Monday, November 21, 2011

Reflections & Blessings


1.  We have had a magnificent fall here in the Northeast.  The temperatures are still in the 60s...the leaves changed color but are hanging out, blessing us with their beauty!

2.  I am still going on my morning walk.  It's a time to relax and reflect for me.  I have spent so much of my life too busy to really think about what I was doing or where I was going or how I was doing it.  My morning walks are a time to reflect, to think of how I want to live my life, where I am and where I am going and why I am doing the things I am doing. 

3.  We have so much.  We have been so blessed.  We have everything we need and most of what we want.  We have so much that I have spent MONTHS cleaning things out, filling bags and making donations to the Lupus Foundation, the Veterans, the Salvation Army and the Goodwill.  We have decided to be very purposeful about our Christmas shopping.  The girls are each getting one big thing and a couple of small things from us.  All of our other Christmas money will be donated to charity.  The girls have been given some options for charities that they would like to support with donations made in their names.

4.  One of the things that I am most grateful for is the relationship my girls have with my mom.  I am super thankful for my mom and just for the person that she is.  If she did not have the personality that she does, my girls would not have the relationship with her that they have.  My mom has ALWAYS been involved in my girls' lives.  When we lived 2.5 hours away, my mom came up AT LEAST once a month to see A.  When we lived an hour away, my mom was at our house AT LEAST weekly.  She is ALWAYS there when we need her.

5.  Both of my girls want to be fashion designers.  My mom's mom came to America from Italy in 1920 and worked as a seamstress, she passed along her skills to my mom.  My mom is now passing those skills to my girls.  Once a week, while I am at work, my mom picks up the girls and takes them out to lunch and then brings them to her house and gives them "sewing lessons".  Not only are my girls learning to sew, they are also learning about their family, their heritage, our family values....  PRICELESS lessons.  They sometimes tell my mom some pretty embarrassing things about me, which we laugh about later ;-)  The time spent with my mom and the relationship they are developing is a true blessing.

6.  We finally got an answer to our roof issue.  It has been causing me a lot of stress.  {My problems could be so much greater}.  When we thought we needed a new roof, roofers came out.  Thankfully they were all honest about the shingles being in great shape - and relatively new maybe 10-13 years old.  BUT no one ever got back to us on the leak!  A friend gave me the number of a friend and he called me back the next day and came out and took a look and figured out the problem!  It may take him a few attempts to fix it--as there are nails that are not in the correct place...he thinks this was someone's first day on the job.  I was concerned about nails being out of place ALL OVER THE ROOF, but my father-in-law, who is a retired carpentar pointed out that usually each roofer takes a section and the guy that did that one section screwed up, but not to think the other sections are screwy if they have been on there for 10 years.  Plus, even though a few nails were out of place, it was not an issue until our home sustained hurricane force winds!  Fortunately we don't get hurricanes often in NJ!

7.  We had been saving for a BIG vacation this year, but when we thought we needed a roof, we decided to use that money toward the roof...now that we DON'T need a roof...we are trying to decide if we just like that money in savings (nice to see a big balance) or if we want to go on vacation (we are realizing that we are not travelers as we have no places that we are dying to go!  Well, other than the lake!) or if we want to do some remodeling (we really are homebodies)....
8.  I really love where we live.  It is so beautiful.  I love the fall.  I love the leaves changing and the crisp days.  I love the anticipation of the holidays...

What have you been reflecting on lately?

I am linking up with Carissa for 
Miscellany Monday @lowercase letters