here in bottles ...

 And for sharing it with  all of you.  
One simple soul sharing flowers from a shabby olde shed.  
It makes me happy...
these ordinary, beautiful little things. 

Like: sippin through a straw in a mason jar from 
the 1800's.  
Or the sweetness of a bing cherry snack wrapped in a bandanna
and spittin pits while writing.
 Or sittin at the table, writing out my daily examen...
and adding watercolor for the simple joy of it.  
 For documenting how I'm discovering even sacred in 
all this ordinary too.  And ...
 And for this.... 
my Emily.  
She is my confidant.. and trusted friend.  
I write all my heart in her pages. 
Such a small and ordinary thing that is anything
but because she holds soul thoughts and prayers to 
God Almighty.   
 Sweet, simple joys... 
sweet friendly flowers picked and 
poured out... 
 From this path ... 
right into yours.  
 Joys of rusty crusty goodness. 
Ordinary extraordinair ..
 little catholic medals 
- finding happiness in all of it.  

For new resources like Word on fire, the Jesuits prayer app, and 
Formed.  The latter... I don't even know how I came upon it...
it's as if it found me.  
Sweet joys.  
So much gratitude.  

For a peeled cucumber 
and a salt shaker. 
Ordinary? Yes... scrumptious?.. yesssssssssssS!!! 

For a friend who shared her question in the Beatitudes and 
how she loves Jesus and wants to know Him more.  

For Myguy thanking  God for me when we bow our heads at the table.  
The lifting uP of that is hard to put into human words.  


  For  beauty in the natural,  over ripe, dried out and 
the discovering seed left inside.  

Beauty goodness and truths... 
I'm finding right here.  
Thank you God for all these things and so much more...
thank you for my every thing.  
Until we meet again,
<*((((><