Much to be Grateful For

Thanksgiving is always a time to reflect on our blessings from the past year - and we do have much to be grateful for.  Some of the things I am most thankful for include my dear husband and best friend Charly, good honorable parents, my four children (who have truly all grown up to be pretty amazing people), my eight sweet and fun grandchildren, jobs we enjoy (most of the time), a home, enough of everything we need, my faith, the church I belong to, friends~old and new ~near and far, freedom and liberty in this great Country.

Our Thanksgiving was quiet - Just Charly and I enjoying our traditional turkey dinner together. Later in the evening some friends dropped by to chat for a while and they are always welcome. Charly didn't feel very good much of the day, but he still helped cook Thanksgiving dinner, as he usually does. Normally, we buy the biggest turkey in the store because Charly really likes the leftovers, but this year, since it would just be the two of us, we got a smaller turkey - just 13 lbs. 

Charly was in charge of the turkey, the gravy and the pumpkin pies.  Here he is stirring the gravy, which was very good, as always.

 While Charly was basting the turkey and making the gravy, I made the mashed potatoes, stuffing (the night before Thanksgiving), green bean casserole and candied yams.

 It was an excellent dinner.

 Charly has been making delicious pumpkin pies for years.  He plans to make more for Christmas.

 I put up our Christmas decorations the day before Thanksgiving.  

I don't do a lot of decorating like I used to, but we do enjoy a small tree on a table in our living room and these little trees (all of which I got for free from people who were throwing them away).  I put them in the entry way so they are the first thing that greets us when we walk in the front door.

I love nativities. These "manger scenes" that commemorate the birth of Christ the Lord are a big part of our holiday decor.  I have three under the tree, a large creche I inherited from my mother on a table near the tree and several small nativity ornaments on the tree. I bought a new creche this year - pictured above.  It was made in Mexico where a piece of my mother's heart will be celebrating Christmas again this year.  I will think of Josh when I see this nativity under the tree.

I have my Christmas shopping mostly finished now.  I have had some gifts  for the my children and grand kids put away in my gift closet since early in the year. I was able to finish getting gifts for our children and grandchildren and even Charly with trips to a couple of Wal-Marts on Black Friday evening, and a few clicks at on-line retailers and Amazon.com.  I even helped Charly get my gift online - but I won't reveal what it is until Christmas. 

The camera shown above is the one I ended up with replace my poor old broken camera that took the pictures in this post while literally being held together with masking tape and a rubber band. Charly said the camera is not part of my Christmas but replacement of a "necessary" item. (Ah...my husband knows me well).  I found this Nikon Coolpix S3700 at Best Buy Friday night (between Wal-Mart trips).  I had been researching and comparing cameras for several days and had narrowed my choices down to three, two of which were recommended by my good blogging friends Marsha of Keeping Focused and Karen of Life is  Good. I finally ended up with this one because the it was a great price and had the features I wanted - including WiFi.  My last camera was also a Nikon Coolpix and it was super easy to use and took thousands of great pictures for several years before it succumb to a broken latch on the battery compartment - so another Nikon for me.  I hope to keep this little camera with me all the time and have more great pictures to share again soon!

The coming week promises to be another busy one and maybe even a bit stressful (at work), so I thought this was a good thought to keep in mind:

Days of My Life Catch-Up and Gratitude

I am long overdue for a bit of a catch-up and since this is the week of Thanksgiving, I would certainly be remiss if I didn't do a little blessing counting as well.

We have been hard at work these past two weeks, doing a lot of different things.

Charly spent a lot of time in the yard trimming our big Mesquite trees.  The city kindly reminded us, with a note on our door, that the branches were growing over out into the street.  I am sure thankful for this hardworking man of mine and his chainsaw on a pole that kept us from having to pay a hefty fine to the city!

  

One night, a few days ago, Charly came home with a dozen beautiful roses for me ~ no reason - just because.

I love roses and I love the guy who brought them home.  He is my greatest blessing and I am very grateful for Charly's love and thoughtfulness.

I have enjoyed getting Josh's Christmas boxes ready to mail. Here are the Santa Bags I bought at the dollar store and then decorated "Mormon missionary style."  They hold the gifts I sent to Josh and his companion, Elder Villegas - who Josh says is a really great guy.

