Thankful Thursday, Weird Week Edition

 This has honestly kind of been a weird week for me. It's had some great highs and some low lows. In some ways, it was really hard to think of things I was grateful for on Tuesday, when I was so worried we might bomb Iran again. But honestly, remembering that I have so much to be thankful for helps when I'm feeling low, maybe even more than when I'm just having an ordinary day or a great day. 

So this week I'm thankful for:

1. Old friends. On Friday I went birding with Kate and we talked for like 6 hours. On Saturday I saw my friend Andrea from college and we also talked for about 4 hours. Then I had dinner with Babs... and talked for 2 hours. I've known all 3 of these women for over 20 years and its just so fun to hang out, talk about our lives and randomness, laugh, and just be. I really hadn't seen Andrea in at least 8-9 years (we were trying to figure that out), so meeting up in Harrisburg was great. Rats for forgetting to take photos!

2. My favorite bookstore, Midtown Scholar in Harrisburg. On one hand, its a bummer my favorite bookstore is 2 hours away. On the other hand, it's probably a good thing because I'd be there weekly buying way to many books if I was local. It's got new and used books, a huge history section, and this cool underground part that goes on forever of rare books. 

3. Birds! Spring migration has started, and Kate and I walked several miles around Huntley Meadows looking for birds. We found what we think was a Coopers Hawk in a nest, red-headed woodpeckers, and tried our hand at identifying lots of sparrows.

4. Easter! Easter service at our church was such a wonderful celebration. We had a full house, great music, and dang, can Joshua preach. 

5. Girl Scout Cookies. I was silly and gave up sweets for lent, so I've been enjoying my stash of girl scout cookies this week. 

6. Conversations with mom. Alzheimers is a tricky thing, but on Friday mom was in a good mood and we actually chatted about a few things. I think she was following the conversation pretty well as I tried to reminisce about things she might still remember (but not too many things or I'd confuse her). We laughed a lot, and that was wonderful. I miss being able to talk to her about things, and this was a lovely small dose of her that's still in there.  

Thankful Thursday, Holy Week Edition

 This week I'm thankful for:

1. My hammock. I got my first 'lay in my hammock and read in the sun' day of the year this week and it was glorious. 

2. A moving Maundy Thursday service at church tonight.

3. Board games with Karen, Garth and Kate on Sunday. 

4. I learned a new board game called 'Age of Comics' and it was very fun.

5. I've gotten more stuff out of my house! Trips to the recycling center, used bookstore, Goodwill, Interfaith clothing, paper shredding and police station (expired meds) all happened this week. 

6. A big AC unit for my not so big house. I finally gave up and turned the AC on this week when it was 76 in my house; it was 85 outside on Tuesday! 

7. I've made an appointment with an allergist. Stay tuned to see how many dozens of things I'm allergic to lol.

Thankful Friday, Decluttering Edition

 Well I figured out this week after going BACK to the doctor that I don't have bronchitis, I just have insane allergies. So I have finished my antibiotics, am not contagious, and have a referral to an allergist. All in a week's work?

I'm thankful for:

1. Cherry blossoms! We hit peak bloom this week, and I was able to drive mom around Kenwood yesterday to look at them. 

2. Dinner with mom. I hadn't seen much of her in the last 2 weeks when I was sick and then thought I was still sick. Now that I know I'm not contagious, I was able to take her out for a belated birthday dinner at Not Your Average Joes. 

3. Allergy meds. I'm double dosing Zyrtec at the moment (under doctor's orders) and I don't feel terrible anymore. I still have a terrible cough, but I'm very happy to be rid of the sinus pressure and headaches, hopefully for good.

4. Everything is turning that lovely shade of light green. I love that shade of early spring green.

5. My friend Susan helped me declutter my guest room for almost 5 hours today! I have a load of stuff in my car to go to recycling, another load prepped for Goodwill, and a few boxes that need to go to really specific places like an antique shop or a certain friend. 

6. I'm so happy to almost have my guest room functional again! It's been 3 years since I moved mom to assisted living, and I've been chipping away at the boxes of things I inherited in that process. I'm getting much closer to keeping the number of things I actually want to keep.

7. My work hours are going up to 80% for the next 2 months, huzzah!

8. The bell choir I'm in. We had a particularly fun rehearsal this week with lots of laughter, and its just fun making music with those folks.

