Count Your Blessings

Count your blessings count them one by one. Do you remember that little song?

Last week was a week of blessings. Some were big and some were small but blessings all the same. The beginning of last week was pretty uneventful except for Molly, I’ll explain more about that in a minute. And then on Thursday we had the trip to Nashville for the hubs to get additional blood work for the kidney. I mentioned in one of my last posts, he has had some elevated blood levels and the doctors were being cautious and rechecking everything.

You know it is amazing how your mind can go wild with the what ifs. What if this happens and what if that happens. I hate to go there but my mind goes there so fast it would make your head spin. So I have spent the last month in a state of unease about this blood work. I stayed really busy doing things that I could control because this blood work was something that was so out of my control. But no matter how busy I was or how much I tried not to dwell on the upcoming tests I just couldn’t put it out of my mind. I think that is probably a normal reaction anytime you are worried about a loved one. One part of me wanted the tests over and done and then another part worried about what would happen if the outcome was not good. Jesus take the wheel!!!

So on Thursday morning we took off at 5:00 AM for the three and a half hour drive to Nashville. The labs were done fast and before we could turn around we were headed back home. We usually get the results about an hour after the labs are done.

We stopped and ate breakfast. We were both on pins and needles waiting for the results. Finally the results came in and the blood work was normal. WHAT A RELIEF!!! I messaged one of my sisters with the good news and said now I have to go and cry and puke. We felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted off of us. Blessings.

Another blessing this week is about our sweet Molly. At the beginning of the week she was moving so slow I just knew she had had a stroke or something really bad. She would not eat anything for a couple of days. She is a very old girl and I know our time with her is limited. I woke her up last Monday and she would not get up. When I finally did get her on her feet I noticed she was so stiff she could barely move. I helped her down the steps into the garage. I scrambled her some eggs and put in her bowl and she still wouldn’t eat. I went to work and when I came home she was still moving slow. I worried all night and went into her room the next morning preparing myself for the worse. But she jumped right up and trotted outside and even went on the walk with me and Scruffy. Thank you Lord. We were so happy she was back to her old self even if it is for who knows how long. Blessings.

Sometimes we just don’t realize that to be able to go about your day in a way that you may have thought boring at one time is really a blessing in itself. Normalcy can be one of the biggest and greatest blessings of all. Blessings.

I had lunch with the Sisters last week and my good friend Lorie. I also got to visit in person with my Mama in law, and go to an estate sale and do my job and live my life and love my people and appreciate it a million times over. Blessings.

Blessings are all around us, count them, use them, love them, and never forget to be thankful for them.

And always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Do The Next Right Thing

Hello friends how are you? Happy Mother’s Day to everyone out there who is a mother or mother figure to loved ones or fur babies. I know I have been rather quiet over here the last couple of weeks. I always want to keep it real here on my blog without invading any of my loved ones privacy. Recently my husband has had to have his blood work repeated several times. It has been a bit scary. We are not sure what, if anything, is going on at this point. He has had some elevated levels that the doctors are being very careful with and keeping a watchful eye on. We are praying that his body works through this and all levels will return to normal very soon. We should know more in the next week or so.

I guess with any extra anxiety I have always been one to draw within myself and not want to do anything. I am trying to fight that by staying busy and optimistic but anxiety does seem to creep in when I least expect it and sometimes in the most unusual ways. I have missed being here and sharing with you my day to day which in many ways is probably the best outlet I could possibly hope to have. A good friend once gave me some wonderful advice. She said when you are worried or anxious and you feel that there is nothing you can do to control your situation, just do the next right thing. It could be anything from taking out the garbage to making a phone call, paying bills, taking a walk or just something that is “right” for you to do at that moment. So with all of that said I will dive in and tell you about my days. Writing this post is my next right thing to do.

It is Blackberry Winter here in East Tennessee. The blackberries are blooming like crazy. That is not to say we will have blackberries anytime soon. This is only the blooming process and the actual yummy blackberries will not be ready for a month or so. As soon as the blackberries start blooming the temperatures drop and reminds us that cooler temps will linger a little longer. This is usually around the second week of May and falls just in time for Mother’s Day. It was 46 degrees F at my house several mornings this past week.

***Blackberries are blooming everywhere!!!***!

The cool weather hasn’t stopped the yellow coating of pollen blanketing everything. I have never been one to suffer from allergies at this time of year although my poor husband does. But this year I have had a bit of allergy issues. It must be age or something I’m not sure. The lake at our house has had a permanent film of yellow on it for a couple of weeks now.

Last Sunday I finished knitting a pair of socks and immediately started another pair. I got my ball winder out and rolled four balls of yarn. I will probably use two of the balls for socks and one for a scarf and I’m not sure what I will use the other one for.

I visited the Mennonite Farm Market near my house yesterday. They had some beautiful vegetables. And of course they always have those fresh baked cinnamon rolls. I have to buy one every time I go. Yesterday was no exception. The drive to the market is almost as good as the things I find to buy. It is especially beautiful this time of year.

***Lots of luscious vegetables and fruit at the market. I wanted everything.***

***I may have mentioned that the market also has these wonderful, delicious HUGE cinnamon rolls. I always get one when I am there.***

***A beautiful sunrise Friday morning.***

So if you are ever overwhelmed, anxious, scared, nervous etc etc. and don’t know exactly how to manage the next moment just do the next right thing whatever that may be.

And always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

What A Week!!!!

It was back to work today after a long three day weekend. Last week was a bit of a crazy sixty eight day week, well that’s what it seemed like anyway, and I definitely needed the extra time off. I am writing this in a bit of a fog because for some reason this day just kicked my butt. I think a very early night is in order. But first I just wanted to share a bit of last week with you.

