Tag: #thankfulness

Weekend Coffee Share; Horses and More…

On By dprastkaIn Living life, Smiles, weekend coffee share14 Comments
Photo from Kauai, Hawaii last month!

Weekend Coffee share is a time for us to take a break out of our busy lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new). Please grab a cup of coffee or tea and share with us! What’s been going on in your life? It’s been crazy in this world, right?

I wrote the above last weekend and I think the craziness is even crazier than ever. We are not only worried about getting sick but we are worried about our economy and how hard hit we all are going to be. At least I am worried about all of this as we had plans on getting the house on the market to sell and move to Arizona. That has all been put on hold for now and maybe, just maybe we will bounce back faster than I think but I may be dreaming. We are working as we speak on our house, new paint inside!

I forgot to offer you some coffee or tea, I have both with my favorite creamer, Italian Sweet Cream! Or you may want some ice tea? I have green tea! We went to the grocery store and it seems like we keep going back to fill our kitchen with food. My hubby usually does the shopping and he went with my son and this last week was able to get some meat we froze. But he doesn’t think like me and I felt like our cupboards were fairly bare. I know what I need for some good old comfort food and needed some canned soups for easy sauces in the crock pot and frozen veggies. I bought some fresh veggies too, that I will chop up and freeze for future use and some dried package goods. The one thing I thought I had at home was flour, so I bought more sugar! YIKES, when I got home I am almost out of flour! AND now I have a ton of sugar. UGH! 😀

There was only 1 bag of flour left at the grocery store. I wish I had grabbed it but thought no, I have an extra bag at home. But I didn’t actually check it at home this is just my memory. Darn memory, WRONG! Lol 😀 I can’t believe how frustrated I was that I am almost out of flour and I am sure that store was out since there was only one bag. FRUSTRATING, I can’t believe I am writing a blog post about flour and how scarce it is…. crazy days!

I put together a box to mail for my kids in Arizona, my baby blanket I made for baby Teddy, the cute Hawaiian shirt I bought for Alice plus a few more gifts for Alice. Once we got the box together and mailed it we stopped by a different grocery store. NOPE! That store was completely out of flour! Darn it all…. the frustrations are real. But I know they will restock, just crazy that stores are completely out of so many things. I pray it’s not the new norm!

I wasn’t planning on writing all about this stuff but it is what we are facing and each day is something different and new. What has happened in one week is AMAZING! But we will survive. I am going to dedicate the rest of this post to my photos. I just can’t help myself. The stables is a place I can go and feel safe and be outside with my horses! They just make me smile and laugh, LOVE IT THERE! ❤ ❤ ❤

It has rained a lot this week so we still have a small lake in the arena! My ponies love this water!
Haha, caught her licking the water. Not the first time! Silly pony!
Hi Zack! Love his personality.

How is your coffee or tea? Need a refill? I have toast or crackers. I was able to buy cream cheese to go on the crackers and its really good with my hot sweet pepper jelly. YUMMY! I can’t believe how obsessed I have been this last week about food. In my head, I am thinking the good ole USA should not run out of food. AND I hope I am right, right? But the anxious part of me looks in my cupboards and think go buy more food! I have worried about my ponies food too. I am writing this trying to calm my fears, as this has been a rather fearful week. What is HAPPENING!!!

My girl Chloe! Look at the clouds! Lots of weather this week. RAIN! lots of rain!

It’s been a rainy week, seems like it will never stop. I am always saying we need the rain. I LOVE seeing the sun as the sun is warmth, and makes me smile. Somehow it makes me feel better. I am anxious for some sun which we may not see for another week. More rain predicted next week and then maybe it will start to warm up and feel like Spring. I am literally typing what is running through my mind this weekend. I guess that is how I usually write, but I always try to stay positive and write uplifting (hopefully) FUN posts.

I always try and put a positive spin on even the most dire situations. I think we need to somehow find the good, even in uncertainty. I try and won’t stop trying to see the good and some of this seems silly, like not finding flour…. but its reality! I am trying to smile, and some of this is almost laughable, but its the truth. Hoping maybe I am bringing a little smile to you as well! 😀

I enjoyed having coffee with you today. I hope in your part of the world you are able to get what you need and are able to stay safe with what ever protocols are put in place. I pray for all who are affected with the virus and I am hoping next weeks coffee share we will be at a different place, a better place!! Take care and stay safe. ❤

Staying Strong, hopeful and am thankful!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Feb. 5, 2020

On By dprastkaIn Family is important, Living life, weekly smile16 Comments
What makes you smile? I so enjoy sharing and I have to thank Trent who hosts the Weekly Smile so we have a place to meet and share!

