Gratitude Journal #28

Sunday evening, and here I am, at my computer, writing the Gratitude Journal post. I think this is a habit that may stick. Of course, in order for it to stick tonight, I had to decide that I should not get up and feed the dogs (although it is already past their dinner time) because if I did, I would not come back and write this. They will get fed when I am done.

It has been a pretty good week, and an excellent weekend. My best friend came and stayed for the weekend as a little get-away. On Saturday, we smoked ribs and chicken, and another good friend came over for dinner. We even played a fun board game to end the night.

It has also been a weekend full of shopping, and both things I am grateful for tonight are weekend purchases. (But the pictures are of my dogs from 8 years ago. The reason for this is that they are cuter than chest freezers or gardening gloves.)

Gratitude Entry #65 – Chest freezers
We have had a chest freezer since we got married. It was a gift from my grandparents. The one they gave us followed us through three houses and 15 years. We left it at the last house because we did not have a new house to move it to. We have been making due with just the freezer in our refrigerator since we moved in in January. But this month, CostCo had an amazing deal on a chest freezer, but only in store. So we borrowed a friend’s SUV (another thing to be grateful for) and went to CostCo to buy our 7 cubic foot chest freezer for under $200. It is now sitting in our kitchen, plugged in, and waiting to be filled up. We have not had a good stockpile of frozen goods because we did not have room for them. That means no frozen pizzas, only one pack of chicken at a time, trying to figure out what we’re doing with half a brisket, etc. No more. Once again, there is a chest freezer in our home, and our food stockpiling (so that we don’t have to shop as often) will soon begin.

Gratitude Entry #66 – Thick gardening gloves
Please understand, the “thick” part is essential. Today, I dealt with a number of blackberry vines that were growing out over our lawn. Some of them were well over two feet out into the grass. I had not dealt with them before this because I could not find our pruning shears, nor did I have a pair of gardening gloves that could stand up to the thorns. This morning, I gave up on finding our pruning shears and went to buy a new pair. While at the store, I found these really nice, all purpose, insulated work gloves. Now, on a couple of the thicker, older vines, if I wasn’t paying attention and put a finger directly on the thorn, it would go through. But for the most part, I nearly filled our yard waste bin with blackberry vines, without being stabbed by the thorns. Invasive, non-native blackberry vines are a norm in the Seattle area, and now, I am better equipped to handle my battles with them.