♥Blessings come in all colors and shapes but I'll take some PINK ones, please♥

I'm doing double duty today with Pink Saturday AND the Thirty Days of Thanksgiving challenge.

If you are here for Pink Saturday and haven't heard of the challenge take a peek at my blog postings this week to see what gives me warm fuzzies and what I consider to be my most precious blessings. There is a button on my sidebar to take you to one of the sponsoring blogs and if you click on the punkin's below you will be able to travel to the other. Have fun!

If you are here to celebrate the Thirty Days of Thanksgiving challenge, Pink Saturday is pretty self-explanatory. I'm so in love with pink! I dream of it and swoon when I am exposed to too much of it☺

This week I am going to do my best to combine the two events instead of writing two blog posts. Let's see how well I do. My pink blessings for today are:

1. Paper plates. A boon to busy mothers, campers, picnics and grade school art teachers, I use them in copious amounts since my boys got married and left to begin lives of their own. I live alone with my furry kids now and HATE to have dishes in the sink - dirty - but all too often I don't make enough of a mess to justify filling the sink with water several times a day to wash used utensils. Paper plates have rescued me  and what could be more thrilling to a pink gal like me than to find pink rattan paper plate holders on one of my explorations at our local Goodwill Store. 
2. Ring binders. Without them I wouldn't be able to clip and tear to my ♥s content at the pages of magazines before I them pass down to my daughter-in-law, Cindy, to read. Opening one of these books and thumbing through the pages is like going through a time capsule for me. Inside these notebooks are recipes that I clipped when I was a young bride decades ago - recipes that I've used so much they need to be held safe inside the plastic pages or they will disappear - recipes exchanged with friends that call me back to times when little ones would stand on chairs to help me bake. Some new recipes, too, because a good cook knows that she needs to keep abreast of what is hot on the culinary scene.
3. A good can opener. I can't imagine taking one of those things that had to be slammed into a can lid and then cranked and scissored up and down in order to get at what was inside. Not only was it messy and difficult at times, it left you with a can and lid that could be considered a lethal weapon! I'm not into struggling to get at my food. I want instant gratification☺
   
4. Graniteware. There's just something that feels so safe and secure and precious when I make soup in my pot. Standing by my stove, wooden spoon in hand, stirring the contents of this pot and watching it swirl around comforts me. It takes me back to my mother's kitchen and a time when I knew that my parents would keep me safe and fed and warm and clothed and all I had to do was grow.
5. Vegetable peelers. If you ever saw how terrible I am with a knife trying to peel something you'd know why I ♥ my peeler. I can take a potato the size of a watermelon and turn it into a pearl onion! If I had to peel without this lil' gadget my grocery bill for fruits and veggies would look like the national debt!

There you have it. My pink blessings! I did it! If you are someone who gets giddy at the sight of anything pink take a stroll over to Beverly's HOW SWEET the SOUND. She has links for dozens of great blogs that celebrate pink today and all the rest of the week☺

For something a little pink and amazingly yummy, I am featuring ♥Crockpot Sugar 'n Spice Applesauce with Raisins♥ over at Standing at the Kitchen Door. Rich and delicious, it is easy to make with just the right amount of spice. The aroma filling your house while this is bubbling away will take you back to a much simpler time. Make some this weekend! Your family will ♥ you for it.

Apples and soup and football, oh my! The blessings of fall...

Friday already and a busy weekend planned, but not so filled with activity that I won't have the time to stop and smell the roses. Adding to my many blessings I am thankful for:

