30 Days of Thanksgiving ~ Days 17 to 19

I have been giving this 30 days of Thanksgiving a lot of thought. It has been helping me. I have been giving lots of things though actually which is good. In part because of what has been going on in our family in traditionally one of the busiest days of the year for us since living here. Also because of the novel I was reading. I particularly want to think more about my last year's posts and reading about what is called the tender grace of the day now dead.

Blessings Day 17, 18 & 19:

~ my computer which nearly died, didn't

~ my daughter had the afternoon off school. It is very complicated, but as you know since about Wednesday I have been worried about shopping, bills, where to shop, it happens a lot. I put my foot down with my daughter about two school related things, her shopping trip, lots of things, and it ended up that she was very sad and cried, and I found it hard. She was home because the kids at school where having a pizza for charity work they had done. They do the charity work, we pay $30 to reward them. Hmm. She was invited to go on a weekend away, so after her school work was done she came home to get ready, less the clothes she wanted to buy. She was very good. She did get some money for the birthday presents etc.

So, while she was buying cards she got offered a new job. She starts at 5am on Monday. I am really pleased for her. At any time she can order clothes for herself.



This is what I wrote last time about tender grace of the day now dead.

Tender Grace a novel by Jackina Stark. From Jackina Stark's website:

"Desperately needing healing, she embarks on a journey to a place Tom had always meant to take her. As she travels from Springfield, Missouri, to Coronado Island off the shore of Southern California, she discovers along the way, through shared experiences with friends, old and new, the “tender graces” God provides each day for those who are willing to see."

"From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another." John 1:16 NIV

It is her first novel. It is about a 50ish woman who lost her husband to a heart attack. She has her house paid for, her two children, a boy and a girl are grown up. She has two grandchildren. She watches 10 hours of TV a day. She feels dead but alive, I think.

I like the way it was written, as a journal on her computer. She was easy to relate to...

Basically the woman learned to see the tender graces as she called them of each day.

Break, break, break

At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!

But the tender grace of a day that is dead

Will never come back to me. ~ Tennyson

She went on a roadtrip and basically got some perspective on her memories I think. And gave herself an opportunity to see people that she wouldn't have had in front of the TV."

Isn't that so like facebook groups.

Lamentations 3:22-23

"Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions (mercies) never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

Every day I know that something special may happen when there is no reason it should. Like the things I am posting for each day for 30 Days of Thanksgiving. Also in the novel, when this subject came up, it was to cheer up the main character. It was not about special surprises, but about small things that make each day tick over. So in the end her life did just that. She was also at peace again after a heartbreak.

At the time I also read New Mercies by Sandra Dallas.