God is so good to us! We are so lucky to have a God that cares and gives us so many blessings! Yesterday, we went fishing. God provided so much for us. The beauty of Northern Michigan, fish and vegetables to sustain.

A couple years ago, it was so hard to get canning lids. I purchased some online and they have not proved to be good quality. Last night, while processing tomatoes, I was removing a jar that had one of those lids. When I placed it on the counter, the lid blew off!! 😳 Boiling tomatoes came out of that jar with such force!! All over the counter, walls, appliances, floor and unfortunately, on my hand and lower arm. I immediately rinsed off the tomatoes with cold water and applied lavender oil. I kept a bag of frozen corn on it for awhile. It was quite painful. This morning, the pain is gone and I have just a few areas where I missed putting lavender oil on that have blistered. I am so thankful that I had lavender oil on hand. Lucky!!!

Despite this mishap, I feel so lucky and blessed for God’s provision and that I didn’t have my face down there!

One thing I find interesting, is that I never felt I had anything in common with my grandmother. This year, as I ponder things… I find that we do have some similarities.

When I was 10 years old, my grandmother slipped on a rug and fell into her bathroom. Our dog, “Lucky” snuggled up to her all night keeping her warm in the old farm house. In the morning, she crawled across the large farmhouse kitchen and pulled herself up the refrigerator where the phone was kept on top to call us for help. She had broken her hip. Similarly, when I fell in our driveway, I crawled to our shed and pulled myself up the upright freezer and I also had broken my hip.

My grandmother always had a brown spot on her cheek. When asked about it, she claimed that a pressure cooker blew up in her face while canning. Her face was burned but she applied a Swedish liniment that she called Pitsi and the brown spot was an area that she had missed. Hmm. Similar! In any case, we have much to be thankful for.