Sunday Gratitude

It's already Sunday evening while I'm writing this - somehow I didn't find the time to write my post the entire day. It's the start of spring break and we were contemplating whether we should go down to San Luis Obispo and visit CalPoly, one of the universities Kaefer is contemplating to go to after she graduates from High School next year. However, since she said she will apply there no matter what and she really doesn't need to see the campus first and gets all the information she needs from their website, we decided to stay home for the week and perhaps do a couple day trips instead and work on some projects we have been planning for some time.

Yesterday we (other German friends and us) did a huge rummage sale as a fundraiser for our friend D. who has stomach cancer and has just finished her third round of chemo. I am grateful for all the volunteers of our German group who organized and helped at this event. We raised a good amount of money for D. and got rid of a lot of stuff at the same time. By the end of the day, the owner of the place were we held the sale took everything that wasn't sold and brought it to a charity organization who are thankful for any help they can get. Thus we actually helped two good causes. We were tired, sweaty and rather dirty (and probably smelly), but very contend. Unfortunately D. is not doing well at all and is currently in the ICU in one of our hospitals.

I met with my friend K. and we spent the morning at the Salvation Army thrift store center and yard in a small town nearby. We had a really good time - I found a few books and while K. was looking for clothes I walked around the area and took some pictures. Green hills and beautiful trees - it looks so lovely at this time of year.

Two mornings this week I spent at the lakes - the big one and the smaller one that is very close to the big one. While I did see almost no water birds at the big lake (except for the geese and ducks), I found them all two days later at the smaller one - Black-crowned Night Herons only a few feet away from me, Green Herons in flight and I witnessed some swan drama when the swan defended the nest he was just building against a pair of Canada geese who came out to tease him again and again. Stupid geese - you don't mess with an angry swan!!

I'm sure you know the song "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. That's a song I am grateful for because whenever I hear it I feel happy, I smile and everything is just a little bit better. I start to move, I can't help it. Don't know the song? You can listen to it here.

What are you thankful for this week?