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Ten Things of Thankful: A Decade is One-Tenth of a Century

  A red blossom on a peony my cousin sent me from my grandma's garden I have always been fascinated with the concept of time. I distinctly remember turning 10 years old, and realizing that that was it for single digits for me, and recognizing that it would be a very long time before I hit triple digits. Obviously, I was a bit of a strange child, or at the very least, an old soul.  Although I've been rocking the double-digits for multiple decades now, the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop is just now approaching that milestone. I do hope that you will join with us June 9-11 to celebrate!  Not only have I been thinking about the number 10 this past week, I've been thinking about the number 100, because that is how old my grandma would have turned this week, had she still been alive. A little over 10 years ago, I wrote a bit about her in this blog post . She had so much tragedy in her life, but that did not define her. She was quick to laugh and had a heart of gold. She opened h
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Ten Things of Thankful: Coming Up on a Decade!

  Photo shows a red sun setting over the Great Salt Lake As I've been gathering my thoughts for my post (and that's an apt expression, because sometimes my thoughts are all over the place!), I realized that the beginning of next month will be the 10th anniversary of the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop! Put June 7th on your calendar as TTOT Day.  Invite your family, friends, and neighbors and have some cake. If there can be "Christmas in July" activities, there can certainly be "Thanksgiving in June!"  In the meantime, you can gear up for the big party by thinking on the past week. What are you thankful for this week? Here's my list: 1. I'm thankful for a negative covid test and the end of isolation. As much as I love my bedroom, I'm glad to not be confined to it anymore. 2. I'm thankful that the isolation paid off and John didn't get sick. 3. I'm thankful for individuals and businesses that are generous to foster families. I had the c
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Ten Things of Thankful: Timing is Everything

  Pink tree blossoms frame a picturesque scene from Sitka, Alaska, of soaring white-capped mountains in the background and various small boats docked in the water in the foreground  Time is such a funny thing; minutes can take forever, and years can pass quickly. Since I last blogged, John and I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary. I'm thankful for our marriage. On the one hand, I don't think we're old enough to have been married that long, but on the other hand, we've packed in a lot of adventures in those years, so I guess the years do add up correctly. We are the same people, and yet we've changed. I wonder if butterflies ever think back to their caterpillar days with as much wonder and amazement?  We had scheduled a trip to Alaska, not because of our anniversary, but because we wanted to go with my parents on a cruise. We had everything booked and ready to go, but a couple of weeks prior to the departure date, my dad required surgery and so my parents neede
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Ten Things of Thankful: I'd Like to Buy a Vowel, and Other Memories from Home

  Tile letters D D L N N P R R on a Scrabble tray This past week, I flew up to Oregon to spend some time with my parents. While I tried to be helpful, and managed to do some household chores, I think my main purpose there was for comic relief, which often manifested itself in the form of Scrabble games.  At one point, I texted a photo of the above Scrabble letters to my siblings, along with the plea, "HLPM! (Help me, with no vowels)".  The astute among you will realize that I had too many tiles on my tray, a fact I didn't notice until the next play. It obviously doesn't pay to cheat--particularly in a Scrabble game without vowels! My mom drew most of the vowels that game, and I was stuck trying to make words with only the vowels available on the board. The next game, I was rewarded with "AEOQOAY" as my letters. Somehow that wasn't much better. Anyway, regardless of how many and which letters we had, we managed to laugh our way through daily Scrabble game
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Ten Things of Thankful: Can It Be?

  Forsythia and daffodils bloom near my front door It appears that spring has arrived! I'm not ruling out the possibility of more snow, because I am living in Utah after all, but I should be safe in saying that our spring-like days should outnumber our winter-like days in the coming months. Hurray! This week was filled with medical excitement for multiple relatives.  1. I'm thankful someone had good news, and things aren't as bad as was thought. 2. I'm thankful someone else sought help in time to receive treatment. 3. I'm thankful the treatment went smoothly and the patient is feeling much better. 4. I'm thankful for a son who is a doctor and texts explanations (including hand-drawn diagrams!) to help me understand what is happening. 5. I'm thankful for family members who rally to support and pray. Those are the "heavy" things I'm thankful for this week, but the week had lighter moments. 6. I'm thankful that, despite one day of spitting sno
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Ten Things of Thankful: Sunday Will Come Edition

A gloomy view looking down the street of a snowy neighborhood Last weekend, I watched General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints . The message I heard time and again was a call to follow Jesus Christ--to be loving and kind, and to spread peace, not contention. As last Sunday was Palm Sunday, and tomorrow is Easter Sunday, many references were made to the events of the week leading up to Christ's resurrection.  During the week, I learned of several individuals who are facing some challenges, including a tragic death of a baby . A friend's daughter is an aunt of the little boy. When I heard of his death, I thought of a General Conference talk from a past year, titled "Sunday Will Come."   I have referenced this talk before when I've spoken at funerals. Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can cling to hope when all seems darkest. We can have peace in the knowledge that Sunday will come. Easter Sunday came after  frightening days
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Ten Things of Thankful: Lost and Found Edition

  A plethora of boxes on our office floor, none of which contain my elementary school class photos Some weeks, the Ten Things of Thankful practically writes itself, or at least a theme becomes apparent. Such was the case this week. Sunday afternoon, a friend messaged me and asked if I had our elementary school class photos. Well, of course  I did, and I would be happy to look for them on Monday and share with her. (The new season of Relative Race was about to start and I didn't feel like pulling out photos right then.) The photos weren't where I expected them to be (in one of many photo boxes). The photos weren't in any of the family history boxes, nor in a binder, nor in with childhood memorabilia, nor in boxes of artwork in the basement, nor in my baby book, nor in my recipe cupboard (yes, I was getting desperate!), nor in the piano bench (ditto last parenthetical comment), nor in desk drawers, nor in nightstand drawers, nor under the bed, nor. . . .  I have wracked my br
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