Keeping grateful

kindergarten

I am glad that my four children loved kindergarten. Three of them had my good friend Margy Hoffman as their teacher. I have a vivid memory of BJ skipping along to and from school and me wishing he would always be this happy!

Unlike my children, I went to two years of kindergarten. I have a late October birthday, which allowed me to enter kindergarten in WA State. But when my dad was transferred to Quantico, VA, the cut off date for birthdays was Sept., so I was not "old" enough to start first grade there and had to go to kindergarten again. I was never grateful for kids teasing me that I had "flunked" kindergarten!

kitchen

I am grateful that I have had four brand new kitchens in my married life. This current house had its kitchen remodeled two different times--the first time we lived in it (1987-1991) and it was made larger when we moved back and bought it a second time in 1994. In that interim of living in RI and NJ, I had a brand new kitchen in a new home in RI and another remodeled kitchen in NJ. They've all had granite top baking centers, which were excellent for kneading bread upon, something I did often when the children were young and could help. Each one got his/her own tiny loaf of hot bread from the oven.

knee

I am grateful that the arthroscopic knee surgery from last year relieved the pain in my knee. I feel fortunate that I no longer have pain, especially when walking up and down stairs. I am glad that praying the Jesus Prayer throughout kept me calm and relaxed my muscles. While I was doing that, the doctor told me, "Whatever you're doing, keep doing it!" which I understand to mean he could tell a difference from when I wasn't praying and I was.

kindness

I value kindness. I end my emails with a quote about kindness:

"The highest form of wisdom is kindness." (The Torah)

This is also framed on the wall of the bathroom. It was on a card I bought in Morristown, NJ before we moved back to TX in 1994.