Summertime Joy

Golden sunshine, delicious
Warmth on my arms and
My face.  Kitties nap bellies up exposed to happy pools
Made by the buttery, sweet yellow orb.
Love putting my hands on their lovely,
Soft bodies.  Hi sweeties.. isn't summer
Marvelous?  :)  Yes.  Yes it is!  They say with
Their wonderful feline eyes!

Froggies shout their eagerness..
Sing us to sleep on glorious windows-open
Nights.  I love the heat and the evening breeze whispering its
Tales to me as i drift away.  The stars tell stories too.
Vivid poems of their adventures lighting
The world.  Love stories a gazillion years old!  How the
Stars adored Van Gogh and understood him
As no one on Earth.  Beautiful citrine and saffron colored flowers
Tilting in the summertime breeze.  They nod goodnight as we
Drift to sleepy peace.. and dreams of tomorrow's
Adventures.  Wherever our imaginations carry us.

Garden faeries in their gem colored gowns
Float among the big trees ringing their tiny bells
Of summer.  We celebrate our fathers.  Our mothers.
Our independence!  Our love for friends and neighbors
At merry outdoor parties.  Barefoot, and ouch on that hot top!
LOL.  My toenails done in sunflower yellow.  Kids out of school.  Freedom!
Careful all!  It'll pass before we know it.  Must grasp time quickly!  Seize
The sunshine.  Sip the wine.  Drink the sweet tea.  Share the love.
Never wish time away.  It passes in its own way....We must be
Vigilant, or it will disappear like a bunny back into a hat.

Well, all.. have a wonderful Sunday!  The Solstice is drawing near!

I'll be back soon.  M

Random Five Friday Fun!

So last week, i didn't participate in Random Five Friday, and i missed it.  I just had too much going on.  But this week, i'm doing it!  I know! lol.  Actually it's a very fun meme hosted by Nancy Claeys at her great blog 'A Rural Journal'.  It can be found here, and the more the merrier.  I hope you decide to play!

http://www.aruraljournal.com/p/random-5-friday.html

Here are my five for this week:

1.  I heard this song in my travels today.  Talk about one from way back!  See if you remember it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxlZWrac-bQ

And check out the hair and the clothes.  Oh the seventies!  lol.  The bell bottoms.  I had a pair of cool bell bottoms when i was seven.  They got caught in my bicycle spokes quite often.  This pair was bright orange with huge black butterflies all over it.  I tried to find a photo, but i couldn't.  At least not here.  But i'm sure my mother has one she kept somewhere.  I think i recall another pair that were.. wait for it.. plaid seersucker!  Snort.  I was the picture of a stylish seven-eight year old.

2.  Sometimes i prefer to do things the hard way.  (I don't mean learn things the hard way.)  That's different.  I mean make things in a way that takes more effort or take the long route to get to a new place.  Like this past weekend, i could have bought the phyllo dough, but i wanted to make it from scratch.  Not as convenient, but much more fun.  And i have no desire to ever own a bread machine.  I love love love to knead dough.  It's therapeutic, and i experience a much bigger sense of accomplishment when i take the fresh, yummy loaf out of the oven!  I love to make a quiche.  I never, ever used that 'Pour a Quiche' stuff.  Do 'they' still make that??  Actually, as i type this, i just think i have kind of an infatuation with pastry and bread dough.  This weekend i plan to make a cherry pie.  From scratch.  :)

3.  I found a new-to-me author i really enjoy.  Her name is Stefanie Pintoff.  She writes suspense/mystery novels that take place in early 1900s New York City.  Right now i'm reading 'The Secret of the White Rose.'  'The Curtain Falls' is excellent.  I haven't yet read 'In the Shadow of Gotham', but it's next on my list!

4.  I think my fictional character, Odette the Ostrich needs a buddy.  :)  Someone who is her equal in intelligence, but one who is her opposite in personality.  Odette is an introvert, so this animal should be an extrovert.  Definitely a female.  I'm thinking about making her a zebra?  Or perhaps a Slow Loris?  Any thoughts?  She already has a beautiful Border Collie buddy.  But i want to make this a triumvirate.  I'd appreciate all kinds of input.  Just throw stuff at me!  lol.  I'm also working on learning how to draw an ostrich.. and other things.  I know you can't help me with that.  I have to learn myself.  And as i said, sometimes i like the hard way.  This is fun.

