Anna Pokrzywnicka
Christine Cummings Ceramics
fineartamerica.com
carved canteen vase – welburngourdfarm.com
Holly Storlie-dailypaintworks.com
Twilight in the Wilderness-Frederick Church
saatchiart.com
The First Snow-Andrey Tutunov-urgetocreate.tumblr.com
Filed under Favorite Things
Great Schools
______________
Teacher Debbie Moon’s first graders were
discussing a picture of a family. One little boy in the picture had a different hair color than the other members. One of her students suggested that he was adopted.
A little girl said, ‘I know all about
Adoption, I was adopted.’
‘What does it mean to be adopted?’, asked
another child.
‘It means’, said the girl, ‘that you grew
in your mommy’s heart instead of her tummy!’
_____________
Thanks to my friend Marsha for this story.
Filed under caring, Family, Favorite Things
Today is my favorite Thursday of the month – the Thursday I get a massage. Ahhhhhhh!
My sore muscles, stiff places, pops and crackles all wait impatiently each month for Lynn’s attention. The stars align and it’s my morning to go enjoy her healing hands.
If I won the lottery, I would probably ask her for more, but I’m very grateful for the one Thursday I feel totally relaxed each month.
Each time when she gets finished, I tell her ‘thank you,’ and ‘good night,’ hoping she could simply leave me there…
Filed under Favorite Things, taking care of yourself
Filed under 3-D Paintings, Favorite Things
I want this!!!!! And if I had won the Mega Millions yesterday, I could probably afford it. :0(
Filed under Favorite Things
Blowing bubbles has always been one of my favorite things. I don’t know why, but I can’t stop smiling when I’m around them – whether I’m doing the blowing or others are.
Bubbles are a happy-maker. You can’t be UNhappy and blow bubbles at the same time. I always have some bubble juice stashed somewhere, just in case – kind of like the things on the wall in buildings that tell you to ‘break glass in case of fire.’ “Break out the bubbles in case of sadness.”
And creative people have come up with new and different ways for people to enjoy blowing bubbles!
This looks like the one I’ll be using tomorrow. Mine is called, “Peppa Pig Giant Bubble Wand.” It cost $1.99 plus tax and I scooped it up at the grocery store Friday. I can’t wait to use it sitting on the deck, and maybe even running out in the back yard (being careful not to fall in the soft spots created by moles, voles and other “ole’s” as I do.)
Filed under Bubble Blowing, Childlike Fun, Favorite Things
Filed under Favorite Things
Filed under Favorite Things
My husband brought in one of our fancier yellow iris yesterday. We’ll have several days to enjoy it, while the various buds open up and smile at us.
Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening, Seasons
This is our cat, Abby. She was advertised as a ‘lap cat’ in the paper years ago – an apt description. She has been a part of our family for years now. She tolerates Amber, our yellow lab, allowing her to use her dog beds if she isn’t in the middle of them, taunting her by stretching and yawning and looking as comfortable as only a cat can look. She doesn’t have an audible purr, but if you leave your hand on her, you can FEEL it. :0)
“Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.” ~ Jeff Valdez
“In a cat’s eye, all things belong to cats.” ~ English Proverb
“Dogs come when they’re called; cats take a message and get back to you later.” ~ Mary Bly
“Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil, and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well.” ~ Missy Dizick
“I got rid of my husband. The cat was allergic.” ~ Anonymous
“As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind.” ~ Cleveland Amory
“What greater gift than the love of a cat?” – Charles Dickens
I use this to play some of my favorite songs when I’m on my elliptical trainer. I have earphones attached and can ‘zone out,’ lost in the wonderful world of music, transported, singing along while I try to do good things for my body.
This is a very old player. Almost everything we own nowadays is ancient when we try to get parts, get things fixed, try to find another one like it to replace what we love – when we’re forced to.
