I haven’t done a very good job of keeping up with Sunday Seven lately.  Life has been too busy - especially on weekends.  However, taking it one week at a time, here are seven things I’m grateful for the past week.

(1) a massage that helped my neck feel a little better

(2) sticking somewhat to a healthy eating plan (the d-word is a no-no - no dieting - just healthy eating)

(3) energy to do a lot of needed housework last weekend

(4) a good report from the doctor at my yearly checkup (which I’d put off for over six months)

(5) time with the grandgirls

(6) time with RT

(7) a good week at school - lots of positive interactions with children and teachers

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This week I am writing about seven Christmas traditions that I am thankful for:

(1) Christmas stockings - I love planning and shopping for items to go in everyone’s stockings.  It’s just fun.

(2) Christmas Tree - There’s nothing more beautiful than a pretty Christmas tree.  Everytime I look at our Christmas tree, I like to squint my eyes so that only the lights stand out - and they look softer and beautiful.

(3) Colored lights on the Christmas tree - While all white lights look pretty, there is just nothing more Christmasy than colored lights.

(4)  The star that our daughter (now almost 33 years old) used in a pre-school Christmas play 30 years ago.  Each year it is the star at the top of our Christmas tree.

(5) And next to that star on top of the tree is the angel our son made in school 25 years ago.  So we have a doubly wonderful tree-topper each year.

(6) We have always had the tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve.  Everything else has to wait till Christmas Day.  It’s always fun selecting the one gift we want to open early.

(7)  Christmas caroling…There is absolutely no music more beautiful than Christmas music.  “Silent Night”  “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear”  “O Holy Night” “ Hark the Herald Angels Sing”  ”Mary Did You Know?”  “Away in a Manger”  - along with the more secular “Christmas in Dixie” “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” and “Tender Tennessee Christmas”

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Many things I’m thankful for this week:
(1) Sunshine’s love of apples: “I LIKE sour apples” - a phrase we’ll be repeating for years to come. (You had to be there! )
(2) Sweet Stuff’s sweet nature - listening to her talk to her mommy (my little girl!) on the phone
(3) RT’s frequent affirmation of his love for me
(4) Our church and the friends we have there, and the beautiful music each week
(5) That RT and I got most of the blinds put up last night - and mostly that the blinds fit (yea! I measured well!)
(6) The entire Christmas season - there’s nothing about Christmas that doesn’t make me happy
(7) Our driveway - It sounds strange, but everytime I drive on our driveway, I think of how beautiful the scenery is

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This past week has beeen a good one.  Here are seven things I’m thankful for from the past week:

(1) That RT put up my make-up mirror, and when it ended up being a little too high for me to use comfortably, he took it down and re-installed it lower for me.

(2) RT and I did some target-shooting together.  I had a lesson and then we went through several rounds of clay targets together.  It was fun.  We’re going back this afternoon with our son.

(3) We started putting up the window blinds that were delivered several weeks ago.  I’m relieved that I measured correctly and the blinds looks really good.

(4) The quilt that I ordered for the master bedroom arrived two days ago, and it looks beautiful!  That’s another thing I was relieved about.  When you order things online, you just don’t know how it will look when it arrives.  But this quilt matches everything perfectly and really brightens up the room.

(5) When RT was out of town for several days, I was able to get some things done around the house - and Jake, along with the security system, kept me feeling as safe as possible.

(6) Now that the leaves are off the trees, the view from our house is beautiful in a different way.  We can see all the way to the river in the back, and in the front, we can see the driveway through the trees all the way to where it curves around the hill.

(7) Right now our son’s truck it parked out by the barn.  That means that he got here early this morning and is off somewhere on the property deer hunting.  That means that when he is finished later, he will stop by the house, and I will likely make him some oatmeal or pancakes for breakfast.  I look forward to such moments.

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It has been a really good few days around our little part of Tennessee.  Here are seven things that I’m thankful that happened the past week.

(1) I’m thankful that RT is feeling better.  He felt really bad on Wednesday and Thursday and was certain he had strep throat.  However, we went to a Minute Clinic, and they checked.  No strep throat, no flu - just a cold with a sore throat.

(2)  Yesterday (Friday) around 4:30, RT said he was feeling better and why don’t we make a quick trip to Georgia to visit my mother and his mother.  Fifteen minutes later we were packed and on our way to the airport.  By 6:00 we were rolling down the runway - arriving at the small airport in my mother’s hometown in Georgia.  Two of my sisters were there to meet us.  We got to visit with my mother and two sisters - sitting up way too late talking.

(3) Then this morning we woke up, visited with my mother a little longer, then hopped back on the plane and flew another hour to RT’s mother’s hometown where we rented a car and drove the 30 minutes to her house where we have an absolutely scrumptious Thanksgiving dinner.

(4) Then, because the weather forecast predicted a storm all day Sunday - starting Saturday afternoon, we headed back to the airport and flew back home — arriving back at our hometown airport a little under 24 hours from when we’d left yesterday.  A totally wonderful 24 hours - except for RT not feeling well - but he is already feeling much better and is happy we went since he wasn’t contagious and he got to visit everyone.

(5) For plates of wonderful food to bring home from my mother-in-law - homemmade cornbread dressing, sweet potato souffle, real mashed potatoes, creamed corn, from-scratch cake with caramel frosting, homemade lemon cream pie and homemade pecan pie.

(6) For having such LARGE plates of wonderful food that when we stopped by our son’s house to pick up our dog, Jake, and our son’s eye lit up at the mention of his grandmother’s cornbread dressing and sweet potato souffle, we had enough to leave a plate with them.

(7) For having families that welcome us with open arms - even when we visit on the spur of the moment.  Family is wonderful, and I am enormously thankful for mine.

