Fun Monday: When You Wish upon a Star

For this week's Fun Monday task the lovely Sayre is playing genie in the lamp - she wants to know our heart's desire in the form of three wishes. Oh Sayre, you know I wish for the regular things, world peace, a cure for cancer, and a hundred million dollars in the bank. 

In considering my answer, I vacillate between thinking wishing for things is impractical and pondering what do I really want. This wishing is a tricky business. For example, although my thought may be morbid, one of my wishes is to die a quick and painless death. Now, a genie less kind than our Sayre would have granted my wish and zapped me on the spot nullifying my other two opportunities for wishes. Nonetheless, when I do come to the end of life, I do hope that the event is not preceded by a long and painful illness. 


Now, I have wasted my first wish. The choice for my second wish should be more practical and less morbid. Yes, my first wish should be about life. So what do I really want during my lifetime? I want what we all want ...to be happy. Happiness, what can be wrong with this wish? Do I actually want to be happy all of the time? Even this wish has pitfalls. Do I wish to be happy when life calls for sorrow like when a loved one suffers excruciating pain? No of course not, I do however wish for an optimistic outlook about living and loving.


After wasting my first two wishes, I should make a wise choice for wish number three. Genie, I think that I have this one. I wish for wisdom. Wisdom to make wise choices and wisdom to learn from my mistakes.


Thank you Sayre, now that my wishes have been granted, I am grateful. To see what other wishes, our Genie is granting today visit Sayre Smiles for a list of the Fun Monday participants.

Fun Monday: Quiet Time and Place

The lovely Sayre of Sayre Smiles continues as our Fun Monday hostess. Our assignment this week is to show our quiet places. I especially like this topic. In our new home, we have a few quiet places. When the weather is warm, our front porch is a pleasant setting to relax.

When the mosquitoes are swarming, we have a spacious screened-in back porch to spend time pondering the glories and mysteries of life.

 

When the weather is inclement, I enjoy looking out the bowed front window to see this in the summer

and this in the winter.

In My Brain

The lovely Sayre of  Sayre Smiles is the host of this week's Fun Monday event. For the topic, Sayre is asking us to tell about our favorite body part. In considering my answer, I thought about my aging anatomy. I like most of the parts of my body and no particular part stands out specifically. Other people mention parts of my physique in an enviable way... my long fingers, my long legs, my big blue eyