I Am Thankful

Today I would like to say that I am thankful for many things.

I am thankful that my children are healthy and strong.

I am thankful for morning hugs and kisses from two little girls.

I am thankful that there is food in our house, even if it isn't always what we "want" to eat.

I am thankful for the gift of having my wonderful mother-in-law.

I am thankful for the extra gift of having my wonderful stepmother-in-law.

I am thankful for a supportive and caring husband.

I am thankful for sweet tea. It may seem simple, but I enjoy my sweet tea.

I am thankful for the rain. I may get tired of seeing the rain, but I am glad that there is rain to see.

I am thankful for the library. That place saves me a lot of money.

I am thankful for my cats. I love them very much.

I am thankful for my true friends. They carry me through my difficult days.

I am thankful for my television and my extensive collection of childrens movies. They buy me a bit of sanity.

I am thankful for my readers and comments.

Stop and See the Lizards

It used to be that one might say "Stop and smell the roses." Not here in the forest, though. Roses don't really grow very easily in the forest. The canopy of the trees tend to block out a lot of the direct sunlight.

The lizards do roam free here, though. Sometimes they even decide to roam into the relative non-safety of my house. They should know better, seeing as how there are 3 cats in here, but apparently not.

Yesterday I was getting the girls ready to leave. The youngest passed by the Hydrangea bush right outside the door and stopped moving. I was already at the car, so I had no idea what was going on. Her Grandma Janet was with her so I didn't really worry about it. As they came to the car, Janet informed me that there were two lizards hanging out on our bush and Risa absolutely had to stop and visit them. Toddler Time has no concept of appointments or deadlines or clocks.

I had to run back into the house to get some things I forgot, so I stopped to check out the lizards, too. Well, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to share this with Kira. She was already buckled into her car seat, but I insisted that she needed to get out of the car and come back to the house. We all held a little mini party standing in front of the bush watching those lizards. We took about ten minutes out of our day to just stop and watch the lizards do what lizards do. It was interesting.

I suppose I could have gotten frustrated that I was running late, but I would have lost a great deal of enjoyment. It's much more fun to operate on Toddler Time than Adult Time.

Today's Holiday

Did you know that every day is a holiday? For example, today is 'Read in the Bathtub Day'. I suppose to observe this holiday we are supposed to hang out in the bath with books and read all day. I sure would love to be able to do such a thing.

Friday, Feb 13th, is 'Blame Someone Else Day'.

Feb 21st is 'Clam Chowder Day'.

Who knew that every single day was a holiday to be celebrated?

If you want to know more about daily holidays, you can check out this website.

Today I am going to celebrate 70 degree weather in February by taking my monsters (ahem - adorable angels) outside to play in the yard and do some much needed outside work.

Thoughts on Love

I'm up late tonight. I can't sleep, so I've been playing on the Internet. Here are a few quotes that I came across while enduring this particular night of insomnia. I can't really give you references because I can't recall exactly where they all came from. There were many different sites that I visited tonight.

I hope reading these quotes will bring a smile to your heart today.

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It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship
and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual
affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it
will not be created for years or even generations.

~ Khalil Gibran ~

--

" I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times,
in life after life, in age after age forever."
...Rabindranath Tagore

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"Love: The irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired."
...Robert Frost

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Sometimes your nearness takes my breath away; And all the things I want to say can find no voice.

--

Within the dark shadows of my heart, The torch’s glow reveals your face. Within the dungeon of my soul, the corridors echo with your laughter. Within the castle walls of my resolve, your tender caress sets them ablaze. Within the misty forest of my memories, your soft wet kisses call my name. Within my daydreams of tomorrow, we sleep in each other’s arms. And within my wildest wishes, you claim me to be yours

No Fair

I have a migraine. My head hurts. It's not fair.

I just wanted to complain for a bit.

Carry on with your regularly scheduled lives now.

Back when I was in High School, I made a list of quotes that I really loved. I stumbled across that list a while back and just want to share a few of these.

I will say this: I have no idea who said these things first. I was pretty young when I wrote this list and never considered writing down the speakers' names. So if you recognize the quote as coming from a specific person, please know that it is not my intent to leave out the credits - I just don't have the credits.

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The right way to kill time is to work it to death.

Live every day as if it were the last.

Good manners are made of petty sacrifices.

Everything comes to those who hustle while they wait.

An effort a day keeps failure away.

Have you tried out your smile today?

The art of memory is the art of attention.

The best way to get even is to forget.

Are you a stumbling block or a stepping stone?

Speech is great, but silence is greater.

Checkbook: A book with an unhappy ending.

Desk: A wastebasket with drawers.

Ideas are funny - they don't work unless you do.

The best evidence of ability is accomplishment.

Never promise more than you can perform.

What isn't tried won't work.

Failure is the path of least persistence.

Everything starts as somebody's dream.

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I hope you've enjoyed my trip down memory lane. I was about 17 or so when I wrote this list. It amazes me how much of this is still true. What amazes me more is that I - at the age of 17 - felt that these quotes were worthy of my attention.

Lunch Time

Sometimes something as simple as having lunch with a friend can turn your entire mood around. I spent a couple of hours eating some amazing soup and chatting with a friend of mine today. That time away from reality worked wonders on my state of mind. Did I mention that the soup was really, really good? I had never eaten soup at Olive Garden before today. I highly recommend that the next time you visit there, you eat the soup. You won't be disappointed.

At any rate, I've learned over the years that good friendship is well worth the time and energy it takes to nurture the relationship. It isn't always easy to expend that energy, but it is always worth it.

