#30DaysOfThanks 10 1/2 bonus post

As happens each day, I no more than post my daily thankfulness picture than I think of others I should have included too. Usually I just let those ideas go, possibly to be used again later in the month, often just to store in my heart for the day (knowing I won't remember them again in a few days since I didn't record them right away)!

But today there is a special thanks that I simply cannot let pass without recording!

While I have already spotlighted my hubby, please allow me to express thankfulness for him, for our marriage, once again. If you have followed along since my strokes, you may know that our marriage was hit HARD by my majorly messed up emotions, thought processes, and how we each reacted to the shock and strain. We still have some healing to go, on both side of the fence, but we are getting closer and closer to restored unity, by God's grace!

The past several weeks have been amazing to be the recipient of Rick's intentional, over-the-top kindnesses, his restraint from anything but encouraging and self-sacrificing words and actions toward me, that just keep coming and coming. I am feeling rather overwhelmed by so much grace! It makes me more keenly aware of the love that God lavishes upon us, undeserved! I have tried to express my feeling directly to him, but since I think better through my fingers than my mouth, I wanted to share this abundant blessing in my praise list today.

Last night was cold and stormy, soup weather. When Rick got home from work, in addition to our soup, I had cinnamon and vanilla (two of the only scents I can tolerate, along with some fruity smells like most citrus and mint, that we tend to avoid because too much mint triggers migraines for Rick) oils melting, the fireplace turned on, Christmas music playing (yes, already, I'm one of those people and make no apology for my choice!) and it just felt cozy and bright in here while so dark and damp and blustery outside. Rick came in stressed from the blowing, icy snow drive home, but came in and gave me a big hug, letting our littlest man present me with a bouquet of roses (my favorite flower) on the very day my rose garden was bedded down for the winter!

I need to record one additional special gift. On Sunday (Rick's birthday) he spent the whole day driving and running us to church then from one scheduled activity to the next. Seriously, he had a whole 10 minutes of down time, mid-afternoon, plus some quite time to himself (he will be the first to tell you he is very introverted and needs alone time to recharge!) after 8pm. In the midst of all this, he made time to take us to my favorite thrift shop so I didn't miss their 50% off sale, not only for once, when he took the whole family for an hour and a half, but AGAIN took me back a second time that evening, because I regretted not having purchase a specific dress earlier in the day. (And he was the one to find it still on the rack that evening too!) As our daughter put it before we went, "Daddy must REALLY love you to take you back to Savers for a second time in one day! If it were me, I wouldn't take you back again and I even like shopping and that specific store!" How right she is. Thank you Rick!!! I love you too.

One of several outfits Rick bought for me on his birthday.

#30DaysOfThanks 10 Snow Delay!

Kendra you will laugh at wimpy Nevadas, but my thankful for today was to wake up to enough snow as to delay school by two hours. There is laughter in my home this morning, a relaxed pace, joy, enjoyment of one another, and I'm even awake with the kids while they are preparing for the day!

My post tomorrow will be all about home based business women in my life. If you sell etsy or for any party sale company, write or paint or compose music that you then sell, anything like that, or all out on your own, or even if you aren't home based but have ownership/management interest in a family business with online customer access, please message me to let me know, along with your link, right away. I'm going to try to include as many friends' businesses as possible, but have already been working on the project for a couple of days and realize it is a huge undertaking!

The Pool #30DayOfThanks 9

Nov. 9 Thankful Photo: 

Today I am thankful for my Double Diamond Athletic Club gym membership that Rick Saake maintains for me (after his parents paid for the initial investment for me last Christmas - thank you Norman and Patty!), for Betty Camp driving me twice a week, for ongoing muscle stimulation and brain challenges that keep my body and mind more-or-less working together, for being able to be back there again after a couple months off (and much muscle and coordination loss) surrounding surgery, for being able to move abdominal-pain-free again thanks to that surgery, for acquaintance made there at the gym, a few growing into casual yet trusting friendships, and I guess even for today's sore muscles that remind me that we are moving forward in recovery once again!
#‎30DaysOfThanks‬

#30DaysOfThanks Birthday Edition

Doing my #30DaysOfThanks photo list, my first items that immediately came to mind were Jesus and His eternal salvation, my husband, my kids, my parents, our home and food and clothing and all the predictable blessings, right down the line. Those are the easy "givens" in a list like this. I wanted to take the challenge to think more in depth, not give the easily expected answers right away. And so each day I striven to dig deep for answers.

Today, I'm being more predictable, not because my choice is any less meaningful than any of the others (in fact, after God, this is my very BIGGEST thankful on my whole list!) but because it is my hubby's birthday! I am celebrating the fact that God created Rick Saake, that he was born, that we met, that we married, that our marriage has weathered the sometimes incredibly intense storms of over 23 years now, that we have three living miracle blessing babies together and that Rick remains the love of my life! Happy birthday, Sweetheart!!!

