Grateful For

blue skies and autumn winds
sons and girlfriends
wet-nosed doggy greetings
surgeons and fingers that work
medical insurance
a good night's sleep
family, near and far
enough food on our plate
farmers
apple pie
yams
fine china
dishwashers
icy ponds
warm jackets and one-size-fits-all stretch gloves
neighbors
sleeping in
loyalty
laughter
smiles
glasses half full
frisbees
hugs
memories

Autumn

I'm not ready for Christmas carols just yet. I'm still enjoying the crunch of leaves and a little Jack Frost every morning. December will come soon enough and our stack of holiday CDs will be playing nonstop. Our home will be taken over by the red-and-green, Santa, snowmen, angels and reindeer overload that I adore.

But for now, the homey hues that remind us of those yummy foods simmering on the stove and fogging up the kitchen window are such a delight after the blatant, showy colors of summer. The heater is on, the down comforter is handy, soup is a mainstay, it's dark at 5:15. Autumn grants us time to slow down and ponder our lives.

The Christmas rush can wait. Anything that's on sale will still be on sale when I'm ready to buy it.

The stitches from surgery number two come out tomorrow (all three of them). CTS has made me slow down and enforced patience which, to my surprise, isn't all that awful. I'm hoping to retain some of the lessons I've learned. Autumn is a wonderful time of year if you slow down to enjoy it and CTS has slowed me down big time over the last five months. Life went on without my to-do list. My self-enforced no-whining zone has brought me new appreciation of my blessings.

My gratitude list is filled with simple everyday joys--and right now, enough sleep at night that I actually dream is at the top.

Our red carpet

Fall can bring such surprising gifts. Like the walk to our door. Very bee-a-you-tee-full!

In the gratitude column, add a surgeon with a light touch. Hand number two throbs a bit, but already feels better than it did pre-surgery this a.m. I can hardly wait tll the stitches are out. It will be like having a real life again. It was a long five months of carpal tunnel and I'm glad to be emerging from the dark.

Off to recouperate and count my blessings.

Old Dog, New Trick

I was bitten by the Scrapbooking Bug a few years ago. I now have

• a decent hoard of cardstock in my favorite colors,
• a membership at my local scrapbooking store where they know my name,
• lots of friends who share my passion for preserving memories before they fade from our brain cells,
• a subscribtion to Memory Makers magazine,
• and a pile of vacation photos taken with future scrapbooking in mind.
  

My current obsession is all the fault of the magazine. For the past year, they have featured more and more articles on digital scrapbooking or, basically, using your computer to do all the work. I never really understood anything about the process, but Saturday was "Digital Scrapbooking Day" (yeah, who knew?) and the magazine featured a free download of some digitial scrapbooking materials. I know enough not to turn my nose up at anything that is truly free, so I downloaded and then realized I had no idea what to do next.

I'm nothing if not resourceful. I googled "how to digital scrapbook" and discovered a wonderful site (www.shabbyprincess.com) with another free download(!) and an even more fabulous tutorial which even I could follow.

Here is the result. Yeah, right now it's just a bunch of pixels floating in cyberspace rather than an honest-to-goodness page that I can put in my scrapbook. I still have to figure out how to manipulate text and rotate elements and about a million other fancy things before I'll be happy enough to have my effort printed. But still, this isn't a bad result for only my second try at this new skill.

And I just realized that using the computer for storage space instead of having my scrapping materials occupy half my desk is pretty cool too! My better half would approve!

The Sinister Side of Life

I still have no date set for surgery on my left hand. I've been unable to get the nurse to call me back and I've been waiting for two weeks now.

The good news is that it is Conference Week with minimum days, so my hand is not getting overworked which usually causes plenty of pain and sleepless nights. I've found that a hotpack each night really relaxes my leftie and so I've gotten some decent sleep recently. My right hand continues to improve and get stronger, although it still has a ways to go. I'm still not able to snap my fingers or open jars, but I can button nicely.

The bad news is that Conference Week will end. And my sweetie needs to take another field trip and can't book it until I have a surgery date. And that the first surgery was scheduled three weeks out...I have no idea if I can survive for another three weeks. The thought that it could be more than three weeks is pretty scary at this point.

I've decided that I can no longer be a patient patient...so I am pulling strings (since I have connections). Keep your fingers crossed for me!