November - Thankful & Grateful

November was another month that rolled in and out quickly for us. It was mostly filled with chores and catching up on things from when I was down and out with an extended case of extreme exhaustion again. Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Thyroid, and Migraines can have me incapacitated from time to time. Great Danes are perfect companions for service dog work like this because they also can sleep 16 hrs. a day. (usually not all at once). Sven is accustomed to when this happens, and he can easily roll with it. As long as he has his 30 mins. a day of exercise he's good to go. And of course, he also works helping me in the house.

Sadly, we are a SNAP household, it is one of the unfortunate circumstances of an early disability retirement. Fortunately, I had enough premade things from batch cooking during the previous month in the freezer that I could just heat and eat and not fuss with pots and pans day to day while ill. Thankfully I managed to ride out the government shut down fairly unscathed. Many people were not so fortunate. I am grateful that we were ok this year and happily managed to amass a box of canned goods and other items we didn't need or weren't using to bring over to the Danvers police food drive for the holidays. Thank you to all the donors that did donate to many of the local area food banks. So many people everywhere were really hurting this year due to this situation and beyond. The outpouring of support and kindness to others was tremendous during a time of disgusting politics, no matter what side you are for or against.

Towards the start of the month, we had several planned inspections in the building regarding fire alarms, smoke alarms, carbon alarms and so forth and even a few "emergency" inspections thanksgiving week when they had to come back and do them all over again. It seemed like that was all we did, but alas I managed to decorate a bit for the holidays and pull things off.

Thanksgiving went off without too much of a fuss. With all the distractions & timing of things coming out of the oven, I forgot to take pictures which left me sad and mad at myself about the loss of a keepsake for the scrapbooks. Especially when I had the phone in my hands to show Grammy & Grampy other pictures we had and things going on and still I forgot.

Sven was thankful he didn't have to wear a turkey hat, pilgrim hat or a paper hat and content enough with his thanksgiving tartan snood and indoor H-harness. He had some whip cream on his kibble and later that night a few pieces of turkey, not too much he still has his food allergies & sensitivities to consider.

Below are a few pictures from some of our travels this month. We also managed to take the car to the car wash, and cleaned it out, vacuumed, Windex etc. Didn't get to shampoo interior although. We made holiday card for Grandfolks. Grammy got a kick out of that. Sven experimented with some holiday lights not sure if we're getting another ugly sweater for him this year or not, so far most of the sizes we've found are 5-7" too small for him.

Sven also didn't want to walk up he ramp at the bathhouse. He's been having a bit of a shaky front leg off and on. And lately I noticed his gait has a bit of a slight limp, so that is going to need checking out and more observation as well. Could be side effects from medications past or present, arthritis or something else. We'll let you know when we know.

And just like that December comes rolling in with snow in the forecast.