Word of the Month for November, GRATEFUL

 

 

Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

 

I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

 

 I want to mention that since Blogger changed to a new format for posting, if you can click on each picture if you care to enlarge it...... 

 

Today, I will be sharing my Word of the Month for November...... 

 

But first, I want to Thank, Marilyn, over at Marilyn's Treats, for choosing my post, Creepy Gothic Halloween Tree and Chandy, as one of your features from last week's Over the Moon Link Party!!!

 

Thanks so much, Marilyn!!!

 

 I want to Thank the Garden Week Hosts, Angie, over at God's Growing Garden, Marci, over at Stone Cottage Adventures and Annie , over at 15 Acre Homestead , for choosing my post Fall Garden Update, as one of the Garden Features from the Month Long Linky Party, You're the Star!!

 

Thanks again, Marci, Annie and Angie!!

 

Please stop by and link up to these wonderful parties!!!

 

I just love that my Cynthia Hart Victorian Calendar depicts a Victorian Election Day scene for the month of November!!!

 

 

 I will save this to frame for the Patriotic Holidays of the Summer.....

 Can you believe that it is November already!!!!

 POSITIVITY is what I chose as my Theme for this Year......

 

 

Little did I know how important it would be to remain POSITIVE this Year!!!!

I am choosing to maintain this theme by only posting positive things here on my Blog and also on my face book page.....

 

 

  I continue choose to post Positivity on this Blog and especially out there on social media like face book,over all the Political Rants, Mask Pro and Cons Rants, Naming Calling and Making Fun of Political Leaders no matter what Political Party they belong to, sharing of Fake News without checking the actual facts before posting and bashing of Businesses even though those businesses may be barely surviving!!!

 I choose to take the higher road, rising above all that nonsense and frankly, childishness, and not feed into and spread the anger and hate!!

I have had enough......

I am CHOOSING to scroll through and not read any of these posts.....

 

 

 I choose POSITIVITY!!

 

And yes, at times it has been hard to remain POSITIVE......

 

Especially over the last 4 years, living with a very angry senior citizen who chooses to live his life by complaining about anything and everything.....

 

Sadly, I have come to the realization that no matter who wins this election for President, the drama and arguments and constant state of complaining about it, in my own home, will never stop.....

 

 But I think back to my Mother who always looked at the Glass as half empty, always waited for something terrible to happen because things were just going too good, always waited for the Shoe to drop......

 

And I remember how that attitude ruled her life and put her in a constant state of anxiety and I refuse to do that to myself and to my family because I doubt my Mother ever realized the effect her Negativity had on her family.... 

So even though I live with someone who has an extremely negative attitude and has very different views than what I have about pretty much everything, I still choose to be Positive....

 

I have to to maintain my sanity....

 

My Word of the Month for October was IMAGINE!!!

 

 

 

And that I Did!!!

 

I started to IMAGINE what our home will look like decorated for the Holiday Season this year.....

 

And YES, I call it the Holiday Season because for me, It is not only Christmas.....

 

The Holiday Season starts with decorating for Fall and Halloween, celebrating Thanksgiving, my son Jim's Birthday in early December, Christmas, then my son Joe's Birthday at the end of December, New Year's, my Birthday at the end of Jan, Valentine's Day , St. Patrick's Day, our DIL's Birthday in March and ending the Holiday Season with Easter!! 

I have been asked why am I decorating because of the Pandemic and now with the numbers of cases and hospitalizations rising again.....

I think about how awful it would be if everyone stopped decorating their homes because of what is going on in the world today.....

There would be no inspiration, no creativity and no IMAGINATION!!!!!!

 

And most of all, no Delight in the eyes of children!!! 

 

I think people, at least in our area, went all out for Halloween, decorating the outside of their homes like crazy....

 

Even one of our local News Stations started showing Halloween Homes, like they show Holiday Homes at Christmas, on all their news broadcasts.....

In October, I did IMAGINE how Christmas will look in our home this year......

You can click HERE if you missed my October Rudolph Day post where I shared a Sneak Peek of the decorations upstairs which I was pleased that I finished by the 3rd week of October..... 

 

I did spend a lot of time the last week of October IMAGINING how I would change up my Christmas decorations in the Den.......

Sneak Peek......

