Hi Merry! over the holidays, I found my way to your blog! I'm so very impressed, you've inspired me to do something similar. I've been trying to figure out what to call it. That plus it made me think back to my time that I've spent on the West coast. Why oh Why did I move from there to here? earthquakes and fires! I loved a conference that we had in Boston one time, I was a Legal Seafood fan back then, we travelled to Maine and we had lobsters from Maine! Boy, those folks from Maine are interesting, they didn't say much back then, and those Maine'rs had a reputation for that 🙂

@nannette1941 Each day is a new day. When times were tough I concentrated on the minimals: food, clothes, shelter. If we had that I was grateful. If we were all healthy, I was grateful. If we had clean clothes and linens, I was grateful we did not have to wear dirty clothes or use dirty towels and sheets. If I had enough money until the next income date, I was grateful. If I had a functioning vehicle, I was grateful. If I could buy new clothes from the clearance rack, I was grateful that it wasn't from the thrift shop. If we were able to have family time each day, I was grateful. These may seem like such small, inconsequential things, but some days we did not have some of those things. And that made it harder. So, I decided to be grateful for what we did have. Sometimes all we had was each other. Some days that was not assured, as I had a baby that spend 9 months of the first year in the hospital and 6 months of the second year in the hospital. That child was resuscitated multiple times and is now 40 years old. Just for today I am grateful . . . (fill in the blank for yourself).