Flying High With Gratitude

 

Japanese Tea Garden jigsaw puzzle

In the week since my last post, life has been good for us. Yes, the oppressive heat continues, but we are blessed with excellent air conditioning and our retired lifestyle does not require us to be outside much.

We are working on one jigsaw puzzle after another. I think Gary spends more time on them than me, but then, I have my blog community to occupy a lot of my time. Per the snapshot above, I baked chocolate chip cookies one afternoon while Gary "puzzled."

We have special news to report: Gary's 5th great-grandchild was born the other day. He's now got 3 boys and 2 girls, all under the age of 4. I'm not sharing pictures since the parents prefer it that way, and in this day and age, we all understand that. But take it from me (the step-great grandmother) that they're all cute cute cute!

Moving on to the Hodgepodge questions for this week, if you want to participate with your blog, click on this link:

http://www.fromthissideofthepond.com/2026/08/hodgepodge-questions-volume-667.html

1. August 19th is National Aviation Day...do you like to fly?

Flying itself is fine with me as long as it's in a pressurized jet. All of my life I've had a strong tendency to get air sick in small 4-seater-type airplanes. 

As far as travel via flying these days, no, I don't enjoy air travel any more. I'm a small person, so even though the seats are big enough for me, larger people on either side of me often think they can take up some of my space.

Using techie apps, my cell phone, and such to get a reservation, to sign in, etc -- all of that is fast becoming a mystery to me that I do not enjoy, especially if I'm flying by myself.

I will add that I come from an aviation family. My father was a career pilot, and one of my sons is, too, traveling all over the world as a Senior First Officer. 

Last time you were on an airplane? 2021

The date is chosen in honor of the history and development of aviation, and celebrated on the birthday of Orville Wright. Have you ever been to the Kitty Hawk area of North Carolina? The city of Dayton in Ohio (their birthplace)

I have not been to Kitty Hawk or Dayton.

2. In what area of your life do you tend to 'wing it'? Is this an area you should be winging? 

I can "wing it" very well with preparing salads, pasta meals, and putting stuff between 2 flour tortillas with melted cheese to "glue it together." Should I be winging it? There've been no complaints, so all is good.

3. A favorite book, song, or movie that relates to flight in some way?  

click here  for movie trailer

My family watched the first Top Gun movie, the one that came out 40 years ago, many times. (I teared up when Goose died). The more recent sequel is okay but I prefer the first one. 

4. Soft serve, gelato, sherbet, frozen yogurt, or good old fashioned ice cream...what's your pleasure? Your favorite flavor? How often do you indulge? 

Nothing can beat simple soft serve vanilla ice cream, but I also like sherbet.

5. I never get tired of______________________. 

I never get tired of a lot of things (the Lord's blessings are everywhere), but for the sake of brevity, I'll say I never get tired of my recliner. Right now I'm sitting where the little pillow is with my MacBook Air on my lap. The "feels like" temperature outside is about 112 degrees today (aughhhh!) but here in my chair, blogging with my friends in air conditioning -- it's really good!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

This thought has been turning over in my mind a lot lately. Every thought, word, and behavior is a seed for our future. If we are smart, we will sow [plant] the best seeds we can as much as possible.

Quoting the late Dr. Charles Stanley, "We reap what we sow, more than we sow, and later than we sow." 

The older I get, the more clearly I recognize that truth. I've seen it in my life with both the good and the bad seeds I've planted. For me, youthful impulses are pretty much a thing of the past (I hope!). My focus is setting myself up for more positive outcomes.

A simple morning prayer I learned as an adolescent goes like this:

Lord, I wake to a brand new day

in which to show my love for You.

In all I think, and do, and say,

help me to be good, and kind, and true."

On a light note, my parents taught both Sister and me to pray. The above photo (from the Internet) could easily have been both of us, back in the day. (smile)

And here is a "prayer" that circulated a few years ago. It  makes me smile but is also heavily weighted with truth:

"Lord, I've tried to live an honest life. I have not lied, gossiped, overeaten, been lazy, stole anything, or otherwise misbehaved. But now I'm getting ready to pull back the covers and put my feet on the floor, so I'm really going to need Your strength, protection, and guidance to get me through this day."

Until next time, grace and peace.

Barbara