Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

I was looking back at the post for Thanksgiving Day 2014. I was only going there to do a picture grab, but I read the post and I thought I'd repost it. It is very much related to my thoughts on today.

No, I won't be spending Thanksgiving with my sister, as said in the post for last year. She is in the UAE, and since there is no thanksgiving there, she has to work today. But she and a few people of her group are getting together after work to celebrate Thanksgiving together. I saw on Facebook that she is making strawberry shortcake using our mother's cake recipe. She was so excited. And I am excited for her, as she is assimilating well into the culture there. Today is her "Friday" (they work from Sunday-Thursday), so I know she is happy for the weekend.

I will miss spending the day with her. Our family doesn't get together on the holidays, so she and I had developed a tradition of our own- spending Thanksgiving and Christmas together. That's no longer the case. Hey, maybe I will go visit her next year during this time. That's an idea.

I had no plans for today. Cowgirl Cre's parents live a few miles away, and I may go over there.

When asked about this the other day, I hollered "I'm calling a fast for Thanksgiving!"

She and a coworker Zack were O_O.

No, I'm not doing that. It was a thought, though! But I have already had my morning smoothing of super greens and kale. Good stuff!

And I may bake some chicken wings. That's up in the air. I may just have a salad. I may shoot by Cowgirl Cre's folks later on. We will see.

So I wanted to post the post from last year, as it is something to think about.

Repost from Thanksgiving 2015

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

It is 10:00 a.m. as I write this post on Thanksgiving Day and I have finished my cooking.  I will post pictures later. But I only made veggies (and some dressing), and I am headed over to my sister's house at noon. She doesn't have cable, so I will miss football (darn). But that's okay. I will watch the highlights on ESPN later on tonight.

But as you can see, I want to do something different on a holiday, as I usually put up a banner of some sort and go on about my business.

I have been meditating on a particular scripture for nearly a year now.

Colossians 3:16 (Message Version)

Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

There's a lot going on in that scripture. But for some reason the part I highlighted in red... that's the part that has stuck in me. That's the part I've been meditating and chewing on.

Those three simple words... And cultivate thankfulness... are action packed.

The word "cultivate" is an interesting word. When I see it, I think of a garden, and how you have to break up the soil to prepare the garden for seed, or to keep the plants growing properly.

There are several definitions of the word "cultivate":

Prepare or use land for gardening.
Try to develop or acquire a quality sentiment or skill
Grow or maintain living tissues in culture
Try to win the friendship or favor of someone
Apply oneself to improving or developing one's minds or manners

Whatever the definition may be, it involves some action on our parts... prepare, develop, acquire, grow, maintain, favor, apply and so on.

Back to that statement... "Cultivate Thankfulness"

To me, it means work on my thankfulness (or thanksgiving). Be mindful of it. Think on it, meditate on it. Grow in that area. Apply myself in that area.

Cultivate, cultivate, cultivate... just like working the soil of the ground, I have to continually work on being thankful, working it into the very fabric of my life.

And you would think no one would have to say "cultivate thankfulness", or it wasn't important to point out. For we all have things for which to be thankful, right?

But let me ask you a question...

How many people have you been around who murmur and complain incessantly? How much have you murmured and complained?

How many thankful people have you been around? More specifically, how many people have you been around who always find the good in a situation and who always find the silver lining of the dark cloud?

If you're anything like me, and if you are paying close attention, the numbers are severely lopsided. There are many many more complainers than thankful people in our lives. People are well developed in either one direction or the other. And that's sad.

That's why that verse has stayed on my mind.

Our hearts are very fertile soil. Anything-attitudes, beliefs, morals, idiosyncracies, etc- will grow in this "soil" when planted. And it will grow like crazy.

As for myself, on this Thanksgiving day, and frankly all this year, I've made a considerable effort to grow thankfulness in this fertile soil of mine.

And I'm glad of it. It has freed my mind.

So today, be mindful of one thing:

"And Cultivate Thankfulness"

And the more thankful we are, the more there will have in the future to be thankful for.

I can promise you that.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!! 

TWO Tuesday Thoughts... The Thanksgiving Edition

Here's an easy one:

TWO Tuesday Thoughts.

Around this time, I look back at my year, and I think about the turning points and changes. There are areas in my life where I have stayed the same, and I regret that. Those are the rusty dusty areas that I need to work through, and that will happen. But there have and have always been some good things, some great blessings.

And here are two great things for which I am thankful

1. I received a promotion this year.  I am still a bit surprised by this. I'd stop applying for promotions on the job years ago, as there was too much drama going on. So I applied for this job last year, and lo and behold, I got it. Not only did I get a promotion, but I got a new, more private cubicle, and a great boss. It all worked out well.