I’ve done two 10-minute sessions on the elliptical trainer recently. I got out my mp3 player and started on the elliptical, only to find my player wasn’t working. After the first session, I came in, plugged it in to recharge it (it had been a LOOOOOONG time since I used it). A day or so later, I did the 2nd session on the elliptical, but the player wasn’t working. I plugged it in AGAIN, this time leaving it ‘on’ while recharging.
This morning my husband told me to order another one. I went to check it to make sure it was, indeed, unchargeable, and found IT WAS PLAYING!
So, like ME, it seems to have some life in it yet. I’ll be using it later today when I have another session on the elliptical scheduled. Fingers crossed both it – and I – are working.
Filed under Favorite Things
Deep purple is my favorite color. Whenever I see it, my soul reacts, with happiness welling up inside and spilling over. Spring is one time of the year where our yard reflects my love of the color.
They are blooming almost all the way down one side of the driveway now. When they are finished, yellow ones take over.
You can see my heart is really full this time of year. There is much to do in the yard, and little time right now to do it between severe weather. Soon things will tame down (hopefully) and I can get our planters weeded and cleared out, tomato plants in, and buy some purple petunias for the deck. :0)
Stay warm and dry!
Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening, Mother Nature, Seasons
It’s due to be rainy again today. I’m still breathing a sigh of relief that the warning, with tornadoes imminent and on the ground went JUST to the north of Greenwood. I was watching the experts on our local weather station monitor the tornado warning and the line of the bad stuff was JUST above our town on their map. Hopefully, we’ll have the same luck today.
Lynn, my massage miracle worker, contacted me to change my massage from Thursday this week to today. I’m delighted that I didn’t have to just miss my massage this month, so my body is already singing in anticipation of her good work. I’ll put the trash out and get our mail when I go.
Other than that, I’m planning for DAY 2 of the month-long program by my ‘weights for seniors’ video guy. He has a stretching video, and then ‘physical activity’ (of my choice) for 10 minutes. I’m going to do my elliptical trainer in the garage. In addition, I’ll do one of the weights videos, and then my normal half hour of yoga stretches. These will be spread out throughout the day.
My husband is still trying to get his computer working as he would like. I’m helping only when he asks – with this exception. He and our son were trying to use the conference call program so they could actually SEE each other and talk real time. Lately my husband hasn’t shown any interest in wanting to do that, so I was delighted that he was trying to talk. They were having trouble getting things set up right on our end so that our son could hear my husband. I went over, looked at things, and saw that his microphone button was off. I pushed it, waiting to hear him yell at me for interfering, but was pleased to see it worked! Instead of yelling, my husband told our son, “She fixes stuff for me all the time now.” I was relieved and melted into my computer chair on the other side of the room.
When they were finished, our son wrote ME, asking if I wanted to talk, so we each had a wonderful catch up time with him. Absolutely beyond price. :0)
I hope your Tuesday is a good one.
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, Favorite Things
I found this yesterday and wanted to share it with you. I don’t even know what I’m looking at – whether it’s an actual waterfall, a painting, a photoshop – but whatever it is, I LOVE it.
Filed under Favorite Things
I feel really lucky to have someone who cares. This way I can take a virtual, instant trip to the beach whenever I need it. :0)
THANK YOU, ML.
Filed under Delightful Surprises, Family, Favorite Things, vicarious enjoyment
I found some things I think are wonderful this week and wanted to share them with you –
Filed under Favorite Things
About the only thing I don’t mind about being snowed and iced in again is that I have plenty of good books to enjoy.
I’m on book #50 Golden in Death from J.D. Robb’s (Nora Roberts’) In Death series. I’m re-reading the whole series in preparation for enjoying my newest paperback addition, #53 Forgotten in Death. I’ve pre-ordered the next one, #54 Abandoned in Death, which comes out in paperback in July.
The thing I’m particularly enjoying this time through is all the ‘extras’ that wind their way through the series, the poignant things people say and do that define their strength, humanity, vulnerability, love, and more. They make me tear up, adding so much richness to the series.
If we get all the rain/wind/sleet/freezing rain/snow forecast tomorrow, picture me, curled up in my recliner, heat pad on low under me, throw over me, coffee on my warmer beside me, cat in my lap, book in hand, appreciating the luxury of my life.
