To Be Human Again – Thankful Thursday

I thought about the different things that need to be done around the house (and out on the farm itself), but I was sick for most of December and then for the first week or so of January. I’m not sick anymore and I’ve mostly recovered from being sick (the recovery is always the worse because everything has to…I want to say reboot, but that’s not the right word. Renormalize? I don’t know.)

Anyway, so I’m grateful that I’m not sick and that I’m not tired from being sick and actually had the energy to clear off the table yesterday and make dinner (we’ve been living off ramen, because I was sick and then Julia was sick and then everyone but the youngest was sick…)

You don’t know just how much you miss being able to do anything other than read and stare off into space and occasionally write something until you can’t do it.

Check out the original Thankful Thursday.

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The More Things Change – Thankful Thursday

This year has been really…difficult…is the best word I can think of. Maybe different? I don’t know, and I know that the year isn’t even really over yet. It just seems like it is at the moment.

I guess the only thing on my mind that I’m really grateful for-

No, just thought of another thing.

Perspective.

I hadn’t realized just how much I was appreciated at home-

That’s not quite right either.

I guess I hadn’t realized just how much I do at home, how much I contribute, until this past week. I’ve been sick and unable to do most everything I usually do. I was able to do laundry this week and that’s it. Barely I have it in me to do family history because my brain’s so fuzzy I don’t want to mess anything up.

I haven’t been able to do a lot during the last ten years or so, or at least that’s how it seemed to me until I got sick this week and couldn’t do much of anything. I hadn’t realized just how far I’d gotten until this moment when it comes to doing things.

So I’m grateful for perspective this week even if that perspective came from underneath a mound of blankets.

Check out the original Thankful Thursday.

Just a Few Things – Thankful Thursday

Today I am grateful for a few of things:

For my neighbors who kept my dog in their yard after he got out and went for a lovely sprint.

For the end of NaNoWriMo and the fun it was.

For my friends coming to visit me on my farm for the afternoon.

For my nephew leaving me some chips to have with my lunch today.

If you want to see more things people are grateful for, check out the original Thankful Thursday.

 

Through the Cold Night -Thankful Thursday

So, yesterday,  my eldest nephew and I were going to finally finish the new pig pen before it snowed last night and into today. While we were over there getting the first of the last four panels ready, he heard cheeping.

But there were no birds anywhere around us.

So Chris looked over the fence between our yard and our neighbor’s calf yard (which is currently empty).

“Martha! Martha! Look!”

I glance over the fence and there I see it too.

Our broody hen that went missing had eight little chickies following her around the pen our neighbor puts bulls in when they get hurt or sick. (It was currently empty as well, thank goodness.)

Chris climbed the fence while I got a box and went around the long way. (I was not climbing that fence, no sirree.) It took us a bit, but we finally caught the chickies and the mama. We had to let the mama go, because we found her nest where she was still spending most of the day sitting on eggs. (She must have been on break with the littles. I’ve seen her do that before when she still had eggs to brood over.

We moved the eight little chickies into a nice brooder box (after hurriedly assembling one) and put them in the garage with the bunnies and some nice heat lamps and prayed that they would survive the sudden drop in temperature that was coming last night.

They made it. (Their mom also returned to her broody nest that we weren’t going to try and roust her from. Hens peck something fierce.)

So today I am grateful that Chris heard the chickies yesterday. (Even if we still haven’t finished the pig pen and now must do so in the snow.)

Check out the original Thankful Thursday.

The Worth – Thankful Thursday

I know I say it a lot, but I am incredibly grateful for my sister’s kids, my eldest niece and nephews. I’ve known them (and lived with them) for the majority of their lives (and all but a few months for the youngest actually now that I think about it…) and they haven’t really ever known me as anything other than the way I am. They didn’t see me full to bursting with energy and bouncing all over the place day after day after day…

(I was a right little heathen as a child. That one potential boyfriend for one of my sisters never did come back…)

They’ve grown up having to help take care of me during bad days just as much as I’ve helped take care of them. I don’t think I’ll ever really be a ‘full’ adult in their minds. I count enough for some things, but there are definitely times where I just don’t count enough (like driving for instance…)

But despite all of that, they still treat me like a person, even when I’m all dizzy and confused about who people are. They treat me like I’m a person and that is worth so much more than most people realize.

You don’t know how much until it isn’t there. Like all truly precious things.

Check out the original Thankful Thursday. (Will update link when able.)

To Last – Thankful Thursday

Lately we’ve been receiving a lot of older things from my dad as he cleans out the basement of what was my Great Grandmother’s house. She died almost two decades ago, but we’re still cleaning out the house. It’s large and belongs to my dad’s cousin. He also lives there, because as already stated, the house is huge. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. (The house was built in 1904.)

Today, my sister cleaned up and put back together an old wheat grinder that grinds by hand. It’s heavy because it’s made of wrought iron. We actually got two of them from my dad because he didn’t know if there were enough parts for only one of them to work again or not and wanted us to have all of the available parts. These things haven’t seen the light of day in something like 40 years from what I understand as Great Grandma didn’t used them anymore for a long time either.

Turns out, there are enough parts for both to work again once they’re all cleaned up (rust, the bane of all things iron). My mom is ecstatic (sort of) because she’s wanted us to have a hand grinder for something like my entire life. She and my sister were discussing it as Julia cleaned off the one and got it working again.

“Well, Mom, it’s not the latest model. Sorry.”

“That just means it’s going to last!” I called out from the living room.

“That’s because back then things were made to last.” My mom replied.

“Yeah,” I responded, “Planned obsolescence is a real pain.”

So I guess all I’m saying is that I’m grateful that my Great Grandma had things that were meant to last and that my dad held onto them for such a long time.

Check out the original Thankful Thursday. (Will update link when able.)

Stitched From the Heart – Thankful Thursday

Quietly waiting to wrap around

Until the night sends its darkest hound.

In which comfort is drawn

Like love sent from beyond.

There is nothing more beautiful than a mother’s love.

image: Miri on my quilt, from martha0stout’s phone

This week I am grateful for the lovely quilt that my mother made me when I was a teenager.

Check out the original Thankful Thursday. (I will update the link when able.)

EDIT: Link updated as of May 30, 2015

Oatmeal-y Goodness – Thankful Thursday

Today I am grateful for oatmeal cookies. They are just so delicious!

(And sometimes even have nutritional value.)

They have been one of my favorite cookies for my entire life.

Check out the original Thankful Thursday. (I will update this link…eventually.)

EDIT: Link has been updated as of March 14, 2015.

Don’t Take For Granted – Thankful Thursday

Even though it’s all planned out

Not everything works quite right.

Efficiency varies greatly

Right when I need consistency.

Going forward or going back

You’ll find I have what it takes.

 

Today I’m grateful for all of the energy I’ve had this week, because without it I wouldn’t have been able to complete what I’ve needed to do. You don’t realize just how important it is to have energy to do things until you’ve spent any amount of time without it.

Make sure to check the original Thankful Thursday. (I will include the link to today’s Thankful Thursday post as soon as I see it.)

EDIT: The correct link has been added.

Humorous Kitty – Thankful Thursday

This morning, after returning home from my morning walk with Sissy, my cat Usako was super energized. She was running all over the house and then outside when I came home and left the door open. She runs in and out now and then.

She runs here, there and everywhere and never stops to think.

image: martha0stout’s phone

I’m grateful for my kitty, even when she’s tripping me up all over the house.

Make sure you check out the original Thankful Thursday as well.