Gratitude Abounds, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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I always like getting to Thankful Day, it gives me a chance to regroup and remember all the good stuff from the week.

Last Friday was a no sleep night, I'm thankful I don't have those very often.

Saturday was shopping day in NOLA and extra busy as we were getting ready for Mother's Day, I'm thankful I was able to get through it and didn't fall asleep on the drive there or back.

Jock the Blue Heeler was with us that evening as #2 Son and the wedding party were having some kind of event in NOLA, I'm thankful he was a good boy and I bought him an extra dog cookie as a treat.

Because Grandma really doesn't need much of anything, I decided to get her some of the foods she loves for Mother's Day.  There's a particular kind of yoghurt she enjoys, and the store Grandpa wants to shop at doesn't have much of it in stock or many flavors.  I'm thankful I found the flavors she likes at our store up here and I bought her several of each variety.

Sweetie and I did our usual Sunday morning routine and as soon as church was over got to NOLA as fast as we could.  Once there, I cooked the Mother's Day meal (most of it was premade and I just had to warm it up), served it, and cleaned up after.  Little Girl and her boyfriend and another friend came by for a short time but didn't stay to eat.  There were plenty of leftovers and I was thankful the day went well and the leftovers served for supper once we got home.

I'm also thankful Little Girl gave me flowers, Bigger Girl sent me a teacup, and I got to see #1 Son the day before and #2 Son the day of Mother's Day.

Ms. V, Carl's mom, told me some good news on Monday.  She and Carl's father  have been discussing where Carl will live if and when the inevitable happens and they can no longer care for him.  There's a residence for special adults where they can live out the rest of their lives, they have jobs, their own rooms, activities, meals, everything right there and he's now been accepted and is on the waiting list.  It should be about two years, long enough to get him used to the idea and maybe us get him to pare down what he wants to take with him and what's superfluous.

I'm thankful to know he'll have a place where he'll be properly cared for in the future as his parents age.

Ms. D is doing well, I was thankful we were able to get her garden hoses and sprayers positioned in such a way she won't trip on them and can still water the garden with just a turn of the tap.

The cat shelter has been full, overfull, of kittens.  There just aren't enough foster homes right now, and many of these need extra feedings or are really too young to be in the shelter at all.  It makes for an adventure when cleaning and feeding as they are messy and almost every single cage needs a full cleaning, along with the kittens themselves, every single day.  I'm thankful I got it all done Wednesday morning and still got to Ms. G's house, then home in plenty of time to watch the wedding.

I'm very thankful for #2 Son, His Bride, and the beautiful wedding.  They kept it extra small, and most of us just watched online, which is how these things go sometimes.  I'm thankful they are dropping their dog off here today for us to watch while they go on their honeymoon, and I'll get to see and hug them both.

Ms. SE's dog, Cookie, is a wonderful pup, but she is a pup.  She is very food oriented, and I'm thankful Sweetie got at least one good bite of his breakfast sandwich before he left it unguarded and she helped herself.  I'm also thankful he and I both just laughed about it and chalked it up to one of those things you learn not to do, leave food unguarded (in his defense, he never had a dog growing up and has no idea how food driven some of them can be).

Ms. GA's granddaughter who lives with her and Mr. BA graduated from college yesterday and today is her party.  I'm thankful I was able to stay extra long and get the house really scrubbed up good and proper in spite of Abigail cats' two mishaps while I was there.  She's having digestive trouble and the vet can't pinpoint why.

Ms. JAI moved several weeks ago and promised to call and let me know her address and the gate code (it's a condo complex) so I could go visit.  I'm thankful her daughter finally called me, told me Ms. JAI is settled in and asked me to come start cleaning for her again, as she's fallen twice since she moved and seems to be having more trouble doing for herself.  I'm thankful to be able to do it.

Please write up your own list and link up to Ten Things of Thankful, where Dyanne and her co-hosts always have a warm welcome waiting.   

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Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- US (honoring those currently serving in the US military)

Be a Millionaire Day - now we all can go for that

Blue Jeans Day -- Levi Strauss and David Jacobs received the patent for their denim pants with riveted pockets on this day in 1873

Dainty-Four Remembrance Day  -- Fairy Calendar

Eliza Doolittle Day* -- in honor of Shaw and his famous fictional character, to encourage proper use of one's native language

Emancipation Day -- Florida, US

Festival of Mjollnir -- Ancient Norse Calendar (feast of Thor's Hammer, date approximate)

Flying Solo Day -- Lindberg began his historic flight on this day in 1927

Frigga Blot -- Slavic Pagan/Asatru (honoring Frigga)    

Grudie Rosnoe -- Slavic Pagan/Asatru (ten days of sacrifices to Rod for rain and good harvests)

Hari Kebangkitan Nasional Indonesia -- Indonesia (Indonesian National Awakening Day)

Independence Day -- East Timor(2002)

Mecklenburg Day -- North Carolina, US (commemoration of the signing of a declaration of independence from England by the citizens of Mecklenburg County on this day in 1775)

National Day -- Cameroon

National Learn To Swim Day -- US (with summer just around the corner, remember that drowning is the second-leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children ages one to 14, so please, learn to swim and teach your kids!) 