Proud mama weekend! I had the best weekend this last weekend being able to see my daughter be promoted to Major in the Air Force. How she has excelled and her dedication to serving this great country is humbling and I admire her determination and fortitude. I know I shared last week but the cup runneth over with gratefulness as I sit here thinking about this last week. As I share we have a lot happening as we have a planned vacation with her to Hawaii next week! (So EXCITED!) Lots to smile about! I’m smiling from ear to ear! 😀

Major Greener with her father. Smiling big, so very proud! ❤

We had a nice time up in Orcutt, CA which is next to Vandenberg AFB. We explored a bit and I took a selfie of my family, minus my daughter who had unfortunately got a 24hr flu bug before she was promoted. She was home resting and of course made it to the ceremony but it was a bit stressful for her but it all worked out and she is thankfully feeling much better. We had great weather while there and thought I would share that photo too!

Me, hubby and brother!

As we headed into this week we had really strong winds. These winds can be so bad, up to 25 mile gusts and it just makes being outside miserable. They were cold winds as well, and so I really missed riding this week. It is calm outside today so I think I will be able to ride. I took the next photo of my trail ride on Sunday afternoon as it was not windy and we made it back in time for me to see my ponies. My obsession with them will never cease! They are my therapy, my muse and what helps keep me smiling! 😀

Beautiful day with my horses. Zack is here too walking by my side! I’m smiling!

Thank you for visiting my smile for this week. Can you believe its February? I probably will say this every month as these months just tick by. Haha, time just flies but I have to say that this blog has helped me slow down and enjoy each week. It makes me think back and be more observant which makes me appreciate each day. What makes you smile? Anything happening in your neck of the woods?

Thankful Proud Mom,

~Diana ❤

Weekly Smile; Proud Mama, Love My Family!

On By dprastkaIn Family is important, Living life, Love being Grandma, Smiles, weekly smile5 Comments
My weekly smile goes to my daughter! She is promoting at the end of this week. I am so incredibly proud of her and all her achievements!

I am a proud mama as in a few days we are heading up North to Vandenberg AFB, where my daughter will be promoting to Major in the Air Force. I can’t express how proud I am of all her achievements! ❤ Not only is she an Air Force Academy grad, she has excelled in the Air Force with her career in Space. We are excited to be heading there to help her celebrate her promotion. I started this blog post as a weekend coffee share but this last weekend got away from me and I did not have time to write. So I have turned it into my weekly smile! 😀

I don’t know what happened this last weekend. It was a roller coaster of emotions for me which isn’t like me at all. I am pretty rock steady. Looking back it seems a bit over reactive of me and it all stems from our future. I am wanting to be more focused on our plan to move to Arizona and well, it is very difficult to get all the pieces of the puzzle in place to make this happen and for some reason I was just really emotional about it all. It doesn’t really matter all the particulars, certainly not worth rehashing but by the time it got to Sunday I knew there was no way I could write a coffee share.

It started out to be the most gloomy of Sunday’s, very overcast and foggy out and the temperature outside never rose above 60 degrees. It was chilly out and as the day wore on it became incredibly sad. I don’t usually write about the news and stay completely away from politics, but the accident involving Kobe Bryant was so incredibly sad and I am not even a sports person. It just got to me because I think I was feeling sorry for myself and right before my eyes, as I listen to the news, were not only his family but other families who loss their lives in a blink of an eye. What a sad day.

I am writing this to say Thank You from the bottom of my heart. I want to thank each and every one of you for your support, for being here and for smiling along with me. 😀 You all help me, and I hope in some way I help you look at life and SMILE! Certainly, we are very lucky to be here to enjoy another day. I am also very thankful and grateful to be able to celebrate with my daughter and my family! ❤

My family in Arizona is always on my mind. I can’t take a new photo so I’m re-sharing a photo I took when we were there a few weeks ago!

LIFE! is full of choices, it is full of fun, grief, happiness and sadness. We all have to make what we can of it and I refuse to just sit back and take a back seat. I want to feel life, the good and the bad. I will do my best to make it the best darn life I can make it and so this is a crazy smile this week but its a culmination of a very strange weekend. Thank you for visiting and for smiling. We are all so very fortunate to be here to enjoy our SMILES together! 😀

Grateful, family loving Grandma!

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Kitty Swap 2020

On By dprastkaIn Family is important, Living life, Smiles, weekly smile11 Comments

We are one week from our family kitty swap! This week my smile is for a smooth transition and for HAPPY CATS! All of the swapped kitties are settling in and all is peaceful which was the goal of kitty swap 2020!

The run down of what happened in case you didn’t read my previous posts. There were 2 kittens available to adopt. My daughter had one brother, Wolfie born last year around May. The other brother went to my son’s house who they named Dublin. They are part Siamese and amazingly look almost the same. (My daughter-in-law had a family member who’s cat had kittens and is how the brother’s came to be available). My son already had 3 cats so Dublin = 4 cats. My daughter’s cat was a handful, so much so (long story) she asked me if I could take him as I had put down my kitty so I became cat-less. I was able to take in cats and LOVE THEM and have always had cats, dogs (and I have my horses too!)

