Writing Reports

Today has been full of writing reports. That seems to be a lot of what I do these days. I patch holes and manipulate data. Today has been good, because my reports have been used and referenced and my name keeps getting mentioned. It makes me feel valued and useful. 😊

1. I am grateful I have a good job that I can learn so much about.
2. I am grateful to have a manager who doesn’t mind me asking a million questions.
3. I am grateful that I can take as long as I need to work on the reports that I get asked to make.
4. I am grateful that I can reword things and communicate what’s needed as needed.
5. I am grateful for my husband and all the little things he does that says “I love you.”

It’s been a good day. I’m getting ready for a good weekend. My friend is getting married on Saturday. We’re having drum rehearsal and then a party on Sunday. I’m feeling good. And I’m so thankful.

Hugs,
Melinda

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Back to Basics

I think it’s safe to say I’ve been in a season of struggle. It’s been hard to get to the church building. But when I have, it’s been worth it. Our church has been our family. Trying to reconnect not with everyone, but with one or two special groups of people, reaching out on an individual basis has been helpful.

Two things were made obvious this past Sunday. 1) I need to give my trust over fully to God. So much harder to do than to say. I will be working on this the rest of my life. 2) I need to continue to be thankful. The easiest way will be to add to this blog, hopefully every day. So with that in mind, I will tackle the easy one first.

1. I am grateful for my new puppy (Oh, I’ll have to do a puppy post with an overload of pictures soon!)
2. I am grateful for my friends Gena and Karen.
3. I am grateful for our new elders at church. Especially the one who seemed to know I needed prayers on Sunday.
4. I am grateful for The Chosen. A good series about the ministry of Jesus. It touches my heart.
5. I am grateful that I still love my new job. I learn so much all the time.
6. I am grateful for my manager. He’s very encouraging with me trying to get and stay healthy.
7. I am grateful for our preacher and that God gives him the words to say.
8. I am grateful for a new opportunity with KCRF.

I think that needs to be all for tonight. I will try to post again tomorrow.
Hugs,
Melinda

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Hiatus

I guess I’ve been on a hiatus of sorts.  I’ve been so busy with my new job and just trying to find a new normal and new routine, that my blog has been largely ignored.

But I’m going to do my best to get back to the original purpose of this blog, which is to be grateful everyday.  So, I’m going to try posting one gratitude every day.

What that means is that my blog entries are going to be shorter, but I should be more frequent.  

So, gratitude for today.  Today, I am thankful for Thanksgiving.  I have many memories of family Thanksgivings and singing and pies and trips to Missouri.  I am thankful for Thanksgiving.  

Hugs,
Melinda

The Super Secret Project

For the past year… well, the past 11 months, I’ve been working on something that I had given the nickname “Super Secret Project.”  It was and is a list of 1000 reasons of why I love my husband Dale.  I started it with this post, if you want to step back and read about the why.  None of the posts are private.  I just didn’t send them to Facebook or Twitter, because I was trying to make certain he didn’t see them before it was time.

There are a couple of things.  One, I didn’t get to 1000 reasons within the year.  I got to 225.  But that doesn’t mean I’m stopping or giving up.  I want each reason to be meaningful, and I felt like trying to force 1000 reasons within a year wouldn’t be the point.  So expect to still see posts on why I love my husband.

But more importantly, two, he LOVED it.  I would like to say it was a complete success!  When I handed it to him at breakfast, he opened it, read the first page and said, “I don’t know what to say.”  And then he proceeded to read the entire thing.

When we were talking about it later, he said that this is what he’s been asking for as a present for years.  He wants me to take the time to do something, make something, spend time focusing on him and to give him that quality time.  And that this was perfect.

The rest of Father’s Day was pretty good, too.  We didn’t have the girls, because they are all at camp this week.  But we had a good day.  We went to a restaurant called Jazz, A Louisiana Kitchen, where he got to eat crawfish étouffeé and boudin.  We had beignets for dessert.  Then we went to his new favorite store, Menards, to get some more supplies to stain the deck.  Which we were going to do yesterday, but it was too hot, so we’re going to do it this morning.  We watched Ant-Man, went to bed when we wanted to, and today we are sleeping in (mostly).

Anyway, I’m rambling.  What I want to say is this.

I love my husband.  

And I will continue to love him for the rest of my life.

Hugs,
Melinda

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Reasons I love Dale:

226.  He has never really complained about my not using as much spice in our food as when he was growing up.  He laughs about he can’t handle “spicy” as much as he used to.  But he still likes his food warmer than I do.
227.  His creative solutions and his love of 550 cord.  He helped me put together a chair for my downstairs table.  Only the screw broke.  His solution was to use 550 to hold it together.  It’s working (so far).
228.  He doesn’t tattle.  This one is harder to explain.  Long story short:  there was a situation at work with someone not doing what they were supposed to.  He called the manager, but didn’t tattle on the person.  But the manager got it figured out pretty quickly.
229.  He’s just really cute and funny without trying to be.  Today’s picture is of him trying to eat boudin at Jazz.  They split it open to double check to make sure it’s done.  When they brought it out, he said, “why did they cut it open?  You don’t eat boudin like that!”  This was him demonstrating how to eat it correctly.  

It’s almost time

I’m almost one month away from working on my super secret project for a full year. You know. The one about why I love Dale. (You can find it here.)

This morning, I compiled all of my posts into a Word document. Without any editing, it’s 46 pages. Not as long as I’d hoped but longer than I anticipated.

Regardless, I’m not finished, and I hope I never am.

I can tell it really did change my attitude, this attitude of gratitude for my husband. I hope he can see the changes in me and in our marriage that I’ve tried to make. Because I love him. And he’s worth fighting for.

Reasons I love Dale:

221. He’s generous. I said I needed a hard copy of a study book. He bought me four.

222. He puts family first. We were supposed to go on vacation. My sister asked for help and he didn’t hesitate. So we’re doing a semi vacation instead.

223. He’s forgetful. But I’ve come to understand that it is because he is always thinking of a hundred different things at once and he gets distracted.

I’m going to try to write more, but I’m waiting on a bus.

The bus came. I got on. I got off. It’s eleven billion degrees outside.

224. He’s thoughtful in his own way. The study book he got me not only has a discount code for the test, but it also has practice software. It’s going to be very useful.

225. He likes to grill. Which means I don’t have to cook for like a week.

That’s all I have for today. I’m trying to cool off and get ready for work and study in my new amazing book. Have a good day everyone.

Hugs,

Melinda.

The pictures are of when he first got to meet Avonlea. She’s not too sure of Uncle Dale, but he bought her a teething ring she loved.