Day 17 In The A-Z

Finishing out this week's letter in the A-Z Blog Challenge with my usual Saturday list of little things I love. Today's letter might be tricky so let's get to it...

Q is for A Quantity of Small Favorite Things 

quick thinking

questions answered

questions pondered

homemade quiche

quotes that inspire

Quilon (my England house)

quality time with my girls

quiet mornings

quarters won in Mah Jong

quarrels ended

queso 

fears quelled

quaint small towns 

decisions made without any qualms 

quirky roadside attractions

a bad habit quit

quintessential British speech

the music of Queen

no queue at the DMV

a cozy quilt 

Small Grand Things

True story...I rarely blog on Saturdays. But since Saturday posting is required in the A-Z Blog Challenge I'm going to do what I've done the past few years and use Saturdays for list making. The only rule is that the list must go along with the letter of the day, and this year I'm going with small things I think are pretty grand. I like to keep these lists to 20 because that's a nice round number. 

I invite you to make your own list because there's nothing quite like intentionally thinking about the little things you love and appreciate to brighten your mood and sometimes even your entire week. Here we go-

C is for Capturing Blessings Small And Grand 

cute shoes

clementines

casting my cares on Him

Christmas

considerate people

charcuterie trays shared with friends

compelling stories

a clean house

my whole crew round the table

cookies fresh from the oven

civility

celebrations

courageous people

changing seasons

calm waters, both the literal and the figurative 

chats with my daughters

cotton candy clouds

coffee on the porch

non-complainers

a nap on the couch

Wishing you all a joyous Easter weekend...He Lives! 

Love In The Time Of Corona

For a season where everyone is mostly home and not a lot is happening a lot has been happening. On Saturday this happened-

Can't you just feel the happy?

Daughter2 and her mister met through mutual friends a couple of years ago and I always think friends is a good place to begin. They started dating last fall and now here we are celebrating love and life and the future with the soon-to-be marrieds.

Y'all know we don't do simple here so of course there are logistics and a pandemic and a sister in S. Korea so things to figure out, but God has been so good to our sweet girl and this lucky boy and we cannot wait to walk beside them as they join their lives together.

"The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy." 

Psalm 126:3

Monday's Child

My favorite second born baby girl celebrates a birthday today. She's told me in years past that reading my blog on her birthday is one of her favorite things so I try hard not to drop that ball.

Putting words to feelings has sometimes felt like too much this year. Too complicated, too personal, too everything.

But today I'm going to try.

Because the birthday girl has taught me so much, and while we often say we just want to forget all the painful things we've ever walked through I don't.

I want to remember how my bright eyed baby girl has looked for joy in the middle of a hard thing.

I want to remember the wisdom she's shown and how she's grown in ways she maybe didn't want to grow, but she pressed in and pressed on, and in so doing found her faith to be a sure sure thing.

I want to remember the way she has doled out grace by the bucketful and I want to do the same.

Happy birthday to my bold, big-hearted, beautiful girl.

It is my great great joy to be your momma and I pray this next year is filled with God's tender mercies and blessings abundant. May you always laugh easy and love great big xo

Light In The Wednesday Thursday Medley

Today is National Lighthouse Day. Who knew?

Actually it was yesterday, and I did write my answers yesterday but then it all got away from me and I never made it back to my blog to hit publish. Also, the only reason I know yesterday was National Lighthouse Day is because that's the theme in this week's Wednesday Medley hosted by Terri over at Your Friend From Florida. The questions didn't sound like a brain strain so thought I'd play along.

Here we go-

1. Let's start with a number-how many lighthouses have you visited?

Hmmm...maybe this will strain my brain? We have lived mostly on the East Coast which I'm pretty sure is where you'll find a fair chunk of the lighthouses in America. I'm sure there's more but the ones that popped into my head are Cape Hatteras, Portland Head, Mystic Seaport, the Baltimore Harbor Light, Point Lookout, and Thomas Point all in Maryland, Point Arena and Heceta Head in California, and Cape Blanco on the Oregon coast. I guess about ten, but there are probably some I'm forgetting. 

Portland Head Light

2. Have you been inside a lighthouse and did you walk to the top?

I have been inside a lighthouse, the most recent being Cape Blanco on the Oregon Coast. 