I made this Christmas Card with a poster board and a stick-on nativity (from Michaels)...

...and then had as many people as possible from church write messages to Josh.  I know he will love hearing from everyone!

With all the things for Josh and his friend, there was too much for just one box - so we actually mailed too rather large boxes - at a cost of over $130 just for postage.  I admit that is a bit pricey, but I am so thankful to have a son helping and serving others as a missionary, that a little bit of money for postage is not a big deal.   I am also thankful to have the finances to be able to afford gifts for two faithful young men in Mexico and the postage to mail everything to them.  I am also thankful for the prayers of all of my good blogging friends that will help get these boxes safely to Josh in time for Christmas!

Speaking of Christmas gifts, making these pillowcases for four of my grandchildren was my Saturday project last weekend.  I am certainly not a seamstress, but I am thankful for the very basically sewing skills that I have. They allow me to occasionally make fun things for those I love.

I am also grateful that we were able to treat our hard-working local missionaries to dinner last Saturday. These young men are just a bit older than Josh. They are both from Utah and have been serving here as missionaries in Arizona for about 15 months.  I am thankful for the service of all our young missionaries around the world ~ over 85,000 of them!

I am grateful that Thanksgiving is this week.  Although it will just be Charly and I for Thanksgiving dinner this year, we bought a small turkey and plan on a traditional meal with all the trimmings, including Charly's famous pumpkin pies!  We are both looking forward to a Thanksgiving for two! We will get together with friends later in the evening on Thanksgiving to share some desert and have a good visit.  I am thankful for good friends who are truly the "family we choose."

Earlier tonight, as I was writing this post, the doorbell rang, and we found this sitting on our doorstep.

The note that was with it said it is a special Thanksgiving gift from our church family!  What a wonderful surprise and kind act of service. Now we have turkey for Thanksgiving, and one for Christmas as well!  I am thankful for a good church family who extends love to each other!

I finished one book and started another one last night.  One I did not like much (Ties That Bind by Cindy Woodsmall) and the other one I am loving (52 Little Lessons from Christmas Carol by Bob Welch). I surely am grateful for the ability to read.  Even when books are not necessarily my favorites, they enrich my life and give me a view of the world I would not otherwise have!

Have a wonderfully happy Thanksgiving, and remember that it isn't happy people who are grateful, but grateful people who are happy!

Ties that Bind - Book Review

Ties That Bind by Cindy Woodsmall is a book about twenty-year-old Ariana Brenneman, a daughter of a large Amish family. Ariana loves the Old Order Amish community she has been raised in and is broken hearted when she discovers that one of her siblings plans to leave the Amish and abandon the traditional ways.  Ariana plans to open a café in historic Summer Grove and help keep her sister in the Amish fold, but raising money to buy the old café isn’t the only unforeseen roadblock she faces.  The secret aftermath of a fire that happened twenty years earlier at the time of her birth, surfaces and threatens to destroy Ariana, her family and all that she holds dear. 

I have read quite a few books about the Amish, and I really enjoy most of them, but I did not enjoy this book.  The conflicts and problems seemed contrived and unnatural. The characters were flat and not particularly likable.  The Amish faith and way of life was portrayed as something that needed to be escaped from, but the non-Amish, English characters were no better than the Amish.  Ariana’s Amish parents, sibling and boy friend seemed weak and incapable of doing anything without the consent and guidance of the ex-Amish man, Quill, who has been helping members of the church leave and join “English” society. The author tries to make Quill a hero of sorts in the story, but he comes across as more of a “rebel without a cause.”  We know that he was somehow romantically involved with Ariana when they were about 15-years-old, but we never really know why he “left the fold” with another girl, who he supposedly married, but really didn’t.  The reader also never finds out exactly why Quill “had no choice” but to leave the Amish and help others leave as well.  Maybe that is another mystery left to the next book in this series. I struggled to get through this 339  page book, only to discover that there was no real resolution to the main conflict at the end, and too many lose ends left dangling. Apparently, the reader will need to buy book two in The Amish of Summer Grove series to find out more, but I will not be one of them.  Ties That Bind was plenty for me.  I am not particularly interested in finding out how the story ends.

After I finished this book, I realized that I had read another book by Cindy Woodsmall, a few years back and didn’t like that one much either. 

