Eleven Down

The year 2020 has sort of turned into a Survival of the Fittest competition. Or at least the Luckiest.

So we do weird things like celebrate surviving 11 months of 2020 – with 8 of those (or 270 days) in a "working from home, wear a mask in public, social distance from loved ones" frame of mind. So, yay!

Unfortunately, this is where we're at in my county (Wood County) regarding the virus that won't go away...

A month ago, we had 1,782 total positive cases versus 4,230 today. Our county COVD-19 related deaths tripled from 9 to 27. In Wisconsin we jumped from 214,996 to 387,235 cases and from 1,948 to 3,313 deaths. 

If this was a report card, we'd be failing. Actually, if this was real life, we'd be failing, too. 

Now that hubby and I personally know about a dozen people (not all our county) who have battled this – some still battling – we see it impacts everyone differently. Not only the symptoms, but the severity. It's a crap shoot what you're going to have to deal with if you get it. And I'm not ready gamble.

I hear there are some cute Christmas face masks out there!

Be safe, everyone. Let's finish strong!

Seven-plus Swans A-Swimming

Seven swans a-swimming?! I heard you groan. Don't worry, I'm not going to take my blog through the 12 days of Christmas. Though I have before.

Today's swans a-swimming were literally swans a-swimming on Lake Wazeecha when I walked around it today. This family here is a mom and day and their 7 swan kids... a-swimming or something. Ended up seeing 16 so I guess it was a perfect day for them to rest on their way South. 

I won't be able to walk around the lake tomorrow since it's "return to work after a 5-day weekend" Monday. So I don't know if we're transitioning into the geese a-laying part of the song. I guess there were way more 6 geese today on the lake, laying around doing nothing, if that counts.

It all makes sense this is happening since this is the first Sunday of Advent and we've got all kinds of Christmas excitement to both experience and look forward to.

When I saw this single ornament hanging from a tree along the walking path, it just spoke Advent to me. Is this the first of many ornaments along this path? Or the only one? It's the start of the beginning, if that makes sense, like pregame before the Vikings game (by the way, their victory actually aired on TV here today. Thought I'd throw that in there). 

While the NFL season is pretty hopeless for some of us, at least we know Advent is always a season of hope and wonderment. With a very happy ending, er beginning.

Were there more ornaments on this trail today? I won't tell. Every individual should experience the faith, hope, and magic of Advent in their own walking shoes. 

On their own path.

#advent #countdowntochristmas

Gratitude from A to XYZ

Alphabetical gratitude month concludes today with the letters X, Y, and Z, which kind of means I'm cheating at the end. But I'm in a multi-tasking frame of mind.

A = Autumn, Austins, Assumption
B = Ballots, Books, Book Club, Bible
C = Casey, Clay, Carter, Church, Creativity, Camera
D = Dad, Daughters, Deck Chair, Dar, Design
E = Eggs, Election, Energy, Empty Nest
F = Family, Friends, Faith, Flu Shot, FastForward
G = Games, Golf, Guilty pleasures
H = Hugs, Hurricanes, Humor
I = Ice cream, Impromptu Invitations
J = Jim, Jokes, Job, Java
K = Kindness, King Cone, Knock on Wood, Karma
L = Laughters, Love
M = Mom, Masters, Musicals
N = Nieces, Nephews, Neighbors, Norse Force
O = Outage
P = Pigging Out, Passport, Phone
Q = Quiet
R = R People
S = Scandi-hoovian-ism, Sisters, Sylvester
T = Thanksgiving, Tree, Teachers, Turkey
U = Unicorns, U.S. University 
W = Whirlwind, Walk

XYZ: The whirlwind of activity has continued. Pretty much the quickest 4 days off here with nothing to show for it. I should be at the family cookie bake Up North today, but COVID canceled that. So for the first year, I was able to attend both days of the Cranberry Classic basketball tournament hosted by Assumption. To reduce crowd sizes they had just girls play yesterday and today. Boys will play close to New Year's. So I was able to shoot photos over two days. Hundreds and hundreds of them.

In between that, I did get to a few places on Black Friday – specifically Michael's and Joann Fabrics looking for yarn. There's a Y word. Grateful I found some. I also had a photo shoot this morning for someone's family Christmas card. That was fun. And since today was like 40 degrees out, I decorated our outdoor Christmas tree – surprise gift from our friends Mike and Cindy!

Just had to put on the white lights. God provided the sunset!

It sure put me in the Christmas spirit. I'm exhausted from "working" so this was as far as I got. But maybe I'll add some cheers indoors tomorrow. 'Tis the season.

And still the season to be grateful, too. Thanks for riding along on my alphabetical gratitude journey. In a nutshell: X-amine Your bleZZingZ daily!

#gratitudemonth #gratitudealphabet

Wonderful Wizards

Happy Thanksgiving! Alphabetical gratitude month continues today in the final stretch with the letter W, which is a shout out to all you wonderful wizards!