5.  I really admire very fit people.  Not so much because of the way they look, though they DO look great.  But for all the discipline they must have to eat so well and maintain their excellent fitness routines!  I don't have that kind of discipline inside me.  And i'm not talking about people who diet so long and so much they're skin and bones.  I mean the ones who are solid, muscular, though not body builder muscular...  I love the way fit people move.  So gracefully.  Maybe one of these days, if i work hard enough at it, and gain more discipline, i'll be very fit.  I said i like to do things the hard way..  right?  :)

Well, there they are for this week!  Have a wonderful weekend, all.  And a Happy Friday first of all!

    
How i do love the yellow roses!  I'll be back soon.  M

Stuff and Whatnot..

Well, it's been one of those days.  Nothing went wrong, really.  And overall it was a good day.  (It's not over yet.  Only 7:27 pm here in OR.)  But it was what i refer to as one of those 'itchy, sweaty, forget-y days!  A day when my menopause seemed more 'active' than other days.  Is that an appropriate way to describe the feelings?  Some days go by, and my memory is fine, i experience zero hot flashes, and i have no itchy, crawly skin.  That latter thing sounds icky, right.  I assure you it IS icky.  The last couple of days, i've had a wealth of ideas for blog posts, but none seemed quite right.  Then they all became jumbled up in my mind.  They combined with each other in truly bizarre ways.  No logic or flow.

I finished everything on that to-do list i made on Friday, by the way.  The phyllo dough came out pretty well, but not photo worthy.  I walked eight and a half miles instead of 'just' eight.  lol.  I read a novel.  It's called 'In the Shadow of the Banyan', and i highly recommend it!  I called my mother in law, and it wasn't bad.  Not bad at all.  :)  And hubby's Rube Goldberg device is coming along.  I actually assisted quite a bit!  All in all an excellent weekend.  But yesterday is when the crummies started.

I went to the library and withdrew not two or three books.. not even half a dozen.  I took out ten.  Ten.  We can sign books out for three weeks.  Now i'm an avid reader, but i won't read ten in three weeks.  I know.  I can renew them.  But now that i have them here, i don't think i like any of them.  Blech.  And i thought i was choosy.  Perhaps i used up all my motivation to do stuff this past weekend?  Then i thought i'd write a blog post about the recent revelations of spying by our NSA.  They have our phone numbers.  Access to our Google accounts, our facebook accounts, etc.  I find this enormously disturbing, and have many complex feelings about it.  I value my privacy, but here i am on the internet for goodness sake.  Writing a blog about my life that anyone can read.  I guess the difference is.. that i choose to write here.  I choose what parts of myself to give away.  So i just couldn't post about it.  Yet here i am writing it down.  Sigh.  Mood swing, anyone??

Then i thought i'd post about the book i read this weekend.  Superb it is.  But i feel all kinds of things about IT too.  Couldn't organize my thoughts.  I've also been thinking about how i'd love for the television prescription medication ads to go away.  They never used to be on.  I think we should go back to that.  The side effects!  Oh the hideous side effects!  And so many of them.  I think the ads for the erectile dysfunction meds annoy me the most.  How many men have troubles with their private parts?  It seems to be a common problem.  Or 'they're' just trying to sell their drugs??  And what's up with those idiotic bathtubs?  A little hard to 'do it' with all that porcelain between you.  Isn't it?  Or am i missing something?

So anyway, my thoughts need much organization.  More logic.  Less moodiness.  I promise my next post here will be full of gloriously flowing prose and clever witticisms.  Bahahahahaha!  Just kiddin'.  Gotcha, didn't i?  Tee hee.  Well, at least my mood has improved, and i'm laughing at myself now.  Instead of scratching, complaining, forgetting and sweating.  Maybe i just need a wonderful, peaceful night's sleep?  Yes.  That's it exactly.  Time to go.  I'm hungry.  But first:

Snickers says hi and goodnight.  I say goodnight too.  I'll be back soon.  M

Weekend To Do List..

