Preparing for Round 2

As Daisy and I are warmed by the fire

We wait for round 2, not our desire

Round one still leaves us 3″ on the ground

Round two promises to keep us homebound

The joys of winter in the Midwest, or not. Being from the south, I could just pass on this weather thank you very much. But no, the second major storm for the New Year is upon us. I will have to say the wet snow still clings to the buildings and trees making them quite beautiful, well, at least the trees. Not much interest in a column except for the way the wind-blown snow clung to it.

The limbs of those trees are my favorite for catching snow. These are trees that I see from my window at work. And close up you can see their interesting shape.

Once I got home, my Christmas lights that are frozen into the ground are solar-powered and still shining through this bleak dreary weather making me smile.

If you really try, you can always find something that makes you smile. Smiling is an easy way to show kindness as it reflects the beauty of your heart. So smile often to help others smile. It is contagious, like yawning.

Well, We Can’t Complain

Today winter finally showed it’s face. For the last three years it has been relatively mild here in the Midwest – it was in the 50s at Christmas. But today…its here.

Looking at my bird feeders, it looks to be about 5 inches…so far and supposed to snow all day. It is a wet heavy snow with temps at 33 but when that artic air comes in later today, the temps will plummet to single digits. The snow will become dry and powdery and a hazard to those who have to be out in it because we are expecting 20 sustained winds – 40 gusts.

But for now, lets enjoy the beauty of it.

Birds always gotta eat. The cardinal guarding the small feeder.

Love my mourning doves. So for now Daisy and I sit and watch…and think about the huge task at hand. Gotta get the rest of Christmas down…there is a lot! But what fun it was.

Have a great week, stay warm if needed or enjoy you summer conditions while we relax by the fire. And as always, remember to be kind, its a lot easier than you think and twice as rewarding to you.

Everyone and everything can use kindness.

Moonwashed Musings, Reckless

Rears streamed down Rebecca’s chubby cheeks as she stared at her scraped and bleeding knee.

“Rebecca! Are you okay?” her brother asked as he ran up to his baby sister.

“It hurts Bubba,” she whimpered.

“You are too little to ride my skateboard. That was reckless of you. Can you stand up?”

Rebecca stood up wincing at the pain in her knee.

Bubba picked up his skateboard and they headed for home.

“Here, hold my hand and I will get you home safely. Mom’s making chicken noodle soup, your favorite. We will put extra noodles in your bowl to help you feel better. And we will put some love on your knees to make them feel better too. Okay.

“I wanted to ride your skateboard like you do.”

“When you get bigger.”

Always Be Kind

FOTD, January 4

I thought I would share some “Not Flowers” flowers from my trip to Vegas. At the Bellagio, they have a Conservatory & Garden made totally out of dry flowers. It was amazing so I will share those for my Flower of the day.

As you first walk in the lobby area, the ceiling is covered with glass flowers that look like they are floating like balloons.

Then the archway going into the conservatory is bordered with 20 foot tall sunflowers (compare by the huge doorway, column and arch ceiling). Since I had huge sunflowers myself in my yard, I was not surprised by this but the flowers themselves are decidedly larger and all made from dried flowers and grasses.

The mushroom fairy houses of this magical land were fabulous. This is where you could get close enough to see the individual flowers.

And of course you can’t have a mystical forest without a mystical moon…

…with a very large owl.

I hope you enjoyed a walk through the “Not Flower” garden. Remember, all flowers are beautiful, even those that are not flowers. Let their designed beauty and their radiating kindness bring a smile to your face.

Always Be Kind!

CMMC, Close Up & Macro

I love playing with macros and was so busy last month there was no time to play, so today we play. Today is the 3rd day of the new year…not that far from Christmas and since I did not play with Christmas pics this year, lets at least honor the fir tree. I have two in my yard that I planted about 10 years ago and they are finally big enough to really enjoy. I love how the needles hold onto the rain.

And spider webs make the rain look like its floating in mid-air.

Plants, just like people, you always have that one limb that wants to do things differently by swirling around the end instead pf being straight.

And since we are playing with a Christmas tree, lets get a night shot because I was able to put lights on it this year.

As we start this new year, lets remember to let our light of kindness shine brightly giving others a light of hope for their seemingly dark circumstance.

Food and Fables

Being from south Georgia, we enjoy our food. And of course the New Year’s tradition of certain food you must eat are fabled to bring you good luck, good health and good riches. While I am not having the cornbread(my favorite) I did prepare the turnip greens and the black-eyed peas.

