Thankfulness Journal - Day 6

This morning I started my day by eating breakfast on the back porch while I let Oliver have a little yard time before I went to work. I was treated by a beautiful sunrise that I would have probably missed in my busyness to get ready for work--had it not been for a puppy who isn't quite housebroken yet! So I guess I am thankful for a weak bladder today! But I am thankful for a calm day enabling me to not only accomplish a lot of tasks at church but have time for some chit chat, both phone and in the office. The third grade teacher, Jolene Muckerman and I both share a love for cups of tea and she almost always comes in at least once a day to fix us each a cup. Today she had a little time to sit and chat while we sipped and, of course, since it is a school and she is a teacher our conversation went to students. That led me to reminisce about my own elementary school days, a mediocre time in my life to say the least. I remembered that I didn't test well, I guess just getting nervous and freezing up. But I apparently did well on standardized tests they gave every year. I still remember being relieved when the teacher would stand in front of the class, explaining the test and that it wouldn't count and just do your best. Apparently with the pressure of it "counting" off, I could relax and just show what I actually knew. But when my mother would have a conference with the teacher, she would explain to my mom that I wasn't "working up to my potential". I guess because my performance didn't match my test scores. My mother would then come home and admonish me to try harder and work up to my potential. I had no idea what that meant and thought I was working as hard as I could--it was a vicious cycle! I didn't hit my stride until college when I finally starting excelling in my studies--I guess because it was something I wanted to learn and I had a goal in sight. The other memory I had today was another time my mother had a conference with my 2nd grade teacher. The teacher informed my mom that I was a good reader, but had trouble "reading between the lines". So my mother dutifully came home and repeated this to me. I got out my reading book and closely examined the pages but never could find anything but blank space between the lines of print!

Today I am thankful for:

• God creating beautiful sunrises just to give us joy
• friends to laugh with
• friends to work with
• a dad that is a joy to be with
• a caring person to take care of Dad when I can't (he is getting so forgetful that he doesn't remember taking his meds only minutes after taking them--we have to really closely monitor that and have removed his meds from his room so that he doesn't accidently take the wrong medication (which he did several days ago). Deneen seems just as concerned and diligent about this as we are and I am especially thankful for that
• that Dad was finally able to see the farmer across the street harvest his soybeans last night. We missed it last year and Dad has been looking every day to see when he would come with his machine to do it. We had a joyful time just sitting on the front porch watching the farmer work his way back and forth through the field--it was amazing actually! Simple joys are so often the best.