Five Little Things

Five Happy Things:

1. Getting rid of extra stuff on Craig's List and Freecycle.
2. A burst of super-high heart rate working out instead of a nap.
3. A perfect cupcake on a gray February day (it's true. Don't fight it).
4. Tea. Green. Ginger peach flavor preferably.
5. A real letter on real paper from a real person in the real mail sent through the United States Postal Service.

Early Morning

I love the early morning. Since childhood it's been my favorite time of the day. I don't love that the early morning comes so early(!) because I also love to drowse late in my cozy warm bed. I wish the early morning could come about 10 AM.

But it doesn't.

Once I'm up, though, I'm up, and I'm always glad when I get going early. Some mornings are exceptionally beautiful! The weather is changeable here and it makes for a different sky every day. One day it's bright pink before the sun rolls over the horizon. The next day it's rainy and misty. What do they say? "Red sky at night, sailor's delight, red sky in the morning sailor's warning"...something like that. Red sky in the morning portends rain, I guess. Some mornings the sky is a beautiful bright salmon color. God must really love creating with color. Just think of all the colors in in the world! Far more than in a 64 count crayon box.

The world is peaceful early in the morning, before the rush of the day. I love to step outside to breathe deeply of the fresh morning air and hear the birds stirring. The squirrels are busy, scampering up and down the pine trees behind my backyard, stashing their stores for the winter. Not that we get a whole lot of winter here on the coast, but God bred that instinct into them so they all do it.

The morning is still before the busyness and responsibilities of the day begin. I love to spend time in prayer early in the morning to set the tone for the day, and to ask God to be involved in every aspect of my life and decisions and activities. After a night of rest, I love having that time to rest in the Lord and bring before Him my concerns and issues surrounding the day...my day, and the issues concerning the lives of others as well.

A Blurb For My Favorite Blog!

I have been doing a lot more bloggy reading lately than bloggy writing.

"No! Really?" I hear you exclaim, dripping with sarcasm. ;-) Seasons of life, you know, seasons of life.

One of the blogs I read is called Chickens in the Road.Suzanne writes of her life on a farm in West Virginia in a beautiful entertaining style with lots of pictures. (Pictures are good. I'm a visual kind of gal!) Her blog is always the first one I read and even if I'm busy and don't have time to catch up on my favorite blogs, I always find time for Chickens in the Road. It's a happy place! Reading there is like sitting down with a cup of coffee and having a chat and a laugh with someone who just loves life. Suzanne, if you are reading this, (dare I hope that you might be...I know you only have fifty million things to do every day!) I really do mean that.

Suzanne is participating in a contest to win a job as a "good mood blogger" for sam-E. They are running a contest to pick someone to blog for them daily for six months. Obviously, they want someone with a large readership because it's great advertising for them, but they also are looking for someone who writes well and has a "happy style." Suzanne's upbeat attitude toward life comes through every word she writes.

So. I'm asking you, my readers, all two of you (LOL), to please go here to vote for Suzanne. I would love to see her win this, partly for selfish reasons: I want to read more of her writing! I also know it would be a huge help for her to have this job. At that link you can see a video she has made of herself, and read a bit about her, but I highly recommend you visit her site too.

So, today. That's all I have! I hope to get some bloggy writing done next week. It may or may not happen. I will be out of town for the week to spend Thanksgiving with some dear friends, and I may be laughing too hard, staying up too late, and eating too many goodies to find time to turn on my computer. We shall see. If I don't get back here next week, have a Happy Thanksgiving. This is truly a season of thanks. Thanks=Giving. If our hearts are truly thankful, we will give.  I'm keeping a running list of things that I am thankful for here. I love how keeping a journal of thankfulness is changing my general outlook on life.

On Thanks Giving

So the mojo may be back, but it's taking me in other directions. Things have been pretty hectic, which is not unusual! The bread was only okay. Kind of dense and I wasn't thrilled with the flavor. I used several different types of flour in an attempt to make it super duper healthy, and it was, but the flavor was sacrificed. I'll keep working on it.

I have been thinking about thankfulness recently, with Thanksgiving approaching.

Thanksgiving.

Thanks plus giving.

Thanks. Giving.

Here's a thought: Giving should be a result of thankfulness. Not only do we give thanks, but because of our thanks we give. I am thankful for a Savior who gave Himself for me. My reasonable response should be to give (of myself, my money, my time, everything) because without Jesus giving Himself for me, I would have nothing and I would be nothing with a capital L. L for Loser. This is not self deprecating. This is a fact.

So with that I am compiling a list of things I am thankful for in another blog. You can see it here.

Photo credit:
http://gocanada.about.com/b/2007/09/01/the-best-places-to-see-autumn-colors-in-canada.htm

This post has no title because I can't think of one.

Hello! Checking in after a long absence to let you know my mojo is back! ...And I'm glad. I was feeling mentally frumpy and scruffled*, uncreative, and generally not-able-to-get-it-together for the last few weeks, but the muses are returning and motivation in the area of all things creative, including blogging, is finally on the upswing.

Today is rainy and misty, which I love this time of year. I love crisp bright days in the fall too, but I'll take what I can get! Anyway, today was a good day for baking and thinking toward "home stuff." I made some cookies, per my son's request for Bible study tonight. He said, "How about some good old fashioned chocolate chip, kind of raw in the middle?" This is the kid who likes his pancakes literally oozing raw batter from the inside. So I made them. The cookies, not pancakes. Not sure about the "kind of raw in the middle" part, but they are definitely yummy and soft, not hard and crispy. Chocolate chips cookies should never be hard and crispy. Bleah.

I have lots of stuff piled up in the studio to get put together and post in the shop and I'm really looking forward to getting that done. Not in a "good-grief-I-wish-this-was-done-already" kind of way, but in a "looking-forward-to-the-creative-process-and-getting-my-hands-and-eyeballs-onto-that-yummy-fabric" kind of way.

In other news: I'm trying out a new whole grain bread recipe. Results to follow. Getting inspired for Christmas decorating. This is the first year in a long time that I am inspired to really do up the house. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this is the first year in a long time that I've been eating right and exercising regularly. Does wonders, wonders, people, for the general disposition! More on that in my other blog.

*scruffled: a mental or physical state of being scruffy and ruffled in an agitated and annoyed sort of way. syn.: scrumpled.