August... already?

Once again, I am guilty of not keeping up with this Blog.  I have no idea why I've neglected the daily entries. I've just been busy. Busy reading, busy looking for literary agents, busy watering flowers, busy just trying to be grateful.

There are days when I listen to the news and remind myself to be thankful we don't live near a big city. This country bubble does have its advantages. All we have to deal with is the local wildlife and the insects... a big difference from grid-locked traffic and lunatics with guns and bombs.  I can look out of every window here and see acres of green surrounded by woods. The barn swallows are still sleeping in their nests and flying around the property during the day. The birds recognize us and watch us come and go... we are all sharing this house.

Savannah is doing much better these last few weeks. She still doesn't like to be outside after dark, but she will go quickly into the grass by the back porch before we go to bed. And she sleeps... hardly a bark from Savannah unless she hears a raccoon or an armadillo outside. Gone are the days when she kept waking me up during the night. When Savannah sleeps well, so do I.

Thanks to friend Cindy, the flowerbeds around the house are filled with flowers and color. Zinnias and sweet potato vines and periwinkles and lantana and other pretty plants whose names I've forgotten. I'm watering the flowers twice a day to keep them from broiling in the nearly 100-degree days that we've had for over a month now. The flowers make me smile... it's been satisfying to see that the effort I've put into the watering has been a success. I stand there with the hose while the bees drift from plant to plant... I don't bother them, they don't bother me.

I just finished re-reading Mitch Albom's "The Time Keeper."  It's a magical, unpredictable story that everyone should read. It makes you think about time, the importance of it and the uncertainty of it. One of my favorite parts of this book are these three lines:
"There is a reason why God limits our days."
"Why?"
"To make each one precious."

I have tried to re-set my mind with this house and this property. We live in the country, in a tight little bubble so far removed from city conveniences. The best bookstore is 40 miles away, but I can find any book on Half.com and order it with just one click. The best shoe store is also 40 miles away, but that doesn't matter very much because you can't wear high heels out here anyway and I have a good collection of western-style boots in my closet. The boots aren't delicate... they will last a good long while.

I don't always remember to look at the sunsets every evening. We have such a perfect view from our back porch, but I don't always go out there when the sun is painting the sky with its last breaths of the day. I must promise myself to make an effort to put my book down at sunset time. Sunsets are like snowflakes... each one is unique and most are memorable.

Every day is unique, as is every minute. I am trying my best to be thankful for all that I have here. The life we live in this house on this property in this part of the Hill Country is a dream of many people in this state. I'm living it, but I am not always grateful for it. I can blame that on the wildlife and the snakes and the lack of good bookstores, but those are just excuses.

I will try to do better at keeping up with this Blog. I don't like to abandon projects and leave them unfinished and neglected. There are days when I don't have much to say, and the events on the daily news make my entries here seem trite.  Looking at my Blog statistics, I have nearly 33,000 readers who check my Blogs daily and weekly.  I truly am grateful for those readers, and maybe they're looking for something else to read other than the horrible headlines that we're getting bombarded with from all over the world. In that case, maybe 'trite' is good.