February 23, 2018

Celebrate The Small Things & Friendly Friday Fill-ins!

Time to Celebrate the Small Things with Lexa Cain.



Somehow, nothing seems like a small thing this evening. It's one of those evenings when all the blessings to celebrate seem big!

Last year, a patch of California Poppies sprouted up in my yard from a handful of seeds my grandson tossed out. They were gorgeous in their golden dresses. I let them go to seed. This year they are everywhere. The whole yard will be a paradise!


Rex's back seems to be healed. He's getting up and down with agility, energy and persistence! Poor boy, doesn't have any sheep but he has enough tennis balls to keep him busy for a long, long while.


It is incredibly easy to celebrate Feta Cheese with Mediterranean Herbs, Toscano Cheese with Black Pepper, Cambozola, and a Black Pepper Chevre. Celebrating these cheeses takes  a little (or lot) of Rosemary Focaccia bread, Garlic Olive Bread and, of course, Extra Sour Dough Bagette!
Photo Courtesy of http://www.docaitta.com/
The photo of the bread above is borrowed as the sisters and I devoured our breads, cheeses and wine in extremely short order. It actually took us three days of grazing but the platters weren't pretty after the first half hour!

Speaking of sisters, being with them was plenty of reason to celebrate!

I am celebrating Wild Card Scotch Ale! Oh my gosh, possibly the best Ale ever.


What small things are you celebrating this week?

Time also for McGuffy's Reader Friday Friendly Fill-ins! Another opportunity to get into each other's heads and see some of the fine tuned gears, or, in some cases, the gears that need a little tweak!  Which one am I? I guess it depends on the week!

1. My favorite President is_______________________

2. This weekend I have plans to ___________________

3. I _______ my _______________________________   Hmm! Just a bit confusing but willing to give it a try!

4. I believe ___________________________________


Ready, Set,

1. My favorite President is/was John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama. They were/are men of integrity, composure and compassion. They cared about people and humanity.

2. This weekend I have plans to pick up my friend Lyn and drive her to Ashland, Oregon for a total knee replacement. While she is in hospital I will continue on to Portland to visit another bestie, Julie. We will have three days to visit, see what she has discovered about her new home in Portland. We have tickets to see Cheryl Strayed. Lyn will be discharged on Wednesday, so I'll take her home to Lakehead and make sure she is all tucked in. A long weekend but excited to be on a road trip. Got my audio books packed. Camera batteries charged. Ready! Can't say The Guy isn't excited to have some lone time. He's probably counting the minutes...though he's smart enough to count quietly!

3. I give my doggies, Rex and Lily, treats and love every day.  I toss Rex his ball because he keeps dropping it next to me and Lily just wants to find a blanket or throw to burrow under, so I pray I don't sit on her! 

4. I believe that we need to put our phone down, toss out XBox and sit face to face with our children and get to know them, let them know that they are loved and that they count. I believe we need to teach them about consequences of good and poor choices. We need to get over ourselves and Parent UP! To teach a kid respect for life, it starts by showing them that their life matters!

I believe that we have failed our children with our worship of external success and failure to model character and values.

Whoa! Check out my soap box!  I think I'll paint it and make it pretty!

Have a great weekend.

19 comments:

  1. 1. My favorite President is FDR

    2. This weekend I have plans to sleep (my insomnia has been bad lately)

    3. I love my cats

    4. I believe in myself

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    Replies
    1. Believing in yourself is the best thing we can do for ourselves and for the world! Kudos!

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  2. You hit the nail on the head with #4. I will say, we taught our kids about consequences following one's actions but they didn't listen well and are reaping some troubles in the adult lives for failure to not heed our advice. Some kids are going to do what they want regardless. All I can do is pray.... a lot! Have a good weekend. :)

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    1. It's hard being a tough love parent. When I would tell my 7 or 8 year old to take a jacket seven times, then we get to the softball game and they don't have a jacket and it's cold and I don't give them my jacket. The other parents glare at me because I am such a bad mom when I tell them, 'Poor choice to leave your jacket at home. Sucks to be you, right now!'

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  3. I agree with Cathy. Some kids are going to do what they're going to do, no matter how much we try to teach them and show them that they are loved and valued. Some of us "kids" are hard-headed and have to learn things the hard way (spoken from experience on both sides of this!).

    Have a blessed weekend. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Parenting is hard, especially if your kid is hard-headed. Been on both sides!

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  4. I love your answer to number four. Spot on. I see so much disrespect with our youth. One can only blame the parents for this. The kids are running the household not the parents.

    Have a fabulous day and weekend. ♥

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Parents are partially to blame, but if you notice that every television show for kids and families have adults who are pure idiots and the smartest one in the family is about 6. Don't let the kids watch these shows. Write to station, advertisers and if the kids see it at someone else's house, point out that fathers are not idiots, mother's are not all airheads and no house should be run by a six year old.

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  5. It's so good of you to help your friend Lyn out that way. Wishing her a speedy recovery. Enjoy your long weekend away!

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    Replies
    1. Not doing anything Lyn wouldn't do for me. She will bounce back in no time at all but I will tell her of your wishes. I am going to love my weekend, Thanks! You, too, have a good one.

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  6. Hi Toni :)

    Those flowers are so pretty!!! I love yellow on green, it's so summery. I'm glad to hear about Rex, poor thing, he looks a lot like our Pavlov! :) Good for you, eating like a champion! LOL....wine, cheese and bread does NOT last long enough for photos around here either!!!

    Here I go:

    1. My favourite President is "Le President"...it's a Brie cheese from France lol...I can't pick a President since I'm Canadian and I don't care too much for politics anyway!

    2. This weekend I have plans to trim and file 90 little doggie nails. I'm very grateful for the Dremel grinder!!! I also plan to paint, draw, work on my plans for the garden, clean up a little and eat good food! :) Oh, and the usual hibernation from the weekenders...there is a "winter festival" in the village this weekend, our blinds will remain closed lol...

    3. I LOVE my PASTELS!!! :)

    4. I believe I agree with you on that one. Simplify, back to old fashioned values, love, respect and support.

    Love your soap box!!! :)

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  7. Thanks for the reminder. I have to take Lily in to get her nails clipped. I just can't do them myself, too afraid I'll hurt her. I couldn't trim my kids nails when they were babies either. I always made Daddy trim them and I would leave the room! Yup, color me chicken!

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  8. Glad Rex is better. Thank you for participating in the fill-ins, great answers. I like both of those presidents too. And I agree with #4. Have a nice weekend with your friend.

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    1. I'm happy about Rex, too. It's so difficult to make him understand that not throwing a ball is good for him!

      I'm glad I found 15and meowing, McGuffy's and fill-ins!

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  9. It's a needed soap box, and you have a lovely dog.

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    1. Hard to not be on that particular soap box! Rex is a lovely dude and super smart.

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  10. Those California Poppies! How wonderful. Like little rays of sunshine popping up all over the place. That is great about Rex. What a sweet face he has. That is a cute photo of him. And how lovely to be helping out your friend. Wishing her well!

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    Replies
    1. Poppies really are the prettiest little flower. They are the REAL California gold, not that rock stuff!

      Reximus Maximus Aurelius III is an awesome dog! Smart as a they come.

      Helping Lyn is a no-brainer. She would do the same for me in a minute!

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  11. Well, I agree with Mimi. And, I also love Poppies! We have bright orange-red ones and peach/coral ones.
    ​S​parks-21 ​
    Annie at ~McGuffy's Reader~

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