I Like Thursday

On Thursday a group of bloggers link with LeeAnna of Not Afraid of Color to share lists of things that fill them with gratitude or bring them joy.

Today is my father’s birthday and I always enjoy thinking of him and some of his many adventures. I’m sharing one of my favourite photos of a very gentle man. I seem to really miss him this date but chuckle when I think of him trying to remember all of the great grandchildren and great great grands’ names. He always got muddled when we all 4 were together with all of our littles. 😉

These past few weeks we have been sharing a prompt to see what common interests we have.

This weeks prompt involves school supplies, favourite ones we used or still used, and why.

For me as a child getting ready for school in a large portion of my childhood meant a trip to Winnipeg to shop for back to school clothes. I was a daughter of an Air Force member so the years we lived on base meant our books, pencils, paper, etc. was all supplied so other than my lunch box (a sweet Mickey Mouse metal lunchbox that was a souvenir of a trip to Disneyland) nothing was unique or very special, although I do remember having some fun with my ink and quill pen when we had some art classes 😉. Our shopping trip to Winnipeg was very special since it was an all day event. All 4 of us hurried through the dreaded trying on clothes at the Zellers store because we knew our parents would reward us with a treat of mini donuts. Then my sister, my younger brother and I had to do our visit to the optometrist to see if we needed new glasses. Then it was time for an early dinner at whatever new restaurant my parents had heard about. After dinner we used to go to the Playhouse Theater to watch which ever Disney film was doing the rounds. It’s a guarantee that all 4 of us would fall asleep on the way home and have to be woken up to wash up and brush our teeth before we crawled in to bed. Mom would wash our new clothes while we were sleeping. The next morning our chore was to put everything away and my sister and I spent the next 2 days trying to make up our minds which of our 3 new outfits we would wear to school.

The worst outfit ever was the year my Mom decided that jumpers were cute and I was the lucky recipient of an olive green, a bright orange and a fluorescent lime green jumper. I was a chubby girl and at the age of 11 my first day of school I was teased because I looked like a pumpkin. Now I giggle at the memory because burnt orange is one of my favourite colours to wear.

As for the art/school supplies I will admit to having a fondness for ink and fountain pens to write letters or write in my journal or daytimer. I also enjoy using gel pens to doodle and write with. Of all my favourite writing tools, I love these washable markers:

I like driving and going on trips, which is good because I seem to be doing a lot of it. I arrived home Wednesday evening from the studio and received a call to go back again Thursday morning so I am late with my gratitude post.

One of the things I am most grateful for right now is the ability to travel to help my friends with the end of life arrangements for K. He and I worked together for several years and his wife is my quilty partner in crime. The past week has been busy with all we had to do but it was so good to see the many people who came by to have a short visit with K. Several friends I hadn’t seen for years. It was good to know when I left yesterday that the freezer was filled with enough food and dinners to last a couple of weeks. People are so wonderful and helpful when times like this come upon us.

I love my friends and family and was cheered by a surprise while I was at the studio this time. My son, daughter in law and 2 granddaughters came to Kelowna for a last weekend before school started. I managed to have lunch with them one day, a short visit on the lakeshore while they were out on a boat and then a few hours at a favourite park which also has a bit of a beach.

I do enjoy word games and puzzles. A while back LeeAnna had written about enjoying Qwordle. I had played Wordle and Canuckle so thought I would give it a try. It has become my after dinner past time and today I was happy to see this result before I sat to write some blog posts.

Thank you for stopping by my blog. 😉 Carol