9. A gorgeous day to do a short hike with my Girl Scout troop on Sunday. 

Thankful Thursday, In the market for new sinuses edition

 I still have this stupid cold/sinus infection and I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. That said, I'm still thankful for:

1. The antibiotics I just got- hoping they can help me kick this crud!

2. The sound of rain on my roof as I snuggle under my covers.

3. Mom is doing well. I hadn't seen her in 2 weeks, but I stopped by tonight (masked) to check in and had a good short visit.

4. The weather is warming up- I walked Luna in short sleeves several times this week!

5. A new good book- The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks

Thankful... Monday? More March Edition

 I'm surfacing after a having a cold that wanted to be a sinus infection. 0/5 stars.

There's still a lot I'm thankful for, including:

1. My immune system. Being sick sucks, but I'm glad I eventually bounce back.

2. Masking is socially acceptable. I was able to take Luna to a vet appointment on Friday while masked, so I (hopefully) didn't pass my crud onto other people.

3. More good books. I finished 'The Last Runaway' by Tracy Chevalier while recovering and started 'Born a Crime' by Trevor Noah.

4. A new season of Top Chef! 

5. Livestreams of music. One of my favorite bands from Ren Faire, Piper Jones Band, was playing at a club in Houston on Saturday night, and there was a livestream to watch for free.

6. A clean bill of health for my teeth, at least for another 6 months.

7. Bell festival was so much fun. We had a great conductor, good music, and it was at the beach, so who can complain? It was fun to go to a new beach too, I'd never been to Rehoboth before. 

8. Wondering a new wildlife refuge before bell festival, Prime Hook. A windy day for birds, but a lovely walk, and I did see a bunch of forest birds.

9. My friend Kris that let me stay at her house for festival so I didn't have to pay for a hotel room.

10. March weather? We've had 2 85 degree days and then the next day it snowed. I'm here for the warmup and will stay for the crazy back and forth (which we might have again tonight.)

Thankful Friday, March Edition

 It's been an interesting week, to say the least. I drove back from South Carolina, had some church stuff and Girl Scouts on Sunday, a slew of doctors appointments on Monday, and oh yeah, apparently we are now at war with Iran. :/  I'm still thankful for a lot, including:

1. I'm not traveling internationally right now. I can't imagine living in the middle east and suddenly missiles are headed your way, or getting stranded somewhere because you were trying to catch a connecting flight in Doha (which I have done in the past).

2. Health Insurance and pretty good health. I'm trying to knock out all of my preventative healthcare visits for the year (minus eyedoctor in July), so I have a slew of doctors appointments for a couple of weeks. Other than my angry shoulder though (x-rays and PT), everything is preventative, which is awesome.

3. It's mom's birthday! I managed to get her a Costco cake for VIPS and get her TO the VIPS meeting, so I think she had a really good day. I'll take her out for dinner sometime next week to spread out the celebration too.

4. My snow has melted! When I left for South Carolina, my yard was still 2/3 covered in snow and I had -just- managed to clear my deck of the ice. When I came home, all the snow is gone! Then of course we had an inch on Monday, but that melted pretty quickly. I love snow, but I'm also ready for spring.

5. Work is going well. I wasn't sure how working 60% was going to go, but I seem to be able to get my workload done, and my projects are going well, so that's a win-win.

6. My mojo is back a little bit. Sometimes I have a little bit of seasonal depression in January/February, and it can be hard to get things done, even things I'm excited about doing. Somehow the calendar flipping to March has helped, so I can feel more in control of my time. (Such as scheduling a bagillion doctors appointments.)

 

Thankful Friday, Edisto Edition!

 This has been an amazing week visiting family and friends in South Carolina. This week I'm thankful for:

1. The ability to do this roadtrip and see family.

2. Getting to see my aunt Carroll and Uncle David in Columbia.

3. Getting to hang out with my friend Mary Beth in Columbia. We rode the Columbia sky tram at the zoo and generally talked for hours.

4. Spending a week with my dad's cousin Betty on Edisto. Talking, knitting and needlepointing, and going on adventures in Charleston.

5. Hiking with Meghan on Sunday on a very windy day. We did 7 miles and change, saw some cool birds and lots of alligators!

6. A good friend Alexandra to leave Luna with while I was gone. 

7. Lots of doggos on this trip! Marybeth's dog Ky, Carroll and David's dog Dyna, and Betty's dogs Shrimp, Grits and Indigo.