If you have good friends, be sure to take some time to nurture and honor them.

Random Information About Smurfs

There are 100 smurfs! I know this because in the episode that is currently playing, Papa Smurf counted all the smurfs. He stopped at 98 and said there were two missing.

Of these smurfs, I can name the following:

Papa Smurf
Smurfette
Brainy Smurf
Lazy Smurf
Hefty Smurf
Greedy Smurf
Harmony Smurf
Clumsy Smurf
Jokey Smurf
Handy Smurf
Vanity Smurf

I'm sure there are about 3 or 4 others that make regular appearances, I just can't recall their names. So --- what about those other 80 or so smurfs? The village is awfully small. There are not 100 little smurfy mushroom houses. Each smurf has his own house. This makes me say HMMM!

Other interesting Smurf facts:

Gargamel created Smurfette in the very first episode. She wasn't pretty and sweet at first. She was created in a failed attempt to lure the Smurfs away from their hidden village. Papa Smurf smurfed her into a sweet, adorable Smurfette.

For such happy creatures, those Smurfs are terribly disgruntled about just about everything most of the time.

Smurfette gave up her blue to turn a white rose into a blue rose. I don't remember which episode it was in, but I do remember seeing it when I was a kid.

Small Things Make a Difference

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."

John Wesley


Check it out - www.servantevangelism.com

The Company Store

If you've ever "owed your soul to the company store", then you know what Mr. Ford was saying when he sang Sixteen Tons back in 1955. This smash hit ruled the charts for eight weeks as the #1 hit back in 1955.

Sixteen Tons is a heartfelt song about working the coal mines for low pay and going into debt to the store that was run by the company that owned the coal mine. The stores were always willing to give store credit to the families that worked for the company, but the catch for such credit was that you were indebted to the company and never managed to get ahead.

If you want a modern day example of the company stores, then you need only look at credit card companies or payday loans to see just what it might be like to "owe your soul to the company store" and never be able to escape the clutches of debt.

CoExist

This post is dedicated to my dearly beloved.

Today, as we were driving through our favorite cheater spot - Zaxby's - we saw a van in front of us with this bumper sticker. Randall mentioned that he knew what most of the symbols meant, but was unable to identify one symbol's meaning. From that conversation, this post has been born. It occurred to me that if Randall, the bottomless pit of random information, did not know what every symbol in the bumper sticker meant - then many others were wandering around without this vital piece of knowledge.

Today - I will rectify the problem. Randall will get to sleep tonight knowing exactly what every symbol in the sticker means.

You should also be aware that I am feeling particularly lazy tonight. Because of my current lazy mood, I am doing a copy / paste from this site in order to bring you the following information. Normally I would type out a brief explanation with some added comments, but not tonight. Instead, you get the information with lots of other links intermingled with your daily dose of information.

What the Different Symbols Mean:

The first symbol, the crescent moon and star, is commonly used to represent Islam. However, the symbol was in use for thousands of years before it was ever associated with Islam. Here is what it says on About.com about these symbols: "Most sources agree that these ancient celestial symbols were in use by the peoples of Central Asia and Siberia in their worship of sun, moon and sky gods. There are also reports that the crescent moon and star were used to represent the Carthaginian goddess Tanit or the Greek goddess Diana."

The second symbol is a peace symbol. The peace symbol was invented in 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a London artist involved with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. After being used in an anti-nuclear protest, it gained popularity as a peace symbol, partly because it was easier to draw than a dove. You can read more about the origins of the peace symbol using this link.
The "e" is adorned with the symbols for male and female. According to Wikipedia, the male symbol (an arrow pointing away from a circle) is derived from the astronomical and astrological symbol for Mars.The female symbol (a cross-like symbol fixed to the bottom of a circle) is derived from the symbol of Venus. When used together, the symbols can signify intersexual or transgender. However, the designer of this sticker has told me that when he added the male and female symbols, he was trying to promote the idea of harmony between men and women. Read more about gender symbols on Wikipedia.

The next symbol is the Star of David, also known as the Shield of David. The symbol has been used since about A.D. 1000 to symbolize Judaism and the Jewish community. The symbol appears on the Israeli flag. Read more about the Star of David on Wikipedia.
The letter "i" is topped with a star within a circle. According to About.com, this is a pentacle: "The five-pointed star within a circle is the most common Pagan symbol, and it is typically used to identify oneself as a Pagan or Wiccan. The five points represent the 4 elements (Earth, air, water, fire) plus the spirit, and the circle connects them all. A five-pointed star without the circle is sometimes called a pentagram, rather than a pentacle. Based on numerology, the five points means the pentacle symbolizes the Earth element and can be used as an Earth symbol on an altar."

The letter "S" has been cleverly adapted to resemble the Taijitu, a Chinese symbol representing the idea of yin and yang from Taoist and Neo-Confucian philosophy. Yin and yang describe the two opposing but complementary forces found in nature. Yin is associated with shade and darkness as well as femininity, while yang is has associations with light and masculinity. Wikipedia describes yin and yang more fully.

The final symbol resembles a cross, which of course has come to be associated with Christianity and the crucifixion of Jesus.

Ordinary Miracles

My church is having a month long teaching series called "Give it Away." This video is part of the series. I saw the video for the first time this morning and found myself overwhelmed with tears. I do believe I have finally found that one church where I know I can become a part of the family.

Please take a few moments to watch this video, then find a way to create your very own ordinary miracles.

Give It Away - Teaching Series - Promo from Howard Koepka on Vimeo.