Cape Blanco Lighthouse

3. Do you seek them out when you're traveling or are you not that big of a fan?

I wouldn't say we seek them out, but if there's a lighthouse along a route we're traveling then we'll definitely make a stop. 

Point Arena

4. Do you have a favorite scripture or another reference to share with us concerning a guiding light in your life?

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Psalm 119:105

5. If you don't collect lighthouses when you travel is there something else tangible you tend to collect as a souvenir when on vacation or a road trip?

I don't collect lighthouses but I do try to purchase a Christmas ornament wherever we roam. It's one of my favorite things about our tree each year, the lovely reminders of places we've been all around the world. 

6. Please share something with us about your week.

On Monday I met daughter2 in her classroom to help with some of the cutting-taping-gluing-that needs doing prior to a  new school year starting. Technically she doesn't need to report until sometime next week, but she's already been in her classroom working on set up because that's how most teachers roll. 

Anyone who still thinks teachers have summers 'off' hasn't been around a good teacher in recent years. Sure there are a few who might do nearly nothing over the summer, but most of the teachers I know are hard at work preparing for the next school year in some form or fashion all summer long. 

My daughter took an online class that lasted most of the summer. She also took an in-person class, wrote curriculum for the county, read several new books on classroom discipline and related topics, attended tech in-services and assorted other meetings, and spent many an hour and dollar at Michael's-Target-Dollar Store-The Teacher Store searching for interesting, new, and necessary items for her classroom. 

Thinking of all the great teachers out there as they return to the classroom and the noble, often thankless, still honorable, hard work they do every day. 

"Teaching is the greatest act of optimism" Colleen Wilcox

Zilch, Zero, Nada

Z is for Zero

As in how many posts I wrote last week. And in keeping with my theme of things that delight it's also the number of alphabet letters remaining in the April A to Z Blog Challenge so whoohoo!

Let's catch up some, k? Daughter2 had a childhood friend visit the lake last weekend. It rained. And rained and rained and rained. They didn't care even a little bit. They planted themselves on the screened in porch and read through piles of books and talked and read more books and even managed one quick dip in the lake between cloudbursts.

Rainy days and childhood friends are good for the soul. Plus when the rain clears you get a sky that looks like this-

Daughter2's friend flew out Sunday then on Monday friends we made while living in England who now live in Texas but have a lake house in Kentucky came to visit. Did you get all that?

We had glorious weather and spent all day Tuesday on the boat. It's been a strange season so far in terms of boating because it really hasn't been all that hot. Not Carolina hot anyway which means we've been enjoying cool mornings on the porch and cool evenings out there too. I do love me some porch sitting.

Wednesday we played tourist and drove over to Asheville to spend the day with the Vanderbilts. They weren't home but we let ourselves in and toured their house and gardens anyway.

An absolutely gorgeous home in a gorgeous setting not to be missed if you're in the area.

They had a fun display in the conservatory, a model train with tracks running in and out of the plantings, along with miniature models of the estate too. Let me just say their gardener knows what he's doing.

Our friends got on the road early Thursday so we did ordinary life stuff like visit the dentist (me), get a haircut (also me) and take a guitar lesson (definitely the hubs!).

Friday night we went over to a little place we like to eat on the lake and then because the sky was so pretty we took our time cruising home right along with the sun. Pay no attention to my boat hair.

Also, why doesn't my daughter have boat hair? 

Meanwhile...on the west coast my daughter1 and son-in-law celebrated his graduation from a 5-year orthopedic surgical residency and are busy loading up suitcases to make the trek south for a few weeks prior to their move. We absolutely could not be more proud of his drive, his diligence, his patience, and the fortitude he has displayed in getting to this day.

Our girl will be here tomorrow with the mancub to celebrate Father's Day with her father in person, and we're all just a little bit excited about that. The Dr. Captain will follow a bit later and will bring the dog with him, so no pup in the house just yet.

Other than the one already here I mean.

And oh yeah, tomorrow hubs and I mark 35 years as husband and wife.

This most recent year feels a lot like this post.-so.much.stuff. But there is grace for the day and for the year and for all the years and for that we are so very grateful.

