My Simple Daybook~January 28-29, 2017

Our lives pass swiftly by!

Remembering and recording the everyday

 moments is a great gift to leave behind.

The big things are important, but it is in the details

that our story is born.

The telling of the ordinary moments

are the Threads from 

which the bigger stories emerge.

These things are important links to the 

outcome of what our posterity will inherit from us.

These Daybook posts are my attempt at it.

Just for today~Saturday, January 28 2017

Outside My Window....it is a beautiful day!  Blue skies are something I have been needing for a long time.  Don't get me wrong, I am so appreciative of the rain we have had and that the drought is over, but I so need the sun as often as possible. It is a cold clear day and about 10:30 am.  We have a funeral to go to today.  Our niece's father-in-law died. Our great nephew's grandpa.  I am sad for Thomas.  It is hard to lose a grandpa.

I Am Thankful For...for the beliefs that we espouse that they will be reunited in the eternities.  It brings such solace for our own grandboys, Spencer and Ross because their father's father died this month also.  So happy we know our whole family will be together someday.  We love Robert's family dearly and wish them all the peace their faith is sure to bring in the coming months. These two men suffered greatly before they passed away.  We are happy they are in a better place even though they will be deeply missed.  They lifted us all and made the world a better place.   They will not ever be forgotten.
 

Spiritual Thoughts...I would never want to live a day without God in my life.  Our faith in Him and Jesus Christ touches every aspect of our life and how we live it.

From The Learning Room...I made an incredible discovery when I had a book from my Facebook posts via My Social Book done for 2016. It's a company that prints the favorite posts and comments into a book for you.  It took 100 seconds to order it.  Nothing like the book I did for Jim's mom's 90 years of life that took more than 100 hours in October.  Here is what I learned.  When I would think back on 2016 I felt it had not been the best of years.  Lots of illness for others, politics, etc.  But when I sat down with my Facebook Book I saw that day by day it was a very good year.  We had a multitude of great days with each other, family and friends.  I learned that it's healthy to record the good days because we tend to forget them.  But the trials, challenges and sorrows linger because of the overwhelming intensity they bring.  I am sorry that I haven't posted a daybook summary in so long because a lot of things happened both good and bad and I should have kept a better record.

I Am Praying For...my being more mindful of all of the above.The way we record the events of our lives greatly influences how we remember them.  If we do not record them they will fade into nothingness with time.  We cannot let the gloom and doom of trails become how we view life in general.  Trials are a normal and even necessary part of life. The pains heighten the joys and teach us gratitude for the good things in life.  We always learn something refining from them. We worry too much and fret and forget the sunny days. Record your happiness and you will appreciate everything more.  How we think about things influences our happiness directly.  Trials are most often temporary.  We've survived them all so far, right? Be mindful of it.

Quoting Pinterest...adding my own thought to this photo:
"Let the light into your life.  Remember it in a good way and record it that way.  The way we think and remember life events brings either joy or sorrow." 

I'm Listening to...Oldies but Goodies.  The Dancing Queen From Mama Mia.  Love it!  Makes me feel like I want to jump up and dance right down to the pier and cannon ball into the water with my sisters....every time!

Watching...I have watched two pretty remarkable Netflix productions lately.  My favorite in a long time was a foreign film in Spanish with subtitles.  It is a series called The Time In Between.  I have also seen it referenced as The Time in Between the Seams.  It's excellent, poignant and has amazing production values.  The other was The Crown, about the early life of the current queen of England.  Very historically correct and gives anyone cause to ponder what a difficult life she has led in so many ways.

