five little monkeys and My Mom

i keep hitting repeat.
over.
and over
And Over.

i can't help but smile.

Cutshall and Bieber Forever

this appeared on my Vine feed today.
Matt Cutshall is a hysterical person to follow.



have to say .. and i will Not be embarrassed.. . I forgot how much i liked this song. 





JB's a little boy.
this was before he turned into a maniac.




This awesome site was discovered when i tried to find locate Vine on my computer. 
silly, me.

VineMarket
looks like i found a new place to shop

Erasing Life's Wrinkles

i can't tell you how many times i've read this book.
tonight's passage slapped me across the face. 
her books often do that. good pain. 

Cold Tangerines
Shauna Niequist
233.234

"For me, what God said when he made the world is a prayer: 
It is good. 

This world, it is good. 
The beauty of a perfect green apple is good. 
The first steps of a child are good. .. 
I have to remind myself that it is good. 
I have to create hope in my life, because there's something inside me that has radar for the bad parts of life. 
I walk into the kitchen and all I can see are crumbs on the counter, and I look in the mirror 
and don't even see my face, i just see all the potential wrinkles forming. 
I have a dark, worst-case scenario sensor, and it takes over. 
It's all true. 
There are crumbs on the counter. 
I am definitely getting wrinkles. 

I just don't want to live in only that reality. 
Because there is another reality. A better one. Hope and redemption and change are real, 
and they're happening all around me. 
So I choose to act out of that reality, because the other one makes life too hard, day after day. Life is painful, and we carry with us so much disappointment and heartbreak. 
But I'm fighting to save some space inside me where I can create hope. 
I can't live there in disappointment anymore. 
I've missed whole seasons of my life. I look back and all i remember is pain. ..

It's rebellious, in a way, to choose joy, to choose to dance, to choose to love your life. 
It's much easier and much more common to be miserable. But I choose to do what I can do to create hope, to celebrate life, and the act of celebrating connects me back to that life I love."

The Last Chapter

it's December in fifteen minutes. 

unreal. 

found this on Instagram

via inadesignerhome

i liked this idea of The Book of 2014. 

An encapsulated year that .when it's done.

there's a new brand new book, 

sometimes a sequel. 

always new characters and problems

all story elements are there.

Cross that word

perfect

though

the bane of human existence - this constant, sometimes unconscious search for perfection.

nothing ever is. 

and as the years pass -and these Books are written

 that lesson is learned over and over. 

so why does the word even exist? 

... . ...

You have one month to finish the Book of 2014. 

Make the last chapter worth reading. 

Sade in aisle two

When you're in CVS and stopped in your tracks by a cheesy.. but wonderfully wonderful song from a decade ago. 

good stuff. 

nothing like some serious Sade.

"i do" advice from a college crush

it's strange seeing him more than ten years later. 
especially when in my mind, he had become a pastor. 
the quiet reserved one  .. . who i had college crushed on. 
[read the 2010 post where i had introduced you to him]

now he's a marriage counselor and all up on the tv channels. 



all great advice. 
.could have helped this single 35 year old gal a couple of times

Muscari.. . Say What?

i have very few clear memories of when i was a young girl.

it used to drive my mom bonkers.

I think she thought it reflected poorly on my childhood - instead of it being purely a demonstration of my unique 
and semi.talented brain. [smirk]

the things that i do remember bring back such warmth that I can't help but smile inside and out.

every year, when these sprout from the ground i feel my childhood all over again.

.albeit it so very short.

Yup .. . these beautiful flowers have that ugly name [muscari - who woulda thought?]

            [source]

Source: ameblo.jp via Lilies of Field on Pinterest

Source: cowparsley.blogspot.com via Lilies of Field on Pinterest

              [source]

birth.year

i was born a few decades late. 

Jane Russell. and Robert Mitchum

Dean Martin. and Marilyn Monroe

the birds bring her back

i've always been fascinated by flocks of birds. how they fly in sync: never colliding.
each one knowing the other's next move, without any audible communication.
it has amazed me for years.

every couple of months, the migrating black birds swarm about,
landing in my parents' front and backyard,
covering every last inch of flat ground in the nearest block.
you can't help but stop what you're doing and just watch.

the day my mom passed away these birds came to visit. they landed in the backyard several hours after she died.

since then my fascination with these creatures has become so much more meaningful.
beyond wonder now.
they bring my mom back, in a way i can't explain.

down from the heavens.

'now it all seems light. years away'

it's because of my mom i love him. 
she is the reason when i hear his music, i feel as if i'm ten again.
good ole.. [but newly renovated]
Barry Manilow.


i know. 
I hear you chuckling. 
.see you elbowing your neighbor at the public library where you keep tabs on my blog. 
keep your comments to yourself... or..  at least the comment box below.


no one can compare. 

there will be others who try, but he is different.

my favorites as a little girl had to be 
.Mandy
..Daybreak
and this one which was repeated quite frequently:  
Can't Smile without You
i can just see my  mom dancing around. 





You came along just like a song.. .. brightened my day.. . 




Who can deny those lyrics? 
They certainly make me smile now.. 


[whole track @ amazon - HERE]

re.made

guess you really did it this time_
left yourself in your warpath?
lost your balance on a tight rope?
lost your mind trying to get it back?
wasn't it easier in your lunchbox days?
always a bigger bed to crawl into
wasn't it beautiful when you believed in everything?
and everyone believed in you? 
... .
who you are is not where you've been.. ..
who you are is not what you did. 
today is never too late to be brand new. 


wasn't it easier in your firefly catching days?
when everything out of reach, someone bigger brought down to you 
... .before the Monsters caught up to you. 

:We've been RE.made:

You are more than the choices that you've made. 

Your are more than the sum of your past mistakes. 

You are MORE than the problems you create. You've been REMADE. 

YOU"VE BEEN REMADE.

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: 
Be reconciled to God.

:2 Corinthians:

past, present.. . future: the piano

Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at Aniboom

"which one do YOU like?"

It happened on a motorcycle, 

I went on a date with Shane, 

who my college roommate, Becky, 

had called ‘dibs’ on the first day of class…

But it didn’t count… if she had a boyfriend??? ? riGHt??? ?

He was the football player type _ the tan, cute .. .Buff guy in the corner.

I had my eye on another _ the quiet reserved one who was studying to be a pastor.

Turns out the football motorcyler, Shane, asked me out weeks later.

One ride on his motorcyle and I knew he wasn’t for me.

avoided him @ Wilbur’s Cafe next time I ran into him.

Wwhaatt was I thinking? .. .

I quite enjoyed the ride.

Fill in the blank. two

If i could rewind time [for just one day], 

I would choose to be the ____ year old version of myself. 

.. .why?

Would you want more than just one day?

chasing norah

is there another like her?
i think not.
she made waves with her first album.
i played it months on end when it first came out.

Don't Know Why
Come Away With Me
Shoot the Moon

I think i very likely may know all the words on that cd.


: from The Fall [2009] album

livesey kennels.

it's amazing how a simple song.
a simple four minute combination of notes can send memories flooding back
.. . rushing .. until they overpower you.

even. if it the first time you've heard the song.
it's the strangest thing to me.