Happy Anniversary hubs...you're still the one 💕

Y Not Make A List

It's Saturday which means it's time for a list of small delights. My previous Saturday lists have all contained twenty items, but today we land on letter y and that just might strain my brain. We shall see-

Y is for Your Saturday List of Small Delights 

yellow roses
New York city
saying yes to a spontaneous day out with friends
a freshly mown yard
Italian pottery with a bright yellow lemon motif
my grandson saying 'see ya'
Yorkshire pudding beside a Sunday roast
a yellow finch at the feeder
yuletide traditions
a York Peppermint Pattie
fixing something yourself
happening upon a field of yellow sunflowers in bloom
planning a trip over yonder
my yearly birthday celebration
hearing you are loved
knowing you are loved
the first yellow daffodil of spring
comfy yoga pants
feeling young at heart
a yummy dessert

Made it! Now tell me what's on your list this rainy Saturday in June.

An Xtra Special Post

X is for Extra Special

It was twenty years ago today...

Approximately. It was for sure twenty years ago, but I don't think this picture was taken on June 7th. I know it was taken the year she turned 11. The year she spent hours making friendship bracelets out of embroidery thread and asking me to french braid her hair. The year she loved camping on the weekends with room to think and dream and plan a future she could only imagine.

The future is now and the baby girl who made me a mama will spend her birthday today bidding farewell to her first 'married' house, preparing to put down roots on the other side of the world, and growing a new little someone to add to the nest she'll soon call home.

Time is funny and precious and moves sometimes at the speed of light, or what feels like it anyway.

Wishing my extraordinary girl an extra special birthday. She blogs here (Sincerely Shannon) if you want to hop over and leave some happy wishes for her today.

Happy birthday Daughter1...I love you to the moon and back. Or at least to South Korea!

Adventure In The Great Wide Somewhere

Four down, four more to go...

V is for View

Yes with a capital V because I am all about a great view. I had this idea that I would make a list of my favorite views, but once I started scrolling through photos I realized choosing favorites would be an impossible task. 

I live on a lake so there's a beautiful view right outside my window every single day of the year. Morning, noon, and night. Rain or shine. Summer, winter, spring, and fall.

The view never ever gets old, never fails to delight.

But I also really love stumbling across an unexpected view. Stopping at an overlook on the side of a busy road for a peek at the valley below. Stepping out onto a patio and finding a garden in full bloom. Rounding a bend in a forest path to discover a bubbling brook or a rushing waterfall. 

Nature delights in a thousand ways but here are some of the views I love best-

high atop a mountain

from the ocean's edge-

a sunrise sky all the colors of the rainbow (nobody's surprised are they?)-

a fiery sunset to bookend the day-

wide open spaces-

a woodland path leading somewhere up ahead-

a field of flowers in bloom-

great big snow in a winter wood-

waterfalls that roar-

and nature's art-

What views would make your list? 

Wednesday Medley

Not only am I more than a month behind in wrapping up the A-Z challenge, I'm also flip flopping the letters around because I can. V is alphabetically next but I'm going with W today because it's Wednesday and it works.

W is for The Wednesday Hodgepodge

Early in my blog life I started hosting a weekly link up called The Wednesday Hodgepodge. I asked five questions at random (leaving room for a hodgepodge thought of your own), and bloggers answered on their own blog then linked to mine. A little mid-week pick me up to get us unstuck in our writing, make us laugh a little-think a little. 

Along the way I met some of the absolute nicest people. What started on a whim became a sort of online coffee morning with a fairly large group of regular participants who got to know each other by sharing small and large bits of our lives through our writing.

It was delightful. 

I kept up the pace of weekly hosting for eight years then needed to call it a day. It was time. Nobody really wanted to lose the connection we'd made so another blogger picked it up, changed it a wee bit and on it goes today under the name Wednesday Medley (hosted by Terri at Your Friend From Florida) 

I haven't been able to join the party much in recent months, which is why I declared myself boss of the alphabet and moved letter W to today. Happily this week's questions are all about one of my favorite things (cheese!) and who doesn't find that delightful? 

Here we go-

1. National Cheese Day was Tuesday rather than Wednesday, but Terri thinks we should celebrate all week. Start by sharing your favorite cheese with us. Which one is always in your frig?