1. Hardwood trees. Living in northern Michigan a riot of colors decorate our hardwood trees in October. Brief in their appearance, they fall gracefully to the earth all too soon reminding us that winter is on its way.
2. My daughter-in-law Cindy's applesauce. Chunky and rich, peppered with raisins and spices, a little dish of this homemade goodness is so delicious it could be served as a dessert. Its aroma rivals the best and most expensive scented candle produced. YUM!
3. Saturday mornings with my grandsons after a sleepover. Tradition is that we have a quick, easy breakfast followed by an elaborate brunch. The boys and I plan days ahead of time what will be served and they help in the preparation. Making memories - the best blessing of all.
4. Orange and yellow and red - and I can't forget purple (my grandson Joe's team colors). Colors that would look out of place in my home any other time of year, but in the fall they are abundant and welcomed and celebrated.
5. Making soup. Chopping, dicing, stirring the pot, a pinch of this and a dab of that - all activities that initially fill my kitchen with activity, and then my home with the anticipation of good things to come once the pot has simmered long enough to blend all of the robust flavors percolating around under the lid.
   

♥Morning blessings and dancing memories♥

I can't believe that it is Thursday already! My gosh, where in the world did the time go? I know I was here every morning and throughout the day, but sometimes I look back and wonder what in the world I accomplished. With that in mind,  these are the blessings I am thankful for today:

1. Alarm clocks that wake you up to soothing music and not a blaring ring or mind-numbing buzz like they did when I was a kid. What a miserable way to begin a day - with a horrible noise blasting you in the ears.
2. My fenced backyard. When still foggy from the night's sleep all I have to do is wander down the steps and open the back door for my dogs to pile outside to do their morning duty. I don't even have to use my brain - other than to remember that I shouldn't follow them to do my duty☺
3. Warm water and scented soap to wash the night's sleep from my eyes. When I was growing up there were a few bar soaps on the market but certainly none in the remarkable scents that we take for granted now-a-days. Lemons, cherries, oatmeal, mint, mango - you name it and it will be on a store shelf for you to purchase and enjoy.
   
4. My nose and the fact that it is sniffing at 100%☺ I'll stand for what seems like hours in store isles checking out fabric softeners, candles, perfumes, soaps and anything else that has a cap I can take off. I'll whiffle and sniffle the various potions trying to decide whether or not I should put it into my cart. When my first grandchild, Joey, was born one of the first things we did when he'd go shopping with me was sniff bubble bath and hand cream and perfume. We'd have such a great time wrinkling our noses at the awful smells and sharing with each other the good smells. He wasn't even two years old but he got the hang of the game in a heartbeat!
   
5. My kitchen radio. It's just about the first thing I pop on after the dogs have gone out the back door for their business doing☺ My parents had a radio in the kitchen so it just seems like something you should have in there - like a stove and fridge. Early on Sunday morning there was a Polka station they would tune into while eating breakfast and drinking their coffee. I have fond memories of my dad pushing his chair from the table, grabbing my mom and the two of them twirling around dancing to those polka tunes. For the past couple of days I've listed five things but today I MUST add one more.
6. Good, happy memories and the fact that I can still close my eyes and see my parents dancing or remember Joey and I opening lotion bottles and sniffing to our ♥s content.
   

Soul food - Life's little blessings appear when least expected...

In keeping with my list of blessings to be thankful for I add:

1. My worn and treasured cookbooks and recipes. Old and good friends who take me back through time when I had a family at home to cook for each night and little boys who looked forward to cookies and milk when they got home from school.
2. Large, thick, fluffy bath towels. The kind that when you snuggle them to your face you can still smell the odor of your fabric softener nestled in their lush pile.
3. Sugarless chewing gum. It has saved me from stuffing more into my mouth than is necessary for sustaining life and was a God-send when I quit smoking.
4. My cell phone. A little contraption that saved me from walking in knee deep snow to call for help the last time my car didn't jump high enough to clear a mound of white flakes☺
5. The magnets on my fridge. Without them the central core of my social calendar would be scattered this way and that without any order. One look at the door as I sip my morning tea and my day is planned for me with little effort☺
   

Welcoming home a small town hero - The giving thanks challenge...

