My Thirty Days of Thanks....Part One

My thirty days of thanks begins with playing catch-up, since it is now the 8th day!  I like the idea of remembering my blessings...

Day 1 - Grandchildren

Day 1:  Grandchildren...The bigger one that calls me Grandpa Joe and the little one who doesn't talk, but I'm sure that the first word out of her mouth will be Grandpa!  Halloween became a better celebration this year!

Day 2:  Broken Drawer Fronts and Hardware, Scratched Floors,  and Builder's Quality Everything....After nearly a quarter century, our cheap as could be, kid ravaged, age worn kitchen has been renovated!  Today was the final walkthrough, and  am thankful for a team of workers and coordinators that made it all happen quickly and smoothly.

Day 3:  Kids and Parents Adjusting to the Empty Nest....a talented son who has overcome many obstacles in his first semester of college, and just made his college musical debut in the ensemble of 'The Pirates of Penzance', continuing his trend of amazing us......Who knew those struggles would be a blessing?

Day 4:  My Slow Brain: We had nothing scheduled for today. All the children were safe where they were, and it was a day to clear the head.  A little more time was spent on Facebook than usual on this day, and I finally realized that when my Facebook friends typed the word 'Day' with a number after it, they were telling what they were thankful for on that day. A few days later, I talked to my boss about it, and she confirmed that it was 30 days of thanks.   It wasn't long after that when I made a connection:   Thanksgiving is in November, and that was how this whole thing started!  I am thankful for a brain that procrastinates because I thought of multitudes of blessings at one time in order to play catch-up! 

Day 5 - Happy Birthday, Mom!

Day 5: My parents.  There goes that calendar again...reminding my family and I that this was the time of year when Mom always had a celebration for Dad because his birthday was on October 21st, and he was the Dad! We always added to the celebration by making a fuss over Mom's November 5th birthday, because she was the Mom! This picture was taken on June 16, 1996 at the Town House in Media on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary. We're all missing you both today, and Happy 88th birthday, Mom...it's a blessing to have a lifetime of happy memories....

Day 6:  Political Opposition.  No, I'm not confrontational.  I don't like fighting.  I rarely talk politics because I don't like having little knots in my stomach.  This year, however, my youngest son is 18, and so ecstatic that he gets to have a voice in this election, that I have to consider myself blessed, despite the fact that our political views don't coincide.  Watching children grow and have passion is a blessing.......


Day 7:  Uncollected Trash.  I spent Tuesday pulling on my retractable ID card holder, a bad habit I picked up when I got my own fob for entry into my place of employment.  Fortunately, the Department in which I work is the proud possessor of extra retractable ID card holders, and I quickly tossed the old broken one in the trash, and attached my brand spanking new holder to my belt.  All was fine until the next morning when I got out of my car and went to let myself into the building and realized that my fob was missing.  I went to the front entrance to get in, and proceeded to tell my coworkers of my debacle.  I told them that I feared that my fob had been collected with the prior night's trash.  As soon as I went into the room where my desk is, I checked the trash can I had thrown the holder away in and lo and behold, there was the fob.  It's a blessing to have unemptied trash cans around....

Day 8:  My Wife's Make-up.  Close your mouth and unwrinkle your face and I'll explain.  For some reason, the last few mornings have been harried, and I have shaved in a moment.   That razor occasionally forms a mind of his own and moves, lickety-split and in the wrong direction,  to another part of my face and makes me look like a commercial for a slasher flick. I have two choices:  Adopt the Rip Van Winkle look and let the white whiskers flow, or cover it up with make up.  Since my facial hair becomes itchy and is the color of snow, (which I'll remind you, I'm not fond of),  I choose to cover it up.  It's a blessing to be married......

What a gift to pause and remember that out of each of life's battles comes a blessing, sometimes small, sometimes big, sometimes absurd, but always a blessing....I look forward to looking at the positive in the next 22 days!