Mid-January

Although the past few days I certainly wasn't feeling too blessed having to get washed with cold water in mid-January, since the hot water heater got fixed today I have a different outlook

I feel blessed because:

I had off today (MLK Day/ Paid day off)
Received a call from the plumber that he could come today
Cleaned out my hall closet since that is where the water heater is
( Filled  two bags of clothing for the donation bin)
At least I had water the last few days even though it was pretty cold
Didn't need a new hot water heater
They were able to put a new thermostat in it

Oh and the best part, Ron learned to use only two big pots of boiling water to add into his water for bathing instead of the 32 pots of water he tried to walk by his grandparents with when he was a teenager
 ( disclosure: according to grandparents, I was at work that day)

Ushering in a New Year 12-31

I saw this idea of starting a blessing jar and I think I will be starting one for this year as a reminder as to how many nice things happen during the year.

On December 31, when I sat in front of the Post Office for two hours when my car wouldn't start,

I started grumbling to myself because I had good intentions to start my errands early and be productive.

Later that day when I had time to digest what happened, I started to count my blessings:

 I was blessed to be able to use their phone (I forgot mine)

I was blessed someone picked up my home phone and didn't think I was a telemarketer calling

I was blessed that it wasn't too cold out

I was blessed that I didn't need a new battery, it just wasn't making the connection

I was blessed that I could continue on my journey and didn't miss the last day of the ShopRite sales

I think it will be fun at the end of the year to look back at my blessing basket  and maybe discover that even in some of our sour moments, life is providing us many blessings

My Blessings Basket

After seeing all the posts online about starting anew, I saw a post with a "blessing jar"
The post was about a couple who wrote down their blessings during the year to review at the end of the year.
They wrote things as simple as
receiving a handwritten note
a call from a friend
a short line at the supermarket

It is amazing
day after day
 we choose to focus on 
What went wrong
Things that could have been better
Things that other people have

This year, my focus will be on my blessings

For this I will be using my blessing basket

Here is the reason I choose the blessing basket

I was babysitting my 10 year old nephew so that my brother and his wife could celebrate his 50th birthday weekend in Atlantic City.  
I invited my mother to spend the weekend with us.  I thought this would be a great opportunity for us to do something together during the Christmas season. (Great Idea)
On Saturday there was an event in West Cape May.  The event was a fund-raiser for a children's charity and they had some activities geared toward children.  
Did my nephew want to make a decoration ?
Did my nephew want to eat the popcorn or pretzels?
Did my nephew want to get his face painted?
No- He wanted to go out to my truck and get his electronic device
Did he want to put the tickets into the baskets for the prizes? 
No!
He wanted to go out to the truck to get his electronic device
He headed out the door. I followed him and ordered him back in.


Since now, we would be forgoing the trip to McDonald's,
I had time to put my tickets in the basket while my mother ate her hot dog and my nephew sulked. I put my tickets in baskets that probably wouldn't have been his choices.
Not how I anticipated our fun filled day 
But, out of this I did glean a few blessings.

I won a nice basket with a sweat shirt and baseball cap
Since I followed through with my threat and we didn't go to McDonald's 
My nephew had a change of heart,especially since the electronics stayed off when we got back to the house.
We rode around and saw festive holiday lights and stopped at Congress Hall to admire the decorations with a parking spot right there as we pulled up.  He enjoyed the activities with his aunt and grandmother which earned him his electronics back later that night.

My prize basket

Becomes my blessings basket

Kicking the Year to the Curb

At the end of 2016, I noticed many folks were ready to get rid of the old year and start anew.
This encouraged me to write this poem to share with my Jersey Cape Writers and  the  group that goes to Eva's on Thursday evening for meditation.

Kicking the year to the Curb

By Kathy Moore

When the old year comes to an end Why are we so ready  to Crush it Stomp it Kick it Like  the can to the curb What if we used the lessons learned Re-cycle our pain Revitalize our spirit Rekindle our energy The can, if recycled becomes a new and useful version of its former self  and maybe someday be part of an airplane or building We too, could stand tall and soar reclaiming ourselves Ushering in a many new years to come