As this was happening my son’s cats were not all getting along. For whatever the reason the dynamics of the 4 cats the spraying and even fighting was getting worse each week. They did try many things to get them all to get along but they were not having any of it and so we came up with a plan. It is working out great and I do not need to find kittens to fill my home as I now have the sister’s! The drive with all the cats went so smoothly. They were mellow, a little meowing but nothing bad as it is a 5 hour drive to and from Arizona. Here are some photos of these pretty kitties, first are the sister’s that now live at my house!

This is Duchess and she is not bothered by anything or anyone. She settled in the fastest like she has lived here forever. She is a solid, calm kitty which helps calm her sister. ❤
It took them 3 days to sleep together again. They have done this since they were kittens with my son and his family! ❤
This is Dinah enjoying the sun! I like how it is lighting up the back of her head! She is a beautiful dark gray and the sweetest of the two of them. She still looks around as she was the one being picked on when she lived with my son and the other 3 cats. ❤
I was going to edit this photo but I really like it as this is my family! My son is drawing a treasure map and his daughter had so much fun with it. My other son is on the couch with the 4th kitty, Penny. This orange tabby was the one fighting with the dark gray Dinah. Silly kitties, wishing they all just get along. We fixed all that!!

Once we arrived in Arizona, Wolfie was kept in the bedroom where my hubby and I stayed. I shared photos already of this in my last post but those brothers immediately knew there was a kitty on either side of the door! They were so cute, playing with each other under the door. They had this low growl – or weird growl they both would make. I can’t say what they were saying to each other but they were playing what we called paws! You would see these long kitty legs sticking under the door, hilarious!! They have since been introduced slowly and are doing great!

The brothers back together again! Dublin is in front, Wolfie behind him. I can tell because Dublin has a spot on the right side of his nose, Wolfie has the spot on the left side of his nose! Aren’t they just the most handsome cats? I Love them!!

What makes you smile? I sure do love sharing my smiles each week. It makes me think of things I love or just to be thankful for as we go through this crazy thing we call life! I hope you are having a wonderful week and I hope you will share something that makes your smile!

Cat bliss Grandma,

~Diana ❤

My Weekly Smile; Jan. 1, 2020

On By dprastkaIn Family is important, Living life, weekly smile7 Comments
Happy New Year! My sister loves sunsets, and takes many photos of them where she lives in Northern CA. She took this photo of the last sunset of 2019. It made me SMILE and she said I can share with you all! What makes you smile? This is my weekly smile hosted by my blogging friend Trent! I just love to share!

I can’t believe it is 2020! I can remember back when I was in my teens the year 2000 was so far away, a date that people talked about and the scariness of what will happen when we hit the year 2000! Of course, nothing happened but it is I think wondrous to think we are well on our way into this century as we start this new decade. The New Year can be so revitalizing, a time for us to start anew, maybe rethink our future and/or start working on that resume to find a new job. Or maybe it is a time to reflect and see how far we’ve come and look forward to new things that may be coming into our lives. I think this rings true for so many people around the world. My smile is the future and what it will hold for me and my family. My smile is also for family as that is what I LOVE so much about the holidays. 😀 😀 😀

I have a lot to smile about and this is my family’s Christmas tree in Arizona! It is beautiful!
My granddaughter and her Papa! I Love them so and we had a grand time visiting! 😀
This is Dublin the brother to Wolfie which is here to live with him. He is in a room and will be slowly introduced back to his brother. We will be taking 2 cats home with us, the sister’s.

I have so much to be thankful for and I don’t know if any of my family members read this (I know my sister’s read my blog and I so appreciate their support and kind words) but my immediate family may read from time to time, I am not completely sure but I do know I tell them all the time how much I LOVE them and how much I support all that they do and it is important to me that they know I want nothing but happiness for them.

I am straying from my smile, as I get to rambling on and on sometimes. I just want to say that how can you not smile coming into the New Year? I suppose if you are struggling (there are many things that one can be struggling over) just know that a smile can brighten your day. Everyone at any time can smile, and it will bring some peace if you just take a moment to smile. I am bringing in this New Year with a huge SMILE, AND I am really excited about this New Year! Lot’s coming up this year in my family and it will be fun to share. I’ll end with a photo of Wolfie who’s in the bedroom with us in his transition to his new home. He is really cuddly, sleeping practically on my head! Not really, but on my chest and then in between my hubby and I as we keep him very warm. I will share photos of my new kitties soon!

Wolfie in his new home; this is New Year day morning! I will miss him but he is with family and we will see him often! ❤ ❤ ❤

Thank you for visiting my smile!

