Brandy's idea- let's keep our minds and hearts on the blessings we do have when we might not feel financially stable, or we might be tired of living in tight quarters, or walking past Starbucks, or putting things back on the shelves at Wal-mart and just getting dish soap and toilet paper-

What makes you happy and smile everyday?

I have great kids who are healthy, we have a kitchen I updated and got us deeper in debt in by replacing our stovetop and double oven a few years ago- but that is very handy when we have company- we had 25 for Easter, I'll have 23 tomorrow!  Menu- two trays of manicotti in the double ovens- white bean soup on the stove, potluck fruit, dessert and bread. Easter candy- and the Walgreens rebate that helped buy it! My friend Deb who passed done a box of videos from a friend who was converting to DVD's, and a bag of toys- all my kids got a video that was new to them in their basket, the little girls got toy horses that looked new. Everyone was happy- and once again I felt "successful" at a frugal holiday.  Our Easter menu was Ethiopian food- inexpensive homemade bread, a lentil dish, a split pea dish, and a potato and soybean dish- cheap and fun, again everyone potlucked the rest of the food- My car runs and the house is warm- we rug doctored the carpets and they are still pretty clean. 

What about you? 

Tracy
 

Today is the warmest April day ever in the Netherlands, it feels like summer (the climate is really changing!) and we can sit in our garden, hear the birds sing, read a book and feel content. For free!!

Last week I went to visit my sister who lives about 12 miles from us. We drove past the bulb fields that were filled with tulips, daffodils and hyacinths in pink, red, yellow and purple. The most beautiful colours as far as you could see. For free!

We have enough food and drink, a roof over our head, we have a car, we have (very important!!) bicycles so we don't have to use the car very much. Maybe I'm not rich or well to do, but compared to the rest of the world I certainly am!  Check this website and know that you are so very, very blessed!
http://www.globalrichlist.com/

latenightleader:

What makes you happy and smile everyday?

Tracy

 

 

Thank you for starting this Tracy! I was thinking of how to do that.

From experience I have found that when things are hard and especially if everyone around me is depressed as well it only makes it harder to see the light and blessings beyond the moment I am in. I had to make efforts to find and hold on to little things to get me from moment to moment sometimes. I hope others reading this find hope in all that is shared here and maybe it gives them the needed ability to see light in their own lives.

 I'll share one thing I am finding joy and peace in....I found the bird feeders I bought and cleaned them off to rehang and feed the birds. I decided to hang one on the other side of the yard than where it was. Oh my word, I have never seen such brilliant hues in birds before. I can now see them eating and hanging around the feeder from the window where I usually sit. I can hear them too if the windows are open and this adds a very pleasant sound all day.

It's a display of the essence of life to me and I can revel in that.

 

 

 

Dear All, I do my best to write 3 blessings in my blessings book every night.  Admittedly, the book has sometimes gone unadded since I was burned (2nd degree) on 10% of my body on 12/16/06.  At that time, & for quite a while afterwards, I was more cognizant of my accident, which seemed to be a bummer, than of my healing.  It is so good, however, to be able to go back & look at the book in those down times (which everyone has from time to time).

Deb, how are you doing physically now?

 

 

Dear Brandy, Thank you for your concern.  The burns extended from my palm to my underarm & a bit of my chest.  Much of them has healed, praised be the L-rd.  However, there are still 3 angry red welts & a large area that looks like broiled chicken that will take a long while to subside.  Since the time when I had a bilateral mastectomy & a complete hysterectomy 4 years ago on 4/1/03, most of the scars have by now healed completely, but there is still a red area on one site.  SO, I do not expect complete healing for some time.  Because of the mastectomy on the right, burned side, I had to give up wearing mastectomy bras, & THAT was a real bummer, from my own point of view.  Then, G-d focused me on looking through my closet & I found that I had been given then in /03 a garment called a "Softee" which is an undershirt with soft prostheses.  I procured 2 more, & now am very happy on that score.  Altogether, none of this (surgery OR burns) has had nearly the impact on me as has my brain injury.  Because of THAT injury, I fall about 6 times a month, can't follow many directions, & have other problems.

Now that I have given you TMI ("too much information"), I beg your pardon!

It wasn't too much info, I genuinely wanted to know about how you are doing. It sounds like you were thrown many challenges and I can only hope there are wonderful things ahead for you.

 

Dear Brandy, Thank you so much!

I have a loving family, good friends, & a lovely city to live in.  I am blessed indeed.  In Jewish teaching, those who suffer now are atoning for their sins & will be rewarded in the World Beyond, whereas those who do not suffer here will have a harder time trying to be closer to G-d.  I would like to add that surviving Katrina is suffering enough!

 

 Life is indeed a test of the soul.

 
"I would like to add that surviving Katrina is suffering enough!"

I am thankful that we do have some resources even if we have to be patient.

 

 
 

 

Dear Brandy, My own philosophy of life is that everyone suffers the same amount.  Some of us have many challenges, & accept them to some degree.  The folks who have what my step-brother calls "the happy gene," who sail along in life for the most part, are deflated & disheartened disproportionately to their few challenges. 

What do you & others think?