respite

this is my post about taking a little time off from posting.

i will be back shortly--sometime next week.

it's just that i have to attend to some--in the flesh, face to face, up close and personal stuff.

and i'm feeling a little like this.

or this.

it's not quite that bad;)

so, i'll be back and share what's going on. well, the stuff that is mine to share. you know how that goes.

have a wonderful weekend, in the meantime:) yes, i do realize it is thursday.


love and light and a little respite
deborah

growth

is it happening where you are, too?

are you seeing new growth,
fresh young greens,
and buds while you are coming and going?

spring is showing up a little more everyday.

it seems a long time coming.

i still, am sort of amazed that this happens every year.

that the grass begins to green,
that the buds begin to bloom
and that new growth happens....when we are just busy carrying on about our days.

it is happening.

whether you take a moment or two to notice what is happening outside where you are or not. nature carries on.

good karma blogging

one of the best things for me about blogging is the conversations, the connections that can be made, if you are up for it--open to it. i love the sharing of thoughts and ideas--that by writing and reading we all find our place, that we know we are not alone and that we belong to something bigger. (phew....i'll step off the soap-box now, keeping it handy--as i like the view from there)

this week i received a note from a dear old friend. alright, she's not old. she's young. we are the same age in my mind--you know how that goes. ;) she wanted the low-down on how to blog. and she asked me. i laughed out loud too.

the thing is, there are many ways to blog or journal.
i only know, my way. the way the works for me.

but, truly i'd love some help on how to do *linky parties*.
alright, i'd like to know what the heck *linky parties* are.

i'd like to do less trial and error--though i rock the error part.

i'd like to know where you all learn how to do stuff on your blog.

collage pictures? i'd like to know.

signing your name in a funky font? i'd like to know.

i'd like to know how to do the fancy stuff.

i'm wingin' it. flying by the seat of my pants. it's how i usually roll.

did you know there are not too many *how to blog* books? i need more blogging books. and i need pictures.

this is the only book that so far has helped me along: "blogging for bliss" by tara frey, it's my blogging bible. or my blogging cliff notes. yep, my blogging cliff notes.

what's helped you....would you share your resources? thanks--know that what comes around, goes around. :)




love and light and good karma
deborah

lost and found week end

the week ends.

the weekend,

those precious two days sandwiched between the scheduled week.

it was a hard week. nothing catastrophic. but some significant losses.

those stories aren't mine to tell. but, they sting just the same.

my folks wanted to have the boys with them this weekend--leaving big red and i with a completely open two days.

letting the days unfold as they do. allowing us to loose ourselves in conversations and detours--

we spent some time watching movies,



wandering downtown ann arbor,


eating murgh hyderbadi and murgh makhani at our favorite indian restaurant,

perusing bookstores,

talking for hours and hours over french pressed coffee and fresh bagels





and just doing the things you do when you find yourself open for the opportunities.


love and light and found treasures
deborah

just so you know

just so you know, the pictures to this post are from our last big snowfall. i should have posted them with some story about sledding. but, i didn't.

just so you know.




last night at dinner r had a difficult time keeping his loose tooth in his mouth. it kept squirrelin' out. his brother--patient as can be (sarcasm) says, "yank it already. it's gross." just three or so more bites and it fell onto r's lap, anyway.


r has admitted that he hasn't believed in santa claus for some time--he said 5 years. i think he hasn't believed in one or two years. so, he says as he gets up from the table to go look at his mouth, "i hope the tooth fairy comes tonight, because i lost that other tooth last week and it's been under my pillow ever since".

red shoots me a look.
i shoot it right back.
then b shoots me the look.

what?
why me? (even though i know)
and in hushed tones, we discuss that he doesn't believe in santa claus.

but this is the tooth fairy. a completely different animal? i don't know.
this is what i DO know.
1. my boys do not believe in santa
2. that the responsibility of teeth are mine
3. that my boys like money

r comes down this morning--"geez, the tooth fairy is crazy. she didn't take my teeth and left me five bucks on the floor."

really?



under my breath, i say, "she's doing her best and you only got five bucks because that's all i had--had i remembered yesterday? you would have got a twenty". that made me smile, just so you know.


love and light, just so you know
deborah

i am having so much fun or how i channel my inner suzy homemaker and tom sawyer....

"He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it — namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain."
--The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

just a short post today.

big red is on the road, i've the house to myself. oh the things i could do.

but,

i started spring cleaning.

before spring starts? yep. that's me.
on.
the.
ball.

unfortunately i think i may be cleaning for spring 2009.

whatever.

i hope to finish before autumn. that would be awesome.

peace. out.


love and light and a little soap and water
deborah

p.s. any spring time cleaning routines for you? and you want to come over hold a broom or washcloth while admiring the molding? i have many washcloths, plenty of soap, some lemons, 2 brooms. alright only the first 10 respondents will be able to participate. sorry--maybe next time;)

coaching, focusing and editing....or this is the post where i try to make sense of random things....

i'm smitten with picnik--the photo editing site. i haven't even joined, so much that you can do for free. i can fiddle away hours playing with text and saturation, exposure and frames.

last night was r's basketball year-end get-together at the local dairy queen. the boys were their usual silly, adorable spunky selves. 10 and 11 year old boys.

we've always been especially thankful for the men--in our case, all men that have stepped up to coach our boys in sports. i would love to do it, red would love to do it. only one little itty-bitty problem. we aren't sporty. we learn the sports our boys are wild about as they are playing. makes for fun side-lines, but not so helpful coaches. so here we were again, thankful for coach gary for being who we needed--being the person we cannot be--for our son and for the other boys on this team.

it is always a treat to hear a coach say a few kind and helpful words to young people. i only teared up a teeny-tiny bit.

as we stepped outside, the sky was still all soft and whisper-y--a glow in shades of blue, lavender, pink and orange.

by the time we arrived home and i high-tailed it to the backyard this is what it looked like.

if you are in the states, there seems to be a good chance your sky last night was similarly beautiful. my facebook homepage was streaming with photos from all over--all sunsets.

i wondered what i could possibly change on this picture of the sky on picnik. nothing. it seems it was already perfectly altered.


love and good lighting
deborah