~Diana ❤

Christmas Tree is Decorated!

On By dprastkaIn Family is important, Living life7 Comments

I said I would share my Christmas tree decorated so I ended up taking about 4 photos and they all came out a bit different. I am just going to share all of them. The lights on the Christmas tree are pretty new, maybe only a year or two old and they change colors which I think is kinda cool. As I took the photos the colors kept changing from all colors to just white! It makes for a fun look I think. This has really put me in the Christmas spirit, maybe it will help you too? We haven’t gotten any presents yet this year, the time is ticking! YIKES!

This is the colorful lights. The other half of the 20 bears I have collected are all around the fireplace. Yes, I counted them and we stopped buying them after the 20th bear!
Another close shot of the colored lights – I accidentally cut off the star, too close! Lol
I like the softer colors of this photo even though it’s a little dark near the fireplace. This is the white lights as they change!
Same tree but with the lights white, pretty cool as I really like this photo and the lighting!

Now, if I can figure out what to get everyone for Christmas I think I would be good. I still need to buy the Christmas cards I wanted and then we are picking names for immediate family. This will help with the Christmas shopping this year! For me, my present is just being with family and enjoying each others company. THAT IS THE BEST PRESENT OF ALL! ❤

To Happy Holiday!

Love, Diana ❤

Giving Thanks!

On By dprastkaIn Family is important, Living life, Love being Grandma7 Comments

I really wanted to give thanks to this last week and our Thanksgiving holiday. I realize that I have been able to have things in my life that others can only dream about and maybe its been lucky of me to be able to have a good job and then live in a location that can afford me the luxury and/or my passions and I am truly thankful for all that I have worked for. I just have to give thanks to this wonderful Thanksgiving this year. I wanted to share this last weeks events, with Thanksgiving dinner and a baby shower for my new grandson coming next year!

Thanskgiving dinner with family!

We decided to serve Thanksgiving dinner buffet style which I have never done before. Usually we fit all the food on a platter or in big bowls all over the table then pass everything around. This year it was suggested to line it up on the counter than walk the buffet line. I thought why not? funny how you can get stuck one way as I had to tell my hubby the line starts over there! Haha, and then I didn’t get the photo of the set table with all the food but this works and was happy all enjoyed the food. It was all delicious!

Day after Thanksgiving. It rained all day on Thanksgiving and this is the lake in one corner of the arena! My horses drank the rain water and thankfully didn’t roll in the water but enjoyed it immensely!
My sister and best friend heading out for our trail ride on Saturday!

I posted a Smile post all about our trail rides this last weekend but I didn’t share all my photos there and am recapping a little here, you can find my smile post here. As I write this today it is raining and will rain all day today. We will end up with another lake in the corner of the arena but the folks that work at the barn have dug a trench out of one side to encourage it to drain out so it won’t get so big. This will help but there will still be standing water which my horses just LOVE! Gracie, the chestnut will not go into the lake or water avoiding it but both my horses just walk right in and paw, splashing water and drinking the rain water. Silly ponies, we had trouble getting them out to be honest. I had to go get some cookies to encourage them but they finally came out for our ride!

Baby Shower Day! My daughter with my granddaughter!! They are doing snapchat, my granddaughter’s face is adorable!
Snapchat photo with sunglasses! Haha, I just had to share!
My son Harrison, Amber and Alice! Gift giving time. I LOVE them to the moon and back again!

After our trail ride on Saturday, my daughter, sister and best friend all headed to the baby shower for my son and daughter-in-law’s new baby coming next March. I AM IN FAMILY FUN HEAVEN! They drove from Arizona for the weekend for the shower and stayed at my daughter-in-law’s Aunt’s house. It was so much fun and we had so much fun together.

The drive to and from the baby shower was full of wonderful chats. My girlfriend Sally had us in stitches with a Thanksgiving story about finding a cell phone on the trail the year before! Oh my, I could never recreate and share like she did, I was practically crying in the car it was too funny but she was able to return the phone to it’s rightful owner! Then she was telling us a bunch of silly jokes, so funny! She uses these jokes to lighten the mood as she is a nurse in a chemo treatment center for Kaiser. She says any kind of smiles she can get out of her patients go a long way when they are doing chemo treatment. She is my kind of gal, as a smile may not cure cancer but can sure help heal the soul! ❤

I don’t really do selfies much and don’t share often but I had such a wonderful weekend. What a GREAT TIME!

I am thankful for my whole entire family. We are spread out all across the United States. Many relatives back East and my immediate family all across the Western United States. I am also truly thankful and humbled for all my dear friends, near and far! I am truly blessed. I’ll end with this joke from my best friend.

What’s the difference between a Snowman and a Snow woman?

Snow Balls! Haha –

Love, Diana