Hey, I'm Back!

OK, I'll get the guilt out of the way right off the bat:

It's been over a year since I've posted!
("You are one pathetic loser!")

Well, actually my last post? I back-dated it so it wouldn't look so bad.
("You can't handle the truth!"  Make that, I can't handle the truth.)

I never even finished blogging about my summer in Alaska.
("Squirrel!")

Because...I got stuck without a photo I needed. The Fisherman took it on his camera and I kept forgetting to ask him for it.
("So what are we going to do? Lie down and die, Bob?")

And I just couldn't carry on out of sequence.
("What are you? OCD?")

OK, I'm out of movie quotes. And that last one wasn't one. It was all I could think of.

So...now with that out of the way, I'll move on.

I have an idea for some blog entries. They are along the line of Ann Voskamp's 1000 Gifts. Many years ago, maybe ten...I'm not sure...before 1000 Gifts anyway...I started looking for gifts from God. I didn't count them like Ann but I did write them down. And last year I took her 1000 Gifts in the Year challenge to keep a journal of three thanks a day  and followed her daily prompts.

I agree wholeheartedly with her powerful message. Giving thanks opens our eyes to God's gifts all around us. Giving thanks changes our perspective. Giving thanks produces trust and drives out fear. Giving thanks makes us aware of God's presence. And where God's presence is, there is joy. And since He is always present, joy is always possible. We just have to have eyes of thankfulness to see.

So... in trying to find some kind of "system" with which to both blog again and revisit an effort at building gratitude and seeing God in my life, my days, and my yesterdays, I came up with something. It's kind of random but kind of not. I'm grabbing the 25 from my 25 Acres blog name and going to occasionally write a "25 Thanks About..." post. (Get it? Instead of 25 Things, it's 25 Thanks? I'm so clever.)

First post coming up.
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Oh, and if you're curious about the movie quotes:

"One pathetic loser" is from Dumb and Dumber. One roommate comes home and tells the other he got fired that day. They talk, then the second guy says, "Yeh, I got fired today, too." The first guy says to him, "Ohhhhh, man! You are one pathetic loser!" Yeh, one's dumb and the other one's dumber. (Loved that movie!)

"You can't handle the truth!" is from...everybody?...A Few Good Men. Famous enough to say no more.

"Squirrel!" Oh, I love this one! The talking A.D.D. dog in the cartoon movie Up would be rattling on about something and then mid-sentence suddenly swing his head to the side and shout "Squirrel!" and take off running after the squirrel. Distracted much?

"So what are we going to do? Lie down and die, Bob?" is from the exciting Alaska-set movie, The Edge. A plane goes down and Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin (Bob) are out trying to survive the Alaska wilderness with a grizzly bear stalking them. Something goes wrong and Bob gets discouraged. Anthony Hopkins shouts this line at him. Yeh, I kind laid down and quit. For a year.