Thanksgiving Month: November 4, 2011

Home is where the heart is.

We have a fantastic relationship with our soon-to-be son-in-law. He stopped by just now with his brother and they are hanging out for a bit. Love that! Love that people feel at home in my home, and I'm thankful that my home is a happy place for anyone who wants to come over, and thankful that our family is expanding in such a wonderful way!
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It's Raining, and I Love It!

I mean, what's not to love when you can wear boots like these?!!!Aren't they too cute for words? Love them! They are a "happy thing!" I wish I knew where to find them because I would buy them! They are totally me!

Rain. When we lived in England we had so much rain and grey skies that I thought I'd never be happy to see the rain again. I'm a desert rat at heart. I grew up in southern Arizona where the rain blows through in huge beautiful monsoon storms in the summertime and some gentle rain in late winter. That's it. Mostly we had dry hot weather and I grew to love it, though when the rains came though we got as excited as kids at Christmas. The weather in England was a novelty at first, but the constant grey and drizzle quickly grew old and downright depressing. Move forward eighteen years, and here I am in Northern California with beautiful, beautiful weather. Lots of sunshine, hot summers, beautiful fall color, mild winters. Perfect for me. This would, however, exclude San Francisco, where we lived for about a year when we first moved out here. For geological and meteorological  reasons I don't understand, San Francisco gets a lot of cloudy grey chilly weather. Someone said that the coldest winter they ever spent was summer in San Francisco. So true! I'm sure I could find the quote if I looked, but if you really want to know where it came from I'm sure you know how to Google it. (I wonder how long it will be until "google" is officially a verb in the English language...) SF is too much like England! Some love it and the fog is beautiful, as is the city itself and I think it's an amazing place that I love, but I had enough grey to last a lifetime!

Anyway, back to my point.

Rain. It rained last night and it's still drizzly this morning and you know what? I like it again. Never in a million years did I think I would say that, but I do! I like the rain! 

It's so much more satisfying to be content than to always be fighting against whatever life throws at you. Not that we don't contend for what's right, what's good, what's pure and lovely, but there is great gain in contentment. 

So, bring on the rain in the Bay! 

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Fig Trees and Early Mornings

November 3rd. Day three of a month of Thanksgiving.

Today I was reading in the book of Mark (also found in Matthew) about the fig tree that Jesus cursed when it bore no fruit and the tree died. I was a bit confused about what this all means. Figs were not in season, yet Jesus expected the tree to bear fruit at that time.

Isn't that unfair? Isn't that unreasonable?

No. There is a lesson there for us. By the way, all scripture is given to us by God for our instruction and guidance and the answer to every single situation in life can be found within the pages of the Bible. Just thought I'd throw that in as an extra! :-) Anyway, there is a lesson in that scripture that my husband pointed out to me. God expects us to be fruitful for His kingdom, and there is no excuse for unfruitfulness. Even when, in our own minds or by our limited human understanding, we think that we have a good reason to sit back on our laurels and let someone else do the work, we are wrong.

But it's impossible for a tree to bear fruit when it's not in season!

Not true, because with God all things are possible, even bearing fruit out of season. Dare I say, especially bearing fruit out of season! God demonstrates His miracle power when things happen that are beyond our understanding.

I am thankful for God's Word that brings direction and help to our lives, and also gives us little nuggets of His character and who He is. I've been getting up daily at 5.30 to pray and read my bible and I have to be honest...it's tough. Some days are harder than others and I often just want to crawl back into bed (like today...it was raining and my pillows looked so cozy!) but I'm always, always glad when I'm up and at it. (I set up my coffee at night so it's ready for me in the morning...a little luxury to help me start the day at o'dark thirty.)

"...those that seek me early shall find me." Proverbs 8:17
"Your word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you." Psalms 119:11

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Life Is Never Dull

Today has been super busy and hectic but I want to get in my thankfulness thought for the day before I hit the sack. I am thankful for so many things, but I'll mention that I'm actually very thankful for being so busy today! I'm thankful that I have enough going on in my life to keep me from ever being bored! Sometimes I get overwhelmed with all that is on my plate, but in the words of one of my old friends who doesn't blog (so I can't refer you!) "Well...life is never dull!" She says this in her charming Tennessee drawl in reference to being married to her hilarious and very adventurous husband.  This is her philosophy on life too...that life is never dull, and she is someone who just loves life and everyone she comes into contact with. She is one of my favorite people to be with and I should add here that I'm thankful for her too, and will be with her this time next week! Happiness!

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I Just Wanted to be Sure of You

Happy November! Happy Thanksgiving month! This month I will be joining together with my friend Anne and posting daily about something I am thankful for. It may be a big thing with pictures and the whole nine yards, or it may a small one liner with no picture at all (thinking of the trip I'm about to take to my daughter's wedding...limited internet access other than my phone...yada yada), but one way or another, I think Thanksgiving is a very important holiday important to remember and our culture is rapidly forgetting.

Our society is way too caught up with stuff and materialism, especially where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area! I would like to take this month and not focus on the bling of Christmas, but focus on thankfulness, not only for where we came from as a country but in general. We must maintain a thankful attitude if we are to appreciate Christmas as truly an honoring of the birth of our Lord and Savior, not just jingle bells and presents.

Yes, I will be working on some Christmas ideas and gifts during this month. Three weeks in December is not enough time to pull together some of the gifts I would like to give this year (hint: they are coming out of my craft studio!) but my thinking is to focus on living thankfully.

So! With that as an intro, today, November 1st, I am thankful for friends. I am thankful for friends especially who are willing to overlook our mistakes, faults and shortcomings, and just love us, no matter what. Thank you.