Well let me just say I never met a cheese I didn't like so picking a favorite is tough. A delicious salty Parmesan? Pimento cheese spread on a cracker? Maybe a creamy Brie preferably eaten somewhere in France because theirs is the absolute best?  I also really love a goat's milk cheese called Humboldt Fog which comes from California and has a line of edible ash running through the center. So good! 

I always have Parmesan in my frig. Real Parm, not that stuff that comes in a can! 

2. What is your preference? Mild, sharp, extra sharp? How do you use cheese most often?

I assume we're talking cheddar in which case I'd go for the sharp. As far as how I most often use cheese? Give me a charcuterie tray with some fabulous cheeses to complement the meats. Add small dishes of olives and assorted little nibbles, a glass of bubbly, and I'm a happy camper. 

3. Cheesecake? New York style or what other flavors would you rather have?

I like cheesecake, but it's not my favorite dessert (although it's rare I refuse any sort of dessert).  Cheesecake isn't the one I go for if offered a choice. I like NY style, love some berries on top, but am not big on all the various flavors of cheesecakes. Wait! I do like a pumpkin cheesecake because pumpkin is rich and cheesecake makes it seem less so. 

4. When you do grilled cheese sandwiches, which cheese do you prefer to use and what condiments do you use, if any? 

Give me good ole American cheese please. Is butter a condiment? If so then that's my answer. 

5. Number 5 on June 5th...say happy birthday to Terr's sister Tammy!!

Happy birthday Tammy! 

6. Share something with us about your week. If it includes using cheese in a recipe, please also share that with us too. 

Hubs and I started our day early kayaking around the neighborhood. Followed it up with coffee and breakfast on the dock. Not a bad way to roll into Wednesday. 

Also since we're talking cheese and Terri mentioned sharing a recipe... I love my mama's homemade enchilada's but this recipe (here) is an easy shortcut casserole that's also delicious. I sometimes use more tortillas than the recipe calls for because I like each layer covered, and add enough sauce to make up for that. Enjoy! 

Carpe diem!

I'm out of ways to explain why I'm still blogging my way through the alphabet so let's just go-

U is for Unexpected Houseguests

Would this fall into the category of things that delight you? Or things that make your stomach lurch and your head spin? We love spontaneous friends who message us and say 'hey are you around on Sunday because we need to get away and would love to see you?' 

Then they get in the car and drive across the mountain and we spend the next 18 hours or so toasting our history with a cup of Pimms, talking and eating and boating and catching up on all the things going on in one another's lives since the last time we were together. 

Which was 2016 but somehow time flies, and here we are three years later picking up right where we left off. 

It's one of the truly great things about friendships forged across the pond. We all still cling to that Carpe diem! motto we embraced back in the day where there was always something new to see and do and learn. We live a different sort of life now, but we still tend to always have a lot going on. Quite often spontaneous last-minute get togethers end up being the easiest and also the most fun. 

We've had some grand travels with these friends including the champagne region of France, the vineyards of Portugal, and a memorable ferry ride off the coast of Hong Kong. 

I'm going to say a spur of the moment Carolina sunrise cruise ranks right up there with them all. 

Taking Note of Tiny Delights

It might take me more than eight days to blog these last eight letters, but when you're already more than a month behind what's a few more days?

It's Saturday and what I was doing on Saturdays (because I really don't blog on Saturdays ) was making a list of things that delight centered around the day's letter. That's where I'm going today-

T is for Tiny Things That Delight

a cup of tea

a beautifully set table

a tender apology

the Eiffel Tower

flirty texts from the hubs

Thai green curry

tact

watching the tide ebb and flow

twinkle lights

coming home to a tidy house

tulips

a handwritten thank you note

a Tennessee Volunteer win

a red ripe tomato right off the vine

heart to heart talks with my girls

time to write

curling up under a soft, snuggly throw 

London taxis

tensions eased

standing beneath a Redwood tree

Seoul Much To Say

Way back when (April to be exact) I was blogging along with the A-Z Challenge and I've decided to go back now and wrap it up with the final eight letters of the alphabet. You'll find the first post in the series here, but in a nutshell my theme was things that delight. 

Delight is my word for the year and it seems whenever I have a word for the year it is apropos to that particular year's life circumstances. Or maybe it's the opposite in that it's not obvious in life's circumstances, but declaring it my word inspires me to seek it out. 

An-y-way...

