Beauty and Bounty

Every shade of green imaginable fills the landscape outside my window. Wild daisies and dandelions peep their heads out from the tall grass in an effort to reach the sun. Foxtail flowers, one of my favorites, cover the hills with their bright fuschia glory, and the songbirds and logging trucks wake me early each morning. I've been so busy lately that I've found it easy to let all of this beauty and bounty slip by. One of the ways I've found to wake myself up is to write a list of all the things I'm thankful for. So here goes…

I'm thankful for…

• Frozen strawberries and bananas to eat at a later date (As in tomorrow. Strawberry Sauce. Shortbread.) How could this get better?
• Cream! (see above)
• Breezy Brookshire coloring pages with my littlest sister and helping her figure out which colors go together
• Glorious rain that makes all those colors brighter
• G. K. Chesterton read aloud and all the knitting projects his books help me finish
• Unbroken and Adventures and Adversities both books I picked up during my convention adventure! They are so good!
• Said convention adventure with oldest sister, brother-in-law, and the nephews extraordinaire
• Garment bags (I don't believe in ironing)
• Kind customers who stick with me even if I can't make change for a $100
• Siblings who kindly enjoyed my book
• Mommy and Daddy for helping with the book (I already said that, but it doesn't hurt to say it again)
• Mommy and Daddy for helping me iron and fix my clothes and shuttling me down to my oldest sister's house (Respectively.)
• Carl's Jr. Western Burger
• Band-aids
• All the encouragers
• "What's in the Bible? with Buck Denver!" We've been watching this show by Phil Vischer every Sunday afternoon. It's been a lot of fun, and we've had some really good discussions! (Ponies!)
• Merging the Celtic culture with the Cherokee Indian culture to come up with my latest character, Starlight (Who consequently looks like my sister. Weird.)
• Dial-up. Hey, it has its issues, but it makes it so I can chat with my oldest sister while cooking elk meat.
• My red journal (It is just the cutest! Red on the outside with black polka dots on a tan background on the inside. The pages are also decorated with red flowers.)
• Shel Silverstein's Runny Babbit! It's greally reat! Melieve be!
• "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus"
• Math tricks and a brother who will explain them to me while I'm skimming cream
• (Cream! See the first point above)
• Electric fans
• A plastic blender jar (I've broken a glass blender jar, an eight cup liquid measuring cup, a platter, and too many other dishes to count in my cooking lifetime)
• A clean desk!!!!
• A clean bedroom!!!
• Two new jumper dresses in the last month
• "The Village Reel" (Keith and Kristyn Getty)
• Two little girls who decorated their old white shirts almost exactly the same
• The oldest man in church ringing the bell with the youngest little girl in church
• Masculine and feminine rhyme
• Library wi-fi! (I'm still thankful for dial-up)
• A children's biography of Dr. Seuss
• The Anne of Avonlea soundtrack
• A little sister who can exactly imitate my signature facial expressions
• Getting to test read Journeys of the Four pre-publication! High five, Miss Jones!
• Sunday afternoon strolls—er, more like fast walks
• A mouse-proofed pantry
• Hayfields
• God, Who is always there and always will be