Count Your Blessings

The hymn "Count Your Blessings" was the song I was singing on the way in to town this morning. It hit me that I hadn't been counting my blessings, but the storms in my life. So I began counting my blessings, and with each one I said, another came to mind. Before I knew it my list of blessings was quite long. I know God laid that song on my heart this morning because I had been feeling really down lately. I realized that all the things that were getting me down were created by me. It was the way I was looking at things. I was seeing so much negative, nothing positive. Counting my blessings brought a smile to my heart. God has blessed me in so many ways--I have a wonderful husband, a fantastic daughter, friends who care about me, and while my body is anything but healthy, He has given me the ability to still do the things I need to do. I can see the beauty of the earth, hear the sounds of nature, talk when I need to, feel the wind on my face. He has given me an intelligent mind. I have a safe and warm house, plenty of food to eat. The list goes on and on. I am truly a blessed child of God.

Down in the Dumps

That's how I have felt this week. I don't know if I am just depressed or if I don't feel well. It's probably a combination of both. I haven't really felt "fine" for several weeks. I don't seem to have much energy and I have no desire to do anything. Hopefully this will pass eventually. I don't like feeling this way and I am sure those I am around don't like it either. Right now I feel as if I could crawl in a cave and bawl my eyes out. But I don't know about what I would be so sad about. I think I need help!

Tomorrow I was planning to go with a group of ladies from church on a 'junkin' trip. They are going up to Warsaw to a cabin belonging to the sister of the preacher's wife. Then after a picnic lunch and some relaxation we were to go to some flea markets and finally eat supper at some restaurant in Warsaw that is supposed to be excellent. But I cancelled out on the trip. Because I don't really feel good I was afraid I wouldn't enjoy it. Maybe next time.

My doctor's appointment went as I had hoped this week. I was there for over an hour getting poked and prodded. The final decision was to go ahead and have a hysterectomy--what I wanted to do last year. But I am being sent back to the specialist in Springfield who can use the new robot, the DaVinci, to do the surgery. That's because I've had abdominal surgery before and with the scar tissue it might not be possible to do the surgery without having to make an incision. The robot will have a better chance of working around the tissue. Now it is just a waiting game to get an appointment with this doctor and get the procedure scheduled. I am hoping that we can wait until after the 18th of December. Then my busy time of the year will be over. Wait....wait....wait. That's all I can do right now

Home Alone--Again!

I am getting some more "home alone" time. Charles is off to Elk Point, SD, for a Lewis & Clark thing. When he first said he wanted to go I asked him if it would be okay if I stayed home. It was. Then I decided that I would go with him. I wanted to get away from Bolivar for a while. I thought that I might just have him drop me off in Kansas City to spend the weekend with Valary--after all, I am supposed to get a couple of days with her without Poppy. But she didn't sound very enthusiastic about it--she's been working nights and sleeping days. It's an 8 hour drive to Sioux City, Iowa, where we usually stay. We usually go up on Friday, get up Saturday and go eat pancakes with some civic group and spend the rest of the day at the Elk Point City Park just sitting around and visiting with people. I take a book with me to read. It turns in to a long day. Then on Sundays we go eat at IHOP and Charles takes me back to the hotel where I spend the day on the computer, watching TV and reading. So after mulling all this over I decided that I could be on the computer, watch TV and read just as well at home as I could 8 hours away. I am assuming that Charles made it there okay. I haven't heard any different. He will come home late Monday evening after stopping in KC and taking Valary out to supper. Those two have a special bond as only a father and daughter can have. I honestly feel like a third wheel with them sometimes. I won't be doing anything exciting while Charles is gone. I thought about going to Springfield to a movie Sunday afternoon. I'll just have to see.

This week I was responsible for staffing the clothes closet. Did I find anyone willing to help--only one lady from church helped. We were really busy with people looking for school clothes. The clothes we have are free, with only a few with a price tag of $5.00 or less. The clothes we have are all donated and our mission is to help those who need it rather than make money. God really blesses this cause. I love the people who come through the doors--well 99% of them! There's always those one or two that are just hard to love. Know what I mean?

Today, at the library I logged in books all day. There were over 100 books that needed to be entered into the database and labeled with a shelf location and a donation notice. All of these books were donated to the library by a doctor who grew up in Springfield and now lives in St. Louis. It took me most of the 4 hours we were open to do that. I still have two stacks of other books to log in. And then I can begin working on a collection from the fire department. It will take me quite a while to get that one done. Lots and lots of pictures to scan. I'm looking forward to working on it.

I have a doctor's appointment Monday afternoon--another reason I didn't really want to go with Charles. I didn't want to have to reschedule the appointment. I don't think it's going to be a good appointment. I thought we had my problem under control with medication but the last couple of weeks it has returned. Hopefully we will only have to up the dosage since that what we did before. I don't relish the thought of another D&C.

Oh the joys of growing old!

A night at the fair

Last night my friend Lois and I went to the Beach Boys concert at the Ozark Empire Fair. It was a beautiful day for the fair and evening for the concert. We got to the fair about 3:30. We viewed some of the exhibits--quilts, clothing, cooking, flowers. It's hard for Lois to walk for a long time or stand for a period of time, so we moved rather slowly and didn't venture very far from the exhibit halls. We listened to some kids sing on the Kids' Zone stage. They weren't too bad. Then we watched Zaq and Dustin perform their show. We both laughed and laughed. They were good.

After visiting with Zaq and Susan and walking through the exhibits, we decided it was time to try some fair food. No, we didn't have a corn dog. We ate at the Beef House which is sponsored by the Cattlemen's Association. We had a ribeye steak sandwich. It wasn't too bad. I was afraid it might be tough but it wasn't.

There is a parade at 6:30 each evening so we found a bench and waited for the parade. That's Dustin leading the parade. We are both people watchers and had a good time visiting with people we knew from Bolivar. There were lots and lots of people wearing Hawaiian shirts. We figured it was in honor of the Beach Boys. And believe it or not, but people were decently dressed. We saw only a couple of outlandish outfits...and they were on people who should have known better!

Of course, the main event was the concert. We had good seats, pretty close to the center facing the stage and not too far back. It would have been nice to have been a little closer but I didn't want to be on the ground level and have to try to look around someone. The music was wonderful. All those old hits brought back lots of memories! Everyone clapped, swayed, and danced to the music. They just don't make music like this anymore! It was a wonderful time!

It took almost an hour to get out of the parking lot after the concert. We had talked about getting a funnel cake and waiting a while before we left but it was so crowded that we decided we would just go to the car and just have patience. I got home about 11:45 which I didn't think was bad. I don't usually go to bed before 12 or 12:30 any way, so I was doing pretty good. But I did fall asleep this afternoon when I got home from the library. I didn't even hear the garage door open when Charles came home. He scared me when he came upstairs!