Gratitude, part III

When we moved to New Jersey I sold our piano because I figured that since the piano was so old the move and extended storage would ruin it. Unfortunately, once I got here I realized selling my piano meant that I no longer had a piano. I have missed seeing these little hands picking out tunes (this is a picture taken of Claire at our old piano).I have also missed these little musical buddies making as much noise as they possibly can.

Well, last Saturday a gal from church was at our house and I mentioned that I needed to get the kids going with piano lessons and she noticed that I was piano-less. She said I should buy the one that the church was selling. I said, "Yes!" By that Monday (two days later) she had organized a moving crew and had the piano at my house! I love it. Everytime I walk past it I get a little lump in my throat and my heart skips a beat. Well, my reaction has mellowed a bit over the past week...I only get a lump in my throat now. I signed the three oldest up for piano lessons today and I am very grateful for the new piano! The kids aren't quite as grateful but, as I keep telling them, they'll thank me later.

I am also very grateful for my crock-pot...which may not be as exciting as a piano but I can not deny my deep love for my good ol' slow cooker! It makes me so happy. So happy. Whenever I know I am going to be gone all day, or I have a project that I know is going to throw the daily routine off, or I feel like baking in the afternoon instead of cooking, or I know that the trusty slow cooker will make the meat more tender than I ever can, or I want to smell delicious odors wafting throughout the house all day (the list could go on but I'll stop here)...I pull out the slow cooker. On the day of this particular picture I had a rice and lemon chicken concoction (which I had made up from ingredients on hand) brewing.

The last item of the day is rain. I love rain. I love overcast skies. I love puddles. The puddle pictured below was in my driveway a few days ago...I loved how the silhouette of the neighbor's tree was reflected in it. One of the best things about rainy days, in my opinion, is they always make me feel like using my slow cooker. So they bring double happiness. Well, really they bring triple happiness because they also always inspire me to make chocolate chip cookies.

So, 19. Pianos, 18. Crock-pots, and 17. Rain.
P.S. No matter where I walked around the puddle the trees were always upside down. Is there something about reflections I just don't get?