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Ten Things of Thankful: Everything on the Calendar Edition

"I know!  Let's plan it for March 25th!" said the planners of the local Home and Garden show, the LA County Airshow, the Guide Dog Training Day, and the General Women's Conference. Fortunately, the Home and Garden show started on the 24th, and the LA County Airshow participants were practicing on the 24th, also (as well as earlier in the week).  The Guide Dog Training Day will be held in the morning of the 25th, and the General Women's Conference starts later in the afternoon.  I'm in for a fun weekend!

Before we get to upcoming events, though, let's look back over the past week:

1.  I'm thankful for the friends in my lunch group.  We share laughter and tears, and our conversations run from humorous to deep.  It's always fun to get together.

2.  I'm thankful for the soup recipe I found.  Our lunch group is always potluck soups, salads, and desserts, and I had signed up for soup this time.  One of my cookbooks had a recipe for chickpea and brown rice soup that sounded yummy, and it was.  

3.  I'm thankful for an electric pressure cooker. Not only did I use it to cook the dried chickpeas for the soup, I also tried hard-cooking eggs in the cooker on another day this week.  The eggs turned out great; they were easy to peel even though they were very fresh.

4.  I'm thankful for leftovers.  Soup is always better the next day, and I was able to take the leftover soup to a Relief Society meeting on Tuesday night.  

5.  I'm thankful for the Relief Society meeting, which was a birthday party.  Did you know that Relief Society is 175 years old?! 



6.  I'm thankful for a kind note I received in the mail this week from the women from my church.  It came on a good day (or rather, on a day I really needed it).  
Photo:  Pink flowers with light green stems decorate the front of a card 
7.  I'm thankful to be able to see some amazing planes flying.  The Thunderbirds are flying at the air show this weekend, and I am so impressed with the precision of their flying.  They even did some amazing skywriting to advertise the show.  Skywriting is amazing enough, but skywriting performed while flying in formation? Stunning!


Photo:  "LA COUNTY AIRSHOW" in skywriting against a deep blue sky
 
Photo:  The F-16 Thunderbirds fly in formation 
8.  I'm thankful for my children.  Youngest daughter and I went to see "Beauty and the Beast" on Wednesday night.  It was nice to laugh together.  (Now if I could only get the catchy tunes un-stuck from my mind!)

9.  I'm thankful for the continued evidence that spring has arrived. I hope to get out to the poppy fields soon, but in the meantime, here is a photo of some lovely wisteria that I captured on a recent Disneyland trip:


Photo: Lilac-colored wisteria blossoms hang down against a blue sky
10.  I'm thankful for John.  We went together to the home and garden show, but the first thing we did when we got there was go watch the practicing Thunderbirds, who were flying nearby.  John didn't mind that I wanted to take photos first, and he loved watching the planes fly in "fourmation," "fivemation," and "sixmation!"  Such a clever guy I married, and it makes me chuckle how much he enjoys his jokes.  

Well, soon I need to be at the Guide Dog Training Day.  Our puppy club has invited other puppy clubs to join us for a few hours of socialization experiences.  Puppies in more urban areas don't always get the same experiences that our puppies here in the desert have, so we invite the other clubs to join us as we introduce the puppies to horses, chickens, tractors, and dirt bikes.  They will also get to walk over different surfaces, and complete different exercises to help them avoid distractions.  It's always fun to see so many puppies together, and for the puppy raisers to have a chance to compare notes and ask questions. 

What is on your agenda today?  Did all of your activities get planned for this weekend, or are you enjoying a more relaxed pace? What are you thankful for? Comment below, and go to tenthingsofthankful.blogspot.com to read more posts and/or link your own post.  


Ten Things of Thankful




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Comments

  1. Enjoy your busy weekend. You do take magnificent photos. That card looks like a watercolor original. A busy life is a life well-lived.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. So far, so good, on the weekend. :-)

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  2. I had no idea the Thunderbirds did sky-writing. Amazing. I could watch them perform all day.

    Love the idea of the puppy training event.

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    Replies
    1. It really was amazing to watch the sky-writing.

      The puppy training day was a lot of fun.

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  3. Wow, you have a busy weekend planned indeed, but what a surprising blessing that it all fit nicely into a schedule you could work with!

