A Bunch o' Random Thoughts

I can't remember if I ever mentioned this before, but I am a fussy eater.  It mostly has to do with texture.  And here's the real shocker for most people.  I don't eat fruit.  The closest I get is drinking orange juice.  No, I won't eat an orange (texture).  I like the smell of ripe bananas (they remind me of circus peanut candies) but I won't eat the bananas as they are.  I DO eat banana bread. 

Now that I'm in the 2nd half of my life, I've decided that it's time I challenge the fussy eater in me.  So I have vowed to try a new food every week. And I'm going to try to post it here so that I can commit to at least ONE blog post every week.  Yes, I know I'm exposing myself to "You've GOT to be kidding?  You've never tried that?" responses, but hey, it's a commitment!!  So you're not allowed to laugh at me!!!

Last weekend, I had back-to-back days of babysitting my granddaughter.  Her favorite activity?  Playing in the dirt.  The result? 

I love that she doesn't mind getting dirty!

I don't go on Facebook as much as I used to and, frankly, I'm not missing it.  Maybe it's just a summer thing.  But I'm okay with it!

I start my new position at work on Monday.  Looking forward to that.  Got a glowing review from my boss on the position I am currently in.  Nice to know he notices the little things!!

We finally got some rain in the area, amid the high temps.  I'm always amazed that at my daughter & son-in-law's place, who live 25 mins. away, the temps can sometimes be 20 degrees cooler than where I live.  And sometimes they get a downpour and we get nothing.  I guess that's what happens to weather patterns near Lake Michigan. 

But now that we got the rain, the weeds remember what their job is.  So I've got a weekend of weeding to do. 

My plan is to transform my backyard into a perennial garden over the next couple of years.  I am in awe of the garden that Leslie over at Goldens and Garden has and decided that I can take the back third of my yard and create a garden that attracts butterflies and hummingbirds and most likely rabbits.  So I'm on mission.  These are a start...

Daylilies

Oriental Lily
(Doesn't this look like a Stargazer Lily?)

My daughter and I took a class on getting comfortable with our DSL cameras (moving to manual shooting).  So I've been practicing with that.  Not sure I have any pics that stand out.  But it's been fun trying out all the settings.


Golden Finch
(Daughter's house is like a bird sanctuary)



A mother rabbit in my backyard
When I look at how she and her little ones
are dining on my veggies,
I'm thinking she's not so cute!

 And one more to share with you.

Have you ever seen a more angelic face??
(Yeah, I know I'm biased.  But it's my blog!!)

So, I can't remember what I ate this week that was new (damn memory!!), but the week before it was bamboo shoots.  And I'm still living (as one of my co-workers observed!!!).  Edit - Okay, the love of my life just reminded me what I ate last week.  Goat cheese.  Opinion:  I can take it or leave it. 

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.  Stay cool and hydrated. 

The Path to Your Destination

A friend of mine posted this on Facebook. (Thanks, Leslie)  I think she got it from Lesser Evil Snacks' Facebook page.

I love this thought...

Hope your path is an interesting one today.

Happy Father's Day

A great man.

A smart man.

A family man.

A gentle soul.

Loved a corny joke.

Loved his cup of coffee in the a.m.

Loved to read.

Loved to eat Fritos while he read.

Awesome smile.

Twinkle in his eye.

I'd like you to meet my Dad.

To those who are, and to those who play a part in raising a kid or grandkid,

Happy Father's Day!!

Memorial Day 2012

Thomas Campbell said, "A patriot's blood is the seed of Freedom's tree." 



In memory of those who fought for the freedom that we all enjoy, thank you!   

The Start of the Three-Day Weekend

Ahhhh!!!  Saturday!! The beginning of a three-day weekend!  I got an early start in the garden (was it before 7 a.m.??) and my PG came out to help after he got up.  All we got done so today (so far) is weeding.  Because we had a warm spell in March this year, I think my garden decided to take off way early in providing the kinds of growth I don't want.  But now we're ready to dump the compost material on the ground and help make the soil easier to work with. 

So I can't say I have a whole lot of gardeny type pics to show you.  Well, except for the ginormous Mr. Lincoln roses.  They have never opened this big before.  Hmmmm...might it be the up side to last year's garage fire at the neighbor's? 

And I have this rosebush that seems to have all different shades of pink in its roses.  If I keep up with deadheading the old flowers, it will bloom all summer. 

