Thankful Me

  A wax-coated bulb and its red amaryllis blossom Don't worry. The post title isn't some poetic description of my mental state; it's just a comment on the weather. This week it has seemed that I was in Washington or Oregon, only with snow. It has been mostly cloudy all week, with a perpetual drizzle of snow. Yesterday the sun did shine for a brief moment, but the light snowfall has returned again. While the near-constant snowfall is getting a little old. . .  1. I am thankful for the snow. It's going to take a lot of water to get Utah out of drought conditions, and the more snow we get now, the better. If the ground is already saturated by the time the snow runoff starts, that just means more water in the reservoirs. I've already told John we'll need to plant more trees/shrubs this spring, since the ground (mostly rocks) should be (relatively) easy to dig. 😊 2. I'm thankful to live where there are four seasons. Though Mele Kalikimaka is a fine song, I do pr

  A beautiful stained glass mural showing Jesus Christ healing a man. Various other Bible stories are also depicted. About this time last year, John and I had booked a vacation that we ended up having to cancel for reasons beyond our control. At the time we canceled, we were given the option of a refund of part of the money, or we could get all of the money refunded if we took the airfare portion as a credit. We chose the credit, but failed to read the fine print well enough. Surprise, surprise, the airfare credit expired within a year, and was only good if we booked a hotel package at the same time. First world problem for sure, but we needed to book a vacation. We thought we'd just take a quick trip in January to somewhere warmer than Utah, and had decided on San Antonio, Texas--somewhere neither of us have been. I researched the trip, but didn't hit the book button. When I returned to the site a few days later to book, the cost had increased quite a bit. No offense to Texas,

  a Christmas tree with all of the decorations placed on the upper half of the tree Hello, my friends! December just flew by. We had the privilege of having our grandchildren come and stay with us over the holidays. The tree in the photo above started out more traditionally decorated, but our toddler granddaughter decided that we had too many ornaments within her reach, so by the time the grandchildren went home, the tree looked like it does in the photo above. I don't imagine Better Homes and Gardens will be wanting to do a photo shoot anytime soon, but I don't care. We made memories, and that is what matters.  Let's jump right in to the Ten Things of Thankful: 1. I'm thankful for the chance to see almost all of my children, and all of my grandchildren, in December. I really love my family.  2. I'm thankful also for extended family and gatherings we had over the holidays. 3. I'm thankful for technology that allows family to stay in touch even when we aren't

  A small snowflake ornament made of clear melted beads hangs on a Christmas tree The rhythm of time passing should not surprise me--after all, that is our experience here on earth--and yet I find myself constantly amazed at how another week/month/year has come and gone. In a blink of an eye, we are now in December and the Christmas season. I love Christmas!  1. I'm thankful for decorations. The tree is up, lights are hung, nativities adorn the house. Stockings are hung in anticipation of little ones visiting. Someone asked me this week what my tree looks like. I'm a sentimental tree decorator. I didn't even realize until not that long ago that some people have themes for their trees that are anything other than "a hodge-podge of ornaments made and collected over the years, each with a history that brings memories flooding back." At this point in my life, I have more ornaments than tree space, so not every ornament goes up each year. I always find room for the sma

  A frozen stream sits between two banks of snow I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving! We had fewer family members come than originally expected, but even though we missed those that couldn't make it, we enjoyed time with those that could. And as being thankful is not just for those times when everything is smooth sailing, but also (and maybe even more especially) when life throws a curve ball, I can easily come up with a Ten Things of Thankful list this week: 1. I am thankful for family, both near and far. 2. I am thankful for technology that allows us to stay in touch, quickly and easily. The Pony Express used to be the gold standard for fast communication, taking letters from east coast to west coast in 10 days. Can you imagine writing out news, and not receiving a reply of acknowledgment for 20 days? Now we have talk, text, and video calls which allow us to keep in touch instantaneously. 3. I am thankful for games. Thanks to photos inserted into texts, I could see my sister was

  BYU's Lavell Edwards football stadium prior to the game, with the Wasatch Mountains behind More than one person asked me today, "What are you doing with all your time now?" Ah, the question of all mid-life crises! Still puttering through life, hoping I'm steering in the right direction. While some people have one passion that commands all their time and energy, others swap depth for breadth, and enjoy a little of this and a little of that. I'm more of the latter (although when I'm doing family history research I might be confused for the former.) This past week has definitely been of the little of this and a little of that variety. Monday, John and I went and got our bivalent covid boosters. I'm thankful for vaccines (1) and for living in a country where vaccines are readily available (2). I'm not limiting my thanks to only covid vaccines, but others as well.  (Often, it takes me longer than I think it should to compose a post, and this is one of tho