101/1000

101 ... how long have I been counting these 1000 thankfuls up?  Should/could note them more frequently!  I am thankful for small surprises ... and the obvious blessings too.  2012 ... I am thankful for the opportunity to learn some important life stuff this year past, and especially glad for the time of my life that I am in, because of  perspective  rather then ease.  I feel ... happy.

These clover pictures remind me the serendipity of small surprises which may render a change of perspective ... tiny deviations off vector leading one from a darkened alleyway  to suddenly (maybe even miraculously) a light-filled expanse.  This passing year helped me ... rest ... in that expanse. A tiny tweak.

per·spec·tive  

/pərˈspektiv/

Noun The art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and... A picture drawn in such a way, esp. one appearing to enlarge or extend the actual space, or to give the effect of distance.

Synonyms prospect - vista - outlook - view perspective in general may be described as a view or outlook ... a way of seeing things or a place to see them from. Dormant I like this picture ... found ... of course it is about ... wishes.  A wish bouquet abounding in possibility.  I sat on a bench at Forest Park in Ft. Worth watching my only child play and he ran to me with a bright yellow dandelion, boy was he pleased to find a little treat for his mom.  A man near by witnessed the exchange and after my little boy moved on to his next thing the man said "You need to teach your kid the difference between flowers and weeds."  It made me laugh right out loud back then and I still think it is funny.  It really is a perspective thing. I think this is one of my favorite seen things, I enjoy thinking about it ... an oil painting by the (21st century American) artist Jeffrey T. Larson, here .

just busybusybusy

clover flower

God judged it better 

to bring good out of evil 

than to suffer no evil to exist.

~ST. AUGUSTINE

I am enjoying this idea ... maybe it resonates so because my mother in law has been "visiting" for several days now.  Just kidding (sort of kidding ... ).  

Good out of evil.  Very cool.  

"God judged it better ... " ... interesting. 

We are packed to the gills around here ... standing room only ... the dishwasher runs almost continuously!  It's good, but not conducive to thinking or writing ... I am swamped.  Turned down another flight for tomorrow.  I know I'm busy when I'm too busy to fly. 

~Thierry Cohen

bugs ... I didn't know that bugs could be so delightful ... and, this isn't even my favorite picture in his set

 cooking

jambalaya

and ... the left overs would be delicious with black beans and grated cheddar on a flour tortilla ... 

recipe basically is

Emeril's seasonings:

• 2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme

I keep the combo mixed up in a jar ... it makes me feel better just to smell it sometimes ... aromatherapy 

This Jambalaya has shrimp, chicken and kielbasa sausage ... basmati rice ... canned tomatoes ... green pepper and onion and chicken broth

Some people like Tony's cajun seasoning instead, and it's good too.

some St. Augustine quotes

My son gave me the copy of St. Augustine's Confessions ... it is a wonderful book which came to me at an excellent time.  It'll take awhile to read ... his way of writing is a different voice then I am used to, and the book offers so many references, I like to chase those rabbits as I go.  There are some wonderfully written books out there ... I like that this one has found me.
And, it's interesting to see the Psalms being read as prayers even so long ago.  It is fascinating to begin to understand how this person, a person, understood words from a book that I try to be familiar with.  And I see that the translations he used are different enough to make  difference.  I would like to know as close to what was originally conveyed as possible.  I understand that a lot has been lost to time and probably it's true that time has gifted us with richer perspective ... we make of it as best as we might.

Here are some quotes ... not especially from the book because I haven't read the whole piece yet and I'm sure I'll read it several times before I chose what is most meaningful to me. I do like these quotes though ...

"Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.

What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.

Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul. 

Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.

He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.

Don't you believe that there is in man a deep so profound as to be hidden even to him in whom it is? 

Hear the other side.

Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.

Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full, that thou mayest be filled with that whereof thou art empty. 

Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.

God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist."

