It's A Wonderful Life! Currently . . . February 1, 2023

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Fresh Cup of Coffee helps continue the coffee breaks and conversation. 

It's A Wonderful Life is one of my favorite Christmas movies, and just a favorite movie in general. Although the movie ends on Christmas Eve, the whole story covers many years and it's not really about Christmas. Probably the most obvious message is that one life, even a seemingly ordinary and quiet life, can make a significant impact on many other lives, and each life is valuable. A life marked by kindness, generosity, loyalty, and faithfulness is a wonderful life. 

See: It's A Wonderful Story at Homeschool Coffee Break for more about why I love this movie so much.

You might be wondering why I'm opening my monthly Currently post talking about a classic movie most of us only watch during the holidays. Well, for the past few months I've been experiencing the ups and downs of moving away from most of our family and the home and life I loved in Maryland. There are lots of things I really dislike about the situation, and I've had some really down days, and times when I had to just give in to The Sads and have a little pity party. Even though I know in my head I've got it pretty good. So my goal has been to try and focus on the positives and blessings, make the best of things, and look at the challenges as new adventures. Not every experience or every day is wonderful on its own, but I've got a wonderful life, and I'm trying to live as if I believe that.

For me, living a wonderful life means finding the good in the present, so when the "Currently" link-up hosted at Overflowing With Thankfulness falls on the first day of a new month, and on the first day of a new blogging challenge, it's a good reminder to do that! The way this link-up works is that we respond to the set of action verb prompts for the month. So, without further ado, here are this month's prompts and what's happening currently . . .

***********

Loving - I am loving having new furniture and household stuff! Like actually new furniture, not just new to us. We brought some of our old things when we moved, of course, but we weren't sure how much room we'd have and we didn't want to bring everything or clear out the house that our kids would continue living in. For the most part, it's been fun making all the trips to IKEA and picking out the styles and colors I wanted, and my husband has been a super good sport about it. He's had to take the lead on all the assembling, and we haven't even argued while building! (We have agreed that we've reached the point where we must stop spending money though!)

Our most recent trip to Sweden . . . uh, IKEA.

New shelving and new chair (the grey one). Only thing we need now is a new side table. The lamp box will have to do until I find one I like.

I love the new dining table and chairs, and the new china cabinet. First time I've ever had a china cabinet, new or otherwise!

Also the first time I've had a brand new dresser. We even got a new sofa-bed for the spare room/office. It's really basic but it gets the job done.

Feeling - I think we're actually feeling healthy and good overall. In the last couple weeks, I finally got over the chronic cough that has been hanging on since about Thanksgiving to some degree. There were only a few days here and there that I felt genuinely sick and miserable with symptoms, but that nagging bit of a cough was keeping me from sleeping well and draining my energy. I'm so glad for the improvement lately! 

I was also thinking about the fact that my knee works well and doesn't hurt. Such a contrast to last winter when I was, in effect, crippled with the arthritis in my knees. After a knee replacement during the summer, I've got my mobility back and while I have no intentions (or ability) to start running or rock climbing, I can go up and down our stairs countless times per day without any real trouble, and walk pretty much anywhere I want to go. Very helpful when on long distance treks through miles and miles of IKEA! 

Posting - Beginning today, I'll be trying to post on at least one of my blogs every day for the month. I'm participating in the Write 28 Days Blogging Challenge again this year, but because I've been so scattered lately, I don't have a theme in mind (like I tried to do last year). My plan is to write every day, tying in the prompts whenever I can, and hopefully publish something every day. I'm calling it Write Something Somewhere. 

I've also joined in with a couple of new-to-me link parties recently, just trying to get some ideas for my writing hobby. I even made a photo challenge for myself and opened it up for others to link up too if they're interested - Everyday Images.

Receiving - flowers to brighten my dining room! Okay, they were from Me to Me. Technically I suppose they could be considered from my husband since I spent his money on them. The result is the same - they add some interest and cheer to the room.

I'm also receiving phone calls from my daughter, and it's always wonderful to hear her voice and be able to visit for a bit. 

Seeing - church from the perspective of a visitor. We've often visited churches while on vacation and that sort of thing, but for the first time in almost twenty years we're looking for a new church home, so the church visits are not just one-offs. It changes things a little bit. We really enjoy seeing the different personalities of churches, and even if we find the music or preaching style different from what our own preference would be, we are still gathering with brothers and sisters to worship and hear from God. There are two churches here that we like and we're trying to decide between the two, and it's surprisingly difficult! Each one has aspects that we're really drawn to, and neither one has any off-putting negatives, so how do we decide? Personally, I feel like one has a slight edge over the other, but I also feel bad having to pick just one! I guess that's a good problem to have? 

On a less consequential note, I'm seeing birds outside my window enough that I think it's worth trying to attract them with feeders. So far I've only got a suet feeder and it's not at an optimal place. I think we're going to get a tall shepherd's hook to hang a seed feeder from and try that. Oddly, one of the few parameters I've placed on any house that we'll buy here is that it must have a good place for me to put my bird feeders. After all, it's my Old Lady Hobby of choice!

This bird was making itself at home in the IKEA dining room, so I took a picture, since I've been unsuccessful at getting pictures of birds in any of the trees around my house. 😆

***********

This post will be linked at this month's "Currently" link-up hosted by Overflowing With Thankfulness. Shout out to Anne in Residence who originated the link-up and is taking a break from hosting for now.

This post is part of the Write 28 Days Blogging Challenge hosted by Anita Ojeda. Find all my posts for the 2023 challenge here: Write Something Somewhere

Don't miss a coffee break! Subscribe to A Fresh Cup of Coffee by email. 

 ©2006-2023 HS Coffee Break/Just A Second/A Fresh Cup of Coffee. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. https://morecoffeebreaks.blogspot.com/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.