Wordless Wednesday

Aw...come on...

You know how someone tells you a crazy story and it's so bizarre you just can't help but respond with an idiom like "You're kidding!", "No way!", "Get out of here!", "Shut the door!", or this one "Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit!". Credit for that one goes to Marquita, a scrapbooking friend from long ago in Georgia.  She could roll those kinds of things off her tongue until you were on the floor laughing and couldn't breathe.

Anyway, a while back, I drove The Truck to Publix for groceries. I tried to find a picture of it (the truck, not Publix) and can you believe I didn't have one so I had to "Stop the presses!" and go take some.

Notice the photo angle. I did that purposefully as to show you how HUGE this thing is! When you drive it, you are above every automobile and truck on the road and you can eyeball truckers no prob.

This is not an ordinary Ford F-150. It is a ........ KING RANCH. I say that with awe and reverence. I am not kidding. It doesn't matter where you drive it, people stare at you and mostly the truck. And it isn't an ugly look, or a particularly envious one. It is a look of longing and admiration. It just blows my mind.

Sometimes I end up just having to drive it, although I prefer Jim to. It really is BIG. Anyhoo, I had to go to Publix and I had to go in the truck. Going to the grocery store is not always easy for me, as the floors are concrete, which hurts my legs, so on and so on. I try to not let the list get to long so the bags aren't too heavy for carrying inside at the house. We were out of coffee at home; yea, I know, and yes, it was on the grocery list. Publix has a fresh pot at the front of the store to share with customers so I decided that would be very pleasant.

Our Publix in Fairview. I am so proud.

When I was finished with my shopping I took my bags out to the truck in a cart along with the coffee I had left over. I am a very slow coffee drinker. Ask Jim. He always finds it in the microwave sometime later in the day... cold. Off I went, home again, jiggity-jog in The Truck.

When I got home and got out of the truck, I had to walk around to the passenger side to get one bag and when I rounded the bed of the truck... jeepers!

Yes! I am not joshing you!
There was my coffee cup right where I left it on the ledge of the bed of the truck!

And, because seeing is believing, I had to run in and get my camera to capture this for posterity, maybe even Ripley's Believe It or Not. Oh, it gets better. Tee hee. See the faint line about midway up the Styrofoam cup? There is still coffee in there!!!! No! Publix is not across the street from my house!!! It is four miles away!! Two hills and at least three pretty intense curves! In case you need a little more proof...

The mind boggles.

Wonders will never cease.

Well, slap my head and call me silly!

Looking Out My Window

I know, I know. Where in the world have you been. My last post was at the beginning of December and I posted a Wordless Wednesday, which I should do today. Nevertheless, there are things to catch up on in this beginning of a new year. Wordless, schmordless...

This is the view from my bonus room window this morning. For two days it has been intermittently raining and sleeting and freezing. Schools are still in session in this county (go figure) so Jim is "off to the factory".

Since Epiphany has passed and holiday decorations are packed away and hefted into the attic, I have been making my space in the bonus room tolerable again. Actually I am trying to go beyond tolerable to inspirational. I am beginning to see surfaces again!

On the way home from my doctor's appointment in Griffin last week, I stopped by Ikea to pick up this shelf unit to fit beside the pie safe. It matches the other units in the room that we are using for books and for Jim's repair studio.
 

There were projects, and piles, and leftovers from Christmas everywhere.

I took advantage of the Jo-Ann's 50% off sale to purchase the drawer pulls I have been eying for quite some time. They make the pie safe FUN. Pop refinished this pie safe which belonged to Delia Tice Fisher, Jim's paternal grandfather's sister. It used to sit on her back porch for kitchen items and well, pies. When Pop and Grandmom got it, it had four layers of paint: white, green, cream, and pink. Pop cleaned the tin by hand and stripped the wood with chemical stripper. It was easy to do as the entire cabinet comes apart in order to lay flat in a buggy or cart for traveling. Which you can surmise makes it well over 100 years old. We have used it to store phonograph records or books, in our kitchen, for storing family games, and now I am treasuring it in my creating corner.

The little metal cans are from Target in the after Christmas sale bins. Not only did they start out at $1, they were half price, too! Whoo hoo! I have chalkboard stickers and a chalk ink marker to label them.

I am making use of gorgeous metal plant holders from Willow House, which used to be Southern Living at Home. They are going out of business and I just love these. They were normally $30 and are closing out at $6. I can't get enough of them and use them for all kinds of things. 

  

I have been following the advice of Miss Mustard Seed as I read her book, given to me for Christmas. She recommends shopping your house and using unique containers to hold things, stretching your imagination for "out of the box" purposing. I am fast becoming a Miss Mustard Seed groupee.