Mostly I am cooking ... and washing dishes.  And reading ... St. Augustine's Confessions which was Christmas gift.  I'm liking it ... may have to make notes on it later.  Turned down a nice little flight today ... because of the high potential for icing.  I just didn't feel like messing with it.  Tomorrow I will clean the black board and write some homilies ... better then the menu list probably!

The Waking

                                 

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.   

I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.   

I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?   

I hear my being dance from ear to ear.   

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?   

God bless the Ground!   I shall walk softly there,   

And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?   

The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;   

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do   

To you and me; so take the lively air,   

And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

     ~ THEODORE ROETHKE

My favorite read thing this year, it's not new to me, but I read it differently then before now.  Lately, I've noticed, that I don't want to write about what I'm thinking about as freely as I have in the past.  Don't want to write too far beneath the skin ... keep it up near the surface away from the larger veins ... .

I've almost decided on a plan for the New Year.  I need something that I enjoy doing that won't break the eggs in the basket I carry ... and, turns out, I really like being as by myself as my days allow.  I know my kids will read that as I don't enjoy my time with them, but that is just ridiculous ... I spend a lot of my time thinking and doing for them ... homemaking which is different from housewifery.

I have been writing as though for a "book" ... not sure what I will make of that.  It's fun, like putting together a puzzle is fun ... but.  We'll see, I haven't written the idea off entirely.  There is a thing I do that I like okay when I am doing it, but I don't particularly spend any of my other time enjoying it ... no reason I can see to do more of that.  THere is a thing I do which I never like doing ... I actually resent the waste of time that it represents for me ... supposed to be something given for something gained, but the gain hasn't been there ... I plan to honor my commitments there but not make new ones ... ease out.  Happy ... it is a choice, a complicated one.  I am happy.

That picture ... clover ... .  Clover represents happy.  I know how it feels.  I have learned how to identify it, the feeling of it, as it happens.  

So ... today ... we drive to a big airport (love that, really) and meet my son's plane.  That hug will be ... happy.  Later, after a cup of Starbucks (happy) we will meet my m-i-l's plane .... she has made that not something I look forward to, but I would not be happy to think of her spending the Holiday's alone.  I am happy to be able to open my home to her.  It's raining here ... and there's fireplace wood under the shelter of the back porch roof (happy).  The birds are all over the freshly filled feeder (happy).

And now ... time to cook breakfast for my husband (happy).  

choice ... choosing ...
I think this is one of the most interesting topics ever

and 
choose happy

so simple
so obvious
do we do that ... it seems that we can/do choose
its seems that circumstances have very little to do with it
that external doesn't dictate internal 
(I already believed that ... a long time ago I thought that was true, it's not a new conclusion.  I read an account of a woman who was raped during the time she spent in a concentration camp ... she said she could not choose how her body was used, but she could choose to not let her soul be raped in the process and I thought ... that must be true ... the body and the soul are not one thing... what happens to my body, my choices for my body are significant to my soul but ... my body is not my soul, my body is not eternal ... my body is a vessel (a super cool vessel) ... I thought the woman was able to retain the essence of herself by compartmentalizing as she did.)
it takes some still time to even figure out what supports happy, but I think choice is a major factor

I like that we can choose

Whitman clover leaf

"Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged,

missing me one place, search another. 

I stop somewhere waiting for you."

~WALT WHITMAN

and

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.

"colorized" Whitman photo

Sammy

Here's my dog.  He loves to hang out inside the house.  He's getting better about just laying there rather then following me around.  He stays so close when we walk that we need a lot of maneuvering room ... he is a big dog ... and seems even bigger inside!  My daughter told me that he left "lick" marks all around the edges of the puzzle on that glass table top!  Big silly.  He definitely does dog stuff when I'm not in the room.

Great dog ... Great Pyrenees

Following noted later in the day:

Today I am thinking about something I read a couple of years ago ...

The Haidmaid's Tale. Creepy. Compelling. Chilling. By Margaret Atwood.

"To want is to have a weakness. 