S is for South Korea

This little punkin and his parents and his soon-to-be born sibling will be setting up their new home on the other side of the world later this summer, and I thought it worth a mention here.  

Nana isn't going with him, but she will definitely come and visit. 

When I tell people my daughter is moving to South Korea I generally get one of two reactions.  A look of horror and disbelief flashes across their face as they whisper 'South Korea??' 

Or they say Oh Wow! What an amazing opportunity for them! What an adventure they will have! 

I'm in the latter camp in case you're wondering. Which is not to say there aren't some hard things to get my head around like the upside down time zone and the fourteen-ish hour flight and the puppy dog coming to live with us for the duration. But mostly I think Wow! What an amazing opportunity  for them! What an adventure they will have!

When I schlepped baby boy's mama across the pond to live at the tender age of fifteen she initially dug in her heels and cried herself to sleep at night. Our move happened so fast and she had been mostly happy in her big American high school. 

Very quickly though she found herself feeling at home in a country not her own. Really at home because one of the first things you learn when you move house or state or country is home is where your people are and there we were. 

She made friends with classmates who were different in many ways but were the same in all the ways that count. 

She became a comfortable traveler...adaptable, flexible, curious. 

She said she wished we'd had more chances to live in more faraway places and now here she is some fifteen years later moving to Asia. 

I want to to go back for a minute and reassure my 43-year old self that you are doing the right thing moving your teenagers from suburban Maryland to a small English village. That you shouldn't worry so much about how these daughters of yours will adjust because they will do so much more than adjust. They will bloom and grow and thrive amidst all the new and different. 

They will thank you for upending their lives and for showing them the world is big but people are people. I want to tell the me back then that fifteen year old daughter will one day make a move to South Korea and scarcely bat an eye. That the years we spent in England helped make her ready for the now. 

Not just ready but eager. Excited. Confident that when God opens a door we need to boldly walk on through. 

My son-in-law is a surgeon in the Army so we've known all year a move would occur, we just didn't know where. For the past year I've been praying specifically for their new home, new neighbors, new assignment. It's possible I may have even prayed once or twice for God to bring them East because they've spent the last five years living way out west.  

Y'all sometimes God gives us exactly what we ask for-ha! 

They are moving East. To the land of ancient history and delicious barbecue. Changdeokgung Palace and the DMZ. Twelve Unesco World Heritage Sites and the breakdancing capital of the world. 

And because there's no escaping ordinary life that will happen too. Play dates and laundry and a new baby to love. Groceries bought and meals prepared. Coffee with friends and church on Sundays. That dance of the familiar helps you feel at home when your feet wobble and your heart jiggles and tears threaten. 

Which they probably will, but my now grown up girl knows they won't last. She'll put down roots and settle in. She will call this new place home because that's where her people are. 

And she will find delight in this new place because that's how her mama raised her. 

Easter

R is for The Old Rugged Cross

I have lots of favorite words, but if I have to pick a favorite favorite it is this one-hope. And never does that word pack more of a punch than on Easter morning. I like the quote by Thomas Aquinas that says, "Faith has to do with things not seen, hope with things that are not at hand." 

Easter for me is definitely a time of reflection. Everyone has something they're dealing with, and Easter reminds me to put my focus back on a God who is faithful. Who is all-knowing and never surprised or caught off guard by what life brings. 

No matter what small hill or giant mountain lies before us, what fire we're walking through, or what pit we're trying to climb out of, Easter morning tells us there is hope.

Sometimes the old hymns really do say it best-

A Cinderella Style Post

As in Quick! Write something for the A-Z challenge before the clock strikes twelve. Works for me-

Q is for Quick! 

We sat down to dinner tonight and it was only then I realized I hadn't blogged today. I asked for suggestions for letter Q and hubs said how about quit raining! He has a point. It was an absolute gully washer here today. 

Maybe more of a deluge than gully washer because when I looked up the definition of gully washer it said extremely heavy rain of short duration. Ours lasted the whole ding dong day, but I do love the word gully washer. It's delightful. 

Daughter1 has been doing much of the print design for her sister's wedding which is coming up super quick, and I think we finally got the last piece proofed and ready for printing today. That means she won't get ten emails/texts/phone calls from me every single day asking -can you make the font bigger, now it's too big can you change it back?, I moved person x from table one to table five-hey I moved person x back to table one so can you put the seating chart back the way it was three emails ago? can you send me a pdf to proof?, why can't I see the pdf? how do I make this booklet thing print right side up? wait just one more thing I promise....I know she's delighted-ha! 