 

So how are you starting out your new year?  I know that...Tim has a new hobby, building things with his Arduino (if you don't know what this is, look it up, fascinating); Dan is growing an awesome beard and Meg says is swaying toward Grizzly Adams philosophy; Rebecca is in her final semester for nurse practitioner, need we say more; Seth is pushing through his final semester at UGA with a loaded schedule including microbiology and anatomy I and II, applying for nursing school, and walking in the Spring-Cum Laude; Jim is lowering his blood pressure by going to the YMCA and is excited about his new, awesome, state of the art, ultrasonic band instrument cleaner; Dad just hosted a carving workshop with Vic Hood from all places, Leipers Fork, which is just down the hill from us; Mom has recovered beautifully from her bypass surgery and escaped to my house to visit with me and with Meg and her family for the duration of the carving invasion; Monte and Gabby are busy, busy, busy getting ready for a huge and exciting venture which will bring them closer to us and will offer some amazing opportunities to the teaching environment of Emory University Hospital; Matt and Meg, well they have a 6 and 4 year old who just blow my mind with their energy, humor, and intellect.

Who knows what will be outside my window tomorrow? Inside, it will be warm, my dogs and I will be cozy and happy, and I will be able to see the top of my craft table again. Whoopee! Happy New Year! 

Wordless Wednesday

A Hankerin' for Joviality

It has been one of those intense weeks. Nothing terrible. No one is hurt or in trouble. Just intense at moments. Not that there haven't been breaths of relief or hope.

Retina with jagged surface and membrane

Jim had appointments with a new ophthalmologist and then retinal surgeon and has scheduled surgery on November 16. It is outpatient and really is quite fascinating as they are going to remove a membrane that is contributing to retinal puckers. (See example) He is excited to improve the vision in his right eye by 50-75%, as it has already been helped with his cataract surgery last spring. Gives a whole new perspective on "pucker up", huh?

I've been in a good bit of pain lately, which is just par for the course, and I am thankful for techniques and medication that help so much. And then, I trip by catching my jeans on something and fall in the den. Nothing broken, can't even see a bruise, but my body sure is fussing. Hot baths seem to be the order of the day.

I did meet a wonderful and exuberant woman from the Nashville Public Library who did a workshop about books and play with young children and how this leads to reading. We made a good connection and it turns out that she was very interested in my involvement with vestibular integration (Minds in Motion) and mindfulness and invited me to lunch. I hope to hear from her so I can meet a new group of people in Nashville.

Just busy and tired and sore and needing some joviality and then I ran across this picture that Jim and I took in Florida this summer. We must have laughed for fifteen minutes and made sure we got a good shot of this because it just doesn't get any better. 'Nuff said.

An Adventure

Meg and I are getting ready to have a "Pretty in Pink Party" to support breast cancer awareness and research and honor and support the Kim Rowden Breast Cancer Memorial Fund. I encourage reading about Kim and what her fund supports at kimrowdenmemorial.org. Our fund raiser includes a friend's Mary Kay presence and Meg is starting out in Silpada silver jewelry sales and making her debut.

So, in all things pink, I discovered a new foundation called

http://pinkpumpkinpatch.org/

the Pink Pumpkin Patch Foundation. They are brand new and support breast cancer research by contracting with farmers to grow and sell Porcelain Doll pumpkins, the sale of which donates $.25 per pumpkin to the foundation. It has been amazingly successful and the pumpkins are beautiful!








I searched the Pink Pumpkin Patch list for places to buy the pink lovelies and then Craigslist. Since Jim was traveling this weekend and driving doesn't hurt me, I decided to go on an adventure. OK, call this silly, but I traveled all the way to Glasgow, KY to a farm where they grow all kinds of pumpkins and gourds, including pink and blue ones. Not Porcelain Doll, but pink none the less.

The day was overcast but beautiful, as the leaves were just beginning to turn. As I got on the smaller roads, there was absolutely no one, no one but me. It was glorious. The road and the terrain was of course on the plateau of middle Tennessee which brought back floods of memories from travels as a little girl visiting my Granny Vaughn.

I had lots of time to think and process many ideas that have been turning about in my head and to notice details of the day. The trees that were already ablaze, the trees just starting to turn, the rock that had been cut and blasted to make the road, the sky as it changed with clouds gray and blue and sometimes sunshine peeking through. Pastoral scenes sped by and it was nice to be quiet. No radio, no talking, no music. And I finally found the pumpkin farm... thank goodness for my Garmin.