(a separate idea:)... It's this weakness, whatever it is, that entices me. ... I want to know what he wants." pg 136.

............................................... 

To want ... is weakness.  (And weakness as where one's heart is vulnerable to assault to varying degrees, and I think it is a good part of what makes us "human" ... so, not weakness as a flaw or a fault. I think Lewis refers to this as want/need.) I noted here because I do believe that.  Whether for good or for bad, want manipulates choices. You know how you read something and it stands out, but you don't click in on why?  That's what  happened.  The words struck a chord. And then again later in her story I want to know what he wants.  My roommate in college  was the only person I have ever known to use the expression "curiosity killed the cat".  I remember it as though it were yesterday, she was warning me about something, but of course young me couldn't hear that, young me was emotionally fearless ... I answered, "They have nine lives right? Musta been finding the answers that brought him back ... ."  She laughed.  I was happy to amuse, but truth is ... I think I get it, the idea of being enticed by wanting to know.  
I want.  I want to know. 
Sometimes, probably even most of the time, that's an okay trait.
I think it's interesting to see that here a couple of years later ... Some things, not many things but certainly some things, just grab my attention and I lock on.  That could be detrimental.  I was the sort of young woman who figured that I could probably "fix" stuff ... broken stuff, because I really do believe that we humans are supposed to pour our love in to on to each other ... loving was/still is easy for me.  And I thought if you just kept on pouring your love on to a person that eventually they would be healed by love ... and I don't mean that as my love, I mean that as ... probably as God's love flowing through a person towards another person.  Someone talked to me once about energy exchanging in relationships and I think it sounds a little like emotional vampirism, I see that idea as very different from cushioning someone in love while they heal.
I'm thinking about whatever that is exactly that God says about being made strong in our weakness. I think I better stop and go find that exactly ...
  

 ⁹But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.~ 2 Corinthians 9 and 10

... that's exactly it.
I actually understand that idea.  I have wanted my way towards weak ... I recognized where weak flew me to and I asked God ... not to take my want away (I have done that before, either just made myself stop wanting or asked God to help me not want ... like with smoking because I thought I didn't want to go where smoking was most likely going to take me ... yeah, that surgeon general stuff ... anyway, that's just an example) ... to help, for help ... help please ... and what happened was spectacular. I'm not saying I went looking for trouble, I'm saying my natural inclinations sometimes take me to where trouble is.  As soon as I recognized where I was I asked for help.  I wanted something.  We all want something and I know that is perfectly good sometimes, but sometimes we innocently find ourselves in over our heads.  Maybe with  hardships that dealing with is just more then we know how to or are able to handle ... difficulties too difficult . And I guess that the only valid place to learn anything about His grace being sufficient ... or the coolness of His power at work on our behalf.  I still want exactly what I wanted when I found out about weak.  It doesn't bother me to leave in in God's hands.  It feels safe there, and I don't have to think about how I'm going to get something that God's holding safe in His hands.  And something else cool about that ... God made good out of something that might have been really bad, and I know there is  scripture about that ... it's cooler to see it happen then it is to read about the possibility of it happening.  That's what I'm thinking about.

What I was looking at last night and what I'm thinking with it this morning ...

"We are surely called to believe that God who is everywhere is with us. And we are called to believe that this God is Energy and Love. Not the Grand Inquisitor. Not the Great Circus Master. Not the Indifferent Professor who does distant research on our lives. God is the one who made for us a good world and walks with us to hold us up as we go." 
--Joan Chittister
I didn't know anything about Sister Chittister before reading this quote ... now I see that she is a prolific writer and I guess it's right to say " a bit of a voice" ... not sure what feminist voice means but that's one of the things I've read about her.  I'm looking at just this quote ... and the reason I thought to note it is because it's interesting to me to hear/read what people, believers, have to say about God.  This Sunday our pastor said Jesus is God. God with us.  I don't like to think of God as "energy"  I don't know what that means. It seems funny to me that it's easy to accept the fact that God is mysterious ... a lot is unknown and maybe even unknowable ... I acknowledge that I do not know ... it bothers me to hear God referred to as Energy.  Well ... one word, any word, would be troubling.  Not this or that is easy.  God is ... It amazes me that He invites us to learn. 

