Gratitude #6 - Your biggest supporters in life -
I would have to say my biggest supporters are my family. Any idea I throw at them, they are always supportive and tell me I can do it. And yes I k now they are rolling their eyes behind my back telling each other that I have totally lost my mind. But that's ok. They're mine.
I am combining day4 and day5 of gratitude because to me they are basically the same thing.
Day 4 wants the best thing that's ever happened to you and Day 5 is Your greatest achievement.
Other than accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior which is #1, I would say meeting Jim and building a family with him is the best thing that's ever happened to me. We have had other accomplishments in our married life, but our children are our best achievement.
Still catching up so we will go on to February - SAIA committee week was easy this year since it was in Charlotte. Tabby still had to be boarded because we stayed in the city instead of driving back and forth every day.
Then my smart butt decided I wanted to redo my office/craft room. I emptied everything, went thru it, and got rid of half of my stash. Jim redid my closet with shelving and I painted the walls a very pretty yellow to brighten the room up , a big improvement from the builder greige. Everything was put back in place and decorated and pictures on the wall. It is such a nice place to retreat to. And as with all endeavors, we learn something about ourselves. Jim and I both learned that our house painting days are pretty much over, and that professional painters need to make a living too.
Gratitude Prompt for Today - Any things you have that the majority of people don't
This one is easy....there are many things that I am blessed with that most these days are not....let's start off with my husband. A faithful man with a steady job that allows me the privilege of deciding if I want my own job or not ( and he's ok either way). Even though he travels quite frequently, it has allowed me to raise and homeschool our children without outside influences. Now that the kids are grown and most have a family of their own, I'm able to travel with him when I want to.
Now the children - all have good jobs, none are in jail or on drugs, all are in reasonably good health, and have each other's backs. Can't ask for more than that.
As you can see, although I do love the material things, they are not my first priority.
The prompt for today is to acknowledge the kindest thing someone did for you....that's very hard to do, and not because people have not been kind to me, but more so because many people HAVE been kind to me. It's hard to narrow down one particular event...so I won't. This is not to say that I haven't had to deal with some real A..holes, but most everyone I encounter in life is kind and if they are not...then I move on.
January 2025 - Jim and I celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary on the 3rd with a week of grand gestures of serving each other soup, crackers and anything else that was left in the house to eat. Somehow we both had some awful respiratory bug, but in our true fashion, we did it together. It seems that I have blocked out anything else that happened in January except for the ice coatings the weather kept gifting us. These were just 2 of the days of ice, but it was nice to just sit by the fire and watch.
I've have been reading about gratitude journaling, but we all know that I am not consistent at all about journaling or blogging to put it mildly. So I guess I'll try to do something to get this thing going again.
The topic for gratitude journal today is supposed to be "The bet thing that happened so far this year"...I can say with all certainty that the best thing that has happened to me is God has had me and my family on the wake-up list every day. It doesn't get any better than that.
As far as blogging about our life, guess I should finish out 2024 -
March - Charleston for Jake and Emily's birthday and SAIA Committee week. Jim was AWOL for most of the rest of the month on business
April - We had our new patio poured then went to Ft Pierce and Gainesville for visits. Jim only gone one week this month Had a weekend at Emily's.
May - Jim made a visit to Ft. Pierce - We also made a trip to Gainesville later in the month
June - Had Cardio appt and passed with flying colors, Went to Gainesville to the end of the month to pick up Logan for Camp Gma & Gpa
July - Had Logan for the month - did the King's Mountain experience and Schiele Museum - both were big winners - We also got our year supply of peas and butterbeans for the freezer - Jenny came to pick up Logan and Emily came in to visit also, so we had a blast, especially at the farmers market with the fresh apple cider donuts. Girls still talk about that
August - August was extremely quiet but that was a good thing because we needed the break
September - Took a trip to VA to spend a long weekend with family (Mom, sisters, aunts and uncle) Jim spent several days in Knoxville
October - Spent the first week in Denver for SAIA Convention (scary city) Jim had a few business trips for the month. Got a big surprise on my birthday weekend -was sitting on patio when I was tapped on shoulder and turned to find Emily, Jake and Rachel standing there to celebrate with me. It was wonderful. Jim and I left for Knoxville a few days later.
November - Still in Knoxville/Pigeon Forge - made our first trip to Dollywood and it was amazing - we took a different route home and rode the Cherohala Skyway thru the Smoky Mountains. The fall foliage was like nothing we had ever seen before. Had permanent lighting installed on the house so we can light it for every holiday. Took another weekend trip to Emily's for Jim to do some work on her new apt - Last we went down to Gainesville for the week of Thanksgiving - for the first time in several years, we had all the children and grandchildren with the exception of Kaleigh and I was in Mama heaven.
December - the month of Chaos - I was extremely fortunate to have all the gifts bought, wrapped and Christmas ornaments made and given to each family at Thanksgiving, so all I had to do in December to was decorate and get ready for two little munchkins to spend Christmas with us. We had a full house at Christmas with Jake, Emily, Rachel, Camden and Chandler. I felt I was in my element.
Well, that should catch things up for last year and I'm sure I forgot tons but these were most of the highlights.
Sometimes I just forget that I need to update. I try to keep myself busy and tend to only remember about it after I have gone to bed..lol. I'll see if I can remember all the happenings since the last entry.
