Thankful Me

Today is Good Friday.  Sunday is Easter.  I attended a funeral this morning.  This talk, " Sunday Will Come ," by Joseph B. Wirthlin, was referenced at the service.  What fitting and appropriate words for the occasion!   Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays. But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come.

This is the 1000th time I've hit "publish." For a naturally shy person, apparently I have a lot to say.  I've been trying to think of what I should say on this anniversary post. Even though 1000 is just one more than 999 and one less than 1001--in other words, just another number--I still asked myself, What could I say that would be meaningful and significant?  When I read the April visiting teaching message , I had my answer.

Here it is, almost a whole month after going on the cruise, and I'm still writing posts about it!  I guess timeliness isn't really a factor, though, when writing about ancient ruins.

Last year, I participated in the A to Z Challenge for the first time.  I was pleasantly surprised at how easily it fit into my schedule.  (I think that planning ahead was definitely key!)  I wondered, though, if I would be able to participate this year.  I didn't have a theme idea, I was struggling to post much of anything on my blog, and I knew April was going to be busy.  

I'm calling this the Happy Spring Edition, because it is spring, but my thankfuls this week seem a bit heavy for this time of year. 

I'm pausing momentarily from the vacation report to join in the Six Sentence Story hop.  This week's prompt:  Contract.  

After the stop in Key West, Florida, where we searched out the best key lime pie , our cruise ship next stopped in the Cayman Islands. John and I knew that we wanted to spend some time in the clear, blue Caribbean water, so I started looking at different excursions that would let us get wet.  

After a two-week hiatus from the Ten Things of Thankful, I'm happy to be joining in again.  Don't get me wrong, while I missed participating, I enjoyed my vacation with John--and if it had been longer, I would happily skip this week's TToT, too.  (Did that come out right?)  Anyway, we are back home now, mentally holding on to the peace and calm that was vacation, while being pulled back into the realities of life.  

In my post on searching for the best key lime pie , I might have given the impression that my entire time in that port was focused on food.  Au contraire.  John and I were able to visit several non-foodie spots, learn a bit of local history, and see creatures that we just don’t see at home.

I love the visiting teaching message for this month.  The full lesson can be found here , but the basic message is that God is actually, truly our Heavenly Father, and we are created in His image.  It's one of the first things we read in the book of Genesis in the Bible:  “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. … “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” ( Genesis 1:26–27 ) Man was made to look like God, which makes sense;  children take after their parents.   Photo caption:  "God our Father has ears with which to hear our prayers. He has eyes with which to see our actions.  He has a mouth with which to speak to us.  He has a heart with which to feel compassion and love.  He is real.  He is living.  We are his children made in his image.  We look like him and he looks like us.--President Thomas S. Monson" Thanks fo...

Shore excursions are an important part of the cruise experience, giving tourists a chance to learn more about the local area.  John and I decided that when our ship docked in Key West, Florida, we were going to honor the history of the area by indulging in some key lime pie.  Of course, we wanted to taste the best key lime pie available, but quickly realized that there was more than one restaurant that came highly recommended.  John suggested that we conduct our own study.  Three and a half pieces of pie (each!)  later, we can confidently declare a clear winner.  

John and I just returned from a wonderful Caribbean cruise.  We didn’t bring laptops; we kept our phones off and enjoyed the unplugged time together.  However, I do admit to mentally—and even verbally—noting blog fodder throughout the week.  This post will begin a short series of posts about that vacation, but you'll want to go back and carefully read the title again. . . .