Thankful Thursday: Life Is Good!

I can't sleep so I'm getting an early start on my Thankful Thursday post. I'll be linking up with Rebecca Jo @ Knit By God's Hand, but I suspect I won't be able to do the actual linking until I get home from work this afternoon.

This week finds me thankful for...

** my daughter's help in getting our grass cut last night. She is about 7 months pregnant so the help wasn't expected, but she drove the tractor to mow the large areas and I used the push mower to do the smaller areas and get close around things. Good thing, since our weather forecast is now calling for at least some rain every day for the next 4 days.

** online take-out service. I love being able to turn on the laptop to order and pay ahead. No more worries about having cash on hand and as a bonus, it turns out that most of the time online orders come more quickly than orders made by phone.

** my Amazon Echo. Colton and I had so much fun when I babysat him the other day. We started with the Hokey Pokey, advanced to the Chicken Dance, the Twist, Who Let the Dogs Out, and on and on. Alexa didn't let us down and Colton thinks it's so cool that she talks back to us. Sorry, no pictures or video. I tried to get some of him dancing, but as soon as he'd see my phone he'd stop until I put it away. Little stinker!

** a great "sock hop" at work yesterday. Two men came and sang 50s songs and they were really, really good! We decorated the big room with fun 50s decorations and dressed in capris. We had cat-eye glasses for everyone and enjoyed Coke in old-fashioned glass bottles, as well as cream soda, cherry cream soda and root beer. The whole activities staff jumped in dancing and kind of acting like doo-wop girls. The residents had a good time and so did we.

** the fantastic job the mother of a girl I work with did making the Marines wreath I ordered for Tim. I had bought an Easter one for Megan and it was so nice I ordered this one specially made. It is gorgeous, but I do have one problem with it....it's so big and puffy that it won't fit on either of our doors because of the storm doors. We thought about it and I think I can relocate one picture in the living room and hang it there.

** the Adipex that seems to be working. I lost 6 pounds at my first weigh-in.

** the birds singing outside. I love hearing them in the morning, even if they wake me up on days I could sleep in. I miss them in the winter. They bring back memories of watching the birds with my grandmother. 

** the lineman from the power company who came so quickly on Monday and got our power restored in only a few minutes. We were imagining the worst, that it was something on our end of the line, but it turned out that a wire had burned through at the transformer. The lineman saw it as soon as he pulled up. It was such a weird outage. We had enough power that clocks stayed on and lights lit up, but then they'd flicker and while the stove and microwave turned on, they didn't get hot. 

** my Bible study group. I have had some really bad experiences with churches and it left me rather wary of most who call themselves Christian. It took a while, but I have come to trust these people with my life. Their honesty, transparency, and devotion to the Lord and the truth of the Word is such a blessing and sadly, more rare than it should be. We all know we can bring anything we are struggling with to the group and we'll have each other's backs. I love, too, that we hold each other accountable, but it's done lovingly, not with shame.

** my mom and step-dad getting along better. At least it seems like it. They'd been going through a rough patch. I think it's related to how my step-dad feels...often seniors express their pain by being not so nice...and for a while there right around Easter it was getting ugly. I don't know that it's completely better, but at least they aren't openly hostile. Sigh. They will probably soon be moving to his home up on the ridge for the warmer months so keep them in prayer, please? 

** another sign that the relationship with our daughter-in-law is improving. I logged on to Facebook yesterday to find that after nearly a year she allowed our granddaughter to accept my friend request (others in the family got requests from her while I did not). God is still a God of miracles!

** the incredible and undeserved blessing of God in sparing my family from tragedy. I watch all the horrible things unfolding in our world each day. The shootings at schools and churches, the unspeakable done to children, violent hate, tragic accidents, lives snuffed out before they've barely begun...and I give thanks that we have, so far, not been touched by any tragedy.

** all of you, of course! Your visits and comments here and your own posts all brighten my days.

Have a blessed and amazing day, friends! I am off to get ready for work.