How Not to Have a Seatmate on a Southwest Flight

I saw someone sitting in a seat like this when I flew last week and guess what? No one sat next to her. What a strategy! For the cost of a face mask you can (almost) ride in first class.

We'll Always Have Paris

I opened an old memory card from my camera today and look what was still hiding in there! My trip to Paris a couple of years ago. This painting is how I felt after days and days of combing the streets and canals of surely the most beautiful city in the world.

There is a Museum of Decorative Arts where the styles of decor through the ages is displayed.

Even the views out of the windows are breath taking.

The Eiffel Tower pops up everywhere and at night it twinkles with thousands of gold twinkly lights once on the hour. That is when you realise you are "not in Kansas anymore."

Look at the faux painting on this building facade! Art is expressed in many mediums.

We took a class in bread making at Le Cordon Bleu.

Delicious!

Me and my best friend Julia -- of course!

This is a church perched on the highest hill in the city. Sacra Cour. It was built by a man who promised God that he would build it if God protected the city from bombings in WWI. God did His part so....................

If you haven't been and ever get an opportunity to go -- go!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

My posts are filling into the blog out of order. The newest ones are loading in lower on the first page. Wonder what is up? Aliens?

Face Off

People have asked me if I'm on Face Book and I always say no I have a blog. That's my way of inferring that I have way more to contribute than bullets of information about my favorite subject - me. My shoulders squared and I patted myself on the back secretly when my friend commented that Face Book is sort of a fake. "You only put your best foot forward and present the shiny parts of your life. Real relationships reveal your flaws and short comings so the other person connects to the good the bad and the ugly you."

As I've scanned my posts I see that I often serve up just the happy and beautiful parts of our life. And although I'm rarely inclined to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge I have my moments, days and sometimes weeks.

I struggle with my weight. even knowing how it will eventually affect my health I just can't seem to gather up the discipline to shut down the kitchen and stock up on rice cakes. The only time a salad sounds good is right after getting up from Thanksgiving dinner.

I am overly compulsive about neatness. I blame this on my dyslexia and say, my mind is so cluttered that my physical space has to be organized. But I let it get in the way of relationships sometimes and that is a poor trade off. My boys say that if I ever shoot someone I'll plead to the judge -- "But your honor did I mention that I'm dyslexic?"

I interrupt people. How rude is that? I get so excited about the topic that my response cuts off the other person mid stream. (See Dyslexia excuse) I swear if they had those puppy shock collars in my size I'd go for it.

OK -- that's enough truth for one day. I better quit before I call Roman Polanski and tell him to move over. But you get the picture?

Maybe it's better to connect to others by showing my face than by saving face?

It's Just Paint

I had fallen into the decorating blahs. Oh, sure I had lots of plans for the lottery winnings that were never going to come my way because I'm too practical to throw a dollar away on a hopeless bet. But I just couldn't get the ju-ju going for putting some fresh pizazz into our home. The constraints were I had to freshen up the place for very little money. After all it wasn't like much was in disrepair. It just didn't make my heart skip a beat when I rounded the corner for home like it had in the beginning.

As a finishing touch after we remodeled and restored the house a few years ago I painted the front door 'come on and stop by' bright red.

But I began to notice more and more red front doors in town and suddenly my individualist DNA began to twitch.

Re-paint the front door -- that was it. I got paint swatches, cut out color schemes, questioned Joe (not a lot of restless design passion there), surveyed my girlfriends and finally with trembling hands took paint brush in hand and said "Hellooooooooo Tiffany Box Blue and Bass Weegin Cordovan".

Twelve dollars and a fresh new face to our home. Be still my heart!

Long Train coming

This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise; we are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not yet finished, but it is going on; this is not the end, but it is the road; all does not yet gleam with glory, but all is being purified.

Martin Luther

Givers - Takers - and Other Lovers

I have a girlfriend on complete bed rest for the next two weeks. When we spoke this morning Shelley said, "This is really hard. People are doing so much for us and I'm not great at receiving."

Guess what? Most of us aren't. And I speak for myself here.