Well, again, i sat too much this week.  I can feel my bum sag as i sit and type this in my comfy chair.  No good that.  So i made an ambitious to do list for the next three days.  I may not complete everything on it, but i'll bite huge chunks out of it.  And chew on it a lot.  And i mean a lot.  And since i made a vow not to number items so much, no numerals here.  Just dashes.  :)  Here goes:

--  Master the art of making my own from scratch phyllo dough.  Yes, i realize i can buy it at the grocery store, and that is much easier, but easy isn't the point this weekend.  I'm going to make myself work for it baby!

--  Walk at least eight miles.  Likely not on the same walk.  I'm determined.  No sitting so much on my arse.  Gotta tighten the ol' gluteus maximus.  Gluteus maximi??  Anyway, you know what i mean.

--  Read a novel.  A three hundred page novel.  I have three from the library to choose from.  Actually i have more than three from the library, but they're longer than three hundred pages.  I want to work for it, but i don't want to end up disliking the book because i'm reading it too fast.  Not sure how this is going to work, because i sit to read.  I think i need to get myself one of those standing desks.  I hear great things about them.  Or, maybe read as i'm rolling the phyllo dough?  Multi-task??  I'll see.

--  This is the easy one.  Purchase a new bag and wallet.  Because my current bag..  yes i only have one.. is beginning to look as though a rat has taken bites out of it.  (I'm really, really attached to this bag.)  So this will be difficult.  My wallet is the same.  I think i've had it for at least eight years.  It's leather, and has lasted a long time.  But the pockets are coming apart, and my cards fall out a lot.  Not all the time, but sometimes when i open the dang thing.  Sigh.  But i love the wonderful bugger.  So this might not be the easy item after all.  :)

--  Call my mother in law.  Gawd!  I think i'd rather swallow a bottle of cod liver oil.  Or do the hideous fasting glucose test again.  Get a colonoscopy?

--  Help hubby with the Rube Goldberg device he's building in the garage.  That will be fun.

So there it is.  I plan to do lots of other things, but these i'll work on the hardest.

Have a fabulous weekend.  I might drop by tomorrow or the next day!  Either way, i'll be back soon.  M



--   

Summer and Love!

So far this week, the weather has been absolutely glorious!  Lots of sunshine and temperatures in the low eighties.  And this beauty is supposed to remain with us at least through the rest of the week.  :)  I am every sunlit color happy!  Currently in love with summer.. just like a couple of months ago, i was thoroughly in love with spring.  It's that way with me.  I always adore the current season.  Even the rainy, gray Oregon winter.  But i will drink in the sunshine and warmth while it's here.  Celebrate it.  I ate my first juicy, sweet nectarine day before yesterday, and fell more in love with summertime.  So tonight i'd like to share a poem by Mary Oliver.  I know.. another by Ms. Oliver.  I love her poems.  They make me feel thrilled on the inside.

        Logos

Why wonder about the loaves and the fishes?
If you say the right words, the wine expands.
If you say them with love
and the felt necessity of that love,
the fish explode into many.
Imagine him, speaking,
and don't worry about what is reality,
or what is plain, or what is mysterious.
If you were there, it was all those things.
If you can imagine it, it is all those things.
Eat, drink, be happy.
Accept the miracle.
Accept too, each spoken word
spoken with love.

Mary Oliver

:)

Some summer rose love!  Have a lovely Tuesday evening and Wednesday.  I'll be back soon.  M

Random 5 Friday.. Fun!

Hello, all!  It's time again for one of the funnest(?) memes ever.. Random Five Friday.. hosted by Nancy Claeys on her wonderful blog A Rural Journal. We share five random facts about our week, our pets, ourselves, our families, anything we want!  I hope you join in.  Here's the link:

http://www.aruraljournal.com/p/random-5-friday.html

Here are my five for this time:

1.  Me at 3 am this morning..  'Honey are you awake?'  'Um.. are you awake there?'

Several taps from me on his shoulder later, from Hubs.. 'What's going on?  Are you okay?'

Me:  'Yep, but there's an animal under our bed.  I think it might be a gopher or a bear.  You need to put it outside.'

Hubs:  'Let me look....  Nope, nothing there.  Go back to sleep.'

Me:  'Kay.. thanks for checking.'

