Count your blessings, name them one by one…
I’m using Thursday posts to focus on thankfulness — and instead of counting blessings, I’m challenging myself to come up with them alphabetically. (You can find the rest of the posts in this series here.)
I’m barely getting this one in “under the wire” — at the 11th hour and then some! — but here it is…
Welcome to V week!
__________________________
V is for Vacation. Oh, yes, I am thankful for vacations. Aren’t you?
Montana vacation destination
I hadn’t planned to be absent from blogging, but as cliché as it seems, I’ve been really busy. Work comes to mind as the biggest consumer of the time I formerly referred to as “free time.” I’m still wrapping my brain around the fact that I have a regular job after 22 years as a SAHM. Admittedly, some of my time has been spent doing fun things with different groups of ladies: a scrapbooking day (10 hours of nearly non-stop work on my Europe album), a beading & card-making weekend, a women’s retreat with some ladies from church at a beautifully remote and scenic spot in Montana, and a fabulous weekend of sewing and quilting. That all represents 4 out of the past 5 weekends. I know I am blessed. This is a great season in my life!
Morning in Montana
Oct. 20, 2013
Then there was the weekend of mysterious illness (possibly exhaustion) over the only two days I had nothing scheduled on the calendar. I had planned to catch up on blogging (reading & writing); instead, I napped for much of those two days and slept like a log at night. (Do logs sleep? Let’s just pretend that they do.)
This weekend I am venturing off to yet another vacation spot: visiting my dad in Arizona. It won’t be all fun-and-games — I’m going alone and he is in an assisted living facility. As I wrote in September, this trip is about seeing him again before his health declines even more. I am thankful for the addition of my small income from work that allows me to go for a visit.
_________________________________
V is also for Veteran. This coming Monday is Veterans’ Day here in the United States. My younger brother is a Marine veteran of the Gulf War. He has taught his sons great respect for other veterans and I’m sure they will be doing something of service on that day. I am thankful for the many sacrifices that our veterans have made. We owe them much more than we will ever know.
Spokalulu 
Velvet was the first V word that came to mind before I even clicked on the title. Then there are Valor, and Virtue, substances too thinly distributed through the world, which I am always grateful to see evidence of.
Good insights, Mary Anne. Thank you for contributing!
Vacation–what a swell thing. And it’s wonderful that you have the time and resources to spend seeing people you love when they’re far away.
I do enjoy your attitude about the season of life you are in–you seem to appreciate the sweetness in each stage.
There isn’t much that comes to mind when thinking of words that I am thankful for that begin with the letter V … I do love and am Very thankful for the many Vacations my husband makes possible. I have to agree with that Valor and Virtue are qualities sadly missing in our world today. So I will echo her statement.
Well, give our current situation, I have to say I’m thankful for Vascular healing. There’s also the opportunity to Vote.
That vacation spot looks beautiful!
The Vote! Yes, indeed. I might have thought of that, since there were no elections held in my precinct on Tuesday, the first time in my voting life that such a strange thing has occurred. Much more rare than an eclipse.
Wow, Montana is lovely. I would be thankful for Vim and Vigor but I don’t have any today.
I’m thankful for vacations, velvet, my cousin Vicky, my friend, Vicky and that scenery on your blog entry is absolutely gorgeous!
It looks like you are having a terrific time V for me . . . hmmmm, I’m going to hope for a Victory for something on which I am working hard.
Delicate VIOLETS. Hearing VIOLINS, and VIOLAS played well. Hearing many VOICES raised in prayer and song. Ability to be able to VOTE my conscience. Grape VINES (I do enjoy both the grapes and wine) and the other VINES that produce so many good things (I’m thinking zucchini bread). A couple of crystal VASES that bring to mind photos and stories of the two great grandmothers who first used them, the two grandmothers and my Aunt and Mom who passed them on to me.