“You can’t turn back the clock.

But you can wind it up again.”

~ Bonnie Prudden (StresslessCountry.com)

Happy New Year!

Thanks to adactio

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Thanks to brungrrl

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Thanks to Brian Hathcock

…and other items.  With little time to spare and minimum legal tender in hand — it’s time to get crackin’!  As far as gifts go, if you’ve been following along with this series, you’re probably thinking we’re “bah humbug” big time, around here.  Actually, that’s not quite the case — more minimalistic or simplistic would be an apt way to describe our approach when it comes to the holidays. It’s about getting back in touch with the true meaning of Christmas! (more…)

Thanks to janed42

Gift or not to gift? That is the question.  We chose not to do the heavy gifting a number of years back.  It grew out of being discontented with the whole obligatory gifting process and our finances.  My husband and I just got tired of anticipating what the other wanted.  Then getting it wrong a number of times.

The same with the kids — we’d buy them things we thought they thought they wanted, but afterwards we’d end up carting many things back to the store to exchange.  Many times they would prefer to play with the boxes.  So once they got to preteen we started giving them a little money and a few little things. (more…)

…from nature like these…

Thanks to Brian Hathcock

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I think that I shall never see…

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

~Joyce Kilmer, “Trees,” 1914 (Quote Garden)

Photo by abby-q ~ Flickr (more…)

“Ah, summer - what power you have to make us suffer
and like it.”

~ Russell Baker (Thinkexist.com)

Photo by St. Gooch ~ Flickr.com

Summer has picked up where it left off last year, out here in the west — hot, hot, hot!!! It would be nice if we could share some of this heat with the midwest to help them dry out and us cool off. I’ll quit complaining and prescribe for myself a cool glass of ice tea…like the photo! It’s the elixir of choice around these parts…next to water that is.

Here’s A Few Other Ways To Chill…

Consumer Report: “How to keep your cool”
MedicineNet.com: “15 Ways To Keep Cool When it’s Hot”
StarNewsOnline.com: “Experts offer ways to keep cool in earlier-than-usual heat”
Suite 101: “Keep Cool During the Heat Wave”
wikiHow: “Cool Yourself Without Air Conditioning”

I’ve been busy making changes, on and off the internet. So busy, that I totally forgot something. I remembered earlier on and had planned on doing something…however, I didn’t make a note of it (The only note I made, was mentally… but my brain was overloaded and as things got added…something had to get pushed off the list.) So exactly what is this something I forgot?

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Photos by beetlwife at Flickr.com

When I’m out here searching the net for savvy links, I usually have no idea where they’re going to come from. I like to run into them…

serendipitously (adverb) come upon or found by accident; fortuitous: serendipitous scientific discoveries. (Dictionary.com)

That is a lot of fun for me to find new things this way. I guess that’s where my motto “expect the unexpected” came from.

Actually, I came upon it unexpectedly. No pun intended. One of my friends from SU, ‘FM’, used that comment to describe my site there, the first time our paths crossed. (His wife had been ill, but was in recuperation and he had lots of joy!) I had, unintentionally, given him the acronym that stuck, “FM” (It reminded me of a radio station that was tuned to “Joy”!) stands for “FaithMinded”. There was that bit of…

synchonicity (noun) Coincidence of events that seem to be meaningfully related, conceived in Jungian theory as an explanatory principle on the same order as causality. (Dictionary.com)

…that was in play at the time. I love when that happens!

So I came upon this posting in the same manner…

happenstance (noun) an event that might have been arranged although it was really accidental [syn: coincidence] (Dictionary.com)

It’s a lovely piece and it expresses how I feel about getting older (I agree with most, but say maybe a small few that I have a quandry with — specifically, the “get angry at God” one. I’ve been angry at God before, and that’s something that I don’t want to do anymore, because who am I to be angry at HIM. He’s my Maker!) and how in spite of the problems and issues that we have to deal with — Life is still a beautiful gift. So I want to play with this purpose in mind regardless of what age I am: (more…)