2.22.2018

Link Love - Links To Lists of Happy Stuff

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2.18.2018

55 Things I'm Consistently A Sucker For

1. Winks.
2. Babies.
3. Oversized sweaters/hoodies/jackets/pjs.
4. Candles and string lights and those glowy rock salt lamp things.
5. Large, pretty mugs for tea and soup and coffee and cocoa.
6. "While You Were Sleeping" movie.
7. Sam Cooke music.
8. When someone explains what they feel about something and listens to how I feel and then I feel connected.
9. Anything with cherry blossoms on it. Literally. I would probably buy a tractor with cherry blossoms on it.
10. Anything Oreo related. Oreos, oreo ice cream, oreo candy bars, oreo cheesecake, oreo anything.
11. Chivalry.
12. Cheesecake.
13. Rain.
14. Geraniums.
15. Spring.
16. Paved walking/biking trails.
17. Someone opening the car door for me.
18. Handwritten words of affection or affirmation.
19. Used books.
20. Thrift stores: kryptonite.
21. Any non-alcoholic drink served in a wine glass (bonus points if it's bubbly.)
22. Original oil paintings of any kind or quality. (Somebody, somewhere, sometime, made them!)
23. Lentils.
24. Greenhouses and plants in general.
25. "Stars on the Water" song when sung by Rodney Crowell.
26. Feel-good commercials involving love, family, and friendship (bonus points for reunion scenes.)
27. Thunderstorms.
28. Pretty stationery.
29. Hostess gifts.
30. Radio DJs mentioning things about their personal lives, offhand.
31. Framed photos, framed word art.
32. Whipped cream in a can.
33. People endearingly sitting on things they're not supposed to-like tables or countertops.
34. Dimples.
35. Confessions of love in books and movies (I assume in reality too.).
36. Lemon or lime desserts.
37. Coffee.
38. Candid photography of people laughing.
39. Anything made out of fabric that has birds printed or embroidered on it.
40. Iced coffee with a straw, additionally any iced drink with a straw.
41. Old photo albums.
42. Gloria Jeans' coffee.
43. Museums (preferably art.)
44. Lists.
45. Anything that's not supposed to be a lamp but is-like a globe or a ceramic animal, etc.
46. Deep windowsills (perfect spot for books or plants or rocks, etc.)
47. Birthdays.
48. Trees in wind, all the time but especially pre-thunderstorm.
49. Little kids' belly-laughs.
50. Apricot anything.
51. Etta James music.
52. Throw pillows (they're the grown woman's stuffed animal, you know.)
53. When movies have text come up on the screen like someone's typing relevant info. I dunno, I just really love that.
54. Soft scrub and anything that was just cleaned with soft scrub (bonus points if it's lemon soft scrub)
55. Cajeta.
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2.14.2018

Valentine's Day 2018


Today is Valentine's Day. I love Valentine's Day. :)

Every year, on Valentine's Day, my mother sets out a special breakfast for her kids. It usually includes a little note, some candy, and something special like a juice box or individual yogurt cups for each kid. This year we each got white chocolate bears and some kind of peaches-and-cream breakfast cups that came with cellophane across the top, along with some raisins spelling out the words "I Love You" on a napkin.

I hope that I am able to love the people around me in my life half as much as my mother does in hers.

In celebration of this year's Valentine's Day, I am going to share some of my favorite quotes and poems about love:


1. "Love is never wasted for its value does not rest upon reciprocity." -C.S.Lewis


2.   Scaffolding
by Seamus Heaney, 1939 - 2013

Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

And yet all this comes down when the job’s done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.


3. Sonnet 116
by William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds 
Admit impediments. Love is not love 
which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.


4. "If I loved you less I might be able to talk about it more." - excerpt from Emma by Jane Austen


5.  Excerpt from As I Walked Out One Evening
by W. H. Auden

‘I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
   Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
   And the salmon sing in the street,

‘I’ll love you till the ocean
   Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
   Like geese about the sky.

‘The years shall run like rabbits,
   For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
   And the first love of the world.'


6. "There is an instinct in a woman to love most her own child: and an instinct to make any child who needs her love, her own." -Robert Brault

7. "Grief, I've learned, is really just love. It's all the love you want to give but cannot. All of that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go." -unknown

8. Tell Me Why
Song by Pat Benatar / Sung to me often by my mother

Tell me why the stars do shine
Tell me why the ivy twines
Tell me why the sky's so blue
And then I'll tell you just why I love you
Because God made the stars to shine
Because God made the ivy twine
Because God made the sky's so blue
Because God made you, that's why I love you

9. "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." -Martin Luther King, Jr.

10. "I love thee with a love that shall not die, til the sun grows cold and the stars grow old." -William Shakespeare

11. "It will be our love, not our opinions which will be our greatest contribution to the world." -Bob Goff

12. The Love of God
Hymn written by Fredrick M. Lehman

The love of God is greater far
  Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
  And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
  God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
  And pardoned from his sin.
  O love of God, how rich and pure!
  How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
    The saints’ and angels’ song.

When hoary time shall pass away,
  And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall;
When men who here refuse to pray,
  On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God’s love, so sure, shall still endure,
  All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
  The saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
  And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
  And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
  Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
  Though stretched from sky to sky.