We have spent a lot of time in Tenn. It has become our "go to" place. We spent our anniversary in Jan (35yrs), and several other trips thru the winter. So glad Jim has an office in Knoxville. We made our first drive thru Cades Cove on our last trip. Can't wait to go back and do some walking. It was definitely too cold at that time. Buc-ees has become a "must stop" for us also. They have the BEST praline fudge !!! Priorities, you know.
Jan was the final month on the lease of our house in Charlotte. Got everything out, cleaned and we are officially SC residents. Jim had the World of Concrete expo in Vegas. I sat this one out and tried to deal with all the junk we brought to the new house.
Feb was another trip to Knoxville 😊 Tabby is getting used to being at the boarding/spa and has made a new friend. She cries now for a day or two when she gets home looking for her buddy, who happens to be a huge white male resident cat named "Scooter" . And NO we are NOT bringing Scooter home with us.
March - We spent the first weekend in March at Emily's with Jake for their birthday. I don't think they have missed one together yet. We took them to an escape room, which has almost turned into a tradition for them. I think we have gone to one for the last couple of years. We had a blast with those two. It's like watching an old couple interact....lol. After the escape room and supper, we went back to Emily's and watched tv and talked. All of a sudden Jim asked, "Does anyone want ice cream?". It's ten o'clock at night!!! but we all say yes, of course. $60 and a door dash delivery later, I have never seen so much ice cream in one place. Jim ordered a double banana split which came in a large to-go plate that wouldn't hardly close. The rest of us were a little more reasonable. No way did we finish all of it and Emily ate ice cream for weeks...lol. Sunday we went into downtown Charleston for the annual SAIA committee week. Jake went home Monday and Emily came downtown to have lunch and spend the day with me. It was wonderful. Most of that week was boring except for the sightseeing cruise around Charleston harbor. Jim skipped his meetings and went with us (the support group outing ). On our way home from this trip, we stopped to pick up Tabby from boarding, only to find out that she and Scooter were in "time out" in their little apts. They had slipped out of the cat room, and were teasing the dogs (the aggressive and anti cat dogs are kept in a separate place so no danger), but the caretaker was in the back and heard the dogs going nuts, so she came out to see what was going on and saw Tabby and Scooter walking on the fence railing in the dog play area, so needless to say, they went into time out and had been there about an hour when we got there. 😏
All things come to an end and Jim has been gone every week since then. Leaves Monday and comes home Friday night just in time for me to do his laundry and pack him up to leave again. I try to keep myself busy but I'm tired of trying to find somewhere to put things away. So much has "mysteriously disappeared". 😈 I rearranged and decorated Jim's office after he put up some shelves while he was home. Going to start hanging pictures on the wall soon. Since we have been in this house, it's been some decorating season and I don't have my "daily" decorations out or on the wall, so I guess after Easter when I take the crosses and bunnies down, it will be time to do that. I have never decorated an open floor plan so this is a new experience. No walls to hang anything on 😨
I am also getting out of my comfort zone. Our new neighborhood has started a ladies only game night once a month. The first night was last week, so I decided since Jim was out of town, I would try it out. Maybe this will work....who knows. I'm a loner and not into many people, so we will see.
Guess that catches us up for our house anyway. Lots going on with the kids and grandkids as usual but that's for another day.
I just re-read what I wrote here, and it looks like I write like I talk. All over the place, so make it out the best you can 😂
Only a month late....but as the saying goes...better late than never. We thoroughly enjoyed the season and visits from some of the children. Jenny, Jerry and Logan came up and spent a few days with us. Spending an evening at Carowinds for the Christmas festivities has become a tradition for us, with Jerry being the biggest kid. We all love the food kiosk, shows and the annual Christmas parade. Logan and I are huge "Peanuts" fans and just as Disney is centered around Mickey, Carowinds is centered around Peanuts.
Jenny and Logan worked on the gingerbread house but Jenny had to finish it by herself because Logan got "bored" and deserted her for movie watching with Jerry and Grandpa. Jenny and I spent one day wrapping presents and making stockings for all the grandchildren. I was surely thankful for the help. As usual, Jennifer and I were red-eyed from them having to go home, but the visit was wonderful.
Christmas was a hoot with both Jake and Emily being able to be here. We started Christmas Eve with cooking a huge meal. I was going to try to be a little fancy and asked if they would mind using my grandmothers china, but you would have thought I was asking them to scrub the floor before eating. The three of them looked at me and almost in unison say ---no---we want the big, oval paper plates. They hold more food.😏 At least I understood and it made me feel good to know that they enjoy my cooking . However, right as we sat down to dinner, Emily said...get your phone and video this...I just do what I'm told anymore (sure), and as her Daddy is starting to eat, she has an extend-a-fork and starts going for the food on his plate and she is at the other end of the table. Jim doesn't know what is going on exactly except that someone is after his food and he's not happy. You have to love the antics of the adult kids.😂
Christmas morning, after I have put out all the stockings and Jim has woke each kid up wearing his traditional baby blue sweat suit that he has had for 34 years ( it really honestly doesn't fit any more AT ALL) we start making our way downstairs. Jim is standing at the stockings looking at his package of hot fries that didn't fit in the stocking and is almost pale. I walk over to see what the problem is and there is a huge hole torn open in the bag. Of course the first thing that springs to mind is there is a rat in the house. This is a new neighborhood and I'm sure there are some displaced critters running around. As we are standing there and looking, trying to make sure that whatever made the hole is not still in it, Tabby walks up, puts her head in the hole and walks off with hot fry...and by the fry dust on her face, this was not her first one. We found our critter