A = Autumn, Austins, Assumption
B = Ballots, Books, Book Club, Bible
C = Casey, Clay, Carter, Church, Creativity, Camera
D = Dad, Daughters, Deck Chair, Dar, Design
E = Eggs, Election, Energy, Empty Nest
F = Family, Friends, Faith, Flu Shot, FastForward
G = Games, Golf, Guilty pleasures
H = Hugs, Hurricanes, Humor
I = Ice cream, Impromptu Invitations
J = Jim, Jokes, Job, Java
K = Kindness, King Cone, Knock on Wood, Karma
L = Laughters, Love
M = Mom, Masters, Musicals
N = Nieces, Nephews, Neighbors, Norse Force
O = Outage
P = Pigging Out, Passport, Phone
Q = Quiet
R = R People
S = Scandi-hoovian-ism, Sisters, Sylvester
T = Thanksgiving, Tree, Teachers, Turkey
U = Unicorns, U.S. University 

Whirlwind: Today I was blessed to be part of a whirlwind of my own making. There's a crazy amount of prep that goes into holiday meals. Anyone who can synchronize the completion of the turkey, potatoes, and dressing is a wizard to be sure! 

I had to cheat. Pies yesterday. Turkey breasts in the oven this morning then crockpot. Made the Apple-Snicker Salad while those were cookin'. Potatoes today in the crockpot. Dressing in the oven. (Yes, I tried my mother-in-law's recipe and it was passable!). Somehow it was synced enough that when Carter and his girlfriend showed up at 4 p.m., we could deliver Thanksgiving Meals on Wheels to Jim's parents and then to Clay and his girlfriend. They were wayyyy appreciative. And then come home to eat our meal. I told everyone to eat in slow-motion because no way did what felt like 24 hours of prep work deserve to disappear in 8 minutes.

Walk: So glad I took a walk in the early afternoon to pre-emptively burn all these Turkey Day fat calories. That's how it works, doesn't it?

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving! It was different to not be surrounded by family. How we wish things were different. But it was the smart thing to do. Plus more pumpkin pie and whipped cream for me. Wow.

#gratitudemonth #gratitudealphabet

V-V-V-Very Nice

Alphabetical gratitude month continues today in the final stretch with the letter V, which could be very, very good!

A = Autumn, Austins, Assumption
B = Ballots, Books, Book Club, Bible
C = Casey, Clay, Carter, Church, Creativity, Camera
D = Dad, Daughters, Deck Chair, Dar, Design
E = Eggs, Election, Energy, Empty Nest
F = Family, Friends, Faith, Flu Shot, FastForward
G = Games, Golf, Guilty pleasures
H = Hugs, Hurricanes, Humor
I = Ice cream, Impromptu Invitations
J = Jim, Jokes, Job, Java
K = Kindness, King Cone, Knock on Wood, Karma
L = Laughters, Love
M = Mom, Masters, Musicals
N = Nieces, Nephews, Neighbors, Norse Force
O = Outage
P = Pigging Out, Passport, Phone
Q = Quiet
R = R People
S = Scandi-hoovian-ism, Sisters, Sylvester
T = Thanksgiving, Tree, Teachers, Turkey
U = Unicorns, U.S. University

Video: Thanks to COVID, the winter sports season is going to look a bit different than usual. But not so different from football and volleyball. Limited spectators – like 4 tickets per athlete – and video viewing of the games via lifestream for the rest of us. I'm so grateful for that! Last night we got to watch our Assumption girls start their season up at Edgar. Since we got a few inches of snow during the day, I was fine with not driving anywhere. It's just not the same as cheering them on in person. But that's life in a coVid world. Very vexing at times!

Vacation: Since we did awaken to this scene, I'm so grateful I'm on vacation. Not that had a commute anyway, but still, I can only call it "pretty" when I have no place to go! And I didn't have time. It was not meant to be a relaxing vacay day. Not the day before Thanksgiving.

I do prefer this "snowman" to the ones outside. Yup, got 4 pumpkin pies baked today. Potatoes peeled. Bread cubed up for dressing. And house cleaning, too. Very productive! Can't wait to act as the Austin Meals on Wheels tomorrow! 

Veterinarian: I'm grateful the vet could put up with Princess Hiss-A-Lot today. She doesn't like strangers. Or being out of our home. But it's just once a year. The vet said she was healthy as a kitty though! She did have to get a rabies shot in her backside somewhere. I think she's still holding a grudge against her favorite human. I mean he grabs her while she's napping, shoves her in a box, makes her ride in a moving vehicle, then thrusts her into the arms of someone who just poked and prodded her and inflicted pain. Sylvester is literally napping on my office floor right now while I type and while her human is in bed. Total cold shoulder move. Hope she forgives him by morning! 

Hope you find a variety and vast amount of blessings on your Thanksgiving, too!

#gratitudemonth #gratitudealphabet

The U in GratitUde

Alphabetical gratitude month continues today with the letter U which reminds us to be grateful for our unexpected blessings!

