Counting My Blessings #5: Wood

I love wood heat. When I am chilled or wet to the bone there is nothing like wood heat to warm me up. Last summer we fell numerous trees on our property and I feel blessed that we have wood that can provide us warmth through the winter. JEJ just fell four more trees today and they will be added to the other wood to provide a winter supply of warmth. We have two wood stoves inside the house to keep both ends of the house warm. I love sitting in front of a fire as much as Kit does.
Sitting out in the gazebo in the garden is even more pleasant when we have a fire built in our fireplace outside. It may not be enough to keep us warm in November, but it does provide a coziness as we enjoy the garden moving into hibernation.

Good-bye Spokesman-Review... A Tradition Leaving My Home

I was shocked and saddened when I opened a letter last night from the Spokesman-Review newspaper. As of December 1st I will no long have a paper delivered to my home. This is another of the cuts the paper has made recently. Since the first week I moved back to the Inland Empire in 1994 I have received a SR each and every day in my yellow newspaper box. I read Huckleberries online numerous times in a day. I also read lots of other news sources online, but I am a traditionalist. I like the print copy. I like to look at the ads and cut out recipes. I also like seeing stories in print. I realize I get a free online subscription for a year, but it just won't be the same. I grew up with my dad reading the paper cover to cover each day. My brother spent many hours studying sports stats. Routinely Mom cut out Dorothy Dean recipes that are still in her recipe drawer. I have yellowed copies of my grandmother's obituary.

I am also bothered by the fact that our school won't have any print copies in the library or in classrooms for students to read. Students love the internet, but if a copy of a newspaper is on the table, they are more likely to read it. As I remove my box from my driveway it will the end of era that started when I began to read. We will still get the news. I can download recipes. I can drive to a bigger town to get the Sunday ads, but we won't have a newspaper.

I will also put away our recycle box and figure out another way to start our morning fires.

Counting My Blessings #4: The Right to Vote

"Abraham Lincoln best described democracy as "government of the people, by the people, and for the people." For that government to be "by the people," however, requires that the people decide who shall be their leaders. Without free and fair elections, there can be no democratic society, and without that constant accountability of government officials to the electorate, there can, in fact, be no assurance of any other rights. The right to vote, therefore, is not only an important individual liberty; it is also a foundation stone of free government." us gov.org

I am thankful that I live in America with a democracy that gives me the right to vote in public elections.

Counting My Blessings #3: Race for the Cure

Today I am thankful for breast cancer research. It is amazing what foundations like the Susan B. Komen for the Cure have done at raising money for breast cancer research. The Susan B. Komen for the Cure has invested over a billion dollars for finding a cure since forming in 1982. My mother is a breast cancer survivor and I just had my yearly mammogram today. Since I am in the high risk category I make sure I schedule this appointment every year. It just seems like there is better technology each year when I go to the imaging center. If you haven't had your mammogram this year, be sure a schedule it soon! These beautiful holiday cards are on sale at the Susan B. Komen site here.

Counting My Blessings #2: Neighbors

I am thankful for my neighbors. I live in a housing community surrounded by a wonderful group of people. Our community was a tree farm then bought and divided into 49 lots on both sides of the county road. We each have enough space between us to have privacy, yet it feels safe to know people are there when you need them. If there is a power outage (which happens quite often!) neighbors check on neighbors. One helped another recently with a wood stove installation while some can fix a satellite dish. Others bring cookies to the door and some host "Home Alone" holiday parties for the neighbors that are spending the holiday alone. Many of my neighbors attend our community church so we worship and pray together also.

Some robberies occurred a few years ago so a Neighborhood Watch program was initiated in our community. It has helped to have people keeping a better eye on the area. I know that if I was in danger, needed help, or just wanted company that my community around me would come running. For that I am thankful.
GH and RM at G's recent birthday celebration at our house.

Counting My Blessings #1

This month of November I will present a post each day of something I am thankful for. For Counting My Blessings #1 I chose this poem because I am thankful for the "silent hills of my childhood when a light glowed within me".

A Prayer

Let me do my work each day;

and if the darkened hours

of despair overcome me, may I

not forget the strength

that comforted me in the

desolation of other times.

May I still remember the bright

hours that found me walking

over the silent hills of my

childhood, or dreaming on the

margin of a quiet river,

when a light glowed within me,

and I promised my early God

to have courage amid the

tempests of the changing years.

Spare me from bitterness

and from the sharp passions of

unguarded moments. May

I not forget that poverty and

riches are of the spirit.

Though the world knows me not,

may my thoughts and actions

be such as shall keep me friendly

with myself.

Lift up my eyes

from the earth, and let me not

forget the uses of the stars.

Forbid that I should judge others

lest I condemn myself.

Let me not follow the clamor of

the world, but walk calmly

in my path.

Give me a few friends

who will love me for what

I am; and keep ever burning

before my vagrant steps

the kindly light of hope.

And though age and infirmity

overtake me, and I come not within

sight of the castle of my dreams,

teach me still to be thankful

for life, and for time's olden

memories that are good and

sweet; and may the evening's

twilight find me gentle still.

~ Max Ehrmann ~