Linen

Count Your Blessings - Day 7

My all time favorite fabric is pure linen!

A recent addition to my kitchen.

What I look for in a kitchen towel.

Work

Count Your Blessings - Day 6

If you want to be happy in school or on a mission or at a job or in a marriage--work at it. Learn to work. Serve diligently. Don't be idle and mischievous. A homespun definition of Christlike character might be the integrity to do the right thing at the right time in the right way. Don't be idle. Don't be wasteful. "Seek learning, even by study and also by faith" (Doctrine and Covenants 88:118). Be industrious and labor, including laboring for and serving others--one of the truly great keys to true happiness.  [Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; From a devotional address, "Living after the Manner of Happiness," delivered at Brigham Young University-Idaho on September 23, 2014.]

I'm thankful to have learned the value of work!

 

Stairs

Count Your Blessings - Days 3, 4 & 5

Stairs is what I'm doing these days. We bought an antique home, built in 1898, that we call "The Stairmaster." I've lost ten pounds just going up and down all the stairs.

Front stairs into the house.

Stairs from the garage and outside to the back hall and kitchen.

Formal staircase from entry hall to second floor.

Second leg of main staircase from entry hall to second floor.

Top of second leg, with second landing, main staircase from entry hall to second floor.

Last leg of main staircase as it reaches the second floor.

Staircase to third floor attic, looking up I can't quite get it all in.

Looking down the stairs from the third floor attic.

And let's not forget the steep stairs to the grotty, unfinished basement where the laundry resides.

So with no other effort than "taking the stairs" day after day, the excess weight is coming off. I'd call that a blessing!

P.S. All that yucky carpet will soon be ripped up and gone. I left it on until we got all the furniture in and on the correct floor to avoid marring (any more than whatever is underneath is) the stairs.

Music

Count Your Blessings - Day 2

I'm so thankful for the power of music. We saw this young man, David Archuleta in concert on Halloween (best way to spend the evening!) and enjoyed the spiritual power of many of his new songs.

Humor

Count Your Blessings - Day 1

Do you know Jeanne Robertson, the humorist?

Or how about James Veitch?

I'm so grateful for people who can see the funny side of life.