A = Autumn, Austins, Assumption
B = Ballots, Books, Book Club, Bible
C = Casey, Clay, Carter, Church, Creativity, Camera
D = Dad, Daughters, Deck Chair, Dar, Design
E = Eggs, Election, Energy, Empty Nest
F = Family, Friends, Faith, Flu Shot, FastForward
G = Games, Golf, Guilty pleasures
H = Hugs, Hurricanes, Humor
I = Ice cream, Impromptu Invitations
J = Jim, Jokes, Job, Java
K = Kindness, King Cone, Knock on Wood, Karma
L = Laughters, Love
M = Mom, Masters, Musicals
N = Nieces, Nephews, Neighbors, Norse Force
O = Outage
P = Pigging Out, Passport, Phone
Q = Quiet
R = R People
S = Scandi-hoovian-ism, Sisters, Sylvester
T = Thanksgiving, Tree, Teachers, Turkey

Unicorns: What's not to appreciate about unicorns? I, for one, am grateful for them. A couple of us at work call it a "unicorn" when our to-do list is done. Yes, it is as rare as a unicorn. I mean they exist, but they're rare, right? We've had only a handful of unicorns in 2020. Now we call it a "partial unicorn" (isn't that a horse?) if we just get to the point we don't need the computer mouse to actually scroll through the entire task list. I'm grateful for my partial unicorn, horse, reindeer, whatever you want to call it, today so I can take one of those unusual guilt-free Thanksgiving vacations! 

U.S.: I'm also grateful for the United States of America. No political comments, I swear. Since I just watched Hamilton recently, I was reminded again of what it took to actually create these states to begin with, let alone unite them. We live in a pretty incredible country. I'd like to see more uniting than fighting. That would be the ultimate blessing!

University: I'm hoping that by pre-appreciating the University of Wisconsin-Platteville for providing 4 1/2 years of education to our son, that it'll lead to something unbelievably good when he virtually walks across the commencement stage in a couple weeks. Thanks, University!  (Hey, I might as well keep the unicorns coming!)

#gratitudemonth #gratitudealphabet #unicornsRreal

Thankfulness to a T

 

Alphabetical gratitude month continues today with the letter T which leads to Thanksgiving, which is what started this whole gratitude month to begin with! It's terrific!

A = Autumn, Austins, Assumption
B = Ballots, Books, Book Club, Bible
C = Casey, Clay, Carter, Church, Creativity, Camera
D = Dad, Daughters, Deck Chair, Dar, Design
E = Eggs, Election, Energy, Empty Nest
F = Family, Friends, Faith, Flu Shot, FastForward
G = Games, Golf, Guilty pleasures
H = Hugs, Hurricanes, Humor
I = Ice cream, Impromptu Invitations
J = Jim, Jokes, Job, Java
K = Kindness, King Cone, Knock on Wood, Karma
L = Laughters, Love
M = Mom, Masters, Musicals
N = Nieces, Nephews, Neighbors, Norse Force
O = Outage
P = Pigging Out, Passport, Phone
Q = Quiet
R = R People
S = Scandi-hoovian-ism, Sisters, Sylvester

Thanksgiving: I love Christmas, but I really appreciate Thanksgiving and what it stands for, too. It's what this gratitude month is all about. Our acts of thanksgiving. Not lamenting what we don't have or can't do in 2020, but appreciating the blessings we do have and things we can still do – even in a pandemic. Thanksgiving is more than a holiday. It's a 365-day action of thankfulness. An attitude that goes a long way to positive, healthy thinking!

Tree: What tree? Oh, my family tree. I am grateful for my hubby for spurring my interest in family tree work. He started in high school and I started after Carter was born. So I missed out on a lot of time with living relatives who were the brain trust of our family history. My active interest and work on it goes in spurts. Usually more attention in winter months when there's not much else going on. Or in a pandemic year. My mysteries are many. And I continue to welcome clues. Jim could write a book on his but still, he was overjoyed tonight to learn two more names on his tree – grandparents that I think are 4 or 5 generations back. Totally awesome! I'm also thankful for technology, which has enabled me to search and find many answers and ancestors. Our history is at our finger tips. Just need to set aside time to tap into it.

Teachers: Just a shout out to teachers today, too. I can't imagine how you do what you in normal circumstances. Throw in social distancing, a virus, and virtual learning (and teaching), and it's crazy amazing. I know a lot of you are teaching to two audiences at once – half class in school and half class online – plus still trying to get to know your students, who've been hiding behind masks or a computer monitor. Bless you and all you do to keep our future on track.

Turkey: As excitement goes, I suppose turkeys are the lefse of meat. But I'm grateful to cook and deliver some turkey meals for isolated family on Thanksgiving. Plus thankful that tomorrow is my Friday so I have time to get things done. Thank you, Tuesday!

#gratitudemonth #gratitudealphabet