Daily Gratitude

I intend to keep a daily gratitude journal on this blog.  Four days ago my family gathered to help me celebrate my 76th birthday.  Lucinda and her children came for lunch and we were able to use the oven my son Richard fixed by replacing the igniter to prepare toasted cheese and ham rolls.  I assembled a fruit salad and found that I had frozen mini eclairs for dessert sufficient to feed all of us.  They brought me roses and balloons and the children brought a variety of gifts.  They took down the Christmas decorations and Jacqueline and Diana stayed behind to clean the house.  In the evening Trisha and Nancy brought their families along with takeout from Olive Garden and ice cream cake from 31 flavors and a cake roll.  David and his family joined us.  I invited the other members of the Utah Valley artist guild  board to come to my home on Tuesday after I return from the temple.  We will have a planning meeting for 2019 and I also want to show them my Blue Haven, the serene yet highly functional studio that grew out of my determination to make my bed and clean up my room. I am grateful that I can change for the better.