A day of blessings

Some days, it is easy to see our blessings.

The morning began with a brief visit with our next-door neighbors. With our busy schedules, they hadn't seen Sophie since she started walking. They happened to be outside as S and I were leaving for the day, and we chatted for a few minutes. We reminisced about how our other children were so small when we moved in (their youngest son is E's age, and we bought  our houses the same summer). In fact, S is now the age E was when we bought the house! Time goes so quickly. They were doing yard work before it got too hot, and I mentioned I was planning to finish mowing our yard when I got home from work, since my husband was not able to finish it all over the weekend. It was a holiday, after all, and we weren't home much.

E was at home, since she was out of school for Easter. She called me about 15 minutes later to let me know that the husband from next door was finishing our yard for us! He knew my husband was out of town this week from our earlier conversation and wanted to help out! E told me she had taken him a glass of lemonade and thanked him, and later she made cupcakes and took half of them next door as another thank you. We truly do have wonderful neighbors.

Then on the evening commute home yesterday, the skies suddenly changed from bright and sunny with a few fluffy white clouds to dark and windy and then a torrential downpour! We had thunder and lightning and even hail on the way home. It was a fast-moving storm, though, and was over by the time S and I made it home. As I turned a corner on the way home, though, I saw such a large, bright rainbow against the gray sky. It was beautiful! So many people had major damage, from the wind or the hail, and over 40,000 people lost power for hours, but we were very lucky. No damage and E said power was only out for a few minutes.

E and I ended our evening by working out for a while. She has been having back pain lately, so we're trying to strengthen her back and abdominal muscles to see if that helps; if not, she already has a doctor's appointment next week for her checkup and we will discuss it with her doctor then. She was a bit amazed that I seem to be in better shape than she is! We are trying again tonight. I think she wants to redeem herself.