It All Counts

Sometimes I feel like this poor flower... Thankfully, it rarely lasts very long. I think it's time for me to start counting gifts again. There are so many blessings in life that I either forget or overlook when I lose my focus and a Thankful Journal helps me keep focus. My husband is irritated by the loud and often repetitious songs of the mockingbird, and that's okay, lots of people are, but I have been finding them rather amusing. To me they are a gift if only because I find myself smiling as I listen.

My grandchildren no longer spend three or four overnight visits per week at my house. Instead they arrive bright and early Thursday and Friday mornings, stay while their mommy works cleaning houses, and go home to their own apartment at night. In the early part of the year my five year old grandson prayed that they could "be a family again". I have to be honest and admit that Lucas had more faith than me, but he has had his prayers (and mine) answered. There is still a long way to go, we are still praying for complete healing and restoration of my son's marriage, but the process is underway. This is no small gift, it is huge.

Next Wednesday morning my sisters and I will meet at the cemetery to commit our mother's remains to the ground. I've written the letter, enclosed the payment and required certificate and soon another chapter will close. Perhaps it will also bring the closure my heart and mind so desperately need. The cemetery plots my grandpa bought so many years ago are a gift too. He couldn't have known what a blessing this would be to me 65 years later.

I'm not sure if I mentioned my brother's trip to the hospital a week and a half ago. He was having trouble with incontinence and was unable to walk. They thought he might have a UTI but so far all the tests have shown nothing. Rachel and I visited him last Wednesday and brought him a Frosty from Wendy's. He was eating lunch when we arrived and not only ate all of that but his Frosty too. He looked almost ready to hurl... We attempted to interest him in some written communication on Rachel's tablet, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Tired and stuffed, he instead said, "Goodbye to you." We were more amused than insulted. It's always a gift when our nonverbal brother actually talks.

#1 mockingbird songs
#2 healing and restoration
#3 Grandpa's gift
#4 words from Tim