A Thankful Fun Monday

November seems to be a month when many people open their eyes and look around.  Really look around.  And they see things like dwindling salaries and rising prices and the stresses of the holidays looming ahead.  But interestingly, they also start seeing the things they are grateful for in their lives. 

I'm sure the holiday of Thanksgiving being here in this month has something to do with it.  And since we're also involved in a war, Veteran's Day  might also spark some feelings of thankfulness.  But I have to wonder sometimes if it's not the changing season on its way to the harshest time of the year that spurs this looking inward for some things to get us through to Spring.

I practice daily thankfulness.  Everyday, no matter how bad or discouraging it may be, I try to find something that makes my heart happy to be beating on that particular day.  Sometimes it's just the fact that the lights come one when I flip a switch.  Sometimes it's knowing that my family loves me.  Big or small, this and every day is a good time to acknowledge it.

The first thing on my list is my own family.  A man I love and who loves me (after some major disasters in my previous love life) and this amazing, funny boy that we made together.

Then there's the rest of my family...  This all of us at that time...  Since then, we've added a few.  Two brothers got married to wonderful women and another one has a girlfriend who is becoming one of us too.

I am grateful for my job.  I can't think of much I'd rather do.  It's interesting.  I have awesome co-workers (pictured above running the camera is Nick, who died earlier this year - we still miss him), and have met some very cool people, from Mr. McFeeley to Ira Flatow to George Clinton.  Things aren't perfect, but I'd like to keep this job as long as I can because I really love working here.

I am thankful for the furry beings in my life.  My cats are wonderfully snuggly and loving.  My dogs are happy.. .  enthusiastic about spending time with us and serious about protecting us.  Even Abby, who is an old lady dog - but she's decided that this is HER house, we are HER people and she'll do everything she can to protect what's hers. 

And finally (for this particular post), I am grateful for my home.  It's strong.  It's comfortable.  It's a mess and a work in progress.  But it's ours and we'll be here for a long time to come, God willing. 

My list could go on for ages, but I'll stop here and urge you to go visit the other participants in today's Fun Monday!

Bethany
Jill
Joangee
Sandy
Pamela

And if you'd like to join in, leave me a comment and I'll add you to the list!

Fun Monday for November 7th

Jill reminded me that tomorrow is Fun Monday - which I completely forgot.  If you want to play, here's what I want to know about:

 November is a month to recognize the things you are thankful for in your life - including the people who are serving our country. Tell us what you are thankful for!

Sign up to participate in the comments!!

Fist Bump Friday: Got through it!

Sometimes, just getting through the week is cause for celebration...  Even when it's a packed week of good stuff, there's also not-so-good stuff.

Not-so-good: 

Had the granddaughter three times this week.  Not that that's bad in and of itself, but her school gets out earlier than my son's and I wind up having to take two hours of leave time every time I have to pick her up from school.  In the course of these three weeks, I will have pretty much wiped out any vacation time I had.  Darling Man hasn't been able to help out here as he's been working nights for someone else and next week isn't going to be any better in that respect.

Technical difficulties...  PBS's satellite system had unexplained problems with the two main transponders.  Since a lot of stations (ours included) broadcast most of their daytime programming straight from the network, there was some major scrambling happening both at a national and at a station level.  Our hurricane preparedness plan paid off however, and we had programming available to air until PBS had a plan implemented.  The rest of the week was dealing with refeeds of programs that got bumped because of the shifting transponders.  I really hope I caught everything that got moved!

Tired.  Even though I normally sleep like the dead, I've been having some weird issue with my back that keeps waking me up.  It doesn't hurt, but it's uncomfortable.  Feels like a golf ball lodged in my spine.  Unless I'm sitting up straight without my back touching anything, I feel it.  Don't like it.  It might be very tight muscles, I might have lifted something wrong, I may have a bulging disc.  I don't know but may have to go get it checked out after Thanksgiving.

Good Stuff:

Sunday, my son was confirmed by the Bishop, my husband was received by the church and we had a wonderful feeling of really belonging to our church. 

Halloween was a blast!  The kids had fun and the Sno-Ball people were back to handing out free sno-balls to all the trick-or-treaters.   My boy LOVED the costume I slaved over.

We had a potluck dinner at church and used up some of the awesome beef and turkey stews we had at the Senior Luncheon the week before (I had the last of the beef stew and cornbread for lunch today!).  While we listened to Fr. R talk about confirmation in the Episcopal Church, the EYC kids were carrying on a very old tradition of playing hide and seek in the cemetery next door.  I remember doing that myself - and it was so much fun with the added element of dark and cemetery!

I got to spend some time working on my latest prayer shawl and hung out with my kid and husband watching "Big Bang Theory."  After much consideration and waffling, I've decided that I like that show.

Enjoyed a little irreverence at work.  There's a National Emergency Alert System Test next week (Nov. 9 at 2pm ET).  We missed the original feed of the PSA that tells about the test, so we had to download it from their website.  Darling Man was working on it.  Being raised in the 50s, he grew up with all kinds of dire warnings.  Last week, we aired a program called "World's Biggest Bomb" - a part of the "Secrets of the Dead" series.  So, as a joke, he edited together the very serious PSA about the test and footage from the show.  Talking head on screen says, "And remember - it's only a test" followed by nuclear explosion footage...  It doesn't sound at all funny in print, but everyone in the room doubled over laughing.  It was so implausible and the timing was so perfect and it was just so funny!  It belongs on the Big Daddy reel (where other irreverent spots live like the "Bloody T-Shirt Contest" that was made during the Ted Bundy trial.  Yes, TV people are sick that way.  Gallows humor, similar to hospital and law enforcement workers have, is a staple with us.   And laughter - even inappropriate laughter - makes the day so much easier.

