Counting Your Blessings

I was cleaning out some files yesterday and ran across a photo that I thought I had lost. It's this picture of three of my brood. Kerith was here from California and David was up from Texas to visit Adam several years ago, before I moved to Seattle. I'm always amazed when I happen to run across photos of them even now as I remember being told that I would never be able to have children. And I always remember the fun I had walking into that doctor's office years later, with three of them and pregnant with the fourth. The look on his face was priceless!


We've had a couple of gorgeous days, with brilliant blue skies, reasonable tempertures and I know spring is on the way -- even if the rain returns later today as is predicted. Life is good and it seemed like the perfect day to count my blessings!

One Down, Two to Go!

Thanksgiving is now behind us and we can all start looking forward to the next winter holiday, Christmas! Here in Seattle the big shopping began – can you believe this? At 4 AM! That’s when many of the big stores and malls opened! I don’t know about you, but I’ll pass! I really don’t like to shop any time, but certainly not this time of year and I don’t feel pressured to do so even for Christmas because – first of all, I have no grandchildren and we made such a big deal out of Christmas when all four of our kids were little, anything now would seem paltry. I sewed clothes and made toys for most of November and early December for many years. Now days we prefer to spend the money on plane tickets so as many of us as possible can spend the holidays together.

This morning I was catching up on some columns from the New York Times and got a real kick out of Gail Collins column from yesterday regarding counting our blessings. No, it most definitely is not going to be the brightest and best holiday season ever, but we still have things to be thankful for – great time to buy a condo in Reno, or a plane ticket to or from Dallas or Disney World! Bargains do, indeed, abound!

And we are the insolvent innocents! Retirement funds evaporated and who knows how we’ll celebrate birthdays in the coming years, but we can always take comfort in the fact that it wasn’t our fault! If it had been left to us, the subprime derivative never would have been invented in the first place and a clean conscience is worth more than all the golden parachutes, indoor squash courts and $13 million vacation houses around the world. And we can also be thankful we’re not in Iceland!

And then the really big blessing! George Bush is almost gone! Sure wish he’d stop dragging his feet though and just get on with it and bless Crawford, Texas with his presence.

And there’s Barack Obama! Now he’s a major blessing! in spite of everyone trying to second guess him with regard to his appointments. Maybe we should just focus on being grateful we aren’t widely respected economists ourselves, because like Collins, I feel God only knows what they’re going to do with this latest hairball

So, enjoy the holiday movies, be grateful you’re not related to Ashlee Simpson who just named her baby Bronx Mowgli????? And although we can never feel quite the same about turkey after that Sarah Palin video, lighten up! Start planning Christmas dinner and try to figure out how you can afford a bottle of bubbly for New Years Eve.

As for me, I’m going to kick back and watch Il Divo and wish to hell I was fifty years younger – well, at least for as long as the DVD lasts!