Uphill idealist

Enjoy and have a Magnificent Weekend - T Magnificent Magnificent I was born I was born to be with you In this space and time After that and ever after I haven’t had a clue Only to break rhyme This foolishness can leave a heart black and blue Only love, only love can leave such a mark But only love, only love can heal such a scar I was born I was born to sing for you I didn’t have a choice but to lift you up And sing whatever song you wanted me to I give you back my voice From the womb my first cry, it was a joyful noise… Only love, only love can leave such a mark But only love, only love can heal such a scar Justified till we die, you and I will magnify The Magnificent Magnificent Only love, only love can leave such a mark But only love, only love unites our hearts Justified till we die, you and I will magnify The Magnificent Magnificent Magnificent

Friday was: Cleaning a freshly painted office. Deciding where to put my new color coordinated lamp, decorator table, and trinkets in my office. Filling up my bookshelves with art supplies in clear plastic shoe boxes, so I see all my toys! Filling up (almost) my other book case with work folders and lovely, lovey books. :) Emptying my office of clutter, boxes and stuff that just won't go anymore. Making a St. Patty's day craft with 4 adorable elementary children. We got glitter everywhere! Coming home with a hot dizzy head and a weird tummy. Taking NyQuil. Then off to dreamland. To sleep, to dream, to rest and kick this virus out of my body, for good! Image from Random Weirdness.com

Bird by bird is a great book on the ups and down of the process of writing, by Anne Lamott. Early on in the book is her description of the sandwich in her lunch bag as an elementary student. It is her suggestion that when stumped on what to write find something limited and from your own experience to write about. So a brown bag childhood sandwich may be a good place to start or just might be fun to write about. You may learn something about yourself and your family as well. Here's the meme if you'd like to give it a shot: The sandwich I took to lunch as a child was... and go from there. Here's my own sandwich meme for good measure. Circle seats of varying colors lined the lunch table as I carried my metal lunch box in hand after buying milk in the milk line. Too bad it wasn't Friday. Friday is chocolate milk day. I choose a red circle seat to sit on in the the lunch room, blaring with noise and food trading. Looking around I see kids eating bologna, mustard, yellow Ame...

Just because.

Nutter Butter Cookies remind me of summers camping with my Mother and Father in law in a 1975 Winnebago. The cookies are in red plastic wrapping, in a plastic tray and the cookies are shaped like Mr. Peanut and filled with peanut butter. These cookies travel well. My daughter was a little over one the first trip and the summer after that a little over two. It was always an adventure. One summer we drove up to Maine in the Winnebago. I read the book Certain Women by Madeline L'Engle on the fourteen hour drive. I remember it being the first long book I'd read since my daughter had been born. I could read because she sat content being co-pilot in her car seat, sipping bunny apple juice boxes, and smiling at her Grandfather as he smiled back at her. I remember at the time wondering how I could pack up my baby for a week each summer and simply take off for a Winnebago adventure with no clock and no control of the plans. When I looked at the Nutter Butter Cookies yesterday, I was r...

Last week I mentioned that something I'd written was going to be printed in a local publication. Yesterday while waiting for my son to take his guitar lesson I looked and saw that the Chautauqua Region Word was already printed for the week and was titled, "Local Fiction Spotlight". There it was, on page 5, right in the middle of two other pieces by local writers. Mr. Squirrel and me. It may not be War and Peace, (it's a short essay, non-fiction to be exact.) but I was proud to have some of my writing in the local arts paper. Below is the segment that I submitted, and if you go to the link I provided by clicking on Chautauqua Region Word , you can find it and the others segments as well. Happy reading and writing! Also, thanks to the editors and supporters of the Word for including my work in this weeks issue. Peace. Photo found at Photo.net Mr. Squirrel lives in the maple tree at the back of my yard. He really lives in multiple trees as the branches are so far reach...

It seems that my son has caught the blogging bug. After some discussion about the guidelines of blogging, I agreed to partner with him in his new blog Media Watch . He's new to the blogosphere, although he's been an active Youtube contributor for over a year now. When you get an chance stop by and say hello and if you are inclined, challenge his insights on what he's reading and listening too. He's a clever young man with some interesting perspective. Not that I'm biased or anything.:)

I started re-reading the little book Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren Winner last evening and was reminded of her explanation of the two kinds of commandments in Judaism. " Commandments ( mitzvot ): the mitzvot asei or the "Thou shalts", and the mitzvot lo ta'aseh . or the "Thou shalt nots." Sabbath observance comprises both... its easy to look at the Jewish Sabbath as a long list of thou shalt nots... but what it all boils down to is do not create . Do not create anything at all, for one of the things the Sabbath reprises is God's rest after He finished creating. "What happens when we stop working and controlling nature?... "When we don't operate machines, or pick flowers or pluck fish from the sea?...When we cease interfering in the world we acknowledging that it is God's world." (pgs 6, 7, 8; Mudhouse Sabbath)" Sleeping with bread is somewhat of a Sabbath ritual for me. Yes it is creative as it involves the playing and tinkeri...

You bet you life DVD The other day my husband Ian and I were watching old episodes of "You bet your life!" with Groucho Marx. The show really held up in humor over all the years since it originally piloted on television in 1949. The premise of the show is rather simple. Groucho interviews his contestants and eventually asks them quiz questions where they can win varied amounts of prize money. When a couple wins the greatest amount of prize money, they have the choice to spin a wheel for a chance to greatly increase their winnings. In most cases, the couples that win the quiz part decide to keep what they have already won, instead of trying for the big money. In contrast to the game shows of current day, if a contestant won $500.00, they would eagerly go after any opportunity to win more money. Today, the $500.00 dollars simply wouldn't be enough. One other thing I noticed was the willingness to share that was displayed by the contestants on "You bet your life"....

Painting by Simon Dewey I had a dream about playing follow the leader last night. Then as I listened to the gospel reading in worship this morning the words hit me in the most profound way. Mark 8:31-38 Jesus Predicts His Death 31He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." 34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life[c] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What ...