Saturday, November 02, 2019

Let's Be Thankful

November is the month of giving thanks.  Shouldn't we try to focus on being thankful every day?  One way I do that is to post here on my blog every Friday what are my Friday Fave Fives. (Yeah, I know it's Saturday, but Friday was a bit crazy here at Willow's Cottage.)

1.  Lately, our lives have been focused around keeping the house clean and show ready and then not messing it up.  This necessitates many hours of sitting around reading and knitting (reading for both of us and knitting for me).  It also means spending chunks of time away from the house.  That means hanging at someone else's house or at a public spot.  This week I had a morning of wonderful tea and conversation with a friend.  We share so much in common with our love of various arts.  She paints and sketches.  So she gave me a two minute lesson in how to begin sketching.  I told her, "Pretend you are talking to your grandson Z.  How would you explain the first steps to him?"  So she did, and I got it.  Now I have an assignment to do this week.  I love these conversations.

2.  We also had BYOD with our friends this week. BYOD is Bring Your Own Dinner.  We met at their house and no one had to cook.  We just sat in their 'three season room' and ate and chatted for HOURS.  Their power had been turned off for two days, so they were just thankful that they had electricity again.  I'm so glad we had that time together...

3.  About that power outage.  Many people we know in our area have been without electricity due to the incredibly strong winds and concerns about fires.  Fires?  Yes, There have been two fires in our county this week.  One of the fires burned up to the parking lot of the Ronald Reagan Library (north east of us).  The other is still burning north of us.  We watched it burning Wednesday night.  I'm thankful that we have not had to evacuate from our home and that we have had uninterrupted electric power.  Maria Fire about one hour after it started:


4.  Another thing I'm thankful for is that list of things to take when you have to evacuate.  We've been checking it and making sure we are ready.  From our county fire department website:



5.  And of course in the midst of all this, life continues on.  PAL's mom sent me this photo of her after Trick or Treating in her neighborhood on Halloween Night. "Captain Marvel" brings us so much joy every day, even from a distance.


So that was my week.  Yes, I still have to photograph my knitting and weaving and post some pictures.  I hope to do that by Monday.  In the meantime, Let's Be Thankful!

7 comments:

ellen b. said...

Those fires, too close for comfort. I'm glad you are safe. It is quite sobering to have a go list for evacuation. It's so good to be able to see our loved ones in an instant with the good ole internets! Hang in there with the being on notice for house viewings...

Karen said...

Between the fires and showing your house, you must feel on the edge of your seat all the time. We've been watching the news, and saddened at how much damage has been done. And so close to the Reagan library! My friend is in Sonoma Valley and was evacuated for several days. Mother Nature is a force to be reckoned with. Such a cute Captain Marvel! My she is growing up so fast.

Faith said...

Those fires!! I watch the news and pray for the people of CA. It's so sad. that's quite a list! I should do that just in case we ever need to leave our home but we don't get that kind of devastation here. but it's a great list....actually most of those things are in a fire security box we keep hidden in an area of our home. we would probably just grab that plus our car keys and purse.

How fun to have a BYOD...i did that for my kick off small group meeting in Sept. So fun!
Tea and good conversation and learning to sketch....are you going to show a pic of your homework??

I hope and pray your house sells soon. Housing costs are very high here in eastern NY. they are a lot lower in central NY.

happy weekend!

Wendy said...

We have seen the fires on the news here in the UK. I'm glad you're safe but it must be scary but I'm sure you are well prepared. Yes selling a house can be a pain. I hope the process doesn't drag on too long.

Barbara Harper said...

Yikes! I hope those fires die down soon. That evacuation list is a great resource, but I hope you don't have to use it. It's fun to see what kids dress up as for Halloween!

Susan @ FruitfulWords said...

So glad to hear the fires haven’t disturbed your house or caused electricity cut off, I hope it hasn’t affected your health, either. A lot of folks In my area have had breathing issues and burning eyes. Unfortunately, I am one of those folks.
Your captain marvel is adorable and getting so big.
I love your BYOD dates with your friends. I really want to try that.
That’s wonderful that you have artistic friends to connect with. What kind of assignment did you do after your first sketching lesson?
Stay safe and I’m praying that your home sells soon.

Jocelyn said...

We've been keeping a weather eye out down here, as well. I am glad to hear that you have been able to duck the fires so far (and I'm hoping that we're done with the worst of the Santa Anas for this year!). I wish I had a child's-level sketching lesson - that sounds so useful :) And thank you for the BYOD idea. It reminds me of a thing I used to do each month, where I made a huge pot of soup and had some bread and a bottle of wine, and told folks to come on over and bring anything else they might want with them and we could all hang out. It was very low-pressure and easy and a wonderful way to spend time with people without fuss.