From Deep In The Grateful Heart Of Texas

Precious Pepper, who lives in Houston with her sweet hubby and three adorable pups, forwarded this to us recently:

                        What if

                          you woke up today

                    with only the things

                           you thanked God for

                               yesterday?

                                                (We apologize—we couldn’t read who said this.)

Powerful. In fact, every time ELC reads it, she gets chills.

Made us have a conversation about our daily prayers. And gratitude. And what’s important in this life.

THEN . . . ELC came up with this idea (she just loves her little games—you know this by now, right?):

Each of us would list nine (yep, for September) things that we would miss tomorrow if they were gone and we could never have them back again. ELC made rules, of course. No obvious things allowed: husbands, mothers, daughters, sons, grandkids, family, friends, pets, homes. No cliché-type things—like laughter and good health—because all of those are givens.

(And, ELC—being The World’s Worst Mathematician Of All Time—is not sure how often this happens, but 9 + 9 = 18. 1 + 8 = 9. (Glynis—and one of those Three Little Piggies— would so understand this.)

NINE THINGS ELC is GRATEFUL FOR (and that she’d miss, terribly, if they were gone tomorrow):

1. My great-grandmother’s rocking chair. It’s at least 120 years old. It sits by our bed and has the most amazing squeaks, creaks and sounds when I park myself there—which is a lot. (I couldn’t rock TLC to sleep in it as a babe—it was too loud!). Makes me feel a connection to someone I’m named after, but never knew. If I shut my eyes, I can see and hear my Nana, who was her daughter, sewing, gardening and cooking
2. The rockers on our front porch. We can actually see thirty miles from the top of our hill. We know this because we’ve seen fireworks on the 4^th of July that are being set off over a big lake that far away. Thirty miles of Texas country beauty—especially stars! (They’re big and bright, you know.)
3. My computer. More specifically—email. It 's become the best way for me to keep in touch with my TLC!
4. My iPod. And iTunes.
5. Pictures/Photographs of our family’s past and present.
6. Clever games like Trivial Pursuit, Apples to Apples, Catch Phrase (all played with kids and grandkids!), and, my most favorite card game of all-time, Bridge. (Been playing Bridge since I was about 12. That’s 45 years. Nana taught me and my siblings, so we could play with her on Sunday afternoon visits to her retirement home. I’m still quite pathetic, but I keep trying. I have very patient Bridge Club members/friends, some of whom have put up with me for 32 years!).
7. Diet Dews/Diet Cherry Coke Zeroes/Sonic Diet Cokes w/vanilla.
8. Chocolate/Sugar/Butter/Cream Cheese. Even though I’ve had very little of any of those in the past three months.
9. TIVO. Nuff said.

TLC’s List is in the works!

Faretheewell, Friends… Have a Wonderful Weekend…