13. " 'Don't cross oceans for people who wouldn't cross puddles for you' No, Do it. Do cross oceans for people. Love people, all people. No conditions attached, no wondering whether or not they are worthy. Cross oceans, climb mountains. Life and love isn't about what you gain, it's about what you give." -Unknown

Happy Valentine's Day 2018!
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2.12.2018

Steve Winwood - The Finer Things [Song of the Day]

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2.05.2018

Things That Made Me Happy In January 2018

photo cred: me, with a not so awesome camera :)

  • Making and eating an oreo cheesecake
  • Melty snow
  • A midwinter thaw
  • A day spent with my Granny
  • A Paddington 2 movie date with my youngest brother
  • My 20th birthday decorations, handmade by my mother (blue and white paper hearts and teapots)
  • Lighting candles a lot
  • Sewing a new blanket cover with my sister
  • "I Can See Clearly Now," song by Johnny Nash
  • Going on lots of walks
  • Cajeta brought back by my sister from an ethnic food market in the city-taste of my childhood!
  • Muffins
  • A Sunday lunch with my family at a friends' house
  • A rock collection on a windowsill
  • Gingerbread-snow on pine trees in my backyard
  • My 3 year old cousin's birthday party @ Cici's Pizza
  • Steve Winwood music in general, especially "Finer Things"
  • Wood fires in the woodstove
  • A sleepover with pizza and whipped cream in a can and cocoa puffs and two tween sisters
  • Receiving in the mail the birthday gift I ordered for my sister's March birthday (it's cool!)
  • Messy-scrapbook-journaling
  • New pajamas and a new fluffy red bathrobe for my birthday
  • Watching the BBC four part movie adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma with my youngest 2 sisters
  • Wool socks
  • A panda bear phone case
  • Slushy-muddy-melty-gravely-windy-notsupercold-weather
  • A new laptop (MacBook Air hand-me-down-birthday-gift)
  • Free audio books on librivox (The Invisible Man by H.G.W. and Dr.Jekyll & Mr.Hyde by R.L.S.)
  • Clementines
  • Going clothes shopping for/with a sister
  • A specific tan sweater
  • "Take The Money And Run," song by The Steve Miller Band
  • A new pencil and art supplies pouch for my backpack that was found in a bag of hand-me-downs
  • Hot chocolate
  • A pellet stove
  • Somebody got the big can of Peter Pan peanut butter
  • "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," movie
  • Sixlets
  • A pretty floral storage box bought for pocket change at Goodwill
  • St.Ive's Oatmeal & Shea Butter Bodywash
  • Fruit salad in winter
  • Quickly throwing a birthday party for my mom with what was in the house
  • Starbucks sweetened iced coffee
  • Blue sky with airplane lines in winter
  • Sleeping in
  • An old green army trunk
  • "Because of Winn Dixie," the movie adaptation of one of my favorite books
  • Walking on paved park trails
  • An unplanned sleepover with a sister where we pushed the couch by the fire and I fell asleep fast
  • Watching Numb3rs with La
  • Texting a sister far away
  • Not losing my cellphone forever thanks to a kind gas station attendant who found it
  • Four tomatoes savored in the middle of winter
  • "Someday," song by Michael Buble featuring Meghan Trainor
  • A dinner date at a local diner (Donna Jean's) with two former work pals turned friends
  • Walks in the woods with my youngest brother
  • Window shopping in an expensive but cool antique store with my mom and sisters
  • Counting all the cars on a train from mere feet away and no fence inbetween
  • Buying much-needed new tennis shoes
  • "Father of The Bride," movie on my mom's birthday
  • Spotify
  • A blood moon or super moon or something along those lines (It was pretty! And NASA wrote about it!)
  • Internet pictures of cute hedgehogs
  • Not worrying at all about my tire pressure
  • Ritter Sport milk chocolate with hazelnuts in it
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2.02.2018

Taking Stock #5

photo cred: yours truly


Making: organization decisions.
Cooking: yellow lentils.
Drinking: cinnamon hot chocolate.
Reading: The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
Wanting: to find more music that I like.
Looking: for photography inspiration.
Playing: The Invisible Man by H.G.Wells on librivox.
Deciding: college things.
Wishing: Spring was here.
Enjoying: snowy trees.
Waiting: for spring so I can get a job.
Liking: Instagram.
Wondering: where I'll be this time next year.
Loving: sibling time.
Pondering: the kind of person I want to be/how to be that person.
Considering: cutting my hair.
Watching: Numb3rs on Amazon Prime with my sister, Laura.
Hoping: money for college works out so I don't have to borrow.
Marveling: over the way life kinda sorts itself out as long as you keep at it.
Needing: to exercise more.
Smelling: the salted caramel candle on my bedside table.
Wearing: new pjs and a new cuddly bathrobe that were birthday gifts from a friend. :)
Following: lots of street photographers on Instagram and the web.
Noticing: lots of love.
Thinking: about money matters.
Feeling: ready for fresh starts, happy, content, wanting to reorganize.
Admiring: my sister Laura's perseverance.
Sorting: all my junk.
Buying: mascara.
Getting: ready for whatever the year holds.
Bookmarking: lots of pages from the college's website that I'm hoping to attend in the fall.
Disliking: not much of anything right now, things are pretty good.
Opening: new accounts; phone payment, Instagram, insurance, FAFSA.
Laughing: at Psych.
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