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For the week of July 8 - 14

This past week has been a big one is many ways in terms of the building of our new house - and in other areas, too.  Here are seven important events from last week:

(1) July 12th was RT’s 60th birthday. We celebrated with a dinner at our house for our two children, their spouses, and the two grandgirls.  We had a wonderful time together.   Sweet Stuff wrote a card for RT, and during dinner Sunshine got up and walked over to RT and just hugged him.  No prompting - just a spontaneous show of affection.

(2) The cabinets are almost finished in the house - may very well be finished before today (Saturday) is over.

(3)  I THINK we have finally found a satisfactory painter for our house - which means that our move-in date is getting closer.

(4) The flooring folks completely finished the hardwood floors two days ago.  RT and I have tentatively picked out the carpeting and tile for the rooms that won’t have hardwood floors.

(5) The paving company framed out the patio, sidewalks, parking area and driveway this past week.  They will pour the concrete on the patio and sidewalks on Monday.

(6) The landscaping will be done next week.  Once the landscaping is done, the driveway will be poured.  Our son’s landscaping company will do the landscaping - and he has some great plans for our yard.

(7) On Tuesday I went to my new school with Sweet Stuff to give her a reading assessment so a new teacher could learn how to do the assessment.  Afterwards Sweet Stuff and I had lunch together.  It was so much fun.  Then on Wednesday I had lunch with Sunshine.

All in all - it was a very good week.

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This Father’s Day I’m thankful for the fathers in my life:

(1) For my own father whose life was an example of how to live

(2) For my husband, the father of our two children, for being such a strong and loving father

(3) For my son-in-law - for being such a loving father for my two grandgirls and a good husband to my daughter

(4) For my father-in-law, who has been gone even longer than my father, but whose last words (that I heard) were sweet ones to my children as we left his bedside: “Bye, bye, sugar-pie.”

(5) For my two brothers who are wonderful fathers.  My youngest brother visited me on Friday, and it was so pleasant to be able to take a walk with him and then sit and talk with him for awhile before he continued his business trip.

(6) My grandfather - Daddy Shaw - my father’s father who owned a barbershop where we always hurried whenever we  visited.

(7) My mother’s father - who I never knew since he died when my mother was 9 years old - but who influenced me through my mother.

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A weekly meme for giving thanks and/or for noting important events in our lives.

1. I am thankful that Sweet Stuff’s teacher noticed she was having a hard time reading small print. Sweet Stuff had her eyes checked just a few weeks ago at her 6-year check-up, and the results were “borderline.”  Wednesday my daughter had her re-checked by an eye doctor (who happens to be my son’s good childhood friend!) and he found that Sweet Stuff has trouble focusing on things close-up.  She got reading glasses.  Pink, of course with a hot pink carrying case.

(2) I’m thankful my beautiful daughter-in-law got her nursing degree this weekend.

(3) I’m thankful that RT and I were able to enjoy all the festivities surrounding Mia’s graduation and pinning ceremony.  She has worked so hard for a long time to reach this milestone.

(4) I’m thankful that I got a LOT of work done at school.  I have to give many, MANY reading tests the last few weeks of school each year, and I have already got lots of them done.  The bonus is that so many of the children are making such remarkable gains in reading.  I’m so proud of them.

(5) This was a milestone week in our housebuilding efforts, too.  The bricking was finished, the septic system was finished and approved by the county, the prewiring for the alarm system was installed, the porch ceilings were completed, and the electricity up to the house was approved.

(6) Monday the porches will be “poured”.  We’re having concrete porches - both front and back.  The porch posts will also be installed next week.

(7) We got an email from my nephew who is serving in Baghdad, and he is okay although he sounded really homesick and tired of the war.  I mentioned the email to our pastor, and our church is going to start a campaign to gather things to send boxes to troops overseas.

If you would like to join the SUNDAY SEVEN meme or blogroll, please visit the SUNDAY SEVEN HUB to find information.

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A weekly meme for giving thanks and/or for noting important events in our lives.

1.  I am thankful for my husband and how much fun we have together.

2.  I am thankful for my church and the wonderfully meaningful Seder meal we had on Thursday evening.

3.  I am thankful that we have doctors who can help us and give us medicine that makes things like poison ivy a little easier to bear.

4.  I am thankful I got the job I interviewed for on Monday.  I am so excited about it!

5.  I am thankful for the joy of building a new home and selecting the brick and the cabinets and the tubs and all the different things that will make up that house.

6.  I’m thankful that tomorrow both my children and their spouses along with my two grandgirls will go to church with us and then have Easter dinner with us afterwards.

7.  I am thankful that we will have an Easter egg hunt with the grandgirls tomorrow.

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SUNDAY SEVEN is a weekly meme for giving thanks or for noting important events in our lives.

For more information or if you’d like to join, click HERE .

Sunday Seven - Edition #8

1.  I am thankful my youngest sister, Beth, is out of the hospital and feeling better.

2.  I am thankful for my older brother, Terry, who had a birthday on Thursday - thankful that I could drive to GA to help with the celebration.

3.  I am thankful for my younger sister, Debi, who is handling a lot in her life right now - thankful that she is so giving to others.

4.  I am thankful for my younger brother, David, who will be the father of the bride in just a few weeks - thankful that I have the opportunity to help plan a family bridal shower for my niece.

5.  I am thankful for my older sister, Joan, who is dealing with “crazy Charlie” too often these days - thankful that she lives close enough for me to visit anytime I’m in GA visiting my mother.

6.  I am thankful for my older sistest, Janice, who always replies to email so quickly - thankful that even though we don’t see each other often because we live so far apart, we still can communicate easily via email.

7.  I am thankful for my mother who I was able to visit for a couple days this week - thankful that she is doing well and does many good things for others.

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