There are the ups and downs. I am "Dr. LadyLee" for real now. There is not much routine now, and I have to critically think more about what I'm doing and what I want to do, which has been a strain at times. (The biggest reason I say that is because my passion and purpose is NOT my profession of chemistry. It is writing). And it gets a bit rough dealing with a group full of PhDs. We do have our egos, and I have had to learn to work through that, because you know how laid back I am. I don't care for the pissing contests, etc. And I have to make sure that I don't get caught up in that. I make sure to examine my own ego and attitude, and keep it in balanced.

Every day has the potential to be a good day, and at the end of the day, I spend time thinking about what I have learned and how I have increased during that day. I must say that there have been NO days where I have learned nothing of interest. I have increased in knowledge daily. And there have been more days where I have been helpful in the lab and to my group in general.

Now THAT makes me happy. I am thankful for that.

2. I spent the summer with my sister.  That was TOTALLY unexpected. I was dealing with just being all emotional over her leaving for the UAE as it was. I think she told me she was officially hired sometime back in late spring, so that gave me time to get past it. She moved in with me after her lease expired on July 1st. We thought she would be leaving around August 1st, but she left on October 1st. So I got 3 WHOLE MONTHS with my sister. That was so unexpected. And I am thankful for that. I pray about it often. When I am down, I think about how God cared so much for me and knew that I needed that time with her.
 
And it made me examine some of the things going on in my life, and some of the answered prayers. I get answers to prayers that I haven't even figured out how to fully verbalize.  I have a much deeper appreciation of the depth and breadth of the answers these days. For some reason, my time with my sister helped me understand that a little better, if that makes any sense.

I still have to fight back the urge to holler upstairs to her, though.

"Kay, you hungry? I'm cooking something if you hungry."

She's not there. She's on the other side of the world. 

My eyes get wet over it from time to time, but there is no full out crying. I just take a time to be still and calm down, and give thanks for all the time I had with her this summer.  It was so unexpected. Granted, my utility bills went up, and as I paid my bills, I remember how I would say a prayer of thanksgiving for just having the money to pay bills, and to be able to afford to help my sister the best I could. It was all worth spending that time with her.

That's it for my 2 Tuesday Thoughts, my thanksgiving edition!

Happy COLD Monday Morning

It is Monday morning.

And it is COLD.

Specifically, it is 35 degrees in my beloved ATL.

35 degrees!

But you know what the silver lining is here?

There's NO rain. And it's going to be sunny all week long. Cold and sunny, but sunny all week long!

GLORY.

And you know what? That's all I can ask for. Because after all that rain? I didn't think we would EVER see the sun again. EVER.

Alas we see it. On Thanksgiving week, no less.

And this is a 2 day work week for me! So good, so good, so good!!

I didn't post much last week because I was so busy. It is rare that my mind is tied up in scientific things and I'm all O_O. I was learning a new procedure from someone who only gives 10% of the instructions and then the other 90% must be figured out on my own. I can't stand that. I am very detailed. Stop being nebulous, dude. So I was working hard on that. It got to the point where i would just come home and go to bed.

I told my boss the other day "My bullshit antennae is sky high and you need to make me feel better about what I'm doing."

And you know what? He did. Then the other boss came along and made me understand more. So now I have a correct state of mind to work out of. Thank goodness for that.

(I know that probably doesn't make much sense. Oh well).'

Look who I ran into the other day:

Snake! The self-appointed "Mayor" of my Hood! And the Poet Laureate of my blog. Just search his name in this blog and plenty of posts and poems come up.

I see Snake from time to time. I just don't get much of a chance to stop and talk, as I am driving and/or he is on his way somewhere. Well, I saw him in the middle of the day last week, on Veterans day, I believe. I happen to be off that day. He came running at me, his hands waving all over the place.

"LadyLee, I need some help!"

"Wassup," I said.

"I need to fill out a job application, but I need to do it on the computer."

I was silent, wondering what it had to do with me.

"I don't have a computer, can I use yours."

"Yes," I said. Stop through in another hour.

He was happy, his toothless grin wide. "Thank you so much!"

"No problem," I said as I sped off down the road.

I have my regular laptop and a netbook I rarely use around the house, so I figured I would just charge up the netbook and just let him sit outside and use my internet to do his application.

(At the same time, I was hoping he wouldn't run down the road with my stuff and sell it...)

He rang the doorbell and I handed him the netbook. He stared at it.

"What?" I asked. "Just sit out here on the porch and use it."

"Ladylee," he hollered. "I don't know how to use a computer or the internet."

"Really?"

"No, I don't. You have to help me."

So he came in and we sat at the dining room table and I pulled up the website and typed in all his information. It took all of 15 minutes."

"Thank you so much. I knew you would help me."

And I was glad to do so. It was such a simple thing to me, but it meant much to him. I can't imagine people not know how to use the internet. He actually had a cell phone, and he already had a gmail address, so that's a good start. But I remember the internet wasn't popular until I was well into my grad school years. It took much to get accustomed to even then.