Thinking About...the immense blessings of the past few months.  The wonderful celebration for Jim's mom's birthday, the incredible family and friends that helped us.  From the private opera performance in our home to the last dish that was washed. The blessing of having our granddaughter, Hazel, healthy again after a near death experience in November that took us unexpectedly to Utah for three weeks. And then the best Thanksgiving with them...all of them even Hazel who was released from the hospital after 18 days on Thanksgiving's Eve. Then blessed with the amazing three weeks we spent in Virginia with Laura, Robert, Spence and Ross.  We had a fantastic Christmas and New Year's celebration with them.  And even though Robert's father passed away a few days into the new year there were silver linings along with deep sorrow.  Their whole side of the family was together for a good celebration of Bryant's life.  And because the funeral was in Utah, all of our kids and grandkids got together last Sunday for dinner!  Oh how I do love this photo.  Is there any more wonderful thing than this to bring a father and mother's heart joy?  Seeing the love between all of them..is one of my top ten delights in this life.  And it is pretty close to the top.

I don't think this has ever happened before when all of them were in the same place at the same time without us.

In the Kitchen...All stocked up for the next big storm coming mid-week and tonight is our popcorn and movie night.   So that means no formal dinner hour.  Just munching and crunching on popcorn in our jammies in front of the fire.  I do love that and so does James.

I'm Happy About.....the prospects for and hope in the future.

Around the Cottage:  We are in organizing mode around here.  Not just the house, out-buildings and grounds, but also some thoughts on preparedness, trying to get all our ducks in a row, thinking about preparing for our eventual demise and having that taken care of in advance for our kids.  All that is kind of stressful so I am doing some fun things too.  


One thing I like to do is to change up the house once in a while in a small way but that makes a difference.  A few months ago I got this amazing art piece from my favorite home store/warehouse...Room With A Past.  I have most of our home/cottage done in antiques aka old furniture.  It fits into the older home style and into our setting.  I also like to use an eclectic array of accessories to add an Italian or old world influence, a little glam, and also emphasize the holidays through out the year.  It sounds like a bit of a hodgepodge but we like it.  

One by one over the 39 years of living here I've tried to change up the smaller less expense things with some fun treasures.  We have kept a lot of our furniture because it fits here.  It would probably look very different if size, space, and $ were no object.  If only!  I say that tongue in cheek.  I am very satisfied with all of our blessings. I want for nothing and am content.  Jim is too.

So anyway, I bought the art piece shown in the photo below which depicts a wonderfully colorful little village in Italy called Burano.  It is on a tiny island near Venice.  We went there and fell in love with it.  If I ever disappear...look for me there.  So this week I bought a simple thing to go with it.  The pillow on the bed that picks up some of those scrumptious colors and makes me feel so happy every time I see them together.
I want our home to be inviting, welcoming and also relaxing...reminiscent of some of our fun adventures together where we could relax and have fun.  Italy fits the bill for that like a dream!  Have you come up with ways to do this in your own home?  Personalizing your place is the best way to make it your own.  That is why you have to depersonalize it to sell it one day.  But for now it's all about what we love.  It is home.

Pet Peeves...I will say that the Blogger platform has become very disappointing to me.  I have a continual problem with the spacing and size of fonts changing between proofing and publishing.  I'm going to try writing my posts on Evernote and then transferring them to blogger for a while. Otherwise I will be leaving Blogger for another more reliable space to write where I can actually get some support for these kinds of things from their tech people.

Loves and Passions...Home, the people I love. My dearest and most treasured friends mean so much to me. Our church family, our work at the library, creating a legacy for those that will follow us into the future.  I adore photography, and I know I drive people nuts with my picture taking.  It is so much a part of family history.  Most importantly, I love being a disciple of Christ, and as good as I can be to my husband and children and grandchildren, extended family and friends. 

I also want to give Jim's mom the best last years.  I want her to feel comfortable and protected and loved and that she is never alone in these 90s she facing. She stumbled into them by falling on her front porch on Christmas Day.  She broke her shoulder but did not realize it until we got home from Laura and Robert's and Jim took her for an X-ray.  She insisted she was fine and that we had better not return early. Looking back we should have but she insisted.

Photos I'm sharing...Here's some right off the press...taken yesterday afternoon at the memorial service for Mike Kritscher. 

I love this top coat Jim has! I take a picture of him every time he wears it. I love men in long coats! So classy.  (The purse is mine!)

Well that's a wrap for this time!  Take Good Care!  B.