"Learn as much as you can from the wise until finally, if you do it right and things break your way, you are wise enough to be yourself, and brave enough to speak with your own voice, and foolish enough, for Christ's sake, to live and serve out of the uniqueness of your own vision of him and out of your own passion." 
--Frederick Buechner

"Frederick Buechner was born in New York City and grew up in Bermuda and North Carolina. He was educated at Princeton University and Union Theological Seminary. After being ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in 1958, he served for nine years as the school chaplain and religion teacher at Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. He and his family then moved to Vermont so he could pursue a career as a full-time writer.

Buechner is the author of more than 30 works of fiction and nonfiction. He has a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is especially loved for his devotional writing, including sermons and short meditations on theological terms, biblical characters, and ordinary words with religious dimensions. In his memoirs, he finds signs of God's grace everywhere, especially in his own experiences."

I'm not very comfortable with this quote either.  I do think it's right to be authentically who you are, and people seem to have a difficult time of that. What I liked about this quote was the idea of serving Christ via our uniqueness.  I don't think I get to develop my own "vision" of Him.  "your own"  is troubling for me.  Maybe I just don't understand the intent out of context.  

"Negative capability...is being capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. 
--John Keats

This notion was illustrated well in Kidder's book Mountain's Beyond Mountains when he re-counted the story of a woman's ambiguous beliefs about where her disease "came" from.  "Are you unable to comprehend complexities" ... something like that.  Geez, i wish I could remember precisely!  Now I'll have to go back to look again!

Tell it Slant

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies;
Too bright for mind's infirm intent,
The Truth's superb surprise.

As Lightning to the Children eased,
With explanation kind;
The Truth must dazzle gradually,
Or every man be blind.

~Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Here I am thinking of circuits as planetary circuits and I wonder at the circuitous journey that is being human ... L and I are talking about a thing, and those things, which a person has to (?), gets to (?), is called/pulled towards to work out for themselves ... little private "owies" which whether one prefers it or not, are simply one's business with the Maker.  

 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. ~Phillipians 2:12 and 13.

My dad and I talked about this passage (many moons ago)... the conversation was about "working out one's salvation"  ... he wanted to visit about this.  Salvation is a gift from God via Jesus' work ... which we may chose to accept.  That's what I believe. And.  There is a process of working out one's salvation ... maybe as a refining process is a way to grapple with the idea ... I can see some owies, old owies, soul owies in myself (and in the few people I know especially well)... which I seem to circle back to meeting them, tucked away, but suddenly flung about, unavoidable(?) on my path ... my circuit path.  I sit here, watching the birds on my beautiful new (half empty now! they've been so happy to come and dine) and I remember that "broken" horse running in circles ... and he ran and ran until he ran himself down to the place of healing ... how many layers of hoof prints did he lay in the same dust as he circled ... he ran until he was able to confront ... he came to a fresh ... brand new understanding. He worked it out.  It's funny about "owies"  they are like chameleons ... or masqueraders, masked raiders, afraiders, abraders ... it takes several passes to see them for what they really are ... .  And ... well, it's a process.  

 This one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on. 
--Philippians 3:13-14

I am super busy with a lot of important small things lately so I just want to note a few tiny things that I'm thinking about and maybe I can make better notes later ... after the holidays.  The other thing I'm trying to understand is about "sin"  as in ... the idea of something being a sin against ones own body (and from what I have gathered so far, sins against the body seem to be sex sins like adultery ... but even that seems to have a deeper context temple prostitutes (which were probably slaves) and the Temple of God (indwelling in the persons body ... so union with "foreign" entities would be insulting/degrading in a place of worship (the temple) ... I am so out of time this morning!  The main idea is about the (my) body and soul collaborating to help me "work out" who God was thinking of when He thought of me ... I would really like to be "on track" with that!  I'm wondering about some of that stuff.

