Blessings @ MindSay

Well I made it to another birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my 52nd one, and I am grateful and thankfull to the All Mighty, for the blessings of Life itself, for I didn't have to be born, and so I am very glad I was! Happy b-day to me, happy b-day to me......................yep I was blessed with another one. and that my friends is a GOOD THING   I am proud to be alive.

BLESSINGS

 A Survival Kit for Every Day

TOOTHPICK ... to remind you to pick the good qualities in everyone, including yourself.

RUBBER BAND ... to remind you to be flexible. Things may not always go the way you want, but they can be worked out.

BAND-AID ... to remind you to heal hurt feelings, whether yours or someone else's.

ERASER ... to remind you everyone makes mistakes. That's okay, we learn by our errors.

CANDY KISS ... to remind you everyone needs a hug or a kind word everyday.

MINT ... to remind you that you are worth a mint to your family.

BUBBLE GUM ... to remind you to stick with it and you can accomplish anything.

PENCIL ... to remind you to list your blessings every day.

TEA BAG ... to remind you to take time to relax daily and go over that list of God's blessings.

This is what makes life worth

living every minute, every day.

For fun, I have bagged these items,

 and given them as gifts. 

Not expensive, but often valuable!

COTTONWOOD, Minn. - Four students were killed Tuesday in a school bus crash in southwestern Minnesota, authorities said.

The students were in a Lakeview School bus that was hit by a van around 3:25 p.m. on Minnesota Highway 23 north of Cottonwood, Minnesota State Patrol Lt. Mark Peterson said. The bus then collided with a pickup and tipped on its side.

For full story:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23243603/

Some of you are going *gasp* what a small school and my Gods, those poor families.  Then there is the rest of us that live in the small rural communities in and around MN, are hugging our children rather closer than normal today.  Because those 4 students that were killed and have moved on to rest in their God's arms, were not the only victim's in this crash.  I laughed when I heard down in OK and TX, when people said we are a small town and the town was 30 thousand plus people and then a few thousand more outside of the town.  You see I live in pretty much the same size town that suffered this tragedy.  And it isn't just the family's of those injuried or killed that suffer it is the whole town and the surrounding communities.

My town is 1000 plus or minus depending on the year and another few hundred in the outlaying countryside.  Towns around my town range in populations of a few hundred to maybe a few thousand.  That could have been my community's bus that was crashed into.  That could have been my friends' children, it could have been another towns bus and carried my realitves children, it could have been my kids' classmates' siblings that ride the bus to the public school.  You see in the "larger" towns that have 30 thou or more in population you have a connection of tragedy but there is going to be someone and some family in that town NOT affected.  In towns and villiages that are small rural communities like Cottonwood MN, the tragedy is felt in a larger radious because literally EVERYONE knows EVERYONE even if it isn't personally.  Half the towns this size are related to each other via marriage, immideate, or distant blood ties.  The towns that surround communities of this size, know people intimitly, of, and can relate to this community due to blood ties, friendships forged in highschool, and county events.  This tragedy that Cottonwood MN suffered the whole area in Southwest MN, is suffering because it could have been their kids and ten to one they knew or knew about the kids injuried or killed. 

Not to mention rural communites in MN not apart of this area, SD, IA, ND, and NE are all sending our prayers and our blessings to not only the families that lost their bright lights of their children but to the families of the other children and to the whole of the communites that this tragedy will affect.  We will hold our children a little bit closer today and be thankful that it wasn't our children and our school buses.

Prayers and Blessings going out to Cottonwood, MN.  May Anu wrap the children in love, comfort and warmth that made their way to Her, and may the Gods comfort and help ALL the families in this horrible situation.

This is a picture of my feeder at home and a couple of guest decided to stop by for a meal.

I try to make it my habit, to look for blessings in each day and through out each day, especially while on the road. Why? because life on the road can be extremely tiresome, and my hubby and I both suffer from bouts of depression, and pessimism as I believe most do but on the road it can really wreck havoc with ya. Both of us , hubby and me, suffer with arthritis , hubby in knees, elbows and esp.low back, and me with it all over my body and FMS. The bumpy roads and immobility and sitting and bouncing all day wreck havic with our bodies and emotions. We sleep on a 42 inch wide twin mattress, the both of us, and we are both large people , so sleep is as much of a work ordeal as any other chore, we wake up constantly throughout the night  from pain, crowding or in my case hot flashes and night sweats, and so  we are tired most of the time.

So now back to looking for blessings. Yesterday we stopped in Pittsburg Ks. truck stop , close to Mo. line, to go to the bathroom, as we got out of the truck another trucker stopped my hubby to talk, truck talk, so I went on in to go to the bathroom, and when I returned to our truck they were still talking, and finally hubby went on into the truck stop , while i waited for him to return, I had a strong 'urge' or 'intuition' to stay out of truck and enjoy the out of the ordinary humid warm 70 degree weather , this faint whisper of an urge suggested that I look  on the side of the truck lot where we were parked, it is a grassy area and there is alot of trash stuck in the grass, I felt that if I looked around that I would find some money, so a couple of steps later I looked down , and saw a bill, looking closer I thought it was a dollar, then I saw a 5 and I thought wow a 5 dollar bill, when I picked it up and opened the folded bill it was a 50 dollar bill! How neat is that!

The lesson here is to always be listening and open to that small voice when you get a slight impression to do this or that, or say this or that, you just might be given a blessing .

for what it is worth

be blessed, be a blessing

DG

Irving Berlin's Count your Blessings was one of the songs last night and I confess I have done that when i could not sleep. Here is last nights A-Z of blessings:

A abigail

B bread to eat

C continued health

D democracy

E education

F funny husband

G girlfriends

H holly hedges

I intuition

J Judaism

K kitchen

L love

M material comforts

N neighbors

O olive oil

P Portland

Q questioning rights
R religious freedom
S Sillyness
T thoughtfulness
U understanding
V virtual relationships
W whirlpools
X xtapa
Y young people
Z zabaglione