Thankful Thursday revisited

Every year after Christmas I buy one of those daily calendars that has a quote every day. Every year I buy a different kind--just to mix it up some. This year I bought one called "Believing in Ourselves". It's quotes from famous women. Today's quote reminded me of when I was doing "Thankful Thursdays" and I decided to share it with you.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough and more.
It turns denial into acceptance,
Chaos to order,
Confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast,
A house into a home,
A stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past,
Brings peace for today,
And creates a vision for tomorrow.

It's by Melody Beattie. I thought it was nice and so true.

I forgot to tell you all that I finally did the drive-by at my old house on Tuesday. I'm sure some of you were wondering how long it would take. Mainly, I just wanted to see if he was living in it yet and if it looked any different. I did it under the excuse of seeing if he'd painted the house yet so we could get the money back that we put up for his painting escrow. You have to basically stop in the middle of the street, though, to see if the paint is still peeling so I couldn't tell anything because I didn't want anyone to think I was stalking him. It didn't look like he was home, though. At the closing he said he wasn't in any hurry to move in so he may not even be living there yet. He wanted to paint the purple living room before he moved in so that may not even be done yet.

Saturday is Mr's birthday. We are headed to the lake tonight after work so he can wax the boat tomorrow since he cleaned it last week. So this will be my last post until after the weekend--unless I find something cool today that I want to post later. I am going to attempt to make a homemade German chocolate cake which is a major challenge on two fronts. One, I've never made one before and if you've ever looked at a German chocolate cake recipe, there's a lot involved. Two, I am going to be making it at the lake. We have basic cooking apparatus there, but nothing too involved--we don't do a lot of baking when we're there--so I am going to have to transport a lot of stuff down so I can do this right. Maybe experimenting on his birthday isn't the best idea because if it sucks, we'll have no cake, but I really want to do it. I figure it will taste better than a box cake or a store-bought cake...if I do it right. Wish me luck.

Mr is a hard person to buy a gift for. I guess all men are, at least the ones I know. He says he considers the recliner his birthday/father's day gift from me, but I don't think that's fair. I have a couple of ideas, but none earth-shattering. What are some good gifts you've given in the past to the men in your life that they loved? I'm always open to ideas, plus, Christmas is just around the corner so getting ideas now always helps.

Can you believe that the 4th of July is only 2 weeks away? My great-grandma always said that once the 4th of July was here, summer was over. I can't believe how fast the summer is flying and it's not even officially summer yet. What are your plans for the 4th? Post them in the comments section--I'd love to see them.