And because I am grateful for a lot of things in my life and don't express it enough.
Where do I start? With my view.
It means I have a house in the suburbs (rented). Which means that we have money to pay for a house.
I also live in a place that is sunny most of the time. And our winters are mild here. Right now it's SOOOOO cold! 43 degrees! (That's, uh, 5 or 6 to those who count in Celsius). As you can see, I have green leaves on my lantana bush. The bush dies back due to frost, but we haven't had that yet. It went below freezing last night, but didn't seem to kill off any of my plants, even the arugula in the flower pot out back. It was a salad mix seed pack and all I got was arugula. BLEAH. I'm thankful that I am rich enough to both garden and reject the food from my garden. Well, I do eat it--I mix a little arugula in with the more normal salad. I moved the butter-something lettuce flower pot indoors. It should only be a few days before we eat it all, because I don't have a sunny spot for it except my work table and neither I nor the cats want to give up that spot to lettuce.
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| Well, who would give up this spot? |
We live close to the greenbelt and get turkeys in our yard every day, along with a variety of smaller birds. And sometimes coyotes and big, huge deer. I don't know the variety. What kind of deer lives wild around here? Something mule deer? Columbian Black-tailed Deer, according to Google. Or maybe Mule Deer, though it sounds like those are up in the foothills. One site mentioned they interbreed. So, you know--deer.
In the first picture is my old blue car. We have a newer one in the garage, too!
The blue car is parked on my driveway instead of the street because the electric company has been digging trenches and replacing cables. I live in a peaceful society with adequate, modern utilities. The garbage can, mailbox, and paved street also attest to this.
Inside my house, I have three kids who are mostly happy and mostly healthy. I also have a husband, who is likewise. They are playing on computers--except the husband, who is asleep because he stayed up late working on his computer. Thankful for computers. Thankful for enough computers for each child, which reduces but doesn't eliminate arguments.
And thankful for education, mine and my kids'. And even when the school-based education system hasn't worked for my middle child, our classes and supplies are funded through the state anyway. And we have enough money for me to stay home and teach him and to drive him to classes.
I have a fluffy old lady cat half asleep on my table in the sun. I have an adolescent cat looking out the window and occasionally batting at the old one because he can't resist pestering her. He's growing up and learning that he'd better not wake her up when she's all the way asleep. That's no fun.
I'm drinking coffee. I ate breakfast, as I do every morning. I'll have lunch later, no question. I'm not the type who forgets to eat. This afternoon/evening, I'll have a huge dinner.
I'll have a huge dinner with friends. I have friends. It's great. I have close friends and a larger circle of friends whom I don't see often and an even larger circle of acquaintances with whom I can talk and laugh at writer's group or while we wait for our kids at various school/sports/social events. I'm an introvert and have a hard time trusting, but I do like most people.
I wish I were closer to my family, but I'm even thankful for that, since I have family and I like them. I'm going to visit my parents in my hometown this summer. My mom is my biggest fan. My brothers and sisters are interesting people, even the ones I haven't seen in years. My dad is pretty much silent, but always provided for us.
I'm thankful for the time and energy to write books. I'm extra thankful for the publisher who is publishing my books. I still have to learn how to do marketing and I still have to figure out how to make people notice my books and buy them and love them and get their friends to buy them. But my editor gives good advice for making my books better, there are a copy editor and line editor who fix the typos (and the non-standard commas), there's a book cover designer who does nice work, there are formatting people who get the book out in all formats, there are publicity people who trumpet our books all around.
By the way, there's a 40% off sale on ebooks from the Wild Rose Press website. Buy mine, of course, if you haven't already.
And I'm thankful for life and safety.
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