This little guy is one of a whole family living under my hostas.  I usually see them in the morning as I leave for work.  But today, I think the weedless dirt was enticing.  He rolled around in the dirt before making a meal of my azalea that no longer has beautiful pink flowers. 

But most of my entertainment today came from our winged visitors.  Saw these house finches.  She was incredibly vocal with him.  Almost scolding him.

 Next thing you know, he's feeding her.  I guess nagging does work sometimes.

Then I caught these sparrows.  Hehehe...I know what they're doing!!! 

And Mr. Robin decided it was time to get ready for his Saturday night date.  Bathing, primping.  Oh, yeah!!

Amazing how we can take our human behavior and superimpose it on the animal world, don't you think?  Well, at least it's fun to imagine!!

Now, what is not lost on me this weekend is the reason for the extra day off.  No matter how you feel about the current state of our nation and the politics that seem to invade every inch of our lives, we are still a nation that celebrates freedom.  And that would not be possible without the sacrifices made by those who defend us.  Because freedom isn't free.  There's been a huge price paid.  And this weekend is set aside for us to remember those who paid that price. 

Say a prayer of gratitude for a soldier.  And one for his/her family. 

Before you bite into that burger!

TGITW (Thank God It's The Weekend)

What a week!!  I had a wonderful Mother's Day!  Spent some time with the kids and grandkids at my daughter's house.  And realized something...that it doesn't matter whether my kids are 3 or 33, when they are in a good mood I am in a good mood.  It was so much fun

to watch my son play with his nephew. 

And to listen to this little girl declare at the top of her lungs, "I LUB YOU". 

And to look over and see my PG taking it all in. 

And to watch as he showed Ava how to prepare corn for the grill.

And to look at this beautiful daughter of mine basking in this life she has.
 

It was a great Mother's Day.

And then came work!  1700+ manila envelopes stuffed with registration material for the 2012-2013 school year.  Yes, we start preparing for the next school year as early as February.  And these envelopes are the culmination of that work.  So it would be a true statement to say that if I never see another manila envelope for a long time, it would make my day/week/month. 

Oh, except the Pick Your Plum envelopes.  But they're padded.  So that's different.  Have you heard of Pick Your Plum?  Each weekday they have an offer that lasts til they sell out.  I've gotten a number of deals on that site.  Shipping prices are phenomenal when you buy more than one of an item.

Looking forward to a shorter workday starting later this week. Gotta love summer hours!!  Gonna make the most of that additional hour at home by getting my garden in shape.  All I've got so far is:

Lots o'work to do.  I'll take pics of the progress!!

Do you have any garden plans?

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day brings up mixed feelings in me. 

I am the mother of two beautiful, adult kids who make me so incredibly proud with the choices they've made in their lives.  Some of those choices might not have been what I would say were the best at the time they were made, but all turned out okay, and to this day they still blow me away with their awesomeness. 

On the other side, I have this memory of my own mother.  She would always say, "I don't want to be treated like a queen for a day."  What she wanted was a daily call to check in, even when I was an adult, married with children...you know.  Yet my mother and I didn't get along well enough for that to happen. 

As for me, I want to be recognized.  I don't need any gifts or a party and I really don't like going out to a restaurant for brunch.  I just want to sit and enjoy my kids and grandkids and hear a "thank you" from my kids because they realize that I really did do a good job and that they really did turn out okay. 

I truly am blessed.  

Throwing this one in just for the
embarrassment factor!! 
(Hey, that's what moms do, right??)

So to all who mother, whether or not you have kids of your own, I wish you a wonderful day.  And if you don't "hear" the thank you just know that, in their hearts, it's there. 

Randomness - Spring Edition

I joined the Wild Elephant Project over at Life Unity a while back.  Each week, we work on a mindfulness exercise.  A couple weeks ago we worked on a media fast.  And while I couldn't totally "fast" since

• my job requires that I am available via email, and
• I've been working on some genealogy with a couple of cousins so I needed to keep up with their findings, and
• my inbox would have been overwhelming when I returned so I would have felt all kinds of stress and that would have somewhat defeated the purpose of the mindfulness exercise,

I did do a good job of staying away from most of my personal emails and spent minimal time on other time-wasting sites.   What I realized was that I have way, way too much junk email.  So I spent a part of the Saturday morning after the fast going thru and unsubscribing to all the junk.  What a liberating feeling!

* * * * * * * * * * *
I had my taxes completed since about the middle of February.  Yet on April 15th I filed my federal and the morning of April 17th I fled my state.  'Nuf said. 

