Five on Friday

Happy Friday, y'all! I missed yesterday's Thankful Thursday post so will list things today instead. :) Here, then, are five things I'm thankful for this week...

1. Last Thursday, my good friend Lynne had a Celebration of Life for her husband, who passed in August after an alarmingly quick battle with pancreatic cancer. It was a lovely gathering at one of his favorite local breweries, honoring his request to "just go out for a beer." I'm thankful for the outpouring of support and love for Lynne and her kids and am definitely thinking the Celebration of Life gathering approach is nicer than the more standard funeral/memorial. Having been to and helped organize funerals the week or so after death, this Celebration of Life a couple months later was actually a celebration and was less stressful than trying to set everything up during an already busy and emotional time. 

2. Kicking myself because I forgot to take a picture, but last Saturday a group of friends and I managed to get together to catch up. It was our "we used to all homeschool together" mom crew and we miraculously got 9 of us together at once. (I don't know that we've ever managed that before, lol.) It was lovely hearing about each other's kids...kids that we all watched grow up together...and catching up on everything else. So thankful that we survived homeschooling, that we did it together, and that we're still in each other's lives. 

3. Micah's not a fan of winter. His arthritis definitely gets worse with the cold weather, and the drop in temperatures here lately has reinforced his desire to go to college in southern California, lol. In our attempts to make things more comfortable for him, we recently added a space heater to his room. He'd refused our offers in the past, because he prefers to be cold when he sleeps. But then trying to get him out of bed in the morning was work. So. We got one of those smart outlets with an app and a timer so that he can program the heater to turn on at a certain time. Voila! The boy has been toasty when he wakes up this past week, and it's noticeably better. Whew.

4. I got it in my head recently to go through our medicine cabinet and purge things. I ended up throwing out a bunch of expired medications. I'm thankful for that...because having a bunch of expired medications is indicative of the fact that we don't go through very much medication, definitely not enough to use it up before it expires. Since that's all because we don't get sick often, I'm thankful. 

5. I see on social media that apparently November is National Adoption Month. It's not something I've really ever celebrated with a specific month before, but I'm definitely thankful for adoption. I'm adopted, one of my brothers is adopted, one of my sisters is adopted, a number of my cousins and friends are adopted, I have friends who have adopted. Adoption = good. :) 

So, that's my list. And, because I feel like cheating (on the "Five" part of my post), here's one last thing...thankful for the beautiful snow this morning...

Wasn't thrilled with the single digit temperatures; but, when the sun came out, you just couldn't help but appreciate the beauty. :)