This year in particular, I appreciate that Photo Blogging Challenge host PJ uses American Thanksgiving as a reason to remind us to practice an attitude of gratitude each November. Our family encountered a few challenges this past month. Fortunately, we’ve mostly been able to find the silver linings, a bit of humour, or something to be thankful for in each situation.

I am always grateful for time with family and friends; adventures in Nature; daily food, exercise and sleep; opportunities to learn new things; and so much more. Here are a few specifics from the past month that I’d like to highlight:

1. The Walk to Town

One Canadian-owned supermarket chain offers Alberta shoppers 15% off all groceries on the first Tuesday of each month (minimum C$50 spend). A lot of people welcome this, evidenced by the crowds in the aisles and the long (single) queue for the cashiers. The first Tuesday of November, with “light flurries” in the forecast, we set out to walk to town, do our grocery shopping and then catch the free local transit home.

The light flurries turned into the first full-on snowfall of the winter. Fortunately, we were both dressed for it and had worn proper winter (grippy) boats. It turned into more of adventure than we’d planned, but kind of fun. And we appreciated free fare on ROAM Transit route 5T even more than usual!

2. Discovery of a New Treat

We usually do our 15% off, first Tuesday grocery shop strictly according to our list. But on my way to add a couple of litres of oat milk to the cart, I passed through the bulk food section and spotted these beauties! Serendipitous! Whereas the fully-enrobed dark chocolate almonds we’ve been enjoying for years are more chocolate than almond, these are very lightly chocolate covered and then dusted in cocoa powder. Deliciious and much more of a grown up’s treat!

3. Help From People on YouTube and Reddit

Isn’t it amazing how generously people share their expertise on YouTube and Reddit? When our toilet started half flushing itself at random times, day and night, I easily found a tutorial on how to replace the flapper that came with the toilet with the universal flapper replacement Mr GeoK had tucked away in his “parts” bin in his workshop. A few minutes later, job done! 🙂

4. Books and Book Club

Books have been an integral part of my life since I can remember. I learned to read by memorizing Dr Seuss books. And I’ve never looked back. Whether in audiobook, ebook or physical format, I generally have two or three titles on the go at once.

I just finished reading this one, which is the selection for the January meeting of my neighbourhood ladies’ book club. I am thankful to the member who picked it because I really enjoyed it. And I’m grateful to her, as well, for the fact that she put in a hold request and then checked it out when available, even though she’d already listened to the audiobook. That way she could pass it around to two others of us in the group. 🙂 I always come home cheered by the fellowship of our meetings.

I also appreciate that membership at the Calgary Public Library is free for all city residents. The other day I signed both of my parents (new arrivals to the city) up for library cards, got them set up with the Libby app on their iPads and now my 84 year old Dad, who has vision problems and wears hearing aids, has discovered the joy of audiobooks!

5. Emergency Services

So we got a weird smell in our basement this month. A very strong smell kind of like cannabis. Internet research revealed it could be mold, so we had four different people check out the affected room for mold. No joy! The smell kept getting worse, to the point we finally engaged a contractor to take the room back to studs and ceiling joists.

We found the likely source of the smell. It was wafting up through long crack between the slab and a split footing. Then we wondered if it could be gases from old coal mines in the area coming up through the floor. Ended up calling the fire department to come and check for explosive gases and other potential harmful substances. They found nothing.

Long story short, the smell is gone. Our contractor is slowing putting the room back together. A costly mystery for sure, but we appreciate how supportive everyone has been in trying to solve the puzzle.

There you have it, some things we were thankful for over the course of this somewhat unusual month. What about you? What made you especially appreciative lately? Drop a comment to share. And to check out what made other Photo Blogging Challenge participants grateful, hope over to host PJ’s A ‘lil Hoohaa and look for the linkup at the bottom of his post.

And please, will you join us for the next month? You’ll need five photos, a blogging platform, and the theme, which will be available on PJ’s blog as soon as he publishes his “Thankful” post.