National Quiche Lorraine Day

Norman Rockwell Day -- his first Saturday Evening Post cover appeared this day in 1916

Pick Strawberries Day

Skerpla Month begins -- Traditional Icelandic Calendar (Sharpness)

St. Bernadine of Siena's Day (Patron of advertising and advertisers, communications personnel, compulsive gamblers/gambling addicts, public relations work and personnel; Italy; Aquila, Italy; Capri, Italy; Castelspina, Italy; Trevignano, Italy; the diocese of San Bernardino, California; against compulsive gambling, chest, lung, and respiratory problems and hoarseness of the throat)

St. Ives' Day (an honest lawyer; in the Anglican tradition, Patron of abandoned children and orphans, advocates, canon lawyers, judges, lawyers, and notaries; in the Roman Catholic tradition, Patron of Saint Ives, Cambridgeshire, England)

T'veer Chong Kamhaeng -- Cambodia (Day of Remembrance, anniversary of Khmer Rouge regime takeover in 1975, a day to remember all who died at their hands and work for peace)

Weights and Measures Day / World Metrology Day -- anniversary of the treaty in 1875 which established the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, France

World Autoimmune Arthritis Day -- The International Foundation for Autoimmune Arthritis sponsors an online virtual convention in all time zones around the world from today through Wednesday    

*"One evening the King will say, "Oh, Liza, old thing,

I want all of England your praises to sing,

Next week on the twentieth of May,

I proclaim Liza Doolittle Day."

Birthdays Today:

Tahmoh Penikett, 1975

Tony Stewart, 1971

Tony Goldwyn, 1960

Bronson Pinchot, 1959

Ronald Prescott Reagan, 1958

David Paterson, 1954

Cher, 1946

Joe Cocker, 1944

Stan Mikita, 1940

Anthony Zerbe, 1936

George Gobel, 1919

Jimmy Stewart, 1908

Henri Julien Felix Rousseau, 1844

William Fargo, 1818

John Stuart Mill, 1806

Honore de Balzac, 1799

Dolly Madison, 1768

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Elegie für junge Liebende / Elegy for Young Lovers(Opera), 1961

Norman Rockwell's First Saturday Evening Post Cover, 1916

Today in History:

The first Ecumenical Council in the Christian Church, the Council of Nicea, opens, 325

An earthquake kills about 300,000 people in Syria and Antiochia, 526

John Cabot sets sail from Bristol, England, on his ship  Matthew looking for a route to the west, 1497

Cartographer  Abraham Ortelius issues the first modern atlas, 1570

Shakespeare's Sonnets  are first published in London, 1609

Napoleon Bonaparte reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution, 1802

Otto is named the first modern king of Greece, 1835

HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sail from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage in which all hands are lost, 1845

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law, 1862

Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a U.S. patent for blue jeans with copper rivets, 1873

The Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy is formed, 1882

Krakatoa begins to erupt (the volcano's final and most notable explosion will occur on August 26), 1883

The first public display of Thomas Edison's prototype kinetoscope, 1891

Cuba gains independence from the United States, 1902

The Saturday Evening Post publishes its first cover with a Norman Rockwell painting ("Boy with Baby Carriage"), 1916

Montreal, Quebec radio station XWA broadcasts the first regularly scheduled radio programming in North America, 1920

By the Treaty of Jedda, the United Kingdom recognizes the sovereignty of King Ibn Saud in the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, which later merge to become the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 1927

At 07:52 Charles Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York, on the world's first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, 1927

Amelia Earhart takes off from Newfoundland to begin the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot, 1932

In a referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a 60% vote the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada, 1980

First publications of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes AIDS in the journal Science by Luc Montagnier and Robert Gallo individually, 1983

The Chinese authorities declare martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre, 1989

In a second referendum in Quebec, the population rejects by a slight majority the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada, 1995

The independence of East Timor is recognized by Portugal, formally ending 23 years of Indonesian rule and 3 years of provisional UN administration (Portugal itself is the former colonizer of East Timor until 1976), 2002

Scientists at the Craig J. Venter Institute announce they have successfully created the world's first artificial lifeform by transplanting a synthesized genome into an existing cell, 2010

Some of the largest fines ever levied, totaling US$5.7bn, are handed out to the major world banks JPMorgan, Barclays, Citigroup, RBS, and USB, for manipulation of currency markets, 2015

Bangladesh imposes a 65-day ban on coastal fishing to conserve fish stocks, 2019

Israel and Hamas agree to a bilateral ceasefire in Gaza after nearly two weeks of fighting, 2021