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

Sunday Seven - March 17th & 18th

Heritage Edition

Since this weekend starts off with St. Patrick’s Day, my SUNDAY SEVEN lists seven parts of my heritage for which I am thankful.

(1) I have a little Irish in my background, and I’m thankful for that - along with the German and Scottish and who-knows-what-else. 

(2) My family has always had an appreciation for music.  I’m not musically talented.  However, there are others in my family with phenomenal musical abilities.

(3) My family has always valued education.  Out of my seven siblings, we all went beyond high school.  Most of us have a Masters degree in our chosen field.

(4) My family has always stressed integrity over “success.” The true measure of a person is WHO they are inside - not their position in society.

(5) My family has always place God first.  My father was a Methodist minister, and my mother is a minister now.  The church is an integral part of our lives.

(6) My family values fun.  When we get together there is always a lot of talking and laughing.  We have a good time together.

(7) Family is a priority.  Every single day I thank God for my family - my husband, my children and their spouses, my grandgirls, my mother, my siblings and their families.  When we all get together we number well above 50 - and it’s wonderful.

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

1.  I am thankful for this beautiful spring weather - I love it! Flowers are starting to bloom, trees are beginning to bud, and the sun is shining. My absolute favorite time of year.

2.  I was able to go over to the land and take a walk almost every day this past week.  There is something so relaxing and walking through the woods.  There’s a path for only part of the way.  The rest of the time, I had to pick my way through the trees and light underbrush.

3.  The grandgirls are going to spend tonight with us.  It’s been a month or so since they spent the night.  So it’ll be fun to be with them.  And that’ll give their mommy and daddy a chance to go out to dinner and movie and have a nice relaxing evening alone.

4.  The grandgirls will also go to church with us tomorrow.  That’s always fun because the other church members always make a fuss over them.

5.  One of the men in the church called and said that they had cleaned the church after their prayer breakfast this morning.  That saves me the hour I usually spend cleaning the church each Saturday.  Yea!

6.  RT is doing such a phenomenal job of getting our house built.  He has stayed right on top of everything, and it looks like the house will be finished around mid-June.  WOW!

7.  Everybody in the family seems to be over their colds and strep throat.  YEA for good health!

Seven Things I Like About Our Church

1.  Pastor Tom - He’s a good preacher and pastor and friend.  He’s led by God and his preaching is Bible-based.

2. Monthly Covered Dish Lunches- Once a month, we have a covered dish lunch after the Sunday service.  It’s fun to visit with everyone and share food.

3.  The Sanctuary - It’s an old church - small - registered as a historic site.  It is beautiful.

4.  Holy Communion the first Sunday of each month

5.  Edna Mae, Willie, Cherry Lane and Betty - Some of the ladies in the church who always go out of their way to greet us and talk to us about whatever is going on.  They are also fantastic cooks, and I’m hoping they’ll help me with some canning next summer.

6.  Joyce, Pastor Tom’s wife, who teaches our Sunday School class and also plays the piano.  Her piano-playing and cheerfulness would be enough to make me want to be a part of the church - even without all the other pluses.

7.  We’re fortunate to have many members who are talented with wonderful voices and other musical talents.  That includes both Pastor Tom and Joyce, along with members who are part of nationally known singing groups (We ARE right outside of Nashville - Country Music USA).  So the music at church is phenomenal.

Just a quick FYI - in case you’re interested.  The “charter” period for the SUNDAY SEVEN meme will be over at the end of February.  Click HERE to find out information about the meme and the benefits of being a charter member.

The Sunday Seven is a weekly meme for giving thanks and/or for noting important events in our lives.  It’s a way of ending one week and beginning the next week with thanks. 

I don’t believe I’ve ever seen an official definition of the word “meme.”  It’s one of those words that you see so often that you know the general meaning of it.  However, in the past twenty-four hours, I’ve heard the word pronounced two different ways:  “me-me”, and  “mim.”

So, I looked it up.  Both the pronunications I heard before were wrong.  The correct pronunciation rhymes with the word “theme.”  Long e in the middle - silent e at the end - “meem”.

The official definition is:

A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.