8. That Indigo is okay. He's an 8-month old black lab puppy and he ate rat poison on Monday. Luckily we caught it quickly and a trip to the vet sorted him out and he's fine (and has probably learned nothing lol).

9. I got to do a few family history things on this trip, like hear stories from relatives, search a bit on ancestry, find a relative in a cemetery, and see the house my great aunt lived in in Charleston.

10. I got to hang out with Debbie at Cypress Trees and just chat while we did yardwork and made cookies.

11. I got to eat South Carolina shrimp twice this week already.

It's been a very good week :oD

Thankful Wednesday (?) Pre-Trip Edition

 

I'm posting a day ahead of time because I'm driving all day tomorrow and I'm not sure what my schedule will look like.

This week I'm thankful for:

1. I was able to get mom to Shrove Tuesday pancakes at church last night. She really enjoyed being with friends and kept saying we should do this more than once a year :o)

2. I got reports submitted for work. Sometimes the portal I have to submit things through is temperamental, but it worked pretty well this time. Thankful the portal worked AND that the reports are done.

3. We played a really beautiful bell piece on Sunday.

4. The Olympics, again. I love watching every day and will miss them when they are over.

5. The ice might finally be melting? Today, a month to the day of the snow/ice storm, and I was finally able to shovel my deck and open my backdoor all the way.

6. I'm off for a week and a half to go visit family and friends. Perks of only working part time, is that I'm only taking 3 days off work to be off 12 days :oP

7. Luna is doing great post-op. Acting like her normal self and even countersurfing a bag of flour lol.

Thankful Friday, Olympics Edition

 Yesterday got away from me because work was a little crazy. So here's a thankful Thursday on a Friday!

I'm thankful for: 

1. The Olympics! I absolutely love watching the Olympics. I watched the opening ceremonies last week with Garth, Karen and Kate, and I've been watching the games all week. So far my favorites are figure skating, snowboard cross, halfpipe and curling. The downhill is so cool but terrifying when people crash out. 

2. Crafting during the Olympics. I'm not great at watching TV for long periods without doing something with my hands, so I craft a lot during the Olympics every 2 years. So far I've painted a bunch of small doll houses to make a little village to display on my shelf. Next up is earrings and scrapbooking.

3. Luna came through her surgery well! She had a tooth extracted today, and also had her teeth cleaned and her back end x-rayed while she was under. X-rays are clear (she's been guarding a leg recently, just wanted to make sure nothing was going on), broken tooth is out, and we are waiting on biopsy results from a mole they removed on her lip. She's a little woozy but doing great. 

4. A great vet. They took the time to answer all my questions and called twice with updates while she was having her procedures.

5. Lots of patient friends that endured lots of texts from me today as I was a nervous dog mom. I have LOTS of good friends, and had several group chats going about pet parent anxiety. We love our fur babies.

6. My church has a new pastor and we installed him last Saturday. In the Presbyterian church, we call pastors and then 2-3 months after they start, have a formal service of installation and a big celebration. It was great to celebrate pastor Joshua and meet some of the important people in his life. 

Thankful Thursday, Snowcrete edition

 This week I am thankful for:

1. A small amount of snow clearing. A couple of days above freezing let me chisel out my trashcan and some more neighbors were able to shovel their sidewalks. I even saw MoCo blocking some lanes of 355 by the church today to use bulldozers to move ice off the roads and sidewalk. Small wins!

2. I got hang out with my cousin Stephanie on Saturday. She's in town from California visiting her dad and cleaning out a storage unit. We had fun talking for several hours over lunch and then the assortment of things we found in the storage unit, including fun family photos.

3. My girl scout troop. We prepared for thinking day on Sunday with crafts and learning about Madagascar. I'm excited to camp with them again in April too.

4. I finally got an electrician to my house. The company that does my HVAC also does electrical and plumbing, and they do free annual inspections. I had gotten rescheduled 3 times previously, and so it was nice to finally get someone out to look at things. Bonus- I also can now put all the boxes back in my closet where my electrical panel is!

5. My knee is getting better! Almost 3 months to the day when I over-hiked in November, I can do more in PT with little to no pain. YAY! Still more strengthening to be done, but this is huge progress.

6. Plans to see family in South Carolina at the end of the month. Vacations are joyous even before they begin- I always like having something to look forward to.

Thankful Thursday, Hoth Edition

 

It is SO cold. Here are some things I'm thankful for!

