Contents of a "Happy Tank"

Several things that are helping fill up my "happy tank" this evening:

1.  Someone moved cattle into the field east of our house.  I love watching them from my kitchen and dining room windows.  

2.  We had a little shower this evening just as I was coming home from school.  Afterward the wind went down and the sun came out, and the world is smiling with green.

3.  The Nanking Cherry bushes are in bloom.

4.  More of the seeds in the seedhouse have sprouted, including some things I've never grown before--like purselane and claytonia.  

5.  My Jiffy-7s were delivered today, and I got home in time to rescue them from the front porch before the rain soaked them.  If you've ever worked with Jiffy 7s, you know what a disaster soaking would have precipitated.  Oh joy--a pun! (These are cookie-shaped compressed peat pellets that expand exponentially when hydrated.)

6.   I had a lovely email note from a dear sister-in-law.

7.  A half-grown bunny hopped along near where I was standing.  (His days are surely numbered.  Hiromi has been on the rabbit warpath for a full week now, and we have six fewer than we had eight days ago.)

8.  The asparagus spears are visible in the garden.

9.  I heard a bird singing that I didn't recognize.  Maybe it's a new one, and maybe it means I'm just as ignorant as I'm afraid I am about bird calls.  

10.  Our small group wants to come here for a work night the week after next.  

11.  I reread Kathy Hanks' column about Pilgrim again, and am very grateful that our school is a blessing to the Hutchinson News staffers who are working with us.

12.  Our ad sales crew has lined up some sales for the newspaper pages we're preparing.  We still need more.  

13.  I made a pan of strawberry yum yum for the minister's meetings with no major disaster.  I had never made it before.  Now for the three pies . . . 

14.  I found a use for one of those three cream of celery soup cans Hiromi bought last week by mistake.

15.  Kristi gave an effective speech this morning on choosing well now.  It was her turn to present the senior challenge.  

16.  I had somehow failed to clip the Pilgrim article by Kathy Hanks, and I found it in the pile of old newspapers.  I also found the Pretty Prairie High School pages, which are the last ones to be printed ahead of ours.

17.  Some of the tulips Crystal gave me last fall are showing color.

18.  The dainty vinca patch is showing some green, now that the load of Sweet Autumn Clematis debris was cleared off the top of it.  It has leaves about a third of the size of vinca minor.  I planted it when we lived here more than 15 years ago.  Also, Hiromi mowed over and bagged the winter-killed leaves from the two big patches of vinca major, and the green sprouts are visible and perky.

19.  My sister Linda called to make sure I saw the golden-edged clouds in the west.

20.  Dad gave me some stuff he wants me to try on the garden.  It's a foliar spray that facilitates growth.

21.  The seedhouse Hiromi made is always comfortable and full of promise.  Being there reaches deep into the recesses of my psyche and drains away tension. 

22.  Lois and Natasha are doing a really nice job on the "Anja book" display that is being set up for the minister's meetings.

23.  The "Messiah" presentation in Hutchinson yesterday by the Reno Choral Society included a tribute to Anja, who used to sing in the annual "Messiah."

24.  Dan Yoder from Ireland preached a good sermon yesterday.  How could "The Slippery Slope of Sin" be a good sermon?  Just take my word for it.  His daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter live here.  Little Olivia would be worth the trip all by herself.  

25.  Carson is happy again after having pushed up three teeth in two weeks, and after having gained mobility by learning to crawl.  

26. Clarissa is better after having suffered from bursitis (or something similar) in both shoulder joints.  No fun when you've got a chubby baby to care for.