Count Your Blessings, July 2010

It's that time for all of us to take a moment to Count Our Blessings.

Allow me to start...

I'm sure you know the story of 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. Even though Goldilocks was just a child, she knew. She knew that she did not need or want the biggest, the best, or even the most. She was determined to find what was 'just right' for her.

Children can be so wise. As a former kindergarten teacher, I was always fascinated with my students' perception of the world around them. Life is not as complicated for children. They do not worry about outside influences or how others may perceive them. They follow their own instincts. They experience the freedom to do and be what is 'just right'.

As adults, we don't need the biggest, the best, or even the most. We are truly blessed when we celebrate who we are and what we already have.   

So just as Goldilocks and my students, I now embrace what is 'just right' as I seek simplicity within my life. I can now do and be what is 'just right'.  I can count my blessings.

Now go ahead, your turn...share a blessing!      

GUIDELINES FOR 'COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS':

-You may join in the first Saturday/Weekend of every month to share the blessings in your life. The meme will stay open for a few days to give you more opportunity to share.

-This is not to share our latest craft, thrifty purchase, or remodel project. Just a sharing of our blessings, an appreciation of life and what it has to offer. A time to push our problems aside. A reason to reflect what is good. A way to possibly give hope to others who need to hear something inspirational in their time of need.

-Click the LinkyTool below to link up your blessing post that is on your blog.  In the URL line, insert your blog post URL, not your blog address. To do this, right click on the title of your blessing post on your blog, click copy shortcut, then paste it here.

-Please add the 'Count Your Blessings' button found in the right sidebar here to your blog post or do a link back (right click my post title, click copy shortcut, add to your blog post).

-Take the time to share and be inspired by other participants by visiting them and leaving comments.

Thank You For Sharing...Country Blessings To All!

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Reminder To Count Your Blessings

Just a quick reminder for those who wish to join in this weekend. It is time to share your blessings in a blog post or in a comment. See you soon!

(I will open it up on Friday to link up.)

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It's Back...Count Your Blessings

This season, I have cut back on blogging to about once a week. It’s all about balance and what I strive for in my real life. And really, I would rather blog once a week and hope that it has some meaning than to blog and babble continuously about nothing on a daily basis.

I do feel blessed so the time has come to continue the monthly sharing of ‘Count Your Blessings’ which is held the first Saturday of every month! ‘Count Your Blessings’ is a time for reflection, appreciation, and understanding. No sharing of things, projects, or latest finds...just a true appreciation of nature, family, friends, faith, etc.

I will have set this up with LinkyTool so you may join in starting this Friday, July 2 and I will have it run through Sunday, July 4. Join in with your own blog post, by making a comment, or both. Hope to see you then!

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You Know You're Addicted To Gardening When...

Your neighbors recognize you in your pajamas, rubber clogs and a cup of coffee.

You grab other people's banana peels, coffee grinds, apple cores, etc. for your compost pile.

You have to wash your hair to get your fingernails clean.

All your neighbors come and ask you questions.

You know the temperature of your compost every day.

You buy a bigger truck so that you can haul more mulch.

You enjoy crushing Japanese beetles because you like the sound that it makes.

Your boss makes "taking care of the office plants" an official part of your job description.

Everything you touch turns to "fertilizer".

Your non-gardening spouse becomes conversant in botanical names.

You find yourself feeling leaves, flowers and trunks of trees wherever you go, even at funerals.

You dumpster-dive for discarded bulbs after commercial landscapers remove them to plant annuals.

You plan vacation trips around the locations of botanical gardens, arboreta, historic gardens, etc.

You sneak home a 7 foot Japanese Maple and wonder if your spouse will notice.

When considering your budget, plants are more important than groceries.

You always carry a shovel, bottled water and a plastic bag in your trunk as emergency tools.

You appreciate your Master Gardener badge more than your jewelry.

You talk "dirt" at baseball practice.

You spend more time chopping your kitchen greens for the compost pile than for cooking.

You like the smell of horse manure better than Estee Lauder.

You rejoice in rain...even after 10 straight days of it.

You have pride in how bad your hands look.

You have a decorative compost container on your kitchen counter.

You can give away plants easily, but compost is another thing.

Soil test results actually mean something.

You understand what IPM means and are happy about it.

You'd rather go to a nursery to shop than a clothes store.

You know that Sevin is not a number.

You take every single person who enters your house on a "garden tour".

You look at your child's sandbox and see a raised bed.

You ask for tools for Christmas, Mother/Father's day, your Birthday and any other occasion you can think of.

You can't bear to thin seedlings and throw them away.

You scold total strangers who don't take care of their potted plants.

You know how many bags of fertilizer/potting soil,/mulch your car will hold.

You drive around the neighborhood hoping to score extra bags of leaves for your compost pile.

Your preferred reading matter is seed catalogs.

And last but not least, you know that the four seasons are:

Planning the Garden

Preparing the Garden

Gardening

~and~

Preparing and Planning for the next Garden.

-Author Unknown

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God Gave Me A Clothesline

Hanging fresh laundry in the great outdoors is not a chore, but an opportunity. A chance to slow down to appreciate.  A time to take notice. An insight of how things were done before today's complications have interrupted our sanity. Just sometimes....we need to hang wet, clean clothes onto a line so our spirit may soar and shine.

I'm a gal who has wanted a clothesline out here in the country for years now. I won't say how many years and I won't go into why I don't have one. Not important. What is important is that now I have one. Well, kind of.

It started the other day when the dryer quit. Dead. It is older than the hills, after all. How long can I expect it to be loyal day in and day out? I wasn't even upset with its refusal to give it a go one more time. The problem was, I had a basket of wet laundry sitting at my feet needing my attention. Okay, I am a make do type of personality. Do what you can and use what you have. 

I went into my craft room and found a nice long, clean rope and oodles of clothespins. I went outside and found two perfect trees that would allow me to string up two lines to accommodate one whole load of wash. You may think I'm a dork, but I was excited at the thought of having clothes smell of our great country air.

I grabbed my freshly washed laundry and started the simplistic ritual of hanging my clothes. And my first thought was "God gave me a clothesline'. It was not a day that my dryer died, but a day that I was given and had asked for. I was happy.

And now I must finish this post cause you guessed it...I must go hang the laundry. I am going to slow down to appreciate, take some time to notice, and gain back some sanity.

My wish is the same for you and I hope God gives you a clothesline in your life. 

 

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