I learned from him that the guy who takes care of my yard is locked up. My yard looks a mess right now. Thank goodness it's cold, because I can just take care of it myself. My yard man Wayne got caught running up in a house under construction. I guess they caught him running out with something. And I haven't seen him in a few weeks.

"I will go bail him out if it will cost less than $15," I said.

That's how much I pay to have my whole yard, front and back, done: $15.

Snake said, "Uh, more like $1500 or so."

Oh well. I won't be seeing Wayne no time soon. I even spent time cutting and shaping my hedges in the front yard. Oh well.

I need my leaves raked now. I'm going to just pull out the leaf blower and work it out. I can do it. I know I can.

And that will be my goal for my 5 day holiday weekend: straighten out my yard. That looks to be a combination of some leaf raking and grass cutting. I will spend no more than 30 minutes a day on it. That is all. Good enough. I would take a before and after picture of it, but honestly, it's not all that bad and may not be that much of a difference. Once I rake leaves, they will continue falling, but I have to at least stay on top of it.

Fun, fun, FUN!

I have a ton of half done posts that I want to put up. So I will jumping through those. I need about 45 more posts to surpass last years total, and that shouldn't be a problem.

Song of the Week. What is up with that Drake song? The Hotline Bling.

I say that because I saw the video, which was... interesting. But it samples something. And I remembered which song. MC Hammer's "Why can't we live together"



But it turns out that the Hammer song samples another song: Timmy Thomas "Why can't we live together"



Now, Drake's song sounds closer to Timmy Thomas' version. But Hammer's version stuck closer to the message of the original song. Drake's version is in the direction of some thotness.  Nothing wrong with that. Just a sign of the times, I suppose.

LOL. Can we please get some original music... Please.

Uh, no.

And it's okay.

Because I am the The Original Oldgirl. And that's all that matters.

This is Thanksgiving weekend! Please take a little time to ponder your year and what you're thankful for.

If you do, you will find out there's so much. So so much.

The Sad World

This must be how the world feels right about now...

It's because it's been that kind of a weekend.

Wait, it's been that kind of the week.  You do know that there were 2 huge terrorist attacks last week, right (in Lebanon and France)? And let's not leave out that Russian plane blowing up in the sky a couple of weeks ago.

Man. It's been that kind of month. 

But I think it is just this type of thing happening in "western" civilization that has everyone O_O. And rightfully so. This, like the 9/11 tragedy, is on our doorstep and in our face. We can't ignore it. It is brutal and sudden. It makes us sits up and take notice.

Some countries deal with such ratchetness and tragedy on a daily basis. And we look at it and say... oh, that's sad. Then we go on about our business.

I am always amazed (and thankful) that this type of thing doesn't happen here in the USA. Do you know how great it is to go about your day and not have to worry about attacks? I think we take it for granted.

But when it happened in Paris, there is the thought that it can happen here, too.  That is scary and something to think about.

I'm not sure that we will have a peaceful world. I don't think there has ever been a time when the world was peaceful. The only reason it is ratcheted up is because everything is now caught on film. Everything. And in recent years, we have social media. That has changed everything too.

I think we should just strive to find peace within ourselves. That is my goal, anyway.  That's probably even one of the roots of the problem.


And that is all I have to say about that.

Friday Freestyles... The Pictures Edition

It's Friday!!!

And it's all sunny outside!

I arrived to work at 7:30 am, and traffic was all light... And did I mention that it was a sunny day??

And this is how I'm feeling. I'm feeling like Elsa from Frozen... on a good day:



Ha Ha!! 

I don't know why that little video made me so happy. But it did.

This is more of a picture edition of Friday Freestyles. Happy Pictures!!

Kentucky.  My sister Kentucky seems to be doing quite well. We talk often. It's like she's in the next room. Sister Callie seems to be calming down, as she has been acting up and acting out since my sister (who happens to be her person), has gone.

Kentucky went to a water park last week. She sent a picture.

Look at that! Look at those desert rocks/mountains. How beautiful is that? And it was especially nice to get such a picture during this Atlanta monsoon season, lol. I could just sit out there and go to sleep. It looks so peaceful!

Salad. Here's my salad of the week.

I've ditched salad this week for some reason. I have gone straight kale. Maybe it's because I don't have any of my usual spring lettuce on hand. And I don't plan on going to the store until tonight. 

But my coworker Lady D likes raw kale with a splash of lemon and olive oil, and a pinch of garlic and cayenne pepper. That's been my salad base ALL week long. Something different and so so good.

That's it for me! I have more pics, but I will save those for next week.

I have a semi-busy weekend planned. We will see how it works out.

Have a good weekend! On purpose!!