Three more things to be thankful for...

Since I missed so many posts this month, I'm folding extra thanks into the ones I do accomplish. Here are three things I'm thankful for today:

(1) I was thankful to wake up in my very comfortable bed this morning, open my eyes, and see a bright, beautiful, day.  The sky was blue, the trees were tall, and the sunlight was sparkling gold.

(2) I am thankful that we had six lovely years to live in Illinois.  I really loved it there.  Here, it is prettier, I admit.  We have hills and trees, winding roads, sparkling lakes and babbling books wherever we go.  Playful squirrels, mysterious deer, and majestic eagles surround us.  I walked Duffy this morning in brisk air, under deliciously warm sunshine, smelling sweet scents of plants I don't know, mixed with the piquant aroma of crushed pine needles, all enhanced by the songs of unfamiliar birds.  It's so lovely, like a storybook, a folktale and a Hallmark movie, all rolled into one.  Yet, in Illinois, I felt like I was home, which was incredibly odd, because I was completely alone so much there.  But it never failed to strike me, every time I took the exit off the freeway and drove up the road to my neighborhood, the words echoing in my heart, "This is my home.  I live here."  The smells in Illinois were familiar, like the smell of the air and the ground and the trees in Minnesota, and the gentle cooing of morning doves, wistful.  The people in Illinois were awfully nice, too.  Maybe they weren't nicer than people in other places, but I understood them better, and I felt like they understood me.  I often thought, even though some tremendously sad things happened in our family while we lived there, how gracious God was to put me in a place with nature that sounded and smelled like home, and wide open sky, and kindhearted friends, and a fantastic church family, to temper the pain of tragedy.  I will always remember the Illinois years with utmost fondness and thanksgiving.

(3) I am thankful for leftovers.  Yes I sure am!  We had company last weekend, and then Shawn went on a business trip Monday.  I have eaten the remains of delicious leftovers all week, and I have not been obliged to cook once.  A number of days, I haven't needed to start up my car.  I just stay home.  The sweet potatoes went first, and then the coleslaw.  The ribs, potato salad, apple crisp and Italian vegetable soup have literally lasted all week.  Once I knew a woman who told me, "I hate leftovers.  When I am cleaning up dinner, and there are leftovers, I just throw them all away, because yuck. I don't want to eat that stuff again when it is old."  I just stood there quietly while my brain screamed inside my head, "Are you serious?  Are you serious???"  Leftovers are your reward for cooking something delicious.  They are a free pass.  They are the absolute best--homemade food without any prep--and I am thankful for them (especially this week, but honestly, anytime I find leftovers in my refrigerator, I get happy).

A Gratitude List

The process of settling a home challenges my gratitude levels.  There always seems to be one more thing to buy: a handheld shower head, a lamp, a rug, a throw blanket.

At the same time, I do feel thankful every time a new item arrives.  Still, I am discontent with myself for constantly thinking about what additional items would add the comforts and conveniences I keep imagining.  This is why it was so hard for me to leave our old house, so hard to tear it all apart, when everything had been set up just as I liked it to be.

We are, of course, just fine.  We have more than we need.  We can eat, sleep, shower, work, wash clothes, read, watch TV and maintain the yard.

Some issues lurk in our lives, tempting us to walk away from contentment.

A baby needs a heart transplant.  This is a hard road, so hard.  Yet, the baby is still alive.  He can sit, manipulate toys, clap his tiny hands and look into his mama's eyes.  He has experienced life and love, and his family has been blessed to know him, to hold him, to read to him and pray over him.  Just the fact of his beautiful existence is a reason for gratitude.  God gave life to a wondrous creation.  The world is enriched for having held him so far.  I am thankful.

Our former home has not sold.  This makes me very sad.  It would be so much easier to enjoy being where I am, if only I knew that someone were living in and loving our previous home and appreciating my beloved plants in the gardens.  If only someone were looking out the windows of my sunporch and praying for the neighborhood.  If only someone were making Thanksgiving dinner in the kitchen I enjoyed so much.  But I am thankful that so far we have been able to weather the financial side of the issue.  I am thankful that we are fine.  We are okay.  I am thankful.

I am thankful for our precious church back in Illinois, and amazing people from the church who helped us move.  It was so much better to move without strangers packing and loading our things as was the case in our 2013 move.  It was amazing to have a good friend drive the moving van, and move our piano, and unload us, and spend time in our home with us when we first arrived.  These incredible blessings spread a blanket of comfort all over our finances, our strength, our stress levels and our sense of being loved rather than lonely.  I am thankful.

I am thankful for the light, airy feel our home emanates since we painted it.

I am thankful for new furniture, new rugs and new bedding.

I am thankful to have found some missing treasures during the packing process, most notably a CD of pictures we had lost, and a couple of manuscripts I had written and misplaced.

(--a selection of pictures from nine years ago

that had been lost, but now are found--

pc--Holly Moran)

I am thankful to have completed a few projects since we moved!

