Thankful

Today I am thankful for family and friends and the beautiful sunshine we are having.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and enemies.

May you be enjoying a wonderful time wherever you are and that you don't eat too much.

May Black Friday be adventurous tomorrow and that you score some great bargains.

 Happy Thanksgiving

Volunteering

Have you ever volunteered? I mean actually gone out and worked with an organisation or someone? Been part of a team that runs something for others, looks after something or meets regularly to organise?
If you have .......then you are part of that wonderous group of people who happily give up a small amount of their own time to help others.

Today is International Volunteers Day

This is the day when we can celebrate and say thanks to all those wonderous people who do give up some of their own time to assist and help others, just because they want to.

We are lucky to have such super volunteers in the hospital setting. They give of their time freely each week to ensure patients and visitors do not get lost around our huge campus.

They also give of their time to assist people whilst visiting the emergency department, supporting people in their bad time and just being there to talk or bring that small cup of tea that may be so desperately needed.

I myself, have never volunteered in the hospital setting, but have spent many a year volunteering. When Ben was just 5 weeks old I join Parents Centre, an organisation that ran Antenatal classes and Parenting education classes. The organisation was run by the headoffice in Wellington, but each of the local centres were run by volunteers.

I did this for 5 years, sometimes just a small input, others times well I gave it my all. I was Chairperson of the Hamilton branch at one time, but when it took over my family life then I gave it all away.

Volunteering should be fun and enjoyable. It should be something that you want to do otherwise you don't enjoy it and you don't give and receive the necessaries out of it.

Nowadays I am on the PTA at the school, a smaller committment but still a huge giving back. We have managed to change things at school for the better but at the same time don't feel that it is taking over our family life.

I happily volunteer at Judo too, the club runs itself each week thanks to the couple that own it, but whenever they have tournament days etc then they need help. So this past weekend I just spent 5 hours ensuring the kids doing the fighting had the right coloured belt on each time. May not seem like much, but at the time it assisted in making the tournament day run smoothly as possible.

Previously I have spent the entire time working in the kitchen, cooking more toasted cheese sandwiches than I care to admit too!

I will post about this weekends tournament later this week.

So to all you wonderful people out there who give of their precious time and volunteer.

Thanks you,

Thank you so much,

Thank you for finding it in your heart to be someone prepared to give up a few hours each week, whilst also working and running a family, to do something for someone else because you can.

Today I am Thankful

I am thankful for…


My children who complain about doing the dishes because it means they are at home and not on the street.

My partner who snores all night because it means they are at home asleep with me and not with someone else.

The mess to clean up after a party because it means I have been surrounded by friends.

The clothes that fit a little too snugly because it means I have enough to eat.

A floor that needs mopping and windows that need cleaning because it means I have a home.

The spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking and have been blessed with transportation.

Too many e-mails because it means I have friends and relatives who are thinking of me.


Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

This year I am truely thankful for so much, for the lack of stress in my life by having changed jobs, for feeling healthy, that my family and friends are all still with us and healthy too.

I am thankful that I have started to take the time to enjoy what is going on around me. For taking the time to realise that Friday will still arrive at the end of each week but if I enjoy the other 4 days I am even happier by the time Friday does arrive.

I am thankful for the time to be able to stop and smell the roses, and in my case literally as they are still blooming in the front garden.

I am thankful to all of you, for visiting me and making me smile with your wonderful words, not just the ones you leave as comments, but also the ones you write in your blogs that inspire me more often than I care to admit.

Happy Thanksgiving All x x x

Funtimes

At the weekend when we visited the scarecrows they had a table set up with boards so you could take your own fun pictures.
So my family happily obliged for me.

I am thankful for modern technology that allowed me to have some fun pictures of my wonderful family and to me for having a steady hand whilst doing a close up shot of them getting these great pictures.

Scarecrows

At this time of year the local gardens does a scarecrow day.
Sometime prior, I must find out when, they make a call for scarecrows to go on display and be judged in several different catagories.
By chance I heard this on the radio so decided we would have a quick visit to view the scarecrows.
What follows is a picture album of some (yes some) of the wonderful scarecrows we saw around the gardens. Some were acting as guides to the main event. The ones for voting on all had numbers.

The one Alex loved

My favorite

My 2nd favorite

The one Ben loved

Unfortunately it rained and so we wandered around with umbrellas looking at them all and voting on our paper to say which one we liked in each catagory and which one should be overal winner.

Unfortunately due to the weather, we didn't stick around for the big unvaling of who won.

This trip around the gardens made me think of harvest time. We sadly do not celebrate harvest thanksgiving here in NZ, well they may in the churches but the school don't, the other thing to consider is the fact that our harvest thanksgiving would fall about April time as summer has ended and autumn is in full bloom then.

So for today I am thankful to all the creative people out there who were prepared to create and showcase their wonderful abilities.

Thankfully

I have just got half way through a post about the local library and memories and then realised that in fact I have something to post about that is more important.
I have just been reading Rocking Chair Reflections and she is doing a month of thanksgivings. Last month she did a month of memories.
I really should have done a month of giving thanks seeing as it is now November (holy crap where did the year go?)  but had already said I would do memories, although I think I might mix it over the month.

Anyway, I digress, another Blog I follow, Deb's Doodlings is someone I have met through work, well we met through blogging but then worked out we both work at the hospital so we met a few times, usually in the staff canteen when both buying lunch!
However, when I checked her blog yesterday it was to discover that she had received the call that every parent dreads "Hi, we are calling to let you know there has been an accident, your daughter has been injured!"
For the last week she has been at the hospital with her 11 yr old who is in a bad way, head injury, facial fractures, broken leg and pelvis, more bruises than you want.

Deb is only just resurfacing after having the week from hell, although she still has many weeks to go. Her daughter is non weight bearing for at least the next 6-8 weeks, when she finally manages to sit up for longer than 20 secs.

So suddenly I am thankful that she is going to be ok, I am thankful to everyone that helped them with getting her to hospital, the ambulance, fire brigade and the air ambulance.
I am thankful for my family and that we are all safe tonight in our house together.