This little man will be here for Easter-

He's had a big boy haircut since we saw him last, says new words and sentences every day, and is my favorite tiny human on the planet. Super delightful! 

This has nothing to do with anything, but last night we went out for Mexican food and daughter2 suggested we stop for ice cream on the way home. I mean we were driving right by, so how could we not? Also, it was educational.  

They make your ice cream one bowl at a time in the mixer right in front of you, adding liquid nitrogen at the end to make it freeze. Delicious and entertaining! 

Quick topic change-

With everything we have going on here currently I made the executive decision to order Easter dinner from Honey Baked Ham. I guess it wasn't so much an executive decision as a thought I spoke aloud in the presence of my daughter as something I was considering, and she leapt on the idea as soon as the words left my mouth. 'Do it Mom!' and so I did. 

Their hams are always wonderful and the deal I opted for comes with three sides and two desserts which are currently sitting in my frig and freezer just waiting to be warmed up. I know some of you are thinking what's the big deal, but I'm fussy about holiday dinners. I like homemade and I enjoying cooking these big meals and I make too many sides but that's tradition. This year is kinda kicking my behind though, so I'm giving myself a smallish break. Still doing Easter baskets, having ten people for dinner, and hosting a wedding a week later, but not cooking the whole meal somehow feels like a little break. 

I'll still make deviled eggs because is it even Easter dinner without deviled eggs? Daughter2 said we still have to make our favorite pineapple stuffing, but that's easy peasy to prepare so low stress. And I know people will tell me to use paper plates but I cannot. I literally can.not. If that's your thing then I say go for it. It is not in my DNA to serve Easter dinner on paper plates so I will set the table with my wedding china because thirty-five years in it still delights. 

And yes, this is a quick post when you're me. 

Pressing On

We're more than half way through the A-Z blog challenge and in spite of ten thousand things going on here I'm managing to stay mostly on track.

Since I don't normally blog on Saturdays I've been using those posts to make lists of small things that delight centered around the day's letter. We're rolling in to the Easter weekend and I have something else in mind for this week's Saturday post so will make my list today instead.

Here we go-

P is for Pint-Sized Delights

peonies

Princess Kate

lightly salted popcorn

encountering patient people 

a package at the front door

Paris in the spring

overcoming the urge to procrastinate

old photos

homemade peanut butter cookies

lounging in my pjs

accomplishing a difficult task because I persevered 

porch sitting

a walk in Central Park

lots of stamps in my passport

opening up a brand new planner 

the last piece in a jigsaw puzzle

pearls

the first peach of the season 

playing peek-a-boo with the mancub

hitting publish

O is for Oops

As in oops I dropped the blog ball yesterday with letter N in the April A to Z blog challenge. Not to worry though, because I'm picking it up today by way of a combination post. Two letters for the price of one you might say.

N is for Nature and O is for The Great Outdoors

See, it's gonna be fine.

I love high heels, pearls, and sipping champagne in a skyscraper restaurant overlooking Manhattan. I also love comfy jeans, a hike in the mountains, and running barefoot off the dock into the crystal clear lake waters of my own backyard.

Part country mouse, part city mouse.

Cities are noisy, energizing, and alive, but getting out into nature helps me remember I'm not in charge of the universe. The quiet of the woods on a gorgeous autumn day silences the soundtrack running on a loop inside my head.

 A mountaintop view gives me room to think and dream.

Standing in front of a seemingly endless expanse of ocean makes me feel small and sure there is a God.

A stroll through a lovely English garden tells me to stop and smell the roses.

We spend so much time in the 'connected' world these days that it's really hard to disconnect without physically leaving the places we plug in. We rely on our phones and computers to tell us about the world around us as opposed to standing in wide open spaces and observing for ourselves.

A trek up a mountain means I have to dip into my well of grit and determination, something that's not needed for scrolling the internet.

A starry night sky away from city lights inspires my sense of creativity and curiosity, and waves kissing the shore over and over and over again brings a sense of order to a very disorderly world.

There is peace and there is perspective and there is gratitude to be found in the great outdoors.