Tammy Harris was just wonderful and when she heard all about pink pumpkins and the party, she asked if I needed to go out in the field and get more! I had plenty and by that time knew I needed to get back and not overdo it. I had taken her the information about PPP Foundation so they might consider growing Porcelain Dolls in the future. I loved meeting someone new and someone who does something so different than me.

Going back the time passed way too quickly. The trunk was full of gourds and pumpkins of all sizes and colors: pink, blue, maroon, green, deep red, and, uh, orange. Most were $1 and the most I paid was $4. There were no grocery stores out near the farm, no gas stations, no convenience stores, no WalMart. Gives room for pause.

 

“Others inspire us, information feeds us, practice improves our performance, but we need quiet time to figure things out, to emerge with new discoveries, to unearth original answers.”
― Ester Buchholz

And after the quiet is the glory of returning home, jumps and licks from doggies, dinner with my sister and brother-in-law and nephews, and faces in awe of funny pumpkins and gourds of all colors and shapes. Warty ones from my adventures to Planet Pumpkin!

 So now it's back to preparing for parties and washing dishes and appointments and feeding the dogs. In the midst of it all, I am going to be mindful of what others are doing for those touched by a horrible disease and the paridoxical beauty of what we have around us if we only take time to look.

A Small Harvest

When the doggies and I went outside before lunch, I cut five okra, two bell peppers, and six strawberries. There are three young squash I am thrilled to see . . . finally. Since there are a profusion of tomatoes that don't get enough sun to ripen we might just have baked green tomatoes tonight.

And that is a small harvest. A harvest that I used to make a delicious lunch with Georgia Vidalia onion and edamame. Fresh tastes blended together and making a small harvest a magnificent feast. I believe it is all in how you take on the moment. That is something I am practicing:  mindfulness of the moment. "Mindfulness is the awareness that arises from paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally, to things as they are . . . not paying more attention but paying attention differently and more wisely." Mark Williams, John Teasdale

Yum!

Double yum!

Mindfulness is about not looking to the past or others for comparison, nor projecting to the future. It is about the fullness of now, fully embracing the people, nature, and spirituality of this moment in time. That makes any small harvest a feast and any small experience a joy.

 Written August 29, 2012

Sun Power

Ok, let's talk about power bills. Oh, yea. I know that makes the heart go pitter patter as in stroke mode, especially in the summer. Well, check these babies out.

This array of solar panels is located smack dab in the backyard of our house in Fairview. I am pretty sure that not everyone knew just how to take these babies or liked them in the back yard as indicated by how long this house was for sale, but let me tell you just how much we like them. Our first electricity bill in many months was $4 and our August bill is $80. As the weather cools off again, the panels will send electricity into the grid and give us credit to build up for the months ahead. I like looking at them myself. I guess we are one of these folks:  Tennessee Solar Power Users

When I look out the back windows and see the grid, I don't just think of power and electricity. It makes me think of sunshine and how much we need to be outside. Sunshine is one of the major ways to get vitamin D and how many of you have been diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency? Hmmmmm.... Light sets our circadian rhythms and keeps our moods lifted. I'm going outside right now to get some sun and some D. More power to you!

Your Typical Trip to the Beach

I think most of us can tell of trips to the beach. I certainly remember those from my childhood, in addition to the ones we took with my own children. My favorite story from my younger days is with Mom and Dad, camping at the beach I believe... unless it was in a beach house at Myrtle Beach. Nonetheless, we were swimming in the ocean, having so much fun in the waves, and it was made totally more incredible since Dad came in with us. Of course, when Dad does anything, even swim, he has to wear his glasses. And YES! Right when a lovely wave comes toward us, all the kids squealing for joy, Dad turns around to look and BAM! Wave in the face! And the afterwards picture is ... Dad without glasses!

We were so concerned about Daddy's glasses but he grinned as he assured us that some lucky shark now had great eyesight. Is that a great dad or what?

Watching the waves

You are at the beach and the first few days are amazing with trips to the pool, trips to the beach, trips back to the pool, seafood, and extra long naps if you can get anyone to take one. Then after that there are a few more grouchies, some grabbing of toys, complaints about food, general whining and grand efforts on the part of the adults at positive attitudes. And as always happens at the beach, rain. Which is why you come prepared with games, puzzles, books, and nowadays, a selection of unseen DVD's. Today was our rain day, complete with the beautiful water and waves, the view of a rainstorm approaching, and lunch at Pampano Joe's. I must say, there is just nothing like dancing in the rain.

Jim sees the rainstorm first

Running for cover!