In keeping with listing those things in my life that I am thankful for, today my "thanks-giving" includes:

1. My dog, Scout, who took a walk with me today in the cool, autumn mist. He's always ready and willing to share time with me, no matter what the weather.
2. I am thankful that I am not the mother in my town who shed tears for her son who died in Afghanistan last week. Her son is the reason for my early morning walk with Scout in the rain and mist. We stood there, my dog and I, in quiet reverence as the hearse carrying another mother's son to his final resting place passed by. Hundreds of us who stood in the rain today - all saying good-bye to a true small town hero - only twenty-three years old, Brandon K. Steffey.
   
3. My country and the remarkable way I feel when I sing our national anthem.
   
4. My mattress because it feels just like I am being cuddled when I nestle deep under my blankets.
5. My computer and my laptop. Both serve a purpose and both have opened up a world that I never imagined when I was a child.The Internet. Since 1995 I have explored corners of our world that I will never visit and made friends I never would have met without its creation.

Army Specialist Brandon K. Steffey comes home

From the Sault Evening News: Steffey grew up in Sault Ste. Marie and graduated from Brimley High School in 2005. “Brandon had a big heart,” said football coach Scott Menard. “He was a funny kid and kept other players loose. As a player, he did whatever was needed to make the team better. He was outgoing and tried to make friends with everyone."

The 23-year-old joined the Army in 2006 and served two tours of duty as a K-9 handler. Steffey has a wife and young daughter where he was based in Fort Hood, Texas.

♥Join me in celebrating 30 Days of Thanksgiving♥

One of my favorite blog buddies, Corgidogmama, is sharing over the next thirty days the things she is thankful for in her life. In wanting to wind down from the summer and transition into our holiday season, I've decided to take the journey with her.

Take a stroll over to Keeping up with the Tatums. I had never been there before but in blogland, that is entirely understandable. There are so many interesting places to go and wonderful blogs to read that ten life-times wouldn't be enough to digest all of the remarkable eye and soul candy in cyberspace. Go read and if you wish, join in and celebrate 30 Days of Thanksgiving. So, without much ado, I will begin my list. I hope to share at least five blessings each day, possibly more.

I am thankful for:

1. Miss Camille Suzanne, my whipped cream white kitty. Her looks alone make her a wonder in my life but add to that her l♥ve for me and you have a purr-fect package.
2. My warm home that shelters me from all of the rain and cold we are experiencing in northern Michigan this fall. It was a cold summer and fall isn't much better.
3. The new Bible I just opened today with it's crisp pages and that new book smell. There's just something about the aroma of those new pages waiting to be read and explored.
4. The new bottle of old-fashioned Jergen's hand lotion that is sitting next to my kitchen sink. There are more trendy scents, but that time honored and well-worn cherry almond has been a favorite of mine for years. It reminds me of my mother's kitchen and a much simpler time in my life.
5. The little basket of Smartees candies sitting on my counter. My son l♥ves those things and so do the grandsons. It makes me smile and gives me a warm fuzzy to see them unwrap those little candies to enjoy - my boys - a big one and three little ones - all my boys.

Think about joining us. Travel through your memories and tender thoughts bringing to the surface a thankful heart reminding you about what the coming season is truly about and why it is so important.

Freyja PUPPins 'n Mr. Scout Holmes furry mucho would yike you's VOTE!

Our momma is makin' us be in a Howl-o-weenie costume contest in the digital division. We is askin' - no, we is beggin' you to please vote fur us so's she doesn't get all sad an' cry-baby on us which is a PURRty pathetic sight. So, if you will, please take the time to go over to here at the Halloween Spooktacular an' VOTE fur one of us. 

We was in two contests and are happy to announce that Mr. Scout Holmes won in the digital division over at Addie's place. Now we are in the last lap over at the Halloween Spooktacular and really are getting worn out from alla' this runnin' fur office stuff. How in the world do those politician's do it☺

Yesh, a lotsa' work but believe us - better than our momma gettin' all wacko on us - not a PURRty sight, trust us☺

Freyja PUPPins, sweet, kind an' gentle. The PURRfect nanny for any little boy or girl.

 

Mister Scout Holmes, just the right mixture of curiosity an' snooper-vision to get the job done!