And I even IMAGINED how I would decorate this Tree which I decided to move into the Den with all my Thomas Kinkade ornaments......

And that allowed me to change up this Tree.....

Yes, I finished decorating the Den for Christmas before Halloween......

Every year, I start early because my Christmas decorating takes me about 26 - 30 days to complete and every year, I IMAGINE that I will have it all finished by Thanksgiving so I can sit back and relax and enjoy the Holiday Season......

I just may accomplish that this year!!!!

I have also IMAGINED all kinds of Christmas crafting that I want to do this year.....

Using these things......

And these!!

And how will I finish this sled that Joe bought from the Amish Farmer.....

 

 

 

Point being is that I had fun in October with my Word of the Month, IMAGINE!!!

Now it is November......

 

On Halloween night before we went to bed, we set back the clocks.....

One thing I love about Retirement is NOT having to work on the night we turn the clocks back......

 

Staring at 2 am for 2 hours was always torture ....

 

Working 9 hours was not bad but when I worked a Weekender program and did 32 hours every Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, that one extra hour of work was always a killer!!!

 

I will say that I am very GRATEFUL for not having to do that ever again!!!

 

There!!

 

I said it!!

 

GRATEFUL is my Word of the Month for November.....

 

Pretty much a No Brainer with Thanksgiving in the United States falling at the end of November....

 

Even though I believe that Canada got it right when they decided to have their Thanksgiving Holiday in October as it makes so much more sense to have it then because that is when the Harvest is occurring and chances are that is when the first Thanksgiving actually did occur and not at the end of November when the Harvest is all said and done!!!! 

What exactly does GRATEFUL mean????

GRATEFUL

"being grateful is about appreciating what one has, as opposed to what one wants."

 
"feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness; thankful."

 

 

I think it is very important during this time that we all are GRATEFUL for what we have and not for what has been taken away from us or what we lost during this Pandemic....

 

Good things are still happening and we need to be GRATEFUL for that!!!

 

 

 

 I have been preaching GRATITUDE on my Face Book site for months now especially with all the turmoil in the World and especially in this Country..... 

 

I have been practicing being GRATEFUL for a long time now....

 

 

Many years ago, I read Sarah Ban Breathnach's book, Simple Abundance.....

 

In the book , Sarah talks about finding your Authentic Self....

 

She advocates keeping a GRATITUDE Journal where at the end of the day, you write down 5 things that you were GRATEFUL for even if one was that you were GRATEFUL that a particularly bad day was finally over with....

This is a quote that was mentioned in the book by American Author, Melody Beattie

 

Being GRATEFUL can change your life.....

 

It changes your focus from what you do not have to ALL that you do have....

 

After being told that I had cancer over 13 years ago but it was caught very early and I needed no further treatment beyond the removal of the Grade One Squamous Cell tumor in my right Ureter.....

 

I became very GRATEFUL!!!!

 

 

I was GRATEFUL for the gift of Time that I had been given to spend with my family.....

 

I felt I needed to show that GRATITUDE so I started to volunteer at our church with various fund raising events......

 

I became more generous in donating to Church and other Charities....

 

I also took that Time that I was so GRATEFUL for and did a few things that I always thought of doing but was afraid to ...

 

Like starting an online Craft Business, started selling my Crafts in local shops and at local Craft Fairs.....

 

Joining a local Victorian Society...

 

I wanted to show my GRATITUDE for the Time I had been given by making good use of that Time....

 

I also stopped "Sweating the Small Stuff" 

Another Book that I read was "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff" by Richard Carlson, PHD. 

This book teaches one to:

""Live in the present moment" 

 

And 

 

"Live each day as it might be your last"

 

Again, being simply GRATEFUL that you woke up another morning to face another day......

 

 

 

 I think we all need to be more GRATEFUL for what we all have.....

 

So during this month of Thanksgiving, when the focus is on GRATITUDE.....

 

Won't you join me in being GRATEFUL for everything that you have?????

 

And PLEASE, let's make this......

A November to Remember!!!!

 

No matter what is happening in the World around us!!

 

In my next post, I will be starting to post over on my Christmas Blog, A Debbie-Dabble Christmas..... 

I will be providing links to each post on that Blog, here on this Blog as I have done in the past.....

 So I hope you will stop by to visit again soon!!

Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

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