When the Bible says, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" I translate that to mean ,"Hey, dude if you are in the position to give something away you are the lucky one." QSV

The biggest sacrifice is not in the giving it is in the role of being a gracious receiver. Swallowing our self sufficiency and putting the sunbeam on the giver.

Jesus didn't have a job or a trust fund. He didn't have a house with a light on in the window and dinner waiting for him on the stove.

He must have said "Thank you" a lot. He must have been a pleasure to give to because the gravy train kept on rolling. He was a good receiver in spite of His heavenly connections.

I don't ever recall Him saying; "You know back in the day when I was ruler of the universe......" He just received, made the giver feel like a hero and then they listened to His words.

A big part of loving others is to catch them being good and let them be the one who shines. To lay on them the mantle of ' generous, loving, faithful, true friend'.

So how do you repay when you are the recipient?

You call as soon as you finish the meal and say, "Thanks, that was delicious."

You send a note and write, "You are so ...(whatever their gift reflected about their character). "I hope I can pass on your generous spirit the next time I know someone in need."

And if it they are a Heisman Trophy giver of service you sit down and write a letter outlining their gift, their character and what it meant to you and mail it to their mate or pastor or kids.

The Best Light in the World

Last night the sunset and fountains from our deck put on quite a show.
I happened to be out there working on my Bible study and this week’s topic was light.
Jesus was called the Light of the World. God calls us out of darkness into light. We are to let God’s light shine through our lives……

I'll never forget traveling to Mammoth Cave as a young girl . Growing up in Kentucky we were pretty darn proud of that cave. As if we had something to do with it.

Deep in the cave the tour guide flipped a switch in order for us to experience total darkness. It was disorienting and a little scary.

The contrast of light to darkness really came home to me that day.
A few years ago I read a wonderful article in House and Garden magazine where people tried to describe “The Best Light in the World”
What about you? Is there a “moment of transient light” ( a sunrise or sunset) that has lingered in your memory?

Beach House Decor

Welcome to the Beach!

When we moved here from Philadelphia I realized I needed a place to display all of our folk art and general fun objects de art. The beach house was the perfect place. The comment we get most often in the guest book from renters is that they loved the happy ornamentation.

Got tarter?
Where the grand kids sleep....
and this border with it's shine in the dark stars is the last thing they see before they drift to sleep.

My girlfriend gave this to me and made me promise to never wear a bathing suit with a rainbow or chocolate chip cookies on my bosoms. Good plan.

The rule of the house.

He's the big Daddy of my rooster collection.

This lamp says; "Won't you be my chum?"

Life's too short to take it too seriously! Life's a beach.

You've Got Mail

Yep, he's a real mailbox. I wonder what Reggie the mailman would think if this popped up at the end of our drive?
I miss real mail don't you? No matter what awaits me inside my door when I come home -- if there is a personal letter in our mailbox the rest will wait.
Why don't we send more notes? Those notes and cards might become paper trails of our lives, find their way to a drawer or box and outlive us. They could be a part of that legacy we all want to leave behind.
Here are some of my tips for writing more notes:
Use your old vacation photos glued onto a cheap plain card and let the recipient see into your life. Walmart has great "Thank Yous" that are $4.00 for #50 cards. I just slap a photo over the "Thank You" and it's my personal card with an envelope to match.
I write in pencil on the back / What it is/ that I took it / and the current year.
Buy some fun stamps. It's so much easier to drop that message in the mail when you have a stash of funny or pretty stamps just begging to go out and represent you. Can we all say "I Love Lucy Stamps?"
Keep the note short and to the point. It doesn't have to be War and Peace.
Mention something specific about the other person that you miss, appreciate or are inspired by.
We never know when a note sent for no reason at all might be just the encouragement a friend needs.

Do the write thing.

Do Yourself a Favor....

Read this article.

I'm so jealous I didn't write it.

I Thought I Said That!

When the boys were teenagers and I was working in a corporation I used to tell them; "When you grow up and see who is running the world -- it's gonna scare you to death!"

Now the boys who used to sit at our kitchen table eating homemade biscuits on Saturday mornings (trying to decided where the pick up soccer game would be that day) are on the evening news in suits no less running the world. Does this make me a prophet?