I would give this book two stars ** out of five, so you can tell that I really didn’t like it much. 

Full disclose:  Blogging for Books provided me with a copy of the book to review, but my candid review and opinion is completely mine.

Days of my life...

Time to slow down a bit after a busy day and start a new week remembering some of the good things going on in my life...

The weather has turned cooler, but there is still plenty of sunshine. This is the beginning of the best time of the year in Arizona. While other parts of the country struggle through cold and stormy weather, Arizona is sunny and beautiful.  After many years of living in cold and snowy places, I am grateful for the warmth and brightness of winters in the desert.

I have been busy getting things ready to send to Josh in Mexico.  I need to get his package in the mail in a few days so that it will reach him in time for Christmas.  Packages I send are taking about a month to reach him. I am grateful that the packages I have been sending to Josh have been getting to him safely and in tact.

I was happy to find a box in the garage that is just the right size for everything I am sending to Josh and his companion, Elder Villegas. I grateful for a son who is spending two years of his life helping and serving others in Mexico and his friend, Elder Villegas who is proving to be a kind and patient mentor to my son.

Saturday, I made these pillowcases for Josh and his companion.  I love the cute missionary fabric I found at a fabric store in Utah last summer. I am grateful to have the basic sewing skills I have so that I can make fun things like this for people I love.

While I was making pillow cases, Charly was cleaning our kitchen cabinets and putting Liquid Gold on them so now they look almost new.  He has been wanting to do this for a while and finally got around to it. I am grateful for a hard-working husband who spends so much time taking care of our home and yard.

One evening last week, I went with some women from church to Feed my Starving Children, a volunteer ministry that packages and ships food to countries where the people don't have enough to eat.  I am always grateful for an opportunity to help others.

The other ladies and I all looked so chic in our hairnets  as we got ready to help package enough food to feed 37 starving children for a year.  We enjoyed laughing, visiting and fellow shipping with each other while doing something to help others truly in need.  We got home late, but it was a fun night.  I am grateful for women in my church family who have proven to be good friends over the years.

My scripture to "ponderize" (ponder and memorize) this week is John 6:66-69:

"From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.

"Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?

"Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?  thou hast the words of eternal life.

"And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God."

I love this scripture, because right now, in many cases, being a follower of Jesus Christ is not always a popular or "politically correct" thing to be, but it is He that gives us the words of eternal life, and the peace,comfort and help we need every day. I am grateful for my faith and the wonderful reassurances given in the scriptures. 

My thought for the week is simple and true and reminds me that when I am grateful for my blessings and focus on the positives in life, I am happier and I open the door for even more good things to happen!

Stay Grateful, Stay Positive, Stay Happy this week!

Book Review - Forgiven by Terri Roberts

On October 2, 2006, 33-year-old Charlie Roberts, a married father of two, inexplicably committed one of the most heinous crimes in recent history.  Without any apparent reason or explanation, he entered a one-room Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania, told the teacher and male students to leave the schoolhouse, then restrained and shot ten little girls from six to thirteen-years-old, before taking his own life.  Five of the girls died, the rest were critically injured.

Forgiven is the remarkable story of the shooter’s mother, Terri Roberts.  Within hours of the senseless violence and heartbreaking tragedy, the Amish community, who had lost so much, reached out to the shooter’s widow and parents in an amazing spirit of concern, love and forgiveness. 

In the book, Terri Roberts recounts the tragic event that her son perpetrated, but also the ongoing love, care and lasting friendship that came as the result of a conscious choice on the part of the Amish community and the Roberts family.  It is a riveting and compelling story that made me want to read and read until I had finished the book.

While the parts of the book concern a violent and despicable crime, Roberts does not given unsettling details or dwell on specifics of the tragedy.   It is however, the story of an unthinkable act of murder and its aftermath and parts of the book may be troubling to young teens and pre-teens.

Roberts also talks about the part that faith played in the grace and forgiveness offered and accepted after what the Amish refer to as “the happening.”  It is a story that strengthened my faith, and made me want to offer grace and forgiveness and strive to be more Christian in thought and deed.  This is a book I will keep in my library and read again.  I highly recommend it and give it five stars out of five stars. 

Full disclosure:  Bethany House Publishers provided a free copy of the book for my review, but the honest review and opinion are my own.