{"id":1000,"date":"2015-08-07T07:10:36","date_gmt":"2015-08-07T14:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/?p=1000"},"modified":"2015-08-07T07:10:36","modified_gmt":"2015-08-07T14:10:36","slug":"count-your-blessings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/2015\/08\/07\/count-your-blessings\/","title":{"rendered":"Count Your Blessings"},"content":{"rendered":"

I woke up in a funk this morning. \u00a0That first cup of coffee didn\u2019t snap me out of it and neither did the puppy chewing on my newly polished toes. \u00a0So when I went to the lower forty to lay down my 10 K steps, I decided to develop an attitude of gratitude. \u00a0And the first song that came to mind was this one:<\/span><\/p>\n

When upon life\u2019s billows you are tempest-tossed,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In counting my blessing, I\u2019ll start with Bill. \u00a0When I say \u201cwe\u2019re walking,\u201d you might imagine us strolling hand-in-hand in a leisurely, romantic fashion. \u00a0Not! \u00a0I am tall\u2014six-one. \u00a0Bill is more like five-eight. \u00a0He\u2019s tall from the butt up, but not from the butt down. \u00a0We determined years ago that Mother Nature had left at least six inches off his thighs which means that our strides don\u2019t exactly blend. \u00a0We march around the various paths in the garden, meeting up periodically for a wave or a word or two\u2014a dog poop alert, for example. \u00a0Mostly we walk with our minds focused on walking, but for sure we are both walking. \u00a0At age 75, I can tell you that Bill is doing more walking than at any time in his life. \u00a0Does his back hurt? \u00a0Yes, but less than it used to. \u00a0Much to our surprise walking is HELPING his back.<\/span><\/p>\n

I know Bill’s focus is on his health right now is as much for me as it is for him, and vice versa. \u00a0In other words, walking is a blessing as are our twice weekly visits from our personal trainer.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m grateful for kids and grandkids who come over to swim and have fun. \u00a0I\u2019m glad to have a home where they know they\u2019re welcome.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad to have puppies in our lives. \u00a0When Bella and Jojo finally get too bored with our walking in endless circles without actually going anywhere, they take off and play tag. \u00a0It turns out Jojo can run backwards in a circle faster than Bella can run full-tilt forward. \u00a0Watching them play is fun.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year we\u2019ve spent two hours a day in the garden, and we\u2019ve enjoyed it in a way we just never did sitting on the porch.<\/span><\/p>\n

My walking route takes me around the fishpond and over the fishpond bridge. I\u2019ve really enjoyed seeing the fish more and being blasted by the heron blaster less, because it turns out we don\u2019t have any heron blasters this year. \u00a0We don\u2019t need them. \u00a0For Mother\u2019s Day, my daughter and grandson gave me a high-powered Nerf gun that shoots whistling bullets. \u00a0Shortly thereafter, Mr. Heron arrived on the scene. \u00a0I shot one of my whistling bullets over the top of the pool house and managed to land it on the same patch of grass where Mr. Heron happened to be sitting. \u00a0He hasn\u2019t been back, and the fish are thriving, including our wily \u2018Big Guy\u2019 who is turning five this summer. \u00a0When I\u2019m counting my blessings, I need to remember to count that Nerf gun.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve enjoyed watching the flowers come and go. \u00a0When the wisteria first bloomed last spring, it was lavender on bare branches. \u00a0It\u2019s blooming again right now, but only a few lavender blooms on lush green branches. The hydrangea has faded away now, but there are masses of black-eyed-susans lining the top of the driveway. \u00a0I loved how the red blooms of the crocosina draped over the rocks surrounding the fish ponds and reflected back on the water. \u00a0And the new growth on the photinia is bright red and reaching for the sky. \u00a0Dahlias are coming on, big ones and little ones, and the newly planted hosta are losing their blooms, too, but not their variegated green leaves.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s one clump of daisies growing by one of the verse-inscribed boulders. \u00a0There are only a few left on it now, but I always gave bouquets of daisies to my mother on Mother\u2019s Day. \u00a0So when I march past that corner of the yard. \u00a0I think of her. \u00a0Evie Busk was and is, of course, one of the major blessings in my life.<\/span><\/p>\n

And now, having walked and counted my blessings, it\u2019s time to boot the puppy off my shoulder and go fix breakfast. \u00a0Yes, this has definitely been a time to count my blessings.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I think I\u2019m feeling better.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I woke up in a funk this morning. \u00a0That first cup of coffee didn\u2019t snap me out of it and neither did the puppy chewing on my newly polished toes. \u00a0So when I went to the lower forty to lay down my 10 K steps, I decided to develop an attitude of gratitude. \u00a0And the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-health"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-g8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1001,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000\/revisions\/1001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}