Skip to main content

Ten Things of Thankful: Everything on the Calendar Edition

"I know!  Let's plan it for March 25th!" said the planners of the local Home and Garden show, the LA County Airshow, the Guide Dog Training Day, and the General Women's Conference. Fortunately, the Home and Garden show started on the 24th, and the LA County Airshow participants were practicing on the 24th, also (as well as earlier in the week).  The Guide Dog Training Day will be held in the morning of the 25th, and the General Women's Conference starts later in the afternoon.  I'm in for a fun weekend!

Before we get to upcoming events, though, let's look back over the past week:

1.  I'm thankful for the friends in my lunch group.  We share laughter and tears, and our conversations run from humorous to deep.  It's always fun to get together.

2.  I'm thankful for the soup recipe I found.  Our lunch group is always potluck soups, salads, and desserts, and I had signed up for soup this time.  One of my cookbooks had a recipe for chickpea and brown rice soup that sounded yummy, and it was.  

3.  I'm thankful for an electric pressure cooker. Not only did I use it to cook the dried chickpeas for the soup, I also tried hard-cooking eggs in the cooker on another day this week.  The eggs turned out great; they were easy to peel even though they were very fresh.

4.  I'm thankful for leftovers.  Soup is always better the next day, and I was able to take the leftover soup to a Relief Society meeting on Tuesday night.  

5.  I'm thankful for the Relief Society meeting, which was a birthday party.  Did you know that Relief Society is 175 years old?! 



6.  I'm thankful for a kind note I received in the mail this week from the women from my church.  It came on a good day (or rather, on a day I really needed it).  
Photo:  Pink flowers with light green stems decorate the front of a card 
7.  I'm thankful to be able to see some amazing planes flying.  The Thunderbirds are flying at the air show this weekend, and I am so impressed with the precision of their flying.  They even did some amazing skywriting to advertise the show.  Skywriting is amazing enough, but skywriting performed while flying in formation? Stunning!


Photo:  "LA COUNTY AIRSHOW" in skywriting against a deep blue sky
 
Photo:  The F-16 Thunderbirds fly in formation 
8.  I'm thankful for my children.  Youngest daughter and I went to see "Beauty and the Beast" on Wednesday night.  It was nice to laugh together.  (Now if I could only get the catchy tunes un-stuck from my mind!)

9.  I'm thankful for the continued evidence that spring has arrived. I hope to get out to the poppy fields soon, but in the meantime, here is a photo of some lovely wisteria that I captured on a recent Disneyland trip:


Photo: Lilac-colored wisteria blossoms hang down against a blue sky
10.  I'm thankful for John.  We went together to the home and garden show, but the first thing we did when we got there was go watch the practicing Thunderbirds, who were flying nearby.  John didn't mind that I wanted to take photos first, and he loved watching the planes fly in "fourmation," "fivemation," and "sixmation!"  Such a clever guy I married, and it makes me chuckle how much he enjoys his jokes.  

Well, soon I need to be at the Guide Dog Training Day.  Our puppy club has invited other puppy clubs to join us for a few hours of socialization experiences.  Puppies in more urban areas don't always get the same experiences that our puppies here in the desert have, so we invite the other clubs to join us as we introduce the puppies to horses, chickens, tractors, and dirt bikes.  They will also get to walk over different surfaces, and complete different exercises to help them avoid distractions.  It's always fun to see so many puppies together, and for the puppy raisers to have a chance to compare notes and ask questions. 

What is on your agenda today?  Did all of your activities get planned for this weekend, or are you enjoying a more relaxed pace? What are you thankful for? Comment below, and go to tenthingsofthankful.blogspot.com to read more posts and/or link your own post.  


Ten Things of Thankful




Pin It

Comments

  1. Enjoy your busy weekend. You do take magnificent photos. That card looks like a watercolor original. A busy life is a life well-lived.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. So far, so good, on the weekend. :-)

      Delete
  2. I had no idea the Thunderbirds did sky-writing. Amazing. I could watch them perform all day.

    Love the idea of the puppy training event.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It really was amazing to watch the sky-writing.

      The puppy training day was a lot of fun.

      Delete
  3. Wow, you have a busy weekend planned indeed, but what a surprising blessing that it all fit nicely into a schedule you could work with!

    Raising guide dogs I truly can't think of a more awesome or rewarding thing to do! I'd never really thought about city vs. country experiences and how different it would be for puppies learning the ropes.

    Your soup sounds delicious, I've never tried a pressure cooker. Soup always seems to taste even better reheated!

    I know that your presence is a joy in the groups and meetings you attend. Attitudes are contagious and love lightens life!

    I've attended many air shows over the years, and I do love the Thunderbirds! I've never seen them do skywriting, wow! Your John's sense of humor sounds very much like my John's, and there is that little boy smile that accompanies the jokes that I love best!

    A lovely card from your friend, and don't they always seem to come at just the right time? This is a great reminder for me to pick some up to send when the Spirit moves me. Thank you for a lovely TToT!



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Guide Dogs for the Blind is always looking for more puppy raisers, and GDB has puppy clubs in 9 different states--including Texas! :-)

      Delete
  4. Wow, those planes look amazing! And I love spring and all the flowers which seem to appear out of nowhere. Things start to come back to life :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm really hoping to get out to the poppy reserve sometime this coming week, and get some photos of wildflowers.

