That Good Part

I have friends who recently sold a cabin about three hours away from their home. It was in the mountains, and  decorated like a beautiful mountain cabin would be; lots of knobby wood furniture made from trees, the colors of fall in the mountains, and lake inspired. It reflected it's surroundings and looked nothing like my friends every day home. Which, by the way, is also beautiful, just different. I've always wondered about having a second home, would it look just like my every day home? Or would I try the things there I wouldn't want to live with all the time?  I doubt I'll ever have a second home to furnish, but I do have a  second internet home , and it's different than this one in a couple of different ways. First of all, I share it with my daughter and granddaughter, and secondly, it is dedicated to the reviews of books. And specifically, books we want to recommend. So far, I don't bother with books I don't want to encourage you to read. Why? Lets ju...

My husband is on vacation this week, although he is working hard as I write. We are in the midst of a massive backyard renovation. I say we, but it's really he, with the occasional help of a few friends. It's going to be great when it's done, but the process is going a little long for the both of us. It was going so long that he finally broke down to take precious vacation time he hoped to spend enjoying the finished yard to get it done. It certainly doesn't feel like he is vacating. I feel like he is on vacation, not we, because I work from home. While I have a home office, I also have a habit of working wherever appeals to me at the moment; in the back yard on a day with a breeze, in my gray chair in my living room, or on my bed. I haven't vacated my work space, so I don't feel different when I wake up in the morning. I also work without a real schedule, my tasks come to me in the form of an email, sporadically and totally dependent when someone else does th...

This is one of my favorite pictures of my granddaughter.  She is watching me teach the women’s Monday night Bible study, and her mom said she sat and watched the majority of it.  My prayer is that- 1. She will always pay attention to the Word of God being taught. 2. She will always pay attention to her Grandma. When my daughter was growing up, my one of my deepest desires as a parent was that she would always believe the things I told her that were followed by this: Take my word for it. “It” is anything from the importance of being a discerning reader to never, ever drinking milk immediately after eating cranberry sauce.   This would also include always stop trimming your bangs before you think they are short enough, those pants will never shrink to fit you and it is a sad fact that not everything deep fried in batter tastes good.  Take my word for it. Of course, taking someone’s word for something can be a dangerous propositio...

Nope, not my 30 days of something, but my daughters 30 Days of Thankfulness.  I think this is the perfect immunization against the virus of holiday mania that strikes this time of year. Ashley will be pondering and posting on the topic of thankfulness for the month of November, and you can subscribe to her blog here .  I recommend that you do, you will really enjoy it!

I did it!  For 31 consecutive days I posted something on the topic of enjoyment.  I can't believe that one whole month has past, and this is over as quickly as it began.  I confess when I started this, I really wasn't confident that- 1. I would find 31 things to post and  2. That I would actually post for 31 days. When I started, I was most inspired by what I had been reading in the book of Ecclesiastes, and I thought my posts would take a more spiritual tone, sort of unpacking what the Lord showed me in that book.  Maybe, if you know me, that's what you expected, and instead you got a lot of ramblings about food and other things.  Sorry, but I hope you enjoyed it.  I have really enjoyed pondering enjoyment this past month.  It started out easy, got harder, and even in that, I found an enjoyment in the challenge.  In the ruthless editing.  If you think what you got wasn't very good, you should have read what I deleted.   ...

I love a road trip.  I grew up in a Sunday drive family, with a dad who loved to get out of town.  If there is a back road in San Diego county, chance are I was on it one time or another in my life.  My dad was from Dubuque Iowa, which I imagine today is far different than it was when he was born there 92 years ago. When I was there at as a young kid, it was still fairly small, with the Mississippi River on one side and Iowa corn on the other. The filming of "Field of Dreams" took place not to far from there.  It was a world away from Southern California and I loved my Iowa summers. I loved getting to and from there as well, my dad was Goggle before Google was invented.  If there was a unique, out of the way, off the beaten path place, my dad knew about it.  He was a voracious reader, a lover of facts, and I don't think anyone every had a boring conversation with my dad his whole long life.  Road trips were fun because of where we went, and how we ...

I love the desert.  I don't mind the heat, as long as you don't want me to dig a ditch, and I certainly don't mind that it looks the same for miles and miles and miles.  I love the emptiness.   Of course, the desert isn't really empty, there is plenty there if you get out of the car and look around.  I remember the first time I drove across the Texas Panhandle as an adult and all I could think was "There is so much ROOM out here!"  I loved the vastness of it.  When we crossed into Texas, I had to get out and take a picture of the "Welcome To Texas" sign, which I would have posted but that was in the days when there was a thing called "film" and I can't find it right now.   Which is why I am currently finding enjoyment with less.  I'm really tired of the conversation that begin with "Do you know where....?"  I'm tired of unpacking an entire drawer or closet to find the one thing I need.  Anyone relate?  We are at ...