* * * * * * * * * * *
I went to a seminar a couple weeks ago.  Angels 101.  Very interesting!!  I learned some things.  That's always a good day when you can say you learned something, don't you think? 

Do you believe that angels are around us?  I learned about archangels and guardian angels and who to ask for help depending on the need.  And then I heard real life stories from a trusted friend who confirmed what we had learned.  And I said a prayer on the way home to the angel I didn't even know was with me when I was dealing with cancer.  And I realized that those I called angels on earth are probably more my "signs" or "guides" sent by one of my angels. 

* * * * * * * * * * *

My heart turns to mush when it comes to my grandkids!  (Yeah, I know that it's no surprise to you.  I guess it's just my way of expressing gratitude for them).  Little Miss and Mommy called Grandpa PG on his birthday to sing "Happy Birthday".  She was very proud of herself, according to Mommy.

* * * * * * * * * * *
Had a great conversation with a friend recently about attitudes and how we can choose to let go of some that are destructive to our psyche and hold on to the thoughts that will propel our lives into a better place.  I always walk away from those conversations feeling more enlightened.  Even if nothing new came from the conversation, it's more a reaffirmation of what I want my life to be.

* * * * * * * * * * *
Just got over my super busy, crash-when-I-finally-get-home weeks at work.  It's all good, but long hours and a lot less sleep because it's always on my mind.  I find that it's like that a lot with people who work for schools.  And my only answer to why is because it's an ever-changing environment when you work with kids.

I think it's probably a good time to visit my classes at 21 Secrets! 

* * * * * * * * * * *

At school this week, we experienced a tragedy.  One of our kids passed away.  We have around 1700 kids at our school yet when this happens, it is felt by all.  It's not just "one of our students", it's "one of our kids".  Because I work with people who realize why we are there and embrace the fact that each of our students are one of us.  My heart is heavy thinking about the loss to this student's family.  And my prayers are with them that they get thru this sorrowful time. 


At the risk of this ending up being another "draft" in my long list of posts, I'm posting this now, sans pics.  If I find some I want to use, I'll spice it up a bit. 

Happy Easter! - Happy Spring!!

  

I was raised Catholic.  We celebrated Easter big time.  Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, coloring eggs on Saturday, church and a big family dinner on Sunday.  But for various reasons, I'm not a practicing Catholic anymore.  Christian, but not Catholic.  That's as far as I'll go with blogging about religion.

These days, I celebrate spring.  I celebrate new beginnings.  The anticipation of things to come.  Last year, I took part in Big Picture Classes "Picture Spring" class.  And right now, I can't remember the photo prompts we had, but I just reviewed the pictures I took.  And they give me the same hope that spring always gives me. 

The promise of things to come.

The realization that there will be some pesty issues that will need to be addressed.

The reminder that I might be looking plump now, but if I stay busy with all the things I need to do to take care of myself and my family, I'll trim down quickly.

The thought that I'm starting with a clean slate in my garden and that it's up to me to provide it with enough care and nurturing to allow it to become its most beautiful.

The attitude that with a little perserverance, I can push thru anything

and the beauty of my efforts will come through. 

The comfort to realize that sometimes things take time to show us their

ultimate gift, and that patience is required on my part. 

I wish you PEACE on this Easter weekend. And always.

Are You a Morning or Night Person?

I have lunch with the greatest bunch of women.  We talk, we laugh, we have 3 conversations going at once and then somehow mix them up and get rowdy with laughter.  I'm grinning like a fool just writing this!!  I love my Lunch Bunch!!


Recently we were talking about whether we were morning or night persons.  You see, I'm DEFINITELY a morning person.  I wake up, my eyes are wide open, I get right out of bed and start my day.  It might be just having a cup of tea and reading a few blogs or catching up on some vlogs or TedTalks, but I get my day going right away.  Try to get me to function after 9 p.m. without caffeine and it's a major ordeal!

I realized that even in my picture taking, I'm a morning person.  I will stop my car in the middle of the street to take a picture of a sunrise.  Okay, not a busy street, and I do watch for cars behind me, but I will stop. 

Yeah, those telephone poles ARE pretty ugly! 
But all I could see was the sunrise.

Just before I walked into work, this is the sight I saw one morning.
Aaahhhhhh!!!!

I looked thru my picture folders for sunset pics and, I know I have a few but I can't find where I filed them.   

Sunrises, however, just tell me that a new day is starting, it's a clean slate, it's all this beauty in front of me.  Yep, I'll take a sunrise any day!!