Thankful Thursday: Joy Dare Week 12

Ah, home sweet home. As much as I did NOT want to leave London, I reluctantly boarded a plane for home last Wednesday. Re-entry to normal life has not been terrible. I have one last London photo to share from my last day in the city. Like my first day in the city, it rained. A lot. On my list had been to revisit a couple locations to snap photos, including Piccadilly Circus. If one can only get a picture in the rain, may as well make the most of it!

233. Piccadilly Circus (technically from last week)

247. My beloved California Poppies. Love these, and it thrilled my heart to find that they were blooming when I arrived home.

242. When jet lag means you wake up at 3:00 am... you can get a LOT done before going in to the office. I fell asleep before 8 pm more than once after arriving home, but on the upside, I woke up in the middle of the night with plenty of energy to do the unpacking and laundry.

It's Tuesday night now, and I'm mostly back on California time, although I've still been waking up around 5:00 am. I look forward to sleeping late again one of these mornings!

Thankful Thursday London Edition: Joy Dare Week 12

It's my last day in London, and since I think the next few days are going to be a little nutty while I change time zones and readjust to "normal life".... here is the last London edition of Thankful Thursday.

222. Twice I went to Evensong at Westminster Abbey. This prayer is engraved on the outside of the building near  the Great West Door (the main entrance):

May God grant to the living: grace;

to the departed: rest;

to the church & the world: peace and concord;

and to us sinners: eternal life.

229. Going to see Wicked was an indulgence for me, but oh, how I LOVED it! Many times on this trip I had the opportunity to take in art of various forms, including this. I think what I did not expect was how deep the storyline was and how much it made me think. The Wizard of Oz was one of my favorite childhood movies, so it was pure delight to see Wicked - I will never think of Elphaba in the same way again.

226. Other than Big Ben, is anything more a London icon than Tower Bridge? And on this day, the sun came out, the sky was blue and there were perfect white clouds in the sky; truly a picture-perfect moment!

Thankful Thursday London Edition: Joy Dare Week 11

It's been an amazing week of vacation in London. Without further ado, a week of thanksgivings in pictures, and one quote from a book after that.

202. On a day "in", I gave my other blog a "makeover" which was long overdue, and created the fun title with the scissors as the "a".

203. Windsor Castle. What's not to love about visiting a castle? :)

207. A lovely Sunday afternoon walk to a local pub, The Three Horseshoes, which has been around since 1535.

217. A ride to the top of the London skyline in the London Eye

215. And this, a prayer of St. Teresa of Avila:

Let nothing upset you,
Let nothing startle you.
All things pass;
God does not change.
Patience wins all it seeks.
Whoever has God lacks nothing.
God alone is enough.

For this, and for every gift from above this week: Thanks be to God. Amen.

Thankful Thursday London Edition: Joy Dare Week 10

Wow, so here I am typing this blog post from London England, where I arrived yesterday for two weeks of vacation. To be honest, it's a little surreal! Yesterday, I had made no plans since I expected to be pretty tired. With only about 2 hours of sleep on the flight, that turned out to be a good decision.

I brought this month's pages from my gift-counting journal with me for my trip, and I expect the next few weeks will involve numerous photos. While I brought the March pages with me, I forgot to note the number of the last gift I counted in February, so I have no idea what number I'm on. Ooops! I'll have to update this later, but for now, here are this week's gifts I wanted to share.

Update: Now with numbers!

182. Celebrating the birthday of a wonderful sister-in-law with a fabulous night out.

190. Safe trip to the airport and easy check in.

192. An in-flight personal entertainment system! I watched 3 movies on the flight.

194. First views of England from the plane as we descended through the cloud layer approaching Heathrow airport.

Also, this wasn't officially on my list, but if you've ever seen the movie Love Actually, there is a scene at the end of the movie where lots of travelers are arriving at Heathrow airport. Can I just tell you it felt awesome to walk through the doors and have a friend waiting to welcome me with a giant smile?