SIMPLY THANKFUL

 I couldn't let the day go by without a thankful post.  Can I list all my thankfuls?  Certainly not.  They are too many to list.  

The Husband came through the other day and asked if I was okay.  He does that a lot after one of the three hardest years of my life.  I might relay my thoughts, my fears, and all that stuff or I might not; however, the other day I told him I was "pondering".  To which, being the supportive husband that he is, he replied, "What are you pondering?"  To which I said how thankful I am.  So that garnered me a person to sit down and hear my thankfuls.  You see, The Husband has proven his love for me by his support, care, concern and all the other stuff about my wellbeing.  He's a good one.  So I am thankful for him.  I'm thankful for over 46 years with him. 

I could be thankful I have a new roof, new oven, and new cooktop and I am thankful for those but those don't define me except for the fact all of them were old and just didn't last.  If I did not have those, my roof would leak and I couldn't cook so yes, I'm thankful for those. 

With the past very painful year, I have a lot of thanks.....my parents are no longer suffering....they had and gave good lives....Mom didn't have to live long without Dad.....even with the suffering I watched and tended to, I know in my heart I did all I could for both of them.  They have never had to spend birthdays or anniversaries apart as they both moved to heaven before those happened this year.  It's as I was blessed by the song Sweet Hour of Prayer the other Sunday in the last verse on the part that says "Till from Mt. Pisgah's lofty height, I view my home and take my flight.  This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise to seize the everlasting prize.  And shout while passing through the air, farewell, farewell sweet hour of prayer."  I could see my parents passing through the air with a shout.  So yes, thankful.  So so thankful.

So thankful for healing miracles and a sister now who is fairly normal.

My thanks to the Lord that he spoke to The Grandbaby and asked her to come to Him and believe and thankful she did as she promised us she would do when He spoke.  She came to Him, believed, was baptized, and so so happy.  I don't know who was happier, her or me.  I do know that our family will now be in heaven when we get there forever because we believe Jesus died on the cross for us!  That's a BIG big thankful.

Other things....friends, church family, freedom to worship, sounds of children, sunshine, the smell of soup, the beauty of the seasons, comfort, grace, and mercy of our Heavenly Father and so much more.  See?  I couldn't make a dent in my list of thankfuls.

As the scripture says, "In every thing give thanks."  I pray I do that every single day.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Blessed beyond measure.

Consider.

ALASKA 2025: CONTINUING NORTH....

The next morning early we headed out of the neighborhood and there to greet us by the roadside was a huge moose.  Such a treat as we left that neighborhood.  We ate breakfast in downtown at a very popular restaurant and it was delicious.  We had to carry on as our glacier plane right with K2 Aviation was to begin 10 am - 11 am outside of Talkeetna, AK.

The plane trip was great.  My cane and I got in the plane good with a stool below; however, getting back in off the glacier was not so good as there was no stool.  I'm sure it was not a beautiful sight as I attempted to get in as best I could....I'm glad there's no photos of that backside of me!  We landed on a glacier, spent some time, and enjoyed the majesty of God's creation before going back to Talkeetna for lunch, then heading north again to Denali and our cabin for two nights.  

As we headed north, the "larger" town areas became smaller.  We followed directions to our cabin for the upcoming two nights.  It was not remotely alone as there were two smaller cabins nearby but for the most part it was very quiet and somewhat secluded.  There were rules--conserve water, it's scarce--being the most important one.  The two bedrooms were upstairs and the stairs were very narrow.  With increased senior adult wake ups to bathroom during the night, The Husband and I choose to use the comfortable couch and chair downstairs for sleeping.  Otherwise, it was a sweet little place with four visible cans of bear spray.  Uh huh.  We traveled about ten miles north for food and found the few restaurants very crowded.  We finally got an expensive Subway prepared in a very hot Subway restaurant.  We returned to our cabin to find there was no electricity.  A storm had come while we were out and knocked out the electricity.   I decided this was just an Alaskan adventure and we had certainly experienced those before so we would survive.  However, I was not totally excited about it.  Luckily, the power came on during the night.  Whew.

We had an early morning tour time at Denali Park so we ate cereal in the room with the milk The Son-In-Law had purchased at the store when we were out for supper.  Uh, a small carton of milk, maybe a quart or half gallon at the most was over $5 or some ridiculous amount such as that.  Denali found us on our tour bus with a really informative tour guide.  On the ride on the bus she pointed out bears--four, I think--dall sheep, a caribou, porcupine, and some birds. We shared the bus with a group of traveling Senior Adults.  The Grandbaby was the youngest by years on the bus.  Each person's snack box had a pack of Brownie Brittle and The Grandbaby became so popular that many of the guests gave her theirs.  The Grandbaby was thrilled.  She loves Brownie Brittle!  Unfortunately due to the smoke from the fires north along with the clouds, we were not able to see the great mountain.  We went afterwards to eat lunch.  We found a little cafe that had some odd things, but they also had baked items and the largest cinnamon roll I had ever seen.

The next morning we loaded up and headed north again to Fairbanks.  There were to be some road delays because of the fires that were still burning but when all was said and done, we were able to catch up at the end of the cars following the Pilot car.  Arriving in Fairbanks, we found lunch at a delightful sandwich shop, then drove over to North Pole, AK, then routed to the Comfort Inn via the Alaska Pipeline.  We toured the Ice Sculpure Exhibit in Fairbanks which was a boatload of fun and the museum at the college in Fairbanks.  After checking in, we had a nice dinner at a historical saloon building which was very popular.  

After having the hotel continental breakfast the final day and taking our time, we made our way to the airport to leave our van and check in.  The Fairbanks airport was very small.  Our flight went to Seattle and a longish layover there, then it was a redeye back to our home airport.  A baby cried all the way home, of course.  :). Our uber at the airport to drive us home was a van and it was uncertain if we AND     our luggage AND the driver would fit.  We piled all of us in and arrived home safely.  

The trip was a trip of a lifetime with those I love and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity for such joy.  Blessed.

Here's my final pics....

boarded the plane, headed to glacier...

teaching mom how to do acrobatics in downtown Talkeetna...

our remote cabin....

 Alaska's state bird...

2 bears...

caribou....

Porcupine

the biggest cinnamon roll I have ever seen....

Poses, stretches, and acrobatics in the downtown park....

Fairbanks Ice Museum....

an ice slide, a favorite.....

Outside and inside the museum in Fairbanks...

thru the fires.....

                                                                 

                                                   

Heading home in the packed uber...jetlagged...

It was two weeks of joy for us.   Memories will remain.