I am thankful for friendly neighbors (and I hope they won't give up being friendly when I hermitize in the house with lupus headaches).

I am thankful that God is with me wherever I go, and He is here as much as He is anywhere and everywhere.

I am thankful for how clearly God has spoken to me every time I have attended a church service or a Bible study here.  I am amazed at how He knows exactly where I am and what I need to hear, and He delivers His message.  He has been delivering messages all over, through so many varied mouthpieces.  How could I not be blown away with gratitude for His love and faithfulness?

I am thankful that it doesn't matter where I am when I pray.  I can pray for anyone, anywhere, and the omnipresent Spirit of God is my link to whomever I pray for, instantly bridging any geographical gap.

I am thankful that God is for us, on our side, fighting for us, encouraging us, working on our behalf, always loving and compassionate.  He does not wait for us to make a mistake so He can crush us.  If we make a mistake, He is there to redeem it, and teach us through it, and use it for good in our lives.

Yes, I am thankful.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Very thankful.

Thankful that my house is starting to feel like home

Last weekend we had the main part of the house repainted.

It used to be a light, peachy tan.

Now it is an even lighter airy blue.

We hung a picture up over the TV hanging paraphernalia that came affixed to the wall over our fireplace.  I didn't want my home to be a shrine to the media.  It feels so good now.

I also unpacked my china and put it into the china cabinet, now that the painting is done and the cabinet is in place.  I found some little glass vases and stuck clippings from an evergreen shrub into them.  There is something so ultimately satisfying about using what you already have.

Now to find a church, make some new friends and sell our other house.  Not too much to do, eh?

I'm thankful to feel a sense of peace and home around here.  It takes awhile, but when you are as old as I am, you don't always have "awhile."  So I'm thankful that Shawn is helping and things are coming along.

I really am thankful

Well, you might think I'm not thankful, for all the thanksgiving I've (not) been doing on this blog lately.

Truth be told, I have been struggling to be thankful, and the struggle threatens to rob me of joy.

Our house in Illinois has not sold, which breaks my heart, because I loved it so much after I got it all arranged to suit my preferences, and it was so pretty while I had it staged.  Now it is torn apart, shorn, stripped, and vacated.  It was a such a glorious, sunny place to live, right there on the edge of the nature preserve.  It will be okay, I tell myself, all the while fearing that God might be punishing me for moving "because I wanted to" and not because I had to.

My niece's baby is having a very rough recovery after a very serious surgery.  That is all I will say about that, because I don't want to violate any privacy issues, but it has been a struggle to stay positive.  Babies are so precious, so beloved, so fragile and innocent.  It is an excruciating thing.

My lupus has been on the edge, and I vacillate between feeling rough and feeling terrible.

And, it's stupid, I know, but my left index finger with the broken fingernail is a constant irritation.

Mostly, though, it's been the lupus keeping me from blogging.  I have other things I also need to do, and I have energy to get approximately one thing done per day, and the one thing generally isn't blogging.

Those are my complaints.  Some of them are actually a pretty big deal, and others are ridiculous, but that's how life is, I guess.  Chemotherapy will get you down, but so will a sprained toe.

I am thankful, really I am.

I was discouraged a week ago, and I prayed and asked God for some encouragement.  Shortly thereafter, a new neighbor contacted me to see if I would like to go for a walk with her, and and old friend texted out of the blue to say she was praying for me.  How can you not be thankful when God answers prayer like that?

Shawn and I have taken some lovely walks...

and visited some interesting churches.  God speaks to us wherever we go, faithfully and kindly, and this is a mercy for which we give thanks.

We have furniture now, and I rejoice.

We got a new shower-head, the removable kind that sprays wherever you want to spray, with a bunch of different settings, and much improved water pressure, so that has been marvelous.

I've joined BSF, which gives me Bible lessons to focus on, which is always a help.  We are doing Acts, so it helps me remember the amazing gift we have in the Holy Spirit.  I am reminded of His wondrous power and I am reminded to ask Him to fill me.  This is, indeed, something to be thankful for.

This past weekend, we had our great room, foyer and dining room repainted.  They aren't exactly as I had pictured they would be; they are bluer.  But the great room and foyer are a lovely light blue (Glimmer by SW).  I thought it would be greener, but I don't mind that it isn't.  The dining room is also light blue, but--in the swatches--it looked considerably darker than the other color, and more blue-gray and less green (Tradewind by SW).  Up on the wall, it almost looks like the same color, although if you study it, you can see that it is a bit darker.  In any event, everything is lighter and brighter than before, and feels uplifting, and I like it.  So I'm thankful for that.

We found a new chair that matches our new (not blue) bedroom, on Craigslist.  We bought it and brought it home on Saturday.  It was quite a find, and I'm very happy with it, very thankful.

