Bountiful Blessings.....sexy hot mama style

"The most significant gifts are the ones most easily overlooked.

 Small, everyday blessings: woods, health, music, laughter, memories, books, family, friends, second chances, warm fireplaces, and all the footprints scattered throughout our days."
— Sue Monk Kidd

It has been a few days since I've sat down to right---I'm sure most of you understand.  Holiday time starting, traveling, family get-to-gethers, dinners and shopping and .....whew...flurry of activity.

If I am truthful....I've just taken a vacation from writing for a week or so....no reason other than....just because.

I've missed it.  Letting some of the words that swirl around inside of my head be vomited on a blank screen---no filter---just letting it happen.  It grounds me to an extent.  Mellows me out...

puts me in a better place...

helps me realize my blessings...

writing...good, bad..ugly...

is a part of me.....

I feel a bit unsettled when I don't do it.

So whether anyone ever reads it...

I need to write for my own soul.

So it has been Thanksgiving week---and the off color family has celebrated.  Big Daddy Boo Boo outdid himself once again---no I did not cook---Big Daddy Boo Boo can't help himself.  He starts setting stuff out on the stove in little categories for all his assorted dishes he plans to cook on Monday.  By Tuesday afternoon, he can't hold himself back--he's cooking...cooking...cooking...and sometimes creating a deliciouso (as we call it in the off color house)

assortment of dishes.  By Wednesday night--almost every dish is prepared.  The house smells of butter and and cream soups and casseroles of all kinds....Food is everywhere....and Big Daddy...

well not only can Big Daddy not help do all the cooking a few days early...Big Daddy can't help but start sampling his dishes.  By the time I got home from work--Big Daddy was sitting on the couch with the "bloat" from his delicacies.  

Thursday brings about a relaxing day at the off color house, 

we sleep in, snack and then in the afternoon, Big daddy snapped into gear and heats up our

off color day Thanksgiving Golden Coral buffet extravaganza.

Mama Dee comes over and we sit around eating and laughing and watching TV.  This year, we ended up playing uno---and experienced the hand that would not end.  After two hours, finally off color daughter was the lucky winner of the UNO game from hell.

Friday, off color daughter and I went back to visit my parents and family.  We travel in my new green alien bug mobile---my cute little NEW Kia Soul---no more ghetto van for me---it's all off color daughter's---and she is "SO happy about it---not.  Big Daddy and off color son had to work the day after Thanksgiving so it was a girls road trip filled with songs and singing and stories and laughing and sleeping for off color daughter.

Once again we had a eating extravaganza--starch---starch and more starch.  

On Saturday morning,

I got up, had my coffee and decided it was time to get some exercise.  I dressed in my sexy hot spandex (my niece who saw me afterward asked me--"how'd you get those running pants up---you look like you were poured into them---now that was not nice--don't you agree?) .   I put on my ipod, dressed in my black and yellow neon bumble bee running outfit and I ran--that was not too tight just sexy hot tight. 

The cool air cleared my head and got rid of the sugar overloaded brain.  The air was brisk and I ran....

ran out the neighborhood my parents lived in,

over the railroad bridge,

and up toward somewhere...

as I ran...

graves...

graves of my ancestors were in my left....

and 

I remembered gatherings of the past...

I remembered my fatma's flat green beans, sweet hot sliced ham and jam cake that nobody else has ever been able to touch.

I remembered my littlepa and the way we used to fight over who

would pull the wishbone to see who was the luckiest...

as I ran..I glanced to the right watched as a train heading from someplace to somewhere rattled by....and I remembered 

swinging on the tire swing out in back of my littlepa's house...

I'd watch the trains there--wondering what was inside the boxcars and where it was going and where it was from....

and

I ran...past the lake where baptisms were held at midnight and where my friends in high school and I floated to catch some sun, I

ran through the town where I grew up

past my old kindergarten teachers house---only a remnant remained. I ran past old friends houses, past my old Sunday school teachers house...

ran through town (yes those rednecks in their big ass pick up trucks were rubbernecking to see this sexy hot mama running in her tight spandex running pants....--good thing it was a small town---so not to cause a traffic jam.)

I ran past the holy roller church where my parent used to take me--where I learned about "fear factor God"--and where I was also loved into the faith by women who cared for me in spite of my repetitive questions about God....about where God came from and how Adam's sons found wives...and sometimes just loved me in spite of my inquisitive mind...

I ran past the old store where my friends and I'd would stop for cokes after school and 

then ran over the bridge and straightway to home...

not a bad trip down memory lane for a quick 3.5 mile run....and I felt rejuvenated.

I realize as I think back

I am blessed,

have been blessed

and

continue to be blessed.

I can walk,

I can even run a bit looking sexy hot as I do,

I have a multiple people who love me,

food to eat,

a new alien green bug box to drive,

a warm home,

a big daddy smorgasbord,

a job

health

and

sexy hotness of course.....

sometimes

in the flurry of the holidays

I forget...

forget to stop

think

remember

....

a guess the awakening came when we paid a visit to my mother's brother who is in a nursing home.   I walked in the front door and the smell hit me in the face--the smell of uncared for folk, of people bound to their bed, unable to get up or walk or even shower by themselves.

I saw eyes stare at us as we headed to his room he shares with a man he doesn't like.  They have two TVs blaring and the floor is covered by bed linens---several days worth as it seems the staff didn't think folks might visit the day after the holiday. 

We talked a bit and then left---and as we left I looked...

looked at eyes--hungry for love,

hungry for affection,

hungry for interaction

and my heart broke in half....and I wandered what could be done to make their lives better...

wondered how 

each of them would count their own blessings...

wondered...

what it might be like to sit and stare,

sit at the door looking out,

stare out the patio window and be sitting there waiting to die...

broke my heart I say....wondered what it might be like 

to be waiting to die.

.........

hum..

blessed

with bountiful blessings....

thankful for 

big daddy boo boo smorgasbords,

for homemade German chocolate cake

for laughs with nieces and nephews,

for runs down memory lane

and

for 

family 

and 

touch

and 

home and warmth

and

for all my bountiful blessings....

well in my own sexy hot humble way......

I am most thankful for the bounty..my bounty...our bounty..

may each of you

take a moment to find some gratitude

see your blessings

count them

and

be a blessings of some sorts...

.......

Happy Holiday.......

Blessings...

The radical rambler