Gratitude List

 Be grateful for the good things that the Lord your God has given you and your family Deut. 26:11a (GNT)

I have heard it said that being grateful is magic. You can change your life by being thankful for all that you have. Miraculous things can happen when you look at your life in a different light. Counting your blessings is a way to make things happen in your life. Okay, that last one may just be what I hope can happen. No matter what it can’t hurt to change your perspective and thank God for all that we have.

I am grateful for:                     A:  Austin-it’s beauty, the weather, the thriving economy

                                                B: Birds-I love to watch them come to our bird feeder

                                                C: Church-Riverbend has been our home for 17 years now

                                                D: Dance and the lessons it has taught all of us

                                                E: the Earth-pulling weeds and digging in the dirt is fun!

                                                F: Family-Steve, Grace, Claire, Henry and our extended family

                                                G: God’s grace-He gives me more than I deserve

                                                H: Health-mine and my families’

                                                I: Insights-Awareness is half the battle

                                                J: Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to take away my sins

                                                K: Kissing my people ;)

                                                L: Laughter especially belly laughs

                                                M: Music-especially singing and worshipping with others

                                                N: Natural remedies-I have cured lots of ailments with tea tree & vinegar

                                                O: Olive Oil-It’s essential since I don’t eat corn, soy or peanut

                                                P: People-church people, ballet people, program people, employers, etc

                                                Q: Quiet time-I love early mornings before the patter of “little” feet

                                                R: Rain-we always need it here in Texas

                                                S: Sunshine!! I love the light and warmth

                                                T: Twelve Step programs-they saved my life and continue to help me live

                                                U: Uncomfortable situation so I can grow and lean into God

                                                V: Verses-memorized ones that come to mind in times of need

                                                W: Windows to look through and see all of God’s creations

                                                X: eXercise-especially swimming! I am a fish!

                                                Y: Years of sobriety and recovery

                                                Z: AmaZing love! God’s love is never-ending, never-failing and always forgiving

Wow! Actually, this turned out to be fairly easy and fun. Here’s a tip-don’t feel like you have to be grateful for the thing all the time. Like sometimes I’m not grateful for rain- especially when we’re supposed to have a pool party. I hope you will try this exercise in expressing thanks to God for all that you have. No matter what, there are things to be grateful for. Let me know how it was for you. Feel free to share it with me. I want to know what you’re grateful for.

90 degrees on May 4th!

This is what you get for choosing to live in Texas! And don't get me wrong I love warm weather. I would much rather be warm than cold any day but it seems like we went from cold to hot in seconds flat. No Spring. We have 2 seasons here in Austin--Summer and Winter--nothing in between. I am complaining but not really. There is one problem though...

I live with a man who is always hot. No matter what he's hot. In the winter with the heat on he walks around in shorts and in the summer with the air conditioning on he walks around in his undershorts. Meanwhile I have a sweater and socks on over my regular outfit-heat on or air on. It's a battle.

It's beautiful and sunny. I love the sunshine. I love the day light from 6:30am until 8pm. I might as well go to sleep at 8pm because all I do is sit around when it's dark. I can't seem to do anything when it's dark.

So, you see, even though I talk about it being hot already, I still love Austin as much as I did the day I stepped foot off the plane in March of 1992. I definitely wouldn't live any place else in Texas and you be hard pressed to get me to live any where that there is not any less than 6 months of summer! So I'm going to get the sunscreen, some lemonade and a fan because I'm staying right here!

Why I love Austin!

Austin is the only place I would live in Texas. When I told my family I wanted to move to Austin, they were perplexed. "Why do you want to live somewhere that has dessert and tumbleweeds?" was the question I got from many of my relatives. I told them that it wasn't like that. I told them about the Hill Country but they just couldn't believe it. I mentioned the bluebonnets in spring and the nice warm water. They couldn't picture it. See, we grew up with 8 months of winter (I may exaggerate slightly-let's say 6 months for argument sake) and none of us moved away...until I took the leap and moved across the country. It was like I moved to a foreign country.

Austin is so beautiful! The water, the hills, the city, the green belt. Austin is so odd! The city's slogan is "Keep Austin Weird" (that may be unofficial). We've got a man named Leslie who wears dresses and runs for mayor regularly. There used to be an event called Spamarama that was dedicated to all things Spam. We have a colony of bats under a bridge that is a highlight for visiting tourists. Austin has tons of live music from country to jazz to Tejano and any other genre you can think of.You want food? What kind? We have anything and everything. My husbands favorite? Anything Mexican-any kind of tacos! My favorite? Seafood. We love going out to eat. It's our entertainment.

I also love Austin because I met my husband here. I believe God wanted me to move to Austin to meet him. I had only lived here about a month when we met and that was that. Total God thing! Our children are native Texans. We love our church. To be honest we have thought about moving on occasion. And you are thinking right now..."she just told us how much she loves Austin?" Well, true. But you try living somewhere that had more than 50 days over 100 degrees! I like warm weather but whew! Anyway, one of the reasons we don't leave is because of our church. Riverbend is such a place of grace that we aren't sure we could find that anywhere else. We are so grateful to have such an awesome church family.

If you haven't been here it may be hard for you to picture how wonderful Austin is. The Capitol. Barton Springs. Loop 360 Bridge. The Greenbelt. The Frost Building. Lady Bird Lake. The Broken Spoke. The Wildflower Center. All this and a bunch more. Y'all come see us!