I'm Thankful For . . .

First of all of course, I'm thankful for my husband every single day.

All you have to do is read a newspaper, watch the news on TV or online and you know simply the fact that I have a warm comfortable home in a peaceful, beautiful location puts me way ahead of probably the majority of people in the whole world. When I look at it that way, dusting and vacuuming don't really present such a chore.

For all the complaining I do about my COPD and arthritis, in general I'm in pretty good health for my age and I'm very grateful for that. I can do almost anything I want to do and the exceptions aren't really important.

Since I don't have family of my own, I'm thankful for Dave's family who I love like my own. His cousin in Rome, for instance, who sends me messages and pictures on FB or email. We are both quite opinionated about politics and have great discussions about Italian and U.S. politicians. The rest of his family is in Ireland and Maine, and we just got the happy news that there is another one on the way. The expectant parents will be excellent parents.

I'm thankful for my friends. I don't make friends easily and have few close friends but the ones I have are valued beyond saying. I'm also thankful for my book blogger friends. Only one of my local friends loves books as I do, so my book blogger friends fill that big hole. I learn from them, get support from them, and enjoy our discussions about the world of books.

The last thing I'll mention, though there are many more, is how thankful I am for memories. Dave and I have made wonderful memories through our 36 years together. Laughing at funny memories has gotten us through many a tough day, and remembering particularly sweet things he has done and said have gotten me through many a tough time.

I hope you have a long list of people and things to be thankful for too on this day when we take time to think about being thankful.

I'm Thankful for So Many Things

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I've been thinking about the blessings in my life. It's been a very hard year for Dave and me but still we have so many things to be thankful for.

First, I'm thankful for my husband Dave. I didn't meet him until I was 34 and now we've been together for 34 years. When I met him, I had pretty much given up on finding the person meant especially for me. I'm from Illinois and he's from Maine, but fortunately I moved to Maine, signed up for classes at the local community college, and there he was. All these years later I still wake up every day thanking my lucky stars that we have each other.

I'm thankful for our home. We live in a rural area of PA in a house built in 1861 on 16 1/4 acres of beautiful land. We have a wonderful view of a mountain valley and the sunsets here are heart-stopping gorgeous. Dave's business is 30 yards from the house and I'm retired so we're together all the time which suits us very well.

I'm thankful for the wonderful memories we have of trips, people we've met or funny things we've seen people do, restoring a little house in NJ ourselves many years ago when we were known by our neighbor as Bozo Construction Co., family, and events we have attended. We miss our parents terribly but have such great memories since we were both blessed with the best parents you could hope to have.

I'm thankful for wildlife and the neighbors' dogs. I love animals and since we don't have pets, I love watching deer, foxes, birds, even woodchucks who dig holes in our yard. And I can spoil the neighbors' dogs when they come to swim in our pond. We have bears in the area, though I've never been lucky enough to see one, and reliable sightings of mountain lions nearby.

Another thing I'm thankful for will probably sound funny: college football and basketball. I've always believed it's illegal to grow up in Illinois as I did unless you love basketball. However, professional basketball isn't a team sport anymore - just me, me, me - so I only like to watch college teams. We have season tickets to Binghamton Univ. basketball and this year isn't so great for them but I look forward to every game.

I'm also thankful for the book bloggers I've discovered from all over the world, books, time to read, and old friends. I have a much better life than I sometimes remember.

So near the end of a difficult year