Thankful Me

  My daughter and I stand in front of the dome car of the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad train I recently returned from a vacation to Missouri and Arkansas with my oldest daughter. We flew out of Seattle to St. Louis, Missouri one Saturday and returned the next. In that one week's time, we packed in a lot of sightseeing: some typical, "touristy" places, and some highlights that were meaningful to us, but perhaps not on the state tourism board's top ten list.  1. I'm thankful to have been able to spend so much time with my daughter. She is a kind, intelligent woman and she is my friend as well as my daughter.  2. I'm thankful we got to visit with my cousin. I hadn't seen her in years, and it was really great to spend some time with her.  3. I'm thankful we were able to find several cemeteries where relatives are buried, and to be able to find the gravestones. The smallest cemetery was on the property that used to belong to my g-g-g-grandpa. It was dow

  A photo of a temperature display on a car dashboard, which reads "OUTSIDE 107 F" Fall officially starts this month, but summer temperatures are not going away without a fight. And as long as the weather wants to be ridiculously hot, you will find me trying to stay cool, whether that means a trip to the beach, or just a shopping trip to Costco to walk through the refrigerated produce room.  The Friday before Labor Day, I attended the funeral of a mother of a friend. My friend and her family had moved away from California around the time we had moved to Utah, so I hadn't actually seen her for quite a while. One of her daughters was my daughter, too, when John and I were Pa and Ma to a bunch of teens on a pioneer trek reenactment years ago. The funeral was a nice tribute to a amazingly musical woman, and it was good to reconnect with her family. (And if I'm not mistaken, one of the musical numbers had theremin accompaniment!)  1. I'm thankful for the chance to cele

The word "Alligator" and an illustration of an alligator is on a blue piece of cardboard As I mentioned in my last post, I have been enjoying having my youngest granddaughter over several times each week for "Grandma Preschool." One of the things I have been teaching her is how to recognize the letter "A." I wasn't sure this particular skill was one that would hold much interest to a young 3-year-old, but I have been pleasantly surprised. I think the allure has come from the fact that I have been letting her use a flashlight to shine on all the A's she finds.  In any case, she is pointing out A's left and right now. Although I have talked about the sound that the letter A makes, I think that is going to take some more time to sink in. As she was playing with some alphabet puzzle cards, I heard her say resolutely to herself, "A is for crocodile."  1. I'm thankful for the example of confidence she gives me. Given the information she

stock photo of a wind-up alarm clock  Time is a funny thing. One minute you're just starting out as an adult. Then life spins around quickly and the next thing you know, forty years have passed and you're attending social events with people you haven't seen in forever. Often these get-togethers, though enjoyable, require a certain amount of emotional effort--"Today I will be an extrovert!"--but I've come away from these recent events energized and looking forward to future reunions.  The first weekend of August, we attended a wedding reception, and spent the evening visiting with friends. One of those friends told me how much she enjoyed reading my blog posts. While I do not write for praise, I realized just how impactful encouragement is, and even though I haven't been as regular about blogging as I used to be, her comment sparked a desire to be more focused in my writing.  The next weekend, John and I flew up to Oregon. We went up for a dual purpose: to

  A small frog rests inside a child's cupped hands It's only the end of July. When I was a child, July was the middle month of summer, but my grandchildren start school on August 12th, so (even though the temperatures are by no means autumn-like) the end of July signals waning summer fun. While the grandchildren have been out of school, I've tried to pack in activities and experiences to broaden their horizons and introduce them to fun that doesn't involve little (or big!) screens. Some activities involved all of the grandchildren at once. Other times, I would take an individual grandchild on an outing catered to his or her interests. Each grandchild had a chance to stay overnight at our house then we went on an adventure together the next day. Friday night we completed the final sleepover, or rather, all of the grandchildren have now had a turn. They are already asking about "next time."  I'm thankful: 1. for summer library programs. My grandchildren have

  Black and white photo taken in the 1930s shows an extended family standing and smiling at the camera From as early as I can remember, "going to the family reunion" meant driving to the mountains in Oregon and having a picnic with my parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. I didn't necessarily know exactly how everyone was related, but we each could find our name on Uncle George's chart, so that meant we were all family.  George and Dorothy stand in front of the family tree chart As (I hope) you can tell from the photo at the top of this post, the Telfer family reunion started well before I was born. That cute little boy second from the left at the bottom of that photo? None other than Uncle George. George kept the reunion going for decades, but sometime (I believe in the years just prior to his death in 2009) the annual gathering fizzled away.  Last year, one of my third cousins decided we needed to start the reunions again, and so we did. Attend