I am truly grateful every day of every month; but we are now in November the month which hosts the holiday of Thanksgiving, so I thought it would be appropriate to share some things I'm thankful for this year.
It goes without saying that I'm thankful for my husband, Bobby, and my daughter, Emily. But I'm also grateful for the artistic talent Emily has been blessed with. The girl can draw, a skill I'm sadly lacking. And while she has oodles of filled sketch books, one of the things I love most are the custom cards she makes. Recently she made a birthday card for one of her friends, but she has made mother's day cards, father's day cards, get well cards, and many more.
I'm also thankful for small pleasures like incredible thrift store finds. My favorite fuzzy gray sweater, winter snowmen to add to my collection, and my recent pie/cake server are among those finds.
I'm thankful for the Christmas cactus I've kept alive for over thirty years. And believe me it was no easy feat. About ten years ago while I was on a book trip, Bobby called to tell me one of our cats had knocked it off it's plant stand. Being a large cactus, it was severely damage on the side that hit the floor and I lost about a third of the plant. The stress caused it not to bloom for several years, but I managed to nurse it back to health and soon the abundance of buds will open and shower me with a glorious vision of hot pink.
I'm thankful for so very many things and could drone on for days, but I will wrap up with the fact of how grateful I am that the renewal levy for my local library passed. Not only will this make my job as a board of trustee member easier, we can keep paying the staff and buying new books, it allows me the continued opportunity to check out children's books by fantastically talented authors and illustrators. Some of whom I know personally.
And this week was such a case as I read a book written by Matt De La Pena (Sorry Matt, try as hard as I might I could not type the tilde mark) and illustrated by the fabulous Loren Long who not only lives in my home state of Ohio, but is a friend I met at the Southern Kentucky Book Fair last year.
That book was LOVE. A beautifully written and illustrated book which describes love as something seen, smelled, and felt. Something surrounding us, something in nature, and something in the people around us. Something I noticed in the soft but colorful pictures Loren created and married to Matt's text. So if you haven't read LOVE yet, run to your nearest library!
I hope you enjoyed a brief glimpse into my week as well as my foray into the kidlit world. I also hope to see you here again next Monday.
Wishes for a week full of wonder!
Aileen