On Sunday, we heard a sermon about Psalm 1, and I was again reminded of how blessed I am to have the righteousness of Christ,
which qualifies me to receive the promises of God:
to walk in fellowship with Him,
to have a new heart that works in harmony with the moral universe,
to tabernacle the Holy Spirit in my body,
to look forward to a glorious eternal inheritance that will never spoil or fade, that is kept for me and I for it, so I do not have to fear losing it.  (That is also a theme in the 1 Peter passage we are studying in BSF tonight.)

God is always with me, and He will never leave me nor forsake me.  He has called me into His kingdom and made a way for me to have access to His throne through Christ.  He forgives me.  He helps me.  He teaches me.  He encourages me.  He fights for me.  He loves me.  How could I not be thankful?

Thankful for ibuprofen

In the old days, I often tried to tough it out without taking medicine.  I knew that fevers were the body's auto-immune response to create a hostile environment for germs, to kill them.  So I used to let my temperature hover above normal during the day, and I only took fever reducers at night if a fever was keeping me awake.  I knew that a headache would often subside if I just rested and pushed fluids, so I tended to try those measures first.

Lupus changes all that.  Lupus is an auto-immune response to nothing, or a severe over-reaction of the immune system to a small problem.  When lupus is the culprit behind the activity of the immune system, there is absolutely no benefit in waiting anything out.  I need to get a lid on my immune system's activity as quickly as possible.

Since I can virtually never get in to see a rheumatologist when I am sick (it usually takes 3-6 months to see this type of specialist), and since PCPs are not keen on treating lupus, I've had to figure out how to handle these things on my own.

Which is why I am thankful for ibuprofen.  When I start to feel lupus acting up, I take ibuprofen and get myself as much rest and fluid as I can muster.  It usually does the trick.

I'm thankful for ibuprofen.

Thankful for a functional corner

The unpacking, it is going slow.

I was studying Acts 12 this past week, and wondering about the story of Herod's death from being eaten by worms.  I didn't understand how it followed:

(1) Herod persecuted Christians, but finally left Judea (after killing the guards who were on duty when Peter escaped) and went to Caesarea where he had a conflict with the people of Tyre and Sidon.

(2) The people of Tyre and Sidon sought audience with him because they depended on him for their food supply.

(3) Herod dressed in royal robes and spoke an oracle to the people.

(4) The people said Herod spoke with the voice of a god and not a man, which he accepted as praise and worship.

(5) Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down for not giving praise to God.  He was eaten by worms and died.

I found my commentaries, and Shawn helped me get them onto a bookshelf.  So I was able to read about this, but I still don't understand it very well.  I think it is a contrast between the Kingdom of Herod, which came to a gory ending after Herod inflicted a lot of prideful abuse, and the Kingdom of God, which increased and spread by the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit at work in the saints.

I am thankful to have these resources back.  It is nice.  And good.

Thankful for gluten free banana bread

In a way, this is really lame, because I was not feeling particularly thankful today.

Well, I am very thankful for my friend's new grandson, who was born this morning.  He is especially precious because two years ago, his parents went to the hospital to have his sister--their third daughter--delivered by a scheduled Caesarean section, but when the nurse strapped the monitor to the mama's belly, they discovered that there was no heartbeat.  The little baby had been kicking and turning the night before, but the morning of her birth, she was gone.  Can you even imagine the heartache?

And now this new, tiny, beautiful, healthy baby boy has come to join his mommy and daddy, and his big sisters who are four and seven.  It is a joyous day, to be sure.

But over here, in my life, I've just felt icky all day.  I should be thankful, because my husband helped me unpack and deal with about ten of the boxes that were in my study, and he helped me poise the rest of the study boxes for easier access when I get around to organizing my bookshelves.  He also took me for a two mile walk, heated up leftovers for our dinner, and helped me wash our new sheets and make up the bed with them.  I am thankful for all this.  I'm just crabby and out of sorts at the same time, for no good reason.

I got to the end of the day and realized I had not written a thankful post, and the only easy photo subject I could find was this gluten free banana bread I made from some blackened bananas.  So here you have it:  I'm thankful for banana bread, and even more so, because it means I can have a quick, easy breakfast in the morning, which should help us get to church on time.

A month of remembering to give thanks... today I am thankful for apples.

For a fruit lover like me, apples are truly a gift.

Apples are not, generally speaking, my favorite fruit (don't get me started rhapsodizing about watermelon and perfect peaches).  Still, this time of year when the apples are in season and fresh, they are delicious.

The wonderful thing about apples is that they are never completely out of season.  When there is no other fruit to be had, you can still find apples, and this is indeed a great blessing.

I am also thankful to be able to use a up a few minutes blogging, while I wait for my fragrant "Swedish Apple Pie" to finish baking.  Swedish Apple Pie is like a simplified version of Friendship Apple Cake, and it is easy to make a gluten-free version, using almond flour.  Oh, how delectable it smells!