I also substituted the pork for the ham…same animal, easier prep. I do have some “gold” on my plate in place of the cornbread in the form of mandarin oranges. I went way overboard with eating off my diet during the holidays so we are slowly curbing that back in for better health in the new year.

Happy New Year Y’all from the midwest with southern charm, and remember to always be kind.

Happy New year

We sit with our feet up, determined to rest

The holidays are over, they were the best

The peace of the fireplace relaxes our mind

For one day, please, no tasks and no grind

Daisy agrees as the pillow supports her chin

For tomorrow the holiday cleanup will begin

So we wish you the best of the New Year to start

May happiness and kindness always fill your cart

Happy New Year!!

Small Town

If you would like to live in a perfect world (that we hope one day will be real) my latest book is out through Amazon, Life in Small Town. A fictional town of encouragement where with a little kindness to those who need it most, learn how to survive life’s disappointments.

If you have Kindle capabilities, you can get it on the Kindle.

This book tries to show how easy it is to be kind and how we should all strive towards the healing powers of kindness. Yes, we still have hard times and conflicts but with the help of others, through kindness, we can survive.

Since the beginning of creation, God has laid before man choices to make. Choices that have the ability to make us stronger in love for Him, for other people, and choices to help us survive in this fallen world.

Small Town shows how with the help of friends, family, or maybe even a total stranger, the hard situations we find ourselves in can be made a little more tolerable. It involves struggles for adults, for children, with coworkers, and yes, even for dogs. All of creation was created by love with God, for God, and for us to find the love He has for each of us with kindness and support of each other.

I hope this fictional town helps show how kindness can be a factor in finding peace as God intended as he told us in John 14:27…

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. NIV”

In 1 Corinthians 13:4, Apostle Paul remind us the power of love and kindness…

“Love is patient, Lone is KIND.” NIV

So, check out my new book and see if it help bring you a smile and helps you see how kindness can bring a healing power to a hurting world. And as always, please be kind.

CFFC: White

Cee’s FUN Foto Challenge is right up my alley for this time of year. Fortunately, we do not have a white ground…yet. I am sure it will be here before I want it. But this time of year, I have lots of white inside my house, it is Christmas after all.

We can start off with the large angel shelf…

Then we have the 4′ white tree in the dining room…well the tree is green but the lights and ornaments are white…

Or if that is not really following the rules, we do have a 4′ white tree in the sun room with 2 other trees that are not white. All toll we have 6 trees.

This is the ocean tree that is white but all the ornaments are creatures from the ocean in their natural color. The those who may be more purest that that we have the white tree, white lights and white nativity scene.

As we smile and enjoy each other’s pictures, remember the purest form of sharing is kindness. If we can be anything, be Kind.

Reality Check

I guess we all need that check periodically…knowing what we believe to be true…and seeing how others…don’t. What we try to figure out is…are they wrong because they don’t believe what you believe or are you wrong because of what you do believe.

I prefer to stay on my course of believing that God is in control and if others prefer to not follow Him, that is their choice. Ultimately in the end…we will all see whether we are sheep for the slaughter or sheep for the shepherd…better known as the separation of the sheep and the goats. There is a saying I saw once that puts into perspective – You can live your life believing in man’s truth, and when you die and nothing happens then you are just dead…OR you can believe in God’s truth and when you die, you are still alive in Christ. Not a difficult decision for me.

Our “vacation” to Las Vegas was a definite reality check for this concept…making me cling that much harder to my belief in Christ, and I was a bit amazed how blatant some could be who refuse my belief system. But we knew ahead of time what to expect and only participated in the few things we deemed as fun. Yes, eating was one of those things and of course buying a few unique Christmas ornaments…like I needed any more ornaments 😕.

We did go see Piff the Magic Dragon and while his comedy was a little rough because we were in Vegas, he was amazing in his magic tricks.

Of course, I did take lots of pictures that I will share in a few posts but spending time with my daughter who has the same addiction that I do (buying Christmas ornaments), we did have a good time. We are going to Frankenmuth, Michigan in two weeks and it may snow while we are there. Snowing in Christmas town…awesome. there will be more picture there. So for now, let’s share a few Vegas pics.

This is the Coca-Cola Exhibit…2 floors of shopping. Spent way too much money there but it was fun.

The coolest thing there, to me, was the picture dome. I took some videos of the ocean scene, that was amazing, but I could not get it to download. so I am including a still shot…not as impressive. We could see it from our room but it was too far to walk too and traffic was crazy. You can find it on line. The emoji face makes me giggle.

One universal truth that did ring out, even in Vegas, was kindness. So be kind whenever you can.

Always Be kind!