Thankful Me

Photo: Sunbeams shine through fluffy clouds in a blue sky. "Ten Things of Thankful" is at the top of the image, with numbers 1-10 down the left side. At the bottom, "Join weekly at www.thankfulme.net" Next week, the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop celebrates its 6th anniversary. To make it extra special, we're going to join with Finish the Sentence Friday . The more the merrier! Please mark your calendars, throw up the party banner, pick up a cupcake, and get ready to celebrate with us!  We don't have to wait until a big event to remember why we are thankful, though. Knowing that each week I will be making a list makes me look for reasons to be thankful. Here are the things I found this week: 1. I'm thankful for an upcoming graduation. Although oldest daughter graduated from law school last year and passed the bar exam, she decided to take a few more classes so she could get a master's in tax law. She finishes her finals this week and gradua

Photo: Low clouds roll down a green mountainside Someone asked me yesterday if I had plans for this Memorial Day weekend. I'm hoping to squeeze in some yard work on Saturday, between storm systems. With all the grey, drizzly days we've had lately, I feel like I'm back in the Pacific Northwest. That's not a bad thing. Moisture brings green plant growth and flowers. Here it is, the end of May, and we haven't even turned on our sprinklers yet. I'm sure summer will arrive eventually, but for now, I'm enjoying this more Seattle-like season and the beauty all around me. I'm thankful for the birds I've been seeing:  1. Baltimore Oriole--Though allaboutbirds.org shows us outside its range, the photo looks like it, so we're going with Baltimore.  Photo: A soggy orange-breasted bird, with white-striped black wings and yellow and black tail feathers, sits on the back step. 2. Bullock's Oriole--John looked out his office window and spotte

Photo: A golden oval frame holds an old sepia photo of a woman. She wears her hair in a bun. The eyes of the grandmother's likeness peered out from the old  golden oval frame, willing a shopper to take her photo off the wall. The paper backing held records so important to her: names and dates that served as evidence her loved ones once lived. She wanted to be remembered, but more importantly than that, she wanted her family relations to be remembered. Her son, who died as an infant and whose initials were only penciled in, was dangerously close to being forgotten forever. She couldn't have that, and so she maintained her constant, vigilant, stare, waiting for someone to notice her.  Finally, after all this time . . .she couldn't breathe as she saw a woman's arms reaching out to lift the frame from off the wall.   ************************************* I'm participating again with Six Sentence Stories . Go to Denise's blog to read other stories, or ad

Photo: Positano nestles in the steep hillside. Beautiful sky-blue waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea lap at the shore below the town, and fluffy clouds cover the mountain tops. Today, let's travel to Positano, a place where John and I wouldn't mind spending more time--and almost got to! (More on that story later.)  Traveling by bus on curvy, narrow roads was quite an adventure. Who knew that we would have to execute three-point-turns in order to handle the switchbacks? Photo: View from the left-hand side of the bus, as we attempted a sharp turn. We are traveling downhill. On the left is a short concrete wall and vegetation. Even though Italians drive on the right-hand side of the road, it appears we are going to run right into the wall. (We didn't.) The buildings of Positano are in the background. Positano is a popular destination in the warmer months, but because we were there in January, we appeared to be the only tourists in town. Once we got off the bus, we wande

Photo: Me and my sister smile for the camera. We both have curly, shoulder-length hair and glasses.  April showers have brought May flowers, along with more water. A steady rainfall is coming down as I write this post. It's a good time to be inside. I think I'll cozy up with a book after hitting "publish." This week, I'm thankful for: 1. A new office chair. As a Mother's Day gift, John took me on Monday night to pick out a chair for my office. I found one that is much more comfortable than the folding chair I had been using. Bonus that it looks nice, too! 2. Time with my sister! On Tuesday, as I was finishing up my walk with my neighbor (thankful #3), I got a phone call from my sister. She asked if I wanted house guests that day for a couple of days. Of course!  It was a very last-minute, low-key visit, but we managed to squeeze in lots of good things: 4. Talking and laughing. 5. Sharing books and television shows. (I think I got her hooked on

Photo: A toddler (me), with an impish grin, rolls out dough on the kitchen counter while my mom stands behind me and laughs Happy Mother's Day weekend to all the moms out there, and gentle hugs to those whose dreams of motherhood have not been fulfilled.  1. I'm thankful that I had the incredible good luck to have the world's best mom. I'm sure you can tell from the photo above that she had her work cut out for her when I joined the family. She patiently harnessed my energy and taught me. . .well, everything.  2. I'm thankful another friend from California visited me this week. I hadn't seen her since we moved, and it was so good to catch up. I took her to Moon's Rare Books (of course--that's my go-to place to show out-of-town visitors) and then we went out to lunch.  3. I'm thankful for spring! Knock on wood, but it looks like the apricot tree is going to have a bumper crop this year. John and I keep thinning the fruit, but it doesn't

Photo: (From the Library of Congress image collection) The iconic Hollywood sign As the middle-aged couple walked toward the intersection of Hollywood and Highland, two women, dressed in mini-skirted police uniforms, yelled out to the man, "HEY, handsome, we're going to have to ah-RREST you!" The husband and wife hurried on, not even reading the famous names on the stars on the sidewalk, and managed to catch the walk signal before it started its blinking orange countdown. Slowing the pace as they reached the opposite side of Hollywood Boulevard, with Disney's El Capitan Theatre in sight, the wife remarked, "Well, that  was interesting!"  The husband, with the blank stare of confusion, asked, "What was interesting?" "Didn't you see those women dressed as police officers who threatened to arrest you?" "No; I was too focused on getting to our destination." *********************** Thanks to Denise for hosting th

Photo: Taken from an overpass while on the bus, the view is of buildings on either side of steep cliffs, with a road between them which leads out to the beautiful light blue waters of the sea I've learned something since returning from my vacation to Italy--I need to be more punctual in recording future travelogues, because the details of the places fade over time. Fortunately for today's post, my visit to the towns of Sorrento and Positano was less about remembering informational details, and more about soaking up the natural beauty of these coastline places. As such, this post and next week's will be photo-heavy. Sorrento was a brief stop on our tour, but we had enough time to walk around town a bit (and buy some conditioner, as oh-so-organized me packed two bottles of shampoo instead of one shampoo and one conditioner--and yes, it took me this long into our trip to notice!) and make our way down to the water. Sorrento sits on the Gulf of Naples in the Tyrrhen

Photo: A red wood barn stands next to a paved walking path in a green pasture. Snow covered mountains loom in the background. Despite the fact that snow dusted the ground early in the morning on May 1st, warm sunny days are becoming more and more common. May is a beautiful month. Here's what I'm thankful for this week: 1. Flowers are blooming. Whether pansies on the porch or lilacs throughout the neighborhood, the flowers brighten yards and make me smile.  Photo: White flower pots filled with blue and yellow pansies sit on a white porch rail. Yellow forsythia blossoms bloom in the background. 2. Quail couples wander all over my yard. I'm looking forward to babies later.  3. Drexel accompanied me on a walk. (I took the photo of the barn above on said walk.) He's a well-behaved dog and a good companion. 4. Rose bushes came in the mail--and it's supposed to be nice this weekend, so we can get them planted! 😊 5. A $10 off $10 purchase coupon from JCP