Gratitude

We have no right to ask when a sorrow comes, "Why did this happen to me?" unless we ask the same question for every joy that comes our way. - Author unknown

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. -Thornton Wilder

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. - G. K. Chesterton

Thanksgiving is such a great holiday. I love that we have a special day eat good food AND practice gratitude.

Here are some of the things I am grateful for:

That is just the very short list. I am so blessed and I have so much for which to be grateful. 

My wish is that we can all be grateful today and always.

Feel free to shout out what YOU are grateful for!

I have a GREAT dad

In case you weren't aware, my dad is pretty awesome.  Here are some pictures to prove it.

Hanging with the kids Dad (That's little baby Ephraim)

 

Big dad and bigger dinosaur.

Vernal Temple Dad (My dad was baptized here when it was still the Vernal Tabernacle)

Stegosaurus dad

Good Grandpa Dad

Silly Dad

Little Brother Dad

Cool Sunglasses Dad

Relaxing at home Dad

I just got a cool present Dad

Best Dad there is Dad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for all you've done for me, all you've taught me and all that you are!  Happy Birthday! 

How to make dogs eat their veggies

1) Make them think it is a treat.
2) And make them work for it.







In reality, I don't have to do either. For some odd reason, they both LOVE carrots. Along with hibiscus leaves and fig leaves and grass... Go figure.

In bird news, two days ago I was adding golf balls to the chickens' nest boxes because I read somewhere that sometimes they need a hint about where to lay their eggs. But wait, what is that?... two little eggs were already in the nest box! I don't know which chicken it is yet, but since then, she has been two for two. So now we have four tiny adorable, slightly pink eggs :

First day, compared to a large egg.

All four!

 Thank goodness for animals that actually earn their keep. Everyone else just sits around and consumes resources.

Happy Halloween!

I have always liked the month of October. What better way to end it than with such a cool holiday!

It was fun carving pumpkins with you Mark and Jill!

Don't try this at home.

Working hard begets hard work

Last year when my parents came out, somehow we convinced them to spend four days of back breaking work to lay our wood floor. It is beautiful, and we are very grateful to them.

Unfortunately for them, they didn't learn their lesson. When they foolishly came out to Illinois this time, we put them to work again, building us a front patio and flowerbed. I am very happy with the results and very thankful to my dad, who never complains about hard work and never has his whole life I am convinced. I am also grateful to my mom, who also worked very hard helping with the patio and raking the leaves (although I kept trying to convince her that the leaves on our lawn were a very small percentage of the biomass that was about to fall on our lawn from the sycamore tree in about a week but she replied with "well it is that much more you won't have to rake up." Can't argue with that logic.) She also bought the beautiful mums, which make me happy every time I see them. I want to take them to a taxidermist to preserve when they die I love them so much.

Ruben's mini-me

warty

THANK YOU!

the Parents and the parents

Let me introduce the parents:

And the Parents:

The parents spent the weekend with the Parents and everyone had a lovely time.

This picture sums it up:

warty

Here are some highlights:

The BEAN. Aka cloud gate. Whatever. I like the bean better. This is a good place to note that we also walked down the Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago, and my mother, still recovering from chemo, out-walked all of us. We couldn't keep up with her!

Little Poland! I stocked up on Inka!!! (This is my dad getting a scent of śledź - a true Polish delicacy.) 

The Art Institute of Chicago (free on Thursday nights! Woo hoo.) Why is it that the only picture my husband took there was of a dead head and a pluck? I don't understand that man.

There were some moments of deja vu...

(see American Gothic above. Which one do you like better?)
And we learned some disturbing things...

Alex saw some disturbing things...

Basically, there was lots of squash.

I love squash. I was in heaven.

There were some risqué moments

some fingers...

And a lot of good food.

I am so glad you visited mom and dad!!!