Things I Am Thankful For, Part II

In an effort to get myself into the spirit of Thanksgiving, and I will admit my feelings of thankfulness have been lacking some lately, I've been writing about things I am thankful for. If you are interested in my thoughts on the matter you can read Part I here. 

6.  I am thankful that Jason will occasionally cook dinner.  Now my reasons for being thankful for this are not because the food is good and the meal is an enjoyable experience.  From time to time when we have a meal served up by Jason I usually cannot choke down more than a couple of bites and end up going to bed hungry.  However these meals are excellent springboards into the occasional intermittent fast, and that certainly helps with weight control.  (See, I am already regaining my throne as the eternal optimist through writing these posts.) 

7.  I am thankful that I live in the south.  I hate cold weather. I don't like cold weather sports.  It was in the high 60's and sunny today and I was walking around comfortably with a light coat (not jacket, coat) on. Canadian Jason finds my ability to be comfortable in a light coat at 65 sunny degrees to be mind blowing as he walks around in a t-shirt. That being said I do like to feel like I experience all four seasons, I just want to experience a limited amount of winter. So I am very thankful to live in middle Tennessee. 

8.  I am thankful that Jason conceded to my desires to have cupolas and weather vanes on the run-in sheds at the farm. I won't mention that he did this a bit ungraciously.  For whatever reason, and even I cannot articulate why, those cupolas and weather vanes make me happy.  Now, the fact that the birds really like to poop on them does annoy me a bit, but Jason at least gets a laugh out of it (whether he is laughing at my annoyance or simply laughing because there is often bird poop on my beloved cupolas I'm not sure).  

9.  I had the unenjoyable experience of being both Melissa and Jason for a couple of months due to Jason's surgery and recovery. This happened right after my father passed, and I should add right after Carter came home - as Jason said most people would have been rocking in a corner in the fetal position sucking their thumb by that point. I was up long before sunrise every day.  My daily wake up time was no later than 4am (that was if I hit snooze a couple of times), and  in retrospect I am thankful for this because I saw quite a few truly breathtaking, spectacular sunrises. Plus it makes getting up at 5:15 feel so luxurious now.  Running a farm I've seen the sun come up plenty of times.  However I've never been one to be up, outside and working at freaking 4am on a regular basis so I've never seen that many sunrises in a row.  It really made me appreciate the beauty and uniqueness that can be found in each and every day. Thus, despite the ungodly hour that I woke up to for weeks on end, and the very late bedtime that followed, I am thankful to have done so and thankful to have seen all those sunrises in a row.  They helped to revive my spirit some days in a way that nothing else did. 

10.  I am thankful for our dog Bear.  He is the best dog in the world and has inspired many people to get their own Schipperke.  To know Bear is to love him and he has a huge fan club.  Bear turned 13 a few weeks ago.  

This post is getting long so I will finish writing about some of the things I am thankful for in a future post.

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Stormy

Kennedy and Toledo

Merlin

Noble and Lightening

Lotus, Titan, Romeo and George

Hi Faune

Moe and Homer

Thomas and Hemi were grooming

the typical morning view of horses in the fog; Sam, Wiz, Dutch and Murphy

Renny and Johnny

Lucky and Thor