Happy & Grateful

Today I am linking up with two other bloggers. It's Thursday, so I am, of course participating in Thankful Thursday with Rebecca Jo @ Knit By God's Hand. Then new to me is a month-long challenge that I should have begun yesterday, but forgot about...The August Happiness Challenge. The idea is this:

Each day in August you are to post about something that makes *you* happy. Pretty simple. And, it doesn't even have to be every day if you don't want it to be. It's a great way to remind ourselves that there are positive things going on in our lives, our communities, and the world.

There really isn't anywhere to link up on the Happiness Challenge, but I got the idea from The Gal Herself @ One Gal's Musings.

August Happiness Challenge: Day 1

If you spend any amount of time on Facebook you know that one of their new "things" is giving users the opportunity to choose a charity and set up a fundraiser for their birthday.  There is a long list of charities you can choose from...not sure if you can choose your own.  Once your charity is chosen, you invite your friends (your fundraiser has its own event page) and if you want, you can issue a challenge, promising matching funds up to an amount you are comfortable with. The cool part? As soon as you set up your page and publish, Facebook starts you off with a $5 donation!

I chose Stand Up To Cancer as my charity because cancer has touched the lives of a lot of people very near and dear to me. It's also stolen the lives of much too soon. Stand Up To Cancer is a little different from the American Cancer Society. They give to all the latest, most promising research in all types of cancer in the hope of defeating the beast.

So, Facebook made me happy by providing the opportunity to do a fundraiser and donating the first $5 and now my friends are making me happy with their donations.

This week I am thankful...

* for the opportunity to interview for a new job and that the interview went well. I should find out one way or the other on Monday or Tuesday. If we're friends on Facebook, the reason you haven't heard about it before is that my current employer tends to let people go if they hear they are looking for another job..."to free them up to search." So, mum is the word over there unless I get the job.  The job, by the way, is a full-time life enrichment (activities) aide at a large retirement community (they have everything from an independent village of town homes, to assisted living, to rehabilitation, to true nursing care). If I get the job, I would primarily work with dementia patients.

* that my Bible study group was able to bless our teacher and her husband on Tuesday. We had a party rather than class because Monday was his birthday and today is their 49th anniversary. Our teacher got the idea from the Bible to celebrate their entire 50th year rather than waiting till the end. In the Bible the 50th year was to be a year of jubilee...one of rest, restoration, forgiveness, etc. If you aren't familiar with it, look it up. It's in Leviticus and it's a pretty cool law...though the Jews only celebrated it a couple of times.

* Tim started putting some of the tile down in the bathroom! He got about half the floor done on Sunday. Now we just have the rest of the floor, three walls, and the shower (yes, pretty much the whole bathroom is going to be tile).

* It's been rainy all week, which has kept the temperatures down. The humidity hasn't been bad, either, until today. It's also meant I haven't had to water the garden in the evenings.

* my daughter and I got all the stuff that nobody wanted back at the end of the garage sale packed up today, loaded it into her truck, and she took it to  Goodwill. Yay! Stuff gone and good deed done!

* Mom is okay. She went to the ER yesterday, a fact she just told me about half an hour ago. They couldn't find anything, but decided she probably had a kidney stone and passed it. She's been fine ever since.

* for the ginormous, juicy, red cherries that are in season. Loving them...and staining the tips of my fingers red!

* for all of you!