Challenged!

I'm not sure "challenged" is the best word - "encouraged" may be a better choice.  But I was (pick your word) twice yesterday regarding my mother-in-law to find and remember the good things and to be thankful for them.  As I started to think and remember, there were definitely good things:

1. She loved to decorate her home and was quite good at it in spite of the orange shag carpet.
2. She loved to give gifts.  For a while at Christmas, all of her "girls" (daughters and daughter-in-laws) received a gift from her and they were uniquely fun, from pewter lapel pins to pencil sharpeners!
3. She remembered birthdays.  Don't ask me how - seven children, all married, thirty-one grandchildren and thirty-one great-grand children!
4. Just like my mom, she loved birds.  I've encouraged Sam, if it's okay with his family, to use the memorial money he's received to buy something "bird-ie" in her honor.  We have a blue bird bath in Mom's honor and it's a fun memory of her, especially as we watch the birds enjoying their baths. 
5. She liked to "present" (think "verb").  She had beautiful dishes she enjoyed using so that her table always looked lovely.   I, personally, could eat out of the kettle because it would be one less dish I'd have to wash!

So in her honor today, I would like to tell you my favorite "mother-in-law story".  It's not for the faint of heart!  We were there, but not in the kitchen, when it happened!  She had found a mouse running on the counter (farm house!).  She knocked it into the kitchen sink - the garbage disposal side, somehow got it into the garbage disposal and TURNED IT ON!  Then she realized what she'd done!  The mortified look on her face was well worth it!