#‎30DaysOfThanks‬ 6 and 7

Newest additions to this month's thankfulness list and a sweet (home schooling) story: 

Nov. 6 Thankful Photo: Thankful that my potential breast cancer scare last month was totally benign!
‪#‎30DaysOfThanks‬

Quoting from Facebook, "One day, Thomas Edison came home and gave a paper to his mother. He told her, “My teacher gave this paper to me and told me to only give it to my mother.”
His mother’s eyes were tearful as she read the letter out loud to her child: "Your son is a genius. This school is too small for him and doesn’t have enough good teachers for training him. Please teach him yourself."
After many, many years, Edison’s mother died, and he had become one of the greatest inventors of the century. One day he began looking through old family things. Suddenly he saw a folded paper in the corner of a drawer in a desk. He took it and opened it up. On the paper was written: "Your son is addled [mentally ill]. We won’t let him come to school any more."
Edison cried for hours and then he wrote in his diary: “Thomas Alva Edison was an addled child that, by a hero mother, became the genius of the century.” ❤#ThePowerOfAnExtraodinaryMother "

Nov. 7 Thankful Photo: Short version, I'm ever-so-thankful for the many people, ministries, authors and organizations who have profoundly touched my life and been used of God to mold me into the person I am today!

Longer answer, far from an exclusive list, but a few highlights that especially stand out in my mind at the moment. Cadence International (formerly OCSC or Overseas Christian Servicemen's Centers) is the core of my childhood, along with my parents, Ralph Camp and Betty Camp and my big brother Dan Camp. Jenny Zidel Brooks is one stand out childhood friendships, along with Erika Gieschen Bertling, Stephanie, Beth, and many others. My life has never been the same since Susan Vickery Rikard and her entire family entered my heart back in high school! The Master's College is where I met Rick Saake, the love of my life, and so many dear friends! Debbie Gruelle Bridwell, Sandra Grafe Glahn, Kathe Homan Wunnenberg, Leslie Snodgrass and Julie Long Donahue (and each of their books or ministries, that led to personal friendships) saw me through an incredibly tough decade of infertility, miscarriage and adoption losses.
Hannah's Prayer ( www.Hannah.org ) played a daily anchor roll in my life for two decades, my "everything I learned in life I learned in Kindergarten" type go-to resource for understanding about infertility, loss, the adoption journey, then into childbirth and parenting, to world news,

 beauty tips, marriage advise, cooking help and so much more, even challenging my thinking on some wider theological issues. Most of the friendships I now maintain are still somehow linked to HP!!! I am no longer able to keep up with the speed and volume of daily interaction with thousands of women at a time, but am so very blessed to have similar type friendship through a few groups here on FB, especially my Hope House girls and Soul Sisters (Joni and Friends marriage retreat spin off group).
At the same time Hannah's Prayer was just beginning, I was befriended byLisa Copen of her fledgling chronic illness support ministry, Rest Ministries. While we have yet to meet in person (YET!) we have walked nearly every step of life together through personal chronic (and often addition acute, as well) illness, ministry growth, writing, growing our families (we have babies born 1 DAY apart!), learning social media, employment changes, homeschooling and so much more!!! Andrea Whittemore-Goad is my face-to-face, local friend who "gets" my health journey and faith in Jesus Christ, like no other.
My children Noel, Joshua, Joel, Hannah, Princess R. and J Bear are each so dear, my heart!

Jan Frank (author of A Graceful Waiting, and got me in the door with my publisher), NavPress and my editor Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent, all must make my thankful list, as Hannah's Hope by Jennifer Saake was such a key landmark in my life! (And we never would have gotten there at all if not for Kathe's challenge!)
Jeanette Hanscome and the Reno Christian Writers (RCW) gang!
My many stroke doctors, nurses, therapists such as Rachel Dawson Brown, and support groups and buddies, such as Kendra (from from Hannah's Prayer days, young homeschooling moms together, then stroked, and SURVIVED, less than 6 months apart).
If your name isn't here, it is not meaning you aren't dear to me. Facebook will only let me tag so many AND my memory is bad, so here were ONLY are a few highlights!

Thankful 4 and 5

I'm doing fine at keeping up with #30DayOfThanks over on Facebook so far, just not here on my blog!

Yesterday I posted:
Nov. 4 Thankful Photo: We just learned that our 12-year-old Princess R. is being granted a FULL scholarship to be flown back to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for a week-long airplane pilot camp in July of next year!!!

Today:

Nov. 4 Thankful Photo: I'm thankful for a voice that actually moves sort of well now!

http://strokeofgrace.blogspot.com/2015/11/all-about-voice.html

Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. - Hebrews 13:15

Nov. 3, '15

I'm doing 30 Days of Thankful Pictures.

Once I get going, it is hard not to keep coming back and editing more and more into daily lists!

Yesterday I posted early, "I am proud and thankful for my Daddy and what he has earned:

Ralph Camp

9 hrs · 

 If you are in the Reno Area and are available to attend the Home Coming Ceremony, I invite and encourage you to do so. I have been a part of the Welcome Home group, and now I get to be an Honoree myself. I hope to see many of you there on Thursday.

So now the picture:

Last week, working on refurbishing the doll house he made for me over 30 years ago, now for my daughter!

And today on Facebook, I shared, I'm so thankful for my Kathy who gives up a day of her life every two weeks to come help me clean house (or weed my garden, or dig trenches, or take apart and repair my vacuum, or whatever else I throw at her) and invest in friendship! 
heart emoticon Tomorrow is a Kathy Day!

I won't make it my official "thankful" picture yet today, but a sneak peak at my 12-year-old's fantastic holiday decoration skills: