Thursday Thankfulness

 It's so hot I had to open up my own ice-cream shoppe and make myself a chocolate ice cream soda today to cool off! LOL.

It was fun sitting there on the stools at the counter, slurping away at my old fashioned chocolate soda, just like the good old days!

Yep! Ahhh!  It was good to the last slurp! 

I am very thankful for our cool house and the ability to do special things to enjoy a hot summer day without having to be outside in the heat!

I am also thankful that earlier this week our son came over and installed grab bars for us in our bathrooms!  Here's hubby's bathroom: (and yes, I know that's busy wallpaper, but remember,this is a manufactured home, and that's how they come. I keep saying that someday I will paint over it, but that day hasn't come yet...)

This one is in my bathroom, right above the cute toilet paper holder that he made for me last year, and where his sweet wife painted the cute little chickadees on it.   (And yes, both bathrooms have the same wallpaper, and actually, we have a third bathroom, and it has the same stuff too!)

So thankful for smart kids!!

I'm thankful for these little tiny cherry tomatoes growing in this pot! I stuck a small pot with a tomato plant in this larger pot of geraniums and another flower, and I had intended to repot it in the dirt instead of leaving it in the little tiny pot, but it still took root in this pot and started growing and producing tomatoes even without me doing that! I can't take any credit except for keeping it watered. God did all the rest!

Sometimes even the most unlikely combinations surprise us with something good!!  

And here's a couple of zinnia blossoms, still growing strong even in this drought!

Yes, I do water them almost every day, but I am thankful that they just keep on smiling up at us regardless of the weather!

I mentioned that the new house next door has sold, and there has been a lot of activity over there this week, but still no one has actually moved in.  They did, however, install a fence in the back yard, and brought in a new little shed/garage, to store their lawn mower and tools!  So that's progress!  I am thankful that they are doing things to take care of their property.  We still haven't met the new owners, but hopefully once they are moved in there will time for that!

I am also thankful that hubby's appointment with our doctor today went really well, and he really listened and took care of making sure the referral to the neurologist went through. Apparently someone in the office dropped the ball on that and it was supposed to have been done already, so he personally made sure it was done today, and we got a call from their office this afternoon, making an appointment for next week. So that was good news!

And here's some interesting, not really so funny to me stories from my childhood. (But I can laugh about them now).

These photos below are from the internet because I don't have any of the real deal to share, but I saw these first two on Facebook this week and it took me back down memory lane.

The Hay Wagon story, as I remember it, I was about 4 years old, and we kids were riding on top of the loaded hay wagon like this,  with our Dad driving the tractor pulling the wagon back to the barn from the field. Our tractor was a much older Farmall Tractor...not a fancy rig like this.  Anyway, when he turned the corner in the road to head for the barn, apparently he drove under a tree and a tree limb came out across the top of the hay and knocked me off of the top and onto the ground!  Thankfully I only had the wind knocked out of me and apparently there were no injuries, but to this day I can still feel what that thud and wind being knocked out me felt like!  

Next, I saw this picture and oh boy, did it ever bring back THAT memory!  Yes, that could well be me! Again, I was about 4, and somehow I managed to go down to the corn crib by myself to feed the cows, or so I thought. But Mr. Rooster came charging out of the barnyard with his spurs on his feet flying at me, and I let out a scream and my mother came running with a broom and chased him off of me.  I understand that we had rooster stew for supper that night!

Now, for the last story...again when I was about the same age...our farm had a 2-seater outhouse. It was not as fancy as this one...

I remember it looking more like this: (maybe not that bad, but you get the idea)

And I'm not sure if there were actual seats like these, or if there were just holes, but anyway, trust me, it was a stinky old outhouse!  LOL.  However, our outhouse had a little gas heater in it near the door, because our farm had natural gas wells on the property (in Pennyslvania), and so I guess we had free gas and could afford to have a heater in our outhouse...and it was cold there as you can well imagine.

Anyway, on this particular day my older sister Doris and I went to the outhouse together. The door on the outhouse had a hook and eye latch inside to keep the door closed,  but when you went outside there was a wooden block on the door that you would turn and it would hold the door closed.  My sister said that if I ever was in there alone and someone forgot and turned the block on the door on the outside, that all I would have to do is push really hard against the door and it would open from the inside. Then she went out and left me in there and latched the door from the outside. She said she forgot and didn't mean to do it, but I've never been too sure about that. LOL.  Anyway, me being only 4, I wasn't really that strong, and when I tried to push the door open, it wouldn't budge.  So I started pounding on the door and screaming, and while in the process of pushing on the door somehow I got my hair caught in the little heater and it singed my hair, and then I really started screaming, and my mother heard me and came and let me out of the outhouse. Of course my sister said she was sorry, and of course I forgive her, but I've sure never forgotten it (and I've never let her forget it either! LOL.)

I share those little stories from my childhood to pause and remember that even then, God was watching over me. In each situation I could have been seriously hurt, but thankfully I mostly was just scared and perhaps my little child pride was wounded a bit. If I've never done it before, I want to thank the Lord now for His watchcare over me way back then.  He knew me, He loved me, and He had a plan for my life that a fall from a haywagon, an attack by a mean old rooster, and a hair-singed locked up in an outhouse experience couldn't keep from happening.  I am extremely grateful to God, and I want Him to know it.

This was true then, and it's still true today...

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, 

“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

And this passage from Psalm 139:

Psalm 139: 13-18

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.

I am so very thankful for this knowledge...and for the fact that even now, in my 75th year of life, God is still with me, and He continues to take care of me...and He still has plans for my life...plans to prosper me and not harm me, to give me a hope and a future...     Thank You, Lord!!

I hope you didn't mind this little trip down memory lane with me. I wonder how many of you could look back at your life and see the many times God protected you and kept you from being hurt in serious ways that may have totally changed your life.  Or, even if serious things did happen in your life, (and yes, I've experienced those too),  perhaps you can see the ways He used those things for your good even still.  

Romans 8:28 NKJV

"28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, 

to those who are the called according to His purpose."

Thank you for spending this time with me.  I hope you have a lovely rest of your week. And no matter what we may be going through, there is always something to be thankful for.

Amen.