Andie's Attitude of Gratitude

Ken Anderson said:
I came along after indoor plumbing, but there was one winter when the pipes froze and we were dependent on the outside pump well and the outhouse. You could use the toilet but you had to haul water from the well. So, pretty much, mom used the toilet indoors and everyone else used the outhouse.
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That sounds like the winter of my senior year. We had to heat water for baths and dish washing. Luckily, the well house was very close to the back door. Unfortunately the outhouse was not. I learned about toilet flushing with a bucket and if it is yellow, let it mellow, but brown flush it down. My dad loved poetry. I looked forward to going to school and PE 1st period, so I could get a hot shower and handle operated toilet flushing. At 17, sharing bathwater wasn't appealing.

The sad thing is I lived much the same when in the mountains for a few years, before I put in indoor plumbing. Very grateful that I finally came to my senses, 40 years ago, and bought a house with 2 fully functional bathrooms. My gratefulness wains a bit at toilet, shower,, and bathroom cleaning time. :ROFLMAO:
 
Ken Anderson said:
I would sneak into the church after everyone went to bed. The church was never locked, and it was nearby.
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"The preacher likes the cold, because he knows I am going to stay." Thanks Ken, now I will have that tune in my head all morning.

The nearest church to our place was a country church 10 miles away. A better option was getting to the outhouse that was near the barn, (only about 200 feet away) but that was an interesting jog in blizzard conditions. A consideration was, was the path blown in, requiring snowshoes? Usually, after using an ice scraper, with feed store advertising on it, to scrape off my, ice opaqued, bedroom window, an assessment of the situation led to indoor innovation.
 
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I'm feeling very grateful for my friends this morning. I just found out that one of my best friends, who has been declining in a nursing home this past year has gone "unresponsive" and is in hospice care. Along with the sadness, I'm trying to keep in mind all the fun we had together, going to lunch and laughing. Fortunately we have mutual friends I can call today to share the grief.

In this town, all my friends are of the later in life sort, met after retirement, either as neighbors, through church, or through my book club. So we didn't share school or work years, but managed to get very close anyway.

As those long term friends from school days slip away, it is so good to have the newer ones.
 
Andie White said:
It was interesting, Marie Miller! It's in keeping with what I'm grateful for right now.

The Kindness of Strangers. I've been on the receiving end of so much of that lately since a sprained ankle has me temporarily in a wheel chair. Just yesterday I was rolling through Kroger and so many people offered to reach things for me. Absolutely everyone seemed to be in a friendly, chatty mood.

Our local Kroger seems to be a center of lots of spontaneous charity and, "paying it forward." I've seen people at the register paying for the poor looking family behind them, women buying flowers for other women, and one woman gave a birthday present to the grumpy young man who runs the self-check machines!
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It is surprising with all the bad 'news' out there how much good is around.
 
Faye Fox said:
"The preacher likes the cold, because he knows I am going to stay." Thanks Ken, now I will have that tune in my head all morning.

The nearest church to our place was a country church 10 miles away. A better option was getting to the outhouse that was near the barn, (only about 200 feet away) but that was an interesting jog in blizzard conditions. A consideration was, was the path blown in, requiring snowshoes? Usually, after using an ice scraper, with feed store advertising on it, to scrape off my, ice opaqued, bedroom window, an assessment of the situation led to indoor innovation.
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I was going to ask about thunder mugs and why they were not used by many.
 
Pets. I love my dog so much I was tempted to make her the first entry in this diary, but I was afraid my family might see it ;). She's so old now that she's tons of work. My son was here yesterday and saw how I spent the morning cleaning the recliner upholstery only to have her go in it again that afternoon. She also needed a bath and I washed a whole load of laundry for her towels and blankets.

Yet, every single day she gives me joy. Warmth and affection and that loyal, unconditional love that's so unique to dogs. I'm continually grateful for her.
 
Andie White said:
I couldn't sleep last night, so after a few hours, I got up and turned on the computer. There are a lot of things I don't like about the internet, but I am grateful for it when I'm sick or feeling lonely and I can connect with the rest of the world.
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Somedays, or mostdays, :rolleyes: I spend too much time on the internet. One click or thought leads to another and down the rabbit hole I go. I often wonder what I did before the internet.
 
Good sleep.
After a bout of insomnia it was great to finally get a solid night's sleep (minus a few outside trips for the dog).

Yesterday my son took me to the library and while walking in was okay, after I had been standing at the new fiction shelf for about ten minutes, I was almost unable to walk again. Something in the back of my knee has become really weak while my ankle was healing.

So I was feeling anything but grateful yesterday. Today is a new day and I have hope that I'll be able to put this wheelchair back in the garage someday! Thanks to a good night's sleep!
 
Today I'm grateful for a story I happened to read on YouTube that began simply as a young woman telling about her experience growing up in the Jehovah's Witness religion and then, after about an hour, got to a place in her life where she was praying for answers and was visited by the Holy Spirit in the most profound way. It was the most inspiring testimony I've ever heard
 
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I'm grateful for Easter every year. It may be my favorite holiday. I love Christmas but it comes with a lot of pressure sometimes; decorating, shopping, cooking, baking, and special events. When I was younger and poorer it was a struggle to buy presents for everyone on my list.

Easter, though, is all fun to me. I love going to church on Easter morning and seeing the little ones dressed up and excited about the Easter egg hunt. I didn't get to go, but heard about it, this year and since my sprained ankle is rapidly improving I may be back in action pretty soon.
 
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