      Delete
  5. For me March 23 was like that only I am the one who put to many things on the same day! But I did get through it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've done things like that before! Glad you survived your busy day!

      Delete
  6. I love potluck. It is one way to eat different yummy foods without cooking it all yourself. Of course, most people bring one of their best and that what makes it special.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right. Potlucks are simple and delicious!

      Delete
  7. Busy weekend, indeed. Trust you will have photos from the Guide Dog Training Day!
    We used to live near a Navy Base that'd an airshow every Summer, amazing the things they could do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are too trusting, as I didn't actually take any photos. (What was I thinking?!) You can, however, see photos on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/avguidedogs/.

      Delete
  8. Sounds like you were busy indeed. Thank you for the tip on the eggs - I have a pressure cooker and never thought to put them in there to cook...
    Your photography is breathtaking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I put 1-1/2 c. water in the bottom, put the eggs on the steam rack, and cook for 6 minutes. Then I rapid release, and put the eggs in cold water. They peel very easily, even when using fresh eggs.

      Delete
  9. I love all the flowers throughout this post. Poppies too.

    I love all the work you do with guide dogs. This Easter will be ten years since Croche died and I am always glad to hear new dog guides are being taught.

    That soup sounds delicious and I'm not even really a soup person. Love chickpeas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm hoping to go take more flower photos tomorrow. The landscape is so different here in the spring, particularly this year with all the rain we've received. Normally the desert is just brown, but in the spring the fields are green, and when the flowers bloom, the fields turn yellow, orange, blue, and purple. Gorgeous!

      Our puppy club is in need of more raisers. (I'm not currently raising a puppy, so I guess I'm part of the problem.) Hopefully sometime life will settle down a little and I'll raise another guide, but in the meantime, I'm involved in the local meetings and trainings.

      I didn't use to think of myself as a chickpea person, but then there was hummus. :-)

      Delete
  10. That sky writing is so amazing. I can see why you were so excited about seeing that.
    Do you take turns meeting at each others' homes for your lunch group?
    I love John's joking. I can just visualize his laughter and smiles while saying it.
    There are a lot of mothers and daughters up here who have gone to see that movie and have just loved it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are a few homes that we rotate between. One of the women is a teacher, so we have to hold the lunch at a home near her school so she can join us on her lunch break.

      Delete
  11. Soup and leftovers are at the top of my list right now (for the next TToT, I suppose).
    Love John's jokes. Sounds like the kind my Hub enjoys. And I'm very glad he finds himself amusing...because often, he's the only one. :D
    I haven't ventured into the pressure cooker thing, even though I know they've suddenly become insanely popular. I guess I'm intrigued but I honestly don't think I can add one more appliance to my kitchen. Perhaps one day.
    Love your wisteria photos - beautiful and sunny and definitely made me actually FEEL spring from the light in the photo. And the color reminds me of my grandmother's lilac tree...sigh. I miss them so much.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The thing I like about the pressure cooker is that it makes long-term food storage so much easier to prepare. I can now make "refried" beans, hummus, brown rice, etc. without much time or effort, not to mention potatoes, sweet potatoes, and artichokes. But I do know what you mean about appliances.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Conversations are so much nicer when more than one person does the talking. :-) Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts; I'd love to hear from you!

Popular posts from this blog

Ten Things of Thankful: Autumn Edition

It's autumn time, one of my favorite times of year.  I just couldn't leave this weekend as a one-post weekend.  

Ten Things of Thankful: Last Two Weeks

  Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, as viewed from an overlook I apologize for not commenting on your blog posts this past week; John and I took a vacation to Yellowstone National Park, leaving behind our computers and, to a large extent, cell phone service. We escaped the outside world and just spent time in nature. Though we have friends near Yellowstone (who we love to visit) we made this trip just about us, so please forgive us if we were nearby and didn't stop by. The crowds were minimal (though we did mask up whenever we passed someone on the trails) and we spent our days hiking, taking photos, and watching geysers erupt. Today, we are back home and back to work, and, in the case of my computer, back to old shenanigans like not letting me import my photos. (I was able to add the above photo by using blogger on my phone, but that isn't my preferred method.) I want to write about Yellowstone and have photos I want to share, but will leave that for another

Monday Mentions: Equate Crutches

Have you ever needed crutches? I hadn't, until a week ago.  I'm pretty sure I strained a muscle while running a half-marathon.  (That sounds kind of cool, doesn't it? I'm not actually that cool; the last time I strained a muscle it was from carrying too many shopping bags at once.) In any case, I found myself in need of some crutches. I sent my husband to the store to get some. Photo: A pair of crutches leans against a wall  Not that crutches are all that complex, but because I hadn't used any before, I wondered if I could figure out how to adjust them to fit me properly. I shouldn't have worried. John came home from Walmart with their generic store brand of crutches, complete with instructions. First, I needed to take out a long bolt that went through the hand grip. Then I needed to find my height range, push down two metal pieces, and slide the crutches until the little metal pieces came up in the hole near my height range. (Having two people for this