***We had some really cool mornings. The temperature a couple of mornings was only about 33 degrees F. A light frost covered a lot of areas. I brought my little tomato plant if for a couple of nights.***

***The days were clear and bright and sunny and just beautiful.***

I told you last week that we had some exciting things going on at work. I work at a tourist attraction that happens to be home of America’s Largest Underground Lake. The Lost Sea. Shameless advertising ahead, http://www.thelostsea.com. Check it out if you get a chance. The lake is located 140 below the ground level and covers 4.5 acres. A cavern tour and boat ride is included in the tour. We have four boats that are used throughout the day. Last Monday we got a new boat. The last time new boats were brought into the cave was about thirty years ago. It is not an easy thing to do. We will be getting two now and two at the end of the year. These are large flat bottomed boats that hold about twenty people each.

Each boat weighs approximately two thousand pounds. They are brought in half at a time. The cave is very narrow and steep going down hill to get to the lake. Each boat half had to be taken in on a huge dolly pulled by a motorized Gator utility vehicle and then a tractor pulling against the weight of the boat to help slow the process. It was scary and exciting to be a part of something that doesn’t happen but about every thirty years. Our crew did an amazing job as well as the company that built the boats.

***It is rather hard to see but if you look closely you can see the Gator in the front pulling the boat and then the tractor in the back slowing the boat as it went down the steep trails.***

With all of the preparations getting the boat delivered and set up and everything I had a couple of really long days.

My Birthday and wedding anniversary was on Wednesday. Mark and I both had to work so we decided to celebrate later in the week. I did have Birthday lunch with the sisters.

I also had lunch with a couple of friends.

I took off an extra day on Friday and got my hair cut. Saturday was rainy and we visited my mother in law at the village.

A fairly lazy weekend which is what I needed after the crazy work week. And just like that it was back to work today.

***Did you know that daisies start out with this little pink bud and even the petals are pink? Daisies are my favorite flower.***

I hope you have a wonderful week. I will end with just a bit of cuteness.

***These two. They fight over the chair and this old afghan I made about twenty five years ago. It looks like they have come to an agreement to share.***

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!!

Rural Living

I started a new category on my blog called Rural Living. I know that we are not as remote as some people are but to us it is pretty remote. I hope you enjoy this new category and the goings on of living in the country. I wanted to share with you how we got to this area.

We live in a very rural area or as my sister calls it “where the sun don’t shine”. But the sun does shine and it is beautiful especially this time of the year. It’s really not that far out or maybe I have just gotten used to it.

We have lived in this area for more than twenty years. I love it now and always for the most part. Well except when the roads are snowy and icy. Luckily that’s not too often. We are about twenty minutes from the nearest small town with a Walmart or any other grocery store. We are about an hour from Knoxville or any other larger cities. We don’t usually just run out and grab a hamburger because it can take almost an hour even if we do drive through. So we plan our trips accordingly. Luckily Mark and I are both homebodies. I have about a twenty five minute commute to work and Mark has about an hour.

How did we get to this area? More than twenty years ago my husband’s dad had bought property on Tellico Lake and built a house there and he loved it!! We loved it too when we went to visit and fish and just hang out. I always thought it was a bit out of the way. Like I said only about twenty minutes from town and about thirty minutes from where we were living at that time, but it seemed longer the first few times we drove it. Mark loved the area and had always said if he couldn’t live on the ocean he would love to have lake front property and build a house. A piece of property came available near my father in law’s house and we checked into it. We were sort of forced to move because highway 322 in Sweetwater, where we lived, literally came through our house. We had to move. We wanted to build a house and we were living in a starter home so we decided to build on the lake. It took almost a year to build our house. We broke ground on June 8th of 1998 and the house was finished in April of 1999. It was thirty minutes from Sweetwater, where we were living. We moved in with my mother in law for the year it took to build our house.

I was skeptical about buying the property it was all wooded and overgrown and it was hard to imagine a house being built there. A lot of the land had to be cleared. It would take a lot of work. I remember the day we went to look at the property. The drive seemed to take forever. I kept throwing out derogatory comments about living in the country. When we got to the property we had to make our way through the woods to get to the lake bank. The wind was blowing. We were being slapped in the face by tree branches as we walked through the thick wooded area. I was trying to imagine a house being in the middle of the woods and looking at this lake view every day but it was a little hard to do. I was very skeptical at this point. Once we got to the lake bank and I was standing there with the wind blowing through the trees and gently lifting my hair I noticed something strange. I couldn’t hear anything like traffic or people or anything!!!! All I could hear was the wind in the trees. It was so peaceful and soothing. That is the moment I was hooked. I was sold.

We bought the property, picked out a house plan and the clearing of the land started. Mark and poppy, my father in law, did a lot of the work. Poppy lived just next door to the property and he was retired so he was able to go to the property every day and check things out. It seemed like it took forever. Especially during the winter months when the builders would stop for weeks at a time to go on a hunting trip. I was livid and threatened to withhold any pay they were owed until they finished. My husband said that would not be a good idea so I didn’t do it.

We finally moved in almost a year later. I got used to planning everything around a twenty minute drive into town instead of five minutes like before. We had no neighbors except poppy. We could only see his house in the winter when there were no leaves on the trees. When we first moved in I longed for the normalcy of being near a lot of people and running out for food or groceries in five minutes. But now I love this place and can’t imagine living anywhere else. Sure someday we may choose to move closer to town but for now we love our little rural area.

I apologize for the photos you will see. Twenty years ago cell phones just aren’t what they are today. Some of these pictures were taken with a 35MM camera with actual film. So many of them are pictures of pictures.