1. So far I have kept power. There was a decent chance we were going to get freezing rain during last weekend's storm, and the one thing I was worried about was losing power when the temperature was in the single digits. 

2. I managed to chisel out my car on Monday. It took over 2 hours, but I think if I had waited any longer it would have been permanently iced into until this mess thaws someday.

3. Snow storms are pretty. After all the prep leading up to the storm, I loved just watching it snow and sleet. Luna was not a fan of walking in the storm, but it was fun to listen to all snuggled in bed.

4. My in-person work meeting got moved from Tuesday to Thursday. This made it much easier to get into the office, and it meant I could stay for our office warming party. Win-win!

5. Board game birthday party for Elisa last Friday night, with our tradition of playing Settlers. Baa thump!

6. I got some more LOE allocated to a work project.

7. Read 2 more good books. Castle in the Sky (Howl's Moving Castle #2) and The Bakers Secret (WWII fiction). 

Thankful Thursday, Snow prep edition

 Happy Thursday folks!

This week I'm thankful for: 

1. I was able to see a close family friend in the hospital last week. For a while it looked like circumstances were conspiring against us, but we made it work. Vague-booking on purpose.

2. I'm over my food poisoning. Holy crow, did I eat something last weekend that angered my tummy. Possible culprits were raw cookie dough (most likely), tacos (relatively unlikely, I've been to that taco place a bunch), or a burger (also unlikely because it was well done, but I've never eaten there before). I was down for the count Sunday through Tuesday, and only began to slightly feel normal yesterday. Let's... not do that again, eh?

3. Good books! I finished 'The Other Americans' by Laila Lalami and 'Becoming' by Michelle Obama this week and both were excellent. I've now started 'Castle in the Sky' by Diana Wynne Jones and its a fun read so far.

4. Incoming snow! I am so excited we might get some good snow this weekend. Less excited for the potential of ice, but we'll see what happens. I braved Costco today because I am insane, so I have yummy food for a while.

5. A successful work presentation on Wednesday. Sometimes presenting virtually over Teams can be bumpy, but I think this went well and we had a good discussion.

Thankful Thursday, 2 weeks into 2026

 

There's a lot going on and the world feels like it's on fire, but I'm still searching for the big and small ways to be grateful.

1. Luna. My fast-acting, non-aspirin pain reliever. I gave her a bath this week and all day I kept exclaiming, you're so fluffy!!

2. Some mild weather to get a few outdoors things done. We had a couple days of January thaw earlier this week, which helped me cut up and move a branch in my yard without freezing to death. Now? Currently the feels like is 9, which leads me to...

3. Central heat and warm blankets- mainstays of January in the mid-Atlantic.

4. A good visit with my mom yesterday. Alzheimer's makes things like visits and plans very apt to change, so it was nice to bring Luna over and just chat for an hour.

5. A very fun dinner at Carol and David's house Monday evening, getting to know some people better including our new pastor Joshua!

Thankful Thursday, I mean Friday

 I'm a day late, oops!

This week I'm thankful for:

1. Warmer weather. I squeezed in a quick hike with Luna late yesterday afternoon, and we saw a fox. And it barked at us! Once Luna saw it, she of course barked back :)

2. PT for my knee. I over-hiked in November and my knee has been a little angry at me since then. I'm glad I can get some PT so I can continue hiking and dancing without hurting it.

3. Catching up with friends. I finally was able to catch up with my friend Joanna last week, and I miss her so much. It's lovely to have friends that we can just pick up where we left off even if we haven't seen each other in a while.

4. Movie night with local friends last week. Elisa, Alexandra and I watched American President in honor/memory of Rob Riener.

5. An easy week back to work after the holidays. It was nice to just be able to write and not have a lot of meetings this week.

6. Drawing. I'm doing birbfest, which is drawing a bird each day of January, and I'm really enjoying it!

Happy New Year 2026!

 Happy New Year!

This week I'm thankful for:

1. The friends I played board games with last night to ring in the new year. It was chill, fun, lots of food and laughter, and sweet doggos = a perfect evening. 

2. A comfy bed. This might never not be on my list. I enjoyed sleeping in this morning after going to bed at 2am.

3. Luna, who is currently curled up next to me on the couch. 

4. 4 more days off work, for a total of 17! Probably the longest I've taken a vacation in a while, and it's been great to plan/celebrate Christmas, relax, organize my house and brain, and read.

5. A brisk first day hike in the new Royce Hanson Conservation Park in Poolesville.