“The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.” ~ Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way Continue reading In Proportion, Always, to the Capacity for Delight
This is a Tribute to the Lovingest Person I ever knew: Phyllis Extraordinaire! Continue reading Mystified by the Ways of Your Heart
Especially if they are ordinary, common words, but dancing on the page in a way that sweeps me up and pulls me into another sphere, that is a gifted writer. And I will stop, and hold the book to my chest, and sigh, and hold onto the moment for a moment. Continue reading It is well
And it dawns on me. The lesson. These things happen sometimes when something someone says intrigues me so, that I want to ponder it, mull it over, hold it in my hand and carry it like a talisman until its wisdom breaks open for me. Continue reading In the Silence
Today, Bean and I had some errands to run, and I chose the Pandora Station “Peter, Paul and Mommy” for our musical background. We sang along to Feed the Birds, from Mary Poppins, and some Simon & Garfunkel, a little John Denver, songs from The Sound of Music and we sang Puff the Magic Dragon (twice) and I cried. I have always cried every time … Continue reading Magic Dragons and Refusing to Grow Up
The way I am learning to meditate, is to be still and quiet, and allow my mind to settle onto something, whatever it wants to settle onto, and keep breathing. It is a very low-key, no stress kind of meditation. I don’t beat myself up for doing it wrong, because there is no wrong way to do it. I read somewhere that given the opportunity … Continue reading Gratitude, Grace and Green Beans
Sometimes it hits me, how beautiful life is right now. My husband and I watched the Season Finale, the Epic Finale, of The Office tonight. We have watched this show our entire married life. When the Writer’s Strike interrupted production, we went back to old DVDs of previous seasons, and even checked out the British version on the BBC. We could not understand a … Continue reading Dwell in the Glory Days
It has been a crazy day. Bean started out doing some artwork out of my What Your Preschooler Needs to Know book – with lots of paint and colors to keep him occupied while I got a turkey into the oven. Most of the time, Scott does the cooking around here. It’s safer that way. But today he had 5 estimates, and so he asked me to … Continue reading Art Wednesday has Never Been So Decadent and Delicious
While we were waiting for Scott’s amazing Enchilada’s to finish cooking, we played our standard, challenging, wonderful math games at the table. After dinner, Ben went out to the shop with his dad to work on his Motorcycle which just got back from the shop. For a boy who loves nothing more, I do not believe, than his motorcycle, it has been an incredible hardship … Continue reading Who Says Battleship isn’t a Math Game?
It dawned on me recently that I have really been slacking off when it comes to Science Night. We’ve watched a few YouTube videos of the science of flight, or time lapse photography of plants growing. We’ve done little things. But, where’s the adventure? Where are the explosions and loud noises? Clearly, these boys are old enough to start doing some serious experiments. All of … Continue reading Gratitude and Lab Coats and Miniature Explosions
If there is anything we have learned from the last week, it is that life can be tiny and fragile and precious and dear. There is no guarantee that we will get our Someday. Perhaps the greatest monument we can build to the lives that have been senselessly lost, is to live our best and biggest dreams now. Let’s not wait for the Someday around … Continue reading Tiny and Fragile and Precious and Dear
This year, more than anything else, and of course, there is so much to be thankful for always. But this year, it is the fact that my children understand the concept of gratitude. That my little Bean, at five, wants to write thank-you cards to anyone who does something nice for him. He dictated thank-you cards this year to people who had sent him … Continue reading Grateful that my Kids Comprehend Gratitude
Language and Literature night started out with poetry, and turned into playing with rhyming words and trying to make something of it – all around Gratitude – which makes me smile even more. This isn’t a Rap. We are nowhere cool enough. No hip in our hop. But we had fun trying. Here are the “Lyrics” Magnitude of the heart precludes the rude and crude … Continue reading Magnitude of the Heart Precludes
The last thing you hear on the audio version of this recording is someone saying into the microphone, while the crowd is going crazy, “The Blues Does Not Get Better Than That!” This is Part 2 of the Video of about 12 minutes of performance for a 70th Birthday Bash for John Mayall. This was playing on Pandora while I chopped onions for a stew … Continue reading I Chop Onions and Get Lost in Melancholy for a Moment
We have done a lot of canning this year. Mostly tomatoes and various sauces, because we ridiculously-over-planted tomatoes, by about 40 plants. Yes. We have 48 tomato plants, and I wouldn’t be surprised if our skin tone took on a slight ruddiness after winter and all our put away tomato products! We also did Blackberry Jam, which is easy. You can just turn the jar … Continue reading Jam Jar Half-Full or Half-Empty and Computer Malfunctions
