Rainy day today...but warmer. I think it reached 50 degrees today (11/23/2014). I am still on the mend. I have improved a lot since I received two new stents in late September to open some blocked arteries. Well enough to say that most of the time I feel quite healthy. I do believe a lot of how we feel has a great deal to do with our attitude. I know that I was pretty beat up a while ago and really wondering if there would be any better days. If you are reading this for the first time and wondering what I am talking about, I should explain just a little. In the later part of June 2013 I suffered a massive heart attack. It was a blocked artery. The one they call the widow maker. Since then I have suffered other problems relating to arthritis from a history of job related injuries. Then in the midst of these problems I was also diagnosed with Chronic Lympocitic Leukemia, Stage 0.
Now back to the attitude. I have a very strong belief in a mighty God. I don't blame him for anything that happened to me but do give him praise for bringing me through it. I believe that we will suffer trouble and trials in this life. I know that he is much more concerned with our next life or when this time on earth is over. Though I was at death's door, I knew where I would be when I crossed over. Absent from the body and present with the Lord. So in the worst of it I could still praise him. And praise him I do. This has been my anti-depressant. I was prompted to try to get on a drug to help me cope. I did try and it only added to how lousy I felt. So I found that if I just keep movin' -  Pickin' em up and layin' em down, praising God and signing choruses and hymns, it would lift me up and keep me in a brighter attitude.
I don't know what his plan is but I will continue to trust Jesus from moment to moment and day to day. He has more for me to do in this life and I make myself available.
I have recently been working on writing a couple of new songs for him. Also spending a lot of time tracking our genealogy and making sure about some of the dates and adding any relatives that I can find. We are the last of this generation. A fun and tedious project lately is working on some old photos and trying to name and date pictures that have no information on them. It is detective type work. Here are some pictures from the early 1900s of family.

 This calender will be good again in 1920