And tonight I'm going to a silent auction and dinner at the church.  I'm going to meet my friend there and we're going to feast on Mexican food and check out some possible Christmas presents and just enjoy a night out under the stars!

I survived this week - and sometimes, that's quite an accomplishment!

Go visit Jill for more stories!

Like a Prayer

I think I get my urge to do things with my hands from my mom.  When I was growing up, she was always doing something.  She painted pictures and walls; sewed curtains, clothes and costumes.  She was famous in the family for pushing around furniture, or reupholstering it or refinishing it.  And for a while, she tried crochet.  We took a class together at Gilberg's in the Northwood Mall back when I was thirteen or fourteen.  Neither one of us was very good at it.  She always had her tension too tight and mine just never looked right.  It was worth a shot, but it wasn't too long before both of us gave it up and moved on to other things.

Fast forward thirty five years...  I'm feeling the urge to do something, but I don't know what that is.  I'm wandering around the new Hobby Lobby looking at paints and fabrics and embroidery stuff and nothing is speaking to me - until I round the corner to the first yarn aisle.  Several of my friends online are into knitting and crochet and have been posting pictures of their various projects.  Knitting never made any sense to me but I did remember some basics about crochet.  As I wandered the yarn aisles feeling the skeins and admiring the pretty colors, I felt a pull.  Half an hour later, I walked out with a set of crochet hooks and an armload of yarn. 

It took several practice tries, but I found it was kind of like riding a bike.  You get rusty, but you never forget.  I started easy with scarves. 

I tried adding fringe.  It worked!  I made a lot of scarves. 

Then I tried hats.  Pretty good, but not as successful. 

I made dish rags (aces!!!) and fingerless gloves (meh). 

 I made some big squares of stuff but didn't know what to do with it - pillows maybe?

And since I suddenly knew a bunch of people having babies, I made baby blankets.  LOTS of baby blankets.

Now I just have to come up with the money to mail them all...

So I did all this stuff....  and then, I didn't know what to do.  Honestly, I was getting a little bored.  And, as I discovered, I was terrible at following directions when it came to crochet, so I was making stuff up on my own using the stitches (but not knowing the names) that I knew.

One night, I was on Facebook looking around at other friends' projects and wishing I had something positive I could do with the little skill I had, when my rector's wife popped on and asked if I knew about the Prayer Shawl Ministry.  Never heard of it!  She'd been cleaning out some files and run across the brochure for it and offered to send it to me.  Talk about heavenly timing...

I opened the files and it was immediately clear to me that this was what I should be doing.  I read the pattern directions for the prayer shawls and looked at some shawls that my friend Sandy was crocheting (I just thought this was something she did - didn't realize it was part of a greater ministry) and started on my first one.  I had a recipient fixed in my mind, but about halfway through, God planted another person in my head.  This person has had some pretty awful medical issues.  None of them life-threatening, but they have caused great pain for a long time and so far the doctors haven't been able to do much to alleviate it.  Fibromyalgia is no fun and there's no cure.  So with the new recipient fixed firmly in my mind, I finished it.

It wasn't exactly like the one described in the pattern - I'd tried to do something a little different with the stitches.  They turned out very pretty.

I left the completed shawl wrapped and in a gift bag on the doorknob of my first recipient.  She was so happy and surprised to find it.

When making a prayer shawl, you say a prayer for your intended recipient before you begin, then the whole time you are crocheting (or knitting - you can do either), you keep them in your mind and heart, praying for them as you stitch.  When you finish, you say another prayer for them, then make arrangements to deliver it to the recipient.  It represents many hours of prayer and work on behalf of someone else and is designed to bring comfort to the wearer.  Like wearing love around your shoulders.

My second prayer shawl knew where it would wind up from the beginning.  It's the one that most closely follows the prayer shawl pattern - but the colors are quite bold.  Most of the ones I've seen are in fairly subdued colors, but this one screamed for vibrant colors.

     

The recipient of this one is facing several health challenges.  Just before gallbladder surgery, he found out he also was going to be dealing with a recurrence of cancer.  I finished it just before his surgery.  He goes back to his oncologist mid-month to undergo testing to see just how his cancer had returned. 

He also appears to be a remarkably resiliant man with great faith - but it always helps to have others praying for you as well, so I made this for him so that he would know that his church family loves him and the comfort of that knowledge can be wrapped around his shoulders as he sits in various cold rooms during his treatments.

When I finished that one, I started another.  I had no idea who it was for.  Like all the others, it is imperfect.  It's an alternating off white and turqoise, meant to be three-three-three, but apparently I lost count and so I've got three-three-three-four-three-four-three-three-three...  But the pattern that emerged was nice, so I kept it and kept working on it.  It's close to finished and only now do I know who it belongs to.  Up until last night, I offered general prayers of comfort, healing and closeness to God as I crocheted.  As it turns out, those were the right prayers - the woman who will receive this will probably be saying goodbye to her husband soon.  

She has family, but they are scattered - and she has us. So in the future, when she is missing her husband she will be able to wrap herself in the love and comfort of the prayers of her church family and know that we care.

It's not quite done, but probably by the end of tomorrow.  While I do "sign" my name on these by way of a card, it's a semi-anonymous offering to represent ALL of the people who care and who pray.

If you're interested in checking this minstry out, follow this link:  Prayer Shawl