Blessings

• Progress downstairs. We're still creeping our way to completion with our basement. I think I could have gone to enough Home Depot do-it-yourself workshops to finish everything by myself at this point. But the bathroom tile is down, thus completing the flooring process. The vanity has been set in the bathroom. The plumber comes back on Wednesday to set the toilet and finish up the shower. Then we just need the electrician back, the finish lumber completed and voila. (5 months later)

• Having Cori home on Saturdays. Things are getting more and more busy at work and at Church. For example, we see him for 30-45 minutes on Wednesdays. It is so nice to spend the weekend together. Especially when he helps me clean the house like he did yesterday.

• Good food and lots of friends. We hosted a little get together last night. We had a couple that Cori knows through work as well as a couple from the Branch and all of every one's kids over for a mid-winter BBQ and a viewing of the LOST finale from last season--in preparation for this week's premier. Well, the adults watched LOST and took turns playing with the kids downstairs. Fun was had by all, and good food too.

• Our country. I had a very perplexing discussion with my friends from the Jehovah's Witness church (who have made my home a regular Friday stop). I'm in a good mood now, so I won't go into the grittty of it all, but it has built up the flame that burns in my heart for our country. The system isn't perfect, nor are the people who work in it. I know there is corruption. But I am free. I believe in being a good citizen and in fully participating in the social contract that is government. I am grateful for countless leaders and soldiers who have sacrificed to create and preserve these freedoms. I am grateful that I am free to vote. I am grateful that I was free to have those well meaning ladies in my home, and that we were free to have that discussion--regardless of how frustrating it became.