Blessed 

are the flexible

for they  shall not be bent out of shape.

 If it would stop raining I would go outside to find some acorn tops ... to create some pine needle tassels like these ... pretty great way to waste time!

 as it is ... raining ... I am sitting inside trying to develop a comprehensive menu for the rest of the month.  I think if I plan well I may not go too much over the regular food budget.  We are excited about holiday visitors! 
One is coming home for a few weeks and his sweetheart will be over for a few days.  L's mom will be spending several days with us as well.  I love to cook ... and cooking is one of the ways how I say I love having you in my home

So ... today ... recipe gathering and shopping list building.  Next, the pantry and refrigerator would love to be spiffed up.  I'll grocery shop this afternoon ... maybe ... not in the rain.

And!  I have this to do ...

... and this and this to think about.  I'm going to send H a quick request to send some bakers twine pleasepleaseplease ...

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand 

and walk 

and run 

and climb and dance;

one cannot fly into flying. 

~ Neitzsche

The Star @ AMERICAN DIGEST

"Christmas is the day that holds all time together."  ~ Alexander Smith

The Star @ AMERICAN DIGEST

UK Telegraph Star of Bethlehem ... may have been ...

Quick note ... one of the things that flying gave to me was/has been a better understanding of "weather", real weather and weather as a metaphor.  This morning while I worked away I was thinking about something like this picture.  Water drip dropping, accumulating as a puddle or a pond or running off, soaking in somewhere, nurturing this, wreaking havoc on that ... . And I was thinking about the flow or movement of a system.  I like to think about them beginning in Texas, and it seems like a lot of them do, and moving East, towards me.  I look at the high cirrus layer here and I know it's most likely raining back home ... what is happening between here and there?  What will happen?  I love to watch the big monster cells kicking up their heels.  I think I'm going to review some and think about weather some ... not in that "in each little life the rain must fall" sort of way, but more as a life, a human life, compared to the life of a storm.  This picture ... dissipating or collecting to rise again?  What if each little drop falls like a thought ... or a deed.  I've forgotten what the circles are called, but what if they are like the after effects of an action moving away ...  humming the initial intent.

I love these colors ... favorite colors

Cirrus first I think ... love the idea of ice "floating" way over head.

That bathroom is painted ... and fresh paint practically begs for fresh wall paper!  It's on my mind now, snappy wall paper.  I sanded the floor yesterday because we are installing a new toilet up there and it is the perfect time to do all that sort of thing.  Keeping a house straight is a full time job!

L fixed a drawer in the kitchen last night.  It took him about ten minutes to do his magic ... I don't think I will miss that drawer sliding itself open c o n t i n u o u s l y.  It was the main idiosyncrasy of the kitchen, the girls said it was a ghost sous chef.  I've tried to "fix" it before ... several times I've tried.  A screw on the newish drawer slide rail was striped effectively thwarting  my efforts..  "They just don't make screws like they used to." my husband said.  That's really what I'm thinking about today.  It's the truth.  Stuff changes.  I pulled nails out of some trim wood, fascia board I think it's called,  which was replaced this summer.  The quality of the metal was impressive.  Same thing on all this old furniture I work with.  The metal fasteners, nails, screws, staples, tacks ... all of, any of the metal ... it's just a better quality.  If I have to pull a new staple out, one I just put in wrong, it invariably snaps in two no matter how  very carefully I pry it up, the task must be completed with pliers.  Not so with the old staples, and they are usually compression driven, so they're really in there, but they come out in one strong piece as though ready to go again.
I'm thinking about how relationships seem to be like that.
Poorly constructed out of inferior pieces ... . They look pretty good.  Pretty good for now.  Things aren't truly expected to "last".  The stuff we put in our lives tends to be flimsy.  Jeans with holes already in them!  Relationships like that don't offer or expect quality.  Everything seems to be "diluted" these days. Slipshod hovel like shelters.  I think we could do better ... expect, accept ... extend better.