Let's all go out and get us some.

I See The Moon And The Moon Sees Me

Well today got away from me but I'm not giving up on the A to Z Challenge just yet. We happen to hit the middle of the alphabet today so let's keep calm and blog on.

M is for the Moon

In case you missed it my theme for this challenge has been centered around the word delight. The obvious M word to blab on about here would be motherhood, but I feel like I might have covered that in letter D. 

Let's go with something completely different here today-the moon. 

I tend to talk too much here about all things sky related-weather, clouds, sunrises, sunsets, and a brilliant moon in the dark night sky. Maybe it's the way it hangs over the lake or maybe it's that I have more time to notice, or maybe it really is more remarkable in the 21st century, but we've had so many incredible moonlit skies these past several months. 

The kind where we run out on the porch in our pjs just to get a better look. The kind that feel close enough to touch. Moons so bright and so brilliant and so seemingly close to where we're standing we snap thirty five pictures with our cell phones in an effort to capture beauty we know cannot be captured. 

There have been supermoons and blood moons and blue moons and harvest moons, each one a delight. In the words of Taylor Swift, some nights it really does feel like 'a spotlight on the lake'. 

The first thing I think of when I see a big full moon is the little rhyme I used to say to my girls when they were small. Back when I still tucked them in tight in their rooms upstairs. When I listened to their worries and their stories and their prayers and kissed their foreheads and said Mama loves you to the moon and back. 

"I see the moon and the moon sees me, God bless the moon and God bless me" 

There was something comforting in that old familiar verse...

There still is. 

L Is For The Little Things

Keeping with my Saturday plans to mention small things that delight. And since we've reached the letter L in the A-Z challenge we'll call those small things little. Perhaps too little to merit individual blog posts, but not so little they don't deserve a mention.

L is for Little Things That Delight

a garden full of lavender
an empty laundry basket
newborn lambs on an English hillside
Thanksgiving leftovers
learning something new
love that lasts
the occasional lazy day
loons on the lake
a freshly mown lawn
long leisurely lunches
knowing all the lyrics to a song
lobster rolls on the coast of Maine
that perfect shade of lipstick
memories of London
the ocean lapping at your toes
a bowl of lemons on the kitchen counter
a letter in the mailbox
a perfectly pressed linen tablecloth
leaves changing color
red licorice

Okay, your turn...what's on your 'L' list?

Kruising Into The Weekend

Winding down week two in the A-Z Challenge and I'm still here. And it's Friday and my teacher daughter is on spring break next week so whoohoo! I think I'm as excited as she is not to be getting up before the crack of dawn for a solid week. Cheers to the weekend and sleeping past 5 AM!

I don't have a lot of time to blog, and if I'd been better organized I'd have written these A-Z posts weeks ago.  I probably didn't have time then either so here we are crawling into the weekend with one of the harder letters in the alphabet challenge.

I press on...

K is for Kindness

Not just the random unexpected kind either, but ordinary everyday kindness. Who doesn't feel delight at ordinary everyday kindness in the year 2019? I think this used to be what we called good manners, but now we call them 'acts'. 

Holding a door open for the person behind you, letting someone jump in line who has just a handful of groceries to purchase, picking up trash we didn't drop, returning the shopping cart, a baked treat for the new neighbor, going out of our way a little to help someone who needs helping, not saying everything you think. Saying good morning-thank you-you're welcome-I'm sorry. 

Kindness extended in even the simplest of ways lifts the spirit of both the giver and the receiver.

Then there are the random unexpected acts of kindness that come our way. The theme for my A-Z challenge this year was born out of one of these unexpected acts. Three months later and that small big act continues to delight me every single day.

Early in January I wrote about my word for this year. Someone read what I wrote and they acted on it. Two weeks later I had a package in the mail and I am still not over it. Every day I put that bracelet on my arm and every day I feel that same sense of delight all over again.

And now I've written two blog posts about it and it's only April.

Sometimes it feels a little obvious, trite, cliche to write about kindness. We're bombarded now with t-shirts, slogans, social media hashtags urging us to be kind but like most things that matter in this world, things that make a real difference in peoples lives, it's the doing as opposed to the 'talking about doing' that creates change.

Can kindness change the world?

In a word yes.
Our little corner of it anyway.