Art is all around us. Sometimes I find the work of an artist who is new to me and I share it with you. More often I find things on Pinterest that I love one at a time. I wanted to share a few that I’ve found lately –
Filed under Favorite Things
Twice-Blooming Iris – these usually bloom in April and then again in October. To have these throwing open their arms on Christmas Eve is such a delightful surprise!
And this is a pot of wave petunias, One of the most beautiful flowers, I think. Such happy flowers.
I think you can guess what my favorite color is…. :0)
Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening
Filed under Favorite Things
I want to be a shoebill stork.
The GOOD NEWS is that we went to Red Lobster for my celebratory lunch yesterday. I had a lobster tail with melted butter, rice, and broccoli. YUM! We will celebrate again if my subscribers total ever reaches 3,000.
The BAD NEWS is that I gained 2.8 pounds eating that lunch. UGH. So QUICK to pile on and so HARD to get back off!
I refuse to give up celebrating. My husband disappeared shortly before we were due to leave. He came downstairs in a yummy shirt I haven’t seen in years, clean jeans, and dress shoes. He looked wonderful. I felt we had ‘date night’ as well as the celebration of a milestone on my blog. Absolutely priceless.
On the way home, we saw a dear friend. She was standing at the bottom of her driveway waiting for the mailman to come by. She lives alone and now keeps her gate closed across her driveway, not wanting unannounced people driving up. I hadn’t seen her in awhile, so we stopped. I quickly jumped out and hugged her neck.
Yesterday was a happy day – and today I’ll start trying to shed the lardage I gained, PLUS hopefully keep the trend going downward.
Filed under Cause for Celebration, DIET!, Favorite Things, Friendship
Happy 1st day of Autumn!
We’re having a beautiful morning – it’s sunshine-y and the high is forecast to be 79 degrees F. this afternoon. Our driveway looks much like this beautiful gif. A LOT of leaves are on the ground here, not due to the fall, but the lack of rain.
A very happy surprise this morning, too. When my subscriber list for the blog went over 1,000, my husband said that he would take me for broiled lobster tail with melted butter – my favorite food – when I went over 2,000.
This morning I have 2,006 subscribers! I’m not sure how the people at wordpress decide this, but they say I have a total of 5,854 ‘followers’ at this point, and I can SEE the list of my 2,006 ‘subscribers.’ Today we will drive to Ft. Smith and I will enjoy a fabulous lunch, enjoying every bite, grinning from ear to ear.
I truly LOVE writing this blog. Most blogs have one theme, like a particular person’s art work, or a particular method of weight loss, or….
Mine doesn’t have a ‘theme’ as such – I just share things I like, hoping that you will like them, too.
I have met many really nice people through the blog, too. I appreciate the feedback I get, comments, suggestions, likes, re-posts, and more.
And, thanks to YOU – I will enjoy a celebration with my husband today.
THANK YOU!
Filed under Favorite Things
I finally had a bit of success on losing the lard. I’m almost back to 30 pounds down since my heaviest now – hoping to hit that officially in the next day or so. I’m learning once again how much easier it is to put it ON, rather than taking it OFF.
Yesterday I was moving most of the day. I was in the shop working on the refurb of our Box Turtle Yard art piece. It was hot in there, but I had a fan. I was up and down, pulling and hauling. After resting a bit, I weed whacked, doing two sessions that I had to stop when the weed eater started to smoke! My husband will look at that today to see if it is salvageable. Anyhow, it was a lot of work out in the hot, so I guess that helped finally shed a bit more of the lard.
Today I’m going to put the refurbed box turtle back where he lives in the yard, take pics to show you, start work on another piece, use the leaf blower to clean up the two sidewalks and garage pad, and then cut up lots of veggies for the “kielbasa and veggies” cookout for tonight.
I hope you have a happy Sunday, too.
Filed under DIET!, exercise, Favorite Things, Gardening, getting the lard off
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