It comes from the Greek word “mimos” which means “mimic.”  And that really explains the use of the term “meme” in speaking of practices such as Thursday Thirteen, and Sunday Seven.  They’re definitely cultural information that is transmitted online repeatedly from one person to another.

Whew!  I always like to get things straight. 

1.  I’m thankful the presentation I had to do this past Monday is OVER!  It turned out fine, and the evaluations that the teachers did on the session were almost all positive.  

2.  The plumbers finished their work on our new house - for now.  There will be more to do a little further along.  The electricians will finish their work next week.

3.  The fireplace was put in the house on Friday.  It’s a wood-burning “stove” but it looks like a fireplace.  It is really beautiful, and I can envision the many evenings we will spend relaxing in front of that fireplace.

4.  I am thankful that my son-in-law came through his minor surgery just fine and is now recuperating and feeling better.

5.  I’m glad that Sunshine is over the croup.  She had a pretty bad cough there for a couple days.

6.  I’m thankful that my job is flexible enough that I was able to stay home with Sunshine on Thursday so her mommy could be with her daddy when he had his operation.  What a special time of being with both Sunshine and Sweet Stuff.  It was fun driving Sweet Stuff to school Thursday morning and watching her walk so confidently into that building!

7.  I’m thankful my mother had a good birthday on Monday and that most of my siblings were able to be with her on her birthday.  I hope I get to visit her within the next couple weeks.

Seven Things I’m Thankful For This Week

(1) Wednesday evening (Valentine’s Day), RT and I visited our daughter, son-in-law and the grandgirls for a little while.  We took the girls balloons and valentines and stickers.  We were only there for about 20 minutes, but it was so much fun.  It is enormously satisfying to have the girls be so thrilled to see us and to shower us with hugs and kisses and excitement.

(2) We had a snow day on Thursday, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.  I had so much I needed to do, and the snow day gave me the time to take care of a few non-school related chores.  As a bonus, it was a total surprise.

(3) I have my PowerPoint presentation finished for the meeting on Monday.  I’m not nearly as nervous about doing that presentation as I thought I would be.  Speaking in front of a large group is definitely NOT in my comfort zone.  However, I also KNOW that one of the things I’ll be thankful for next week is having that presentation behind me.  It’ll be one of those experiences that is not enjoyable but will be good to have done.

(4) I’m thankful the house is coming along so well.  The plumbing is almost finished, and the electrician will start next week with the wiring inside the house.  The electric company should put up the lines next week, too.

(5)  RT gave me a bouquet of beautiful red roses for Valentine’s Day.  They’re so pretty - and they smell wonderful.

(6) Tuesday evening we went to the sushi place I mentioned in an earlier post, and it was really good.  I’m still surprised that I found a type of sushi that I like.

(7) My mother’s birthday is Monday.  I am so thankful for my mother because she is the rock of our family and an inspiration for my siblings and me.  I hope to visit her within a few weeks.

Seven Things I’m Particularly Thankful For This Weekend

Since I’ve been sick with strep throat the past few days, I’ve realized that there are some things that really make a difference for someone who is sick.  Here are the things and people that made a positive difference for me this past week:

(1) Penicillin - Friday morning I felt like I’d been run over by a truck.  After spending over an hour in the doctor’s office (They wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to share my strep germs with everyone else in the waiting room) I finally got a shot of penicillin around 10:30.  By the time I went to bed Friday night I was feeling noticeably better.  Miraculous stuff!  Saturday morning - even better.

(2) RT - He has really pampered me while I’ve been sick.  He has brought me breakfast in bed the past two mornings,  built a fire in the fireplace and tucked blankets around my feet as I sat in the recliner. 

(3) Sweet Stuff - Friday afternoon when she found out that I had strep, she called to talk to me and gave me some seriously tender sympathy.

(4) Sunshine - Who hates getting shots, and upon learning that I got a shot yesterday, she also gave me some seriously tender sympathy.

(5) Stinkeroo - Who called each day to check on me and offered to drive me to the doctor and do whatever she could for me.