So i'm not sure what i heard, but it seems we were both hallucinating.  lol.  I remember hearing rustling around under there.  It was weird.  But neither of us had a hard time going back to sleep.  And it wasn't a dream.  The conversation really happened.  Maybe i should start checking under the bed before i retire for the night like i did when i was six.  :)

2.  This week, i started stopping behind the Metro buses every time they pull over instead of pulling out and going around them.  (That is.. whenever i'm driving behind one.)  I don't purposely get behind any.  lol.  But this exercise is teaching me patience.  Which i sorely need.  And it's a lot safer than pulling out and around when every other person back there is trying to do the same thing!  There are some people who, i swear, wait three seconds, and they think it's too long.

3.  There is apparently a television show called Marriage Boot Camp, Bridezillas.  I saw it advertised when i was watching The Science Channel one night last week.  The Science Channel.  Sigh.  Getting closer every day to giving up TV altogether myself, but hubby enjoys watching sports on the weekends and some H2 shows during the week.  The quality of television is obviously slipping further into the dumpster.  Slimy stuff slides easily.

4.  I've gone off facebook for at least the month of June, maybe longer.  It's become, (and likely always has been, i just pretended not to notice,) a huge time suck.  My time is too valuable to be spent there.  Plus i truly  DISlike their definition of 'like'.  It's bizarre.  And facebook as an entity has become far too nosy and stalkerish for my taste.  But i still love bloggie!  :)  So i'll be around here for quite awhile!

5.  I'm rereading Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and loving it more the second time around!  I was thirty two the first time i read it.  I have a different perspective as an almost fifty year old.  This is making me want to reread many books i read in my twenties and thirties, and see what 'happens'!  :)

So there they are for this week!  Have a wonderful first weekend of June!  I'm missing the plum blossoms that went by quite a few weeks ago, so i want to share a photo in remembrance of this spring's glorious blooms...

   
Bye for now, and i'll be back soon!  Happy Friday..  M

Ugh! I Say With a Smile On My Face :)

So today will go down in history as one of my sluggiest days ever!  Is sluggiest a word?  I'm getting it underlined in red on my laptop!  Oh well.. who cares.  That's not a question, but a statement.  Tomorrow is another day, and i have vowed to do better.  Much better.  I have to.  Today was just... BLAH!  Lazy.  I was just plain lazy.  I intended to have a  relaxed day with Hubs.  He was relaxed.  I was a lazy bum.  There's a difference.  When i relax; i feel good.  Rested.  At peace.  But this evening i feel..  restless.. jumpy.. a little pissed off.  :)  I'm smiling though.  This is my own darn fault.  I take full responsibility.

I had good intentions.  I really did.  But they went down the drain for some reason i've yet to figure out.  I intended to go for a long walk early this am.  But it was windy, rainy, chilly and yucky.  But i'm an Oregonian for goodness' sake!  I know i won't melt if i get a little wet.  But i chose to stay in with a book.  So i plunked myself down in a comfy chair.  And didn't move for almost two hours.  Two hours.  Inexcusable.  And my day went on like that.  The only time i left the house was to go to a great lunch with my guy.  Best part of the day.  Time i spend with him is always the best.  If only i'd got off my bum more than that once.  Alas...  And to make it worse, i overdid the chocolate.  I thought.. i just need a little sugar and caffeine.  Then i'll feel better!  But i know better than that.  I really do.  So what the heck was i thinking??

So now.. there are dishes piled up by the sink.  There is undone laundry in the laundry room.  Floors that need desperately to be swept.  Phone calls that need to be made.  Litter boxes that need to be cleaned.  Actually i think hubby did that.  He was good about it after i said i'd do it.  He's patient that way.  Plus he reads my moods so well.  lol.  (He knew it wouldn't get done today.. that it would be at least tomorrow.)

Tomorrow i will start over.  It'll be like a Monday.  I like Mondays.  A clean slate.  Yes, that's it.  Off here soon to make a long to do list and stick to it to the letter.  Must do lots of stuff.  Very little sitting for me.  If i want to read, i'll do that standing or walking too.  lol.

Anyhow, off i go now.  At least i don't feel too lazy to make a list before i head to bed.  But first...

I'm hoping for more of this blue sky tomorrow instead of the stormy sky we had today.  Regardless what the sky looks like though, i plan to accomplish a lot!  Have a beautiful Tuesday.  I'll be back soon.  M