blessings...

It seems a bit yucky, but then it is, really.  Which is why I am so thankful today that we have garbage disposal. All we have to do is roll the sturdy grey bins out to the curb on the right day of the week. Along comes the town truck, with an arm that hoists them up and dumps them out, and rumbles away to do the same service for all the neighbours! As much as we donate, recycle & compost of our waste in this affluent society, we still have things that are just rubbish. We try not to over-consume, and to re-use, but there's some stuff you just have to junk. We can minimize, but we can hardly eliminate trash. There are so many people in our world who have to live with the stench and filth of what they cannot use. I don't know how, and maybe neither would they, if they had another choice. It isn't a pleasant subject, which is why we are blessed to live in a place and time when we don't really have to live with it underfoot, or under our noses!

It's so extremely cold outside that the air seems full of frozen suspended whiteness even when it's not snowing. It is very beautiful to look at through the windows, from the snug rooms of my warm house! The windows have thick ice around the wood frames at the bottom of the double glass panes. I could touch it, but why would I want to do that? :) I thank Heaven on days like this that we can wake up to the furnace blowing warm air into our rooms, and step into good slippers and big bathrobes, and eat hot cereal, and wrap up in cozy blankets, and put cold wet laundry into a hot dryer, and bathe in steaming water filling the tub... Thank Heaven for my strong and talented husband who provides all this for our family, and for the hearty soup simmering all day in the slow cooker. How many people live in cold parts of the world without these comforts we can so easily take for granted...? We are blessed.

Tomorrow is Mary's 13th birthday, and she's so excited! I am so blessed to have her for my daughter. I love her happy energy and her enthusiasm. Sometimes I feel like I live with a Disney princess, when I hear her singing or humming some little tune while she does chores, or helps out. It's one of her favourite things to do, always has been. We know we are very lucky to have her in our family, all of us! I thank Heaven for her musical personality and her amazing compassion, for what a bright and beautiful little daughter she is... Even when she takes a while getting to bed, (so do I! :), needs to tidy up her bedroom, (so do I! :), and giggles a lot, (I could definitely laugh more.)! She is adorable, and I hope she has a wonderful birthday; she's really something to celebrate!