I'm just wondering where the really good fasteners are ... they are not on the screw aisle at the local DIY store.  And ... I'm wondering how, in a world where nothing is built to withstand, where even the most basic building blocks are weak, particleboard-like components, rather then densely grained wood, where boredom demands constant flipping through quantities of inconsequential junk,  where "food" is pre-chewed, pre-digested, sugar coated, where  ... everything is superficial, not quite the real deal ... almost ... where almost sorta-like is the standard ... where's the model for built to last, for dependability, for trust.

How can one acquire the ability to trust when all the walls in their home are constructed of paper?  I'm going to go find a copy of the Three Little Pigs.  And, I'm not talking about houses or stuff one might buy, or use. I'm thinking about how to teach my little girl about the shelter of enduring love.  Commitment.

My Dad's twin wore a necklace.  It had three heavy charms on a long silver chain.  A cross, an anchor, and what?  A heart.  I was a little girl sitting on his lap when I first felt it and I remember him quietly explaining it to me.  He said it was about a love story.  The cross was mostly about Christ's cross, but in order for us to understand His cross we would be expected to carry a few of our own.  The anchor ... about hope which anchors a soul ... anchors are about choices; where to port or drop anchor, when and where to sail on.  And a heart.  I was sitting in his lap specifically to hear his heart beat.  He knew that.  We had been talking about that because I loved to sit very still in my dad's lap and listen to his heart beat and my uncle said his was exactly the same as Daddy's, so we were doing an experiment.  He smelled exactly like my dad ... and he sounded exactly like my dad ... same lap ... and leaning my little ear on to his heart was  ... not the same because of that necklace.  And he laughed about little serious grey eyes and whispered nuh-uh, not the same, my Daddy doesn't wear a necklace.  He told me the story of his necklace that day and I guess I'm starting to understand it now ... back then I was mostly just distressed about having a soul.  I didn't know about that and he explained it as like a ghost, like Casper the Friendly Ghost ... and it sort of scared me to think of myself as a holder of a spirit.  It's funny remembering.  Isn't it Lewis who observed ... now I have to go find it ... :

“You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.”

 ~C.S. LEWIS

And that is what I'm talking about.  How do we teach our souls about quality?  Heart matters. How does one anchor to the concept of eternal when all the little building blocks are shoddy?  Our bodies move around collecting substance for our souls.  Life shapes souls. As the physical heart pumps blood for the body, there is a heart of our soul which also supports "life".

Well ... busy time.  I gotta get to it.

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. ~Hebrews6:19a ... talking about the Hope made possible through Jesus Christ.  When I saw this photo I remembered that time with my uncle, I remembered his necklace and what he was trying to tell me.  He is in my heart.

snapshots from today ...

73F ... the AWOS was out of whack, I sure would have been surprised blowing in to this area with all that red based on just the local AWOS ... I think they were reporting 10G16 ... the flags at the Lowe's parking lot were blowing full in all different directions ... that's what prompted me to listen to the aviation weather in the first place.  Vis was reporting @ +10 but you couldn't see the intersections paint markings from being the second vehicle back.  Oak tree picture ... taken earlier in the day simply for the  bareness of it ... all the leaves are down.  One last leaf round up this year.
This soup pic was taken last Friday...

The Korean ladies are teaching me their cuisine.  Pretty sweet ... last week one of the ladies gifted me with a bag of dried out fish ... silver herrings.  Kinda weird, kinda awesome.  Weird to have a bag of fish ... sweet that I might actually know what to do with it thanks to these wonderful, courageous women.

And I am wrapping up my projects ... window treatment for upstairs bedroom ... paint etc. for that bathroom ... a couple of black dining room chairs to finish up, and two half tiles in the kitchen ... I think that will tie up the loose ends.  Next year's list is already asserting itself!

in my head/heart today

all these photos were found on Pinterest