(6) Ice Cream - It just feels SO good on a sore throat (and tastes good, too)

(7)  Homemade chicken soup - I made a pot of chicken rice soup yesterday afternoon - and it is SO good.  Hot, healthful, and hearty.  RT and I had some for dinner last night and will eat it for lunch and dinner today, too.

The Sunday Seven meme begins this weekend!  You can go to our very own SUNDAY SEVEN blog where you will leave the URL of your Sunday Seven each weekend.  All of us Sunday Seveners will visit each other and support each other in giving thanks each weekend.

Within a few days we’ll have graphics for you to use with your Sunday Seven each week. We’ll get a blogroll going, too. Give us a couple weeks to get everything in place. In the meantime, though, join in the fun with this week’s SUNDAY SEVEN and visit the other Sunday Seveners.

The purpose of SUNDAY SEVEN is to write about seven things we’re thankful for each week. It will help us to be aware of the positive things in our lives, and it will help us to share those positive things with each other.

So here is my first SUNDAY SEVEN

7 Things I’m Thankful for this week
(1) That progress on our house is going so smoothly. I still get goose bumps just driving up the driveway and seeing the house - just a few weeks ago, there was nothing but woods there.

(2) That we finished figuring out the window order for our new house. Who would have guessed that ordering windows would be such a major ordeal?

(3) That I had TWO DAYS off work because of snow this pas week. I LOVE snow days!

(4) That so far I’ve managed to not get the flu - despite not getting a shot this year and despite the fact that lots of kids at school have had it.

(5) That I just finished walking the trail that RT made through part of the land.

(6) That our son came over and asked me to make him something to eat because he was STARVING!  And I was able to fix him some sandwiches and he ate a couple of clementines, too. 

(7) That RT and I will eat dinner with our daughter, son-in-law and the two grandgirls in just thirty minutes.  We’re meeting at the sushi place I wrote about a couple weeks ago.

This past week has been a busy one.  Here are seven highlights:

1.  The framers are starting on the second floor of the new house.  It is AMAZING, after looking at the house plans for months and knowing every little detail, to finally see the actual house taking shape.

2.  The rough-out of the stairway is complete, and I have walked up the stairs several times to look at the view.  It’s incredible.  The house is being built on top of a hill - the river is visible out the back, and the winding driveway to the front.  There are woods all around.

3.  My principal asked me to present some information to the faculty at the faculty meeting - a very last minute request.  My daughter and son-in-law got a store-birthday cake instead of a homemade one for their joint birthday family dinner Thursday night, but I got a halfway decent presentation together with only a few hours’ notice.

4.  My daughter called last night, and Sunshine has another ear infection.  She said Sunshine REALLY wanted to talk to me.  That by itself thrilled me.  So I asked Sunshine how she was feeling, and in a pitiful  little voice, she said, “My ear hurts.”  We promised to bring her some ice cream today.  When they were visiting this past Thursday, Sunshine climbed into my lamp and wrapped her arms around me and just cuddled for awhile.

5.  RT fixed my breakfast for me several mornings this past week - a whole wheat bagel (8 grams fiber) with a slice of low-fat cheese and a couple slices bacon (OK, the bacon wasn’t healthy, but it sure tasted good!).  I like to wrap my morning bagel in a paper towel and then munch on it as I drive to work.  RT had it waiting for me - wrapped and ready - as I left each morning.  Isn’t that sweet?

6.  RT and I spent a good chunk of Saturday driving around looking at brick.  We had each picked out different bricks from samples at the “brick store”, but when we saw them both on actual houses, we didn’t like either one.  The one I liked looked “speckled” and the one RT liked looked drab.  However, we were happy that we liked the same brick when we looked at finished houses.  We like a reddish-brown color with a more uniform look - and with a cream/tan colored mortar.  No white or very dark mortar.  Considering how important the brick is to the look of a house, we felt the day was well spent.

7.  RT took the Bobcat (skid-steer) that he had rented last weekend and went over the hiking path we had set out last year.  We walked over it yesterday, and it is perfect.  We’re going to put walking/riding paths all through the 90 acres.  There’s a tree service who is thrilled to let us have their woodchips.  So we’ll line the paths with woodchips, and we will have outstanding paths to enjoy.