    Raising guide dogs I truly can't think of a more awesome or rewarding thing to do! I'd never really thought about city vs. country experiences and how different it would be for puppies learning the ropes.

    Your soup sounds delicious, I've never tried a pressure cooker. Soup always seems to taste even better reheated!

    I know that your presence is a joy in the groups and meetings you attend. Attitudes are contagious and love lightens life!

    I've attended many air shows over the years, and I do love the Thunderbirds! I've never seen them do skywriting, wow! Your John's sense of humor sounds very much like my John's, and there is that little boy smile that accompanies the jokes that I love best!

    A lovely card from your friend, and don't they always seem to come at just the right time? This is a great reminder for me to pick some up to send when the Spirit moves me. Thank you for a lovely TToT!



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    1. Guide Dogs for the Blind is always looking for more puppy raisers, and GDB has puppy clubs in 9 different states--including Texas! :-)

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  4. Wow, those planes look amazing! And I love spring and all the flowers which seem to appear out of nowhere. Things start to come back to life :)

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    1. I'm really hoping to get out to the poppy reserve sometime this coming week, and get some photos of wildflowers.

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  5. For me March 23 was like that only I am the one who put to many things on the same day! But I did get through it!

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    1. I've done things like that before! Glad you survived your busy day!

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  6. I love potluck. It is one way to eat different yummy foods without cooking it all yourself. Of course, most people bring one of their best and that what makes it special.

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    1. You are right. Potlucks are simple and delicious!

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  7. Busy weekend, indeed. Trust you will have photos from the Guide Dog Training Day!
    We used to live near a Navy Base that'd an airshow every Summer, amazing the things they could do.

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    1. You are too trusting, as I didn't actually take any photos. (What was I thinking?!) You can, however, see photos on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/avguidedogs/.

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  8. Sounds like you were busy indeed. Thank you for the tip on the eggs - I have a pressure cooker and never thought to put them in there to cook...
    Your photography is breathtaking.

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    1. I put 1-1/2 c. water in the bottom, put the eggs on the steam rack, and cook for 6 minutes. Then I rapid release, and put the eggs in cold water. They peel very easily, even when using fresh eggs.

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  9. I love all the flowers throughout this post. Poppies too.

    I love all the work you do with guide dogs. This Easter will be ten years since Croche died and I am always glad to hear new dog guides are being taught.

    That soup sounds delicious and I'm not even really a soup person. Love chickpeas.

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    1. I'm hoping to go take more flower photos tomorrow. The landscape is so different here in the spring, particularly this year with all the rain we've received. Normally the desert is just brown, but in the spring the fields are green, and when the flowers bloom, the fields turn yellow, orange, blue, and purple. Gorgeous!

      Our puppy club is in need of more raisers. (I'm not currently raising a puppy, so I guess I'm part of the problem.) Hopefully sometime life will settle down a little and I'll raise another guide, but in the meantime, I'm involved in the local meetings and trainings.

      I didn't use to think of myself as a chickpea person, but then there was hummus. :-)

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  10. That sky writing is so amazing. I can see why you were so excited about seeing that.
    Do you take turns meeting at each others' homes for your lunch group?
    I love John's joking. I can just visualize his laughter and smiles while saying it.
    There are a lot of mothers and daughters up here who have gone to see that movie and have just loved it.

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    1. There are a few homes that we rotate between. One of the women is a teacher, so we have to hold the lunch at a home near her school so she can join us on her lunch break.

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  11. Soup and leftovers are at the top of my list right now (for the next TToT, I suppose).
    Love John's jokes. Sounds like the kind my Hub enjoys. And I'm very glad he finds himself amusing...because often, he's the only one. :D
    I haven't ventured into the pressure cooker thing, even though I know they've suddenly become insanely popular. I guess I'm intrigued but I honestly don't think I can add one more appliance to my kitchen. Perhaps one day.
    Love your wisteria photos - beautiful and sunny and definitely made me actually FEEL spring from the light in the photo. And the color reminds me of my grandmother's lilac tree...sigh. I miss them so much.

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    1. The thing I like about the pressure cooker is that it makes long-term food storage so much easier to prepare. I can now make "refried" beans, hummus, brown rice, etc. without much time or effort, not to mention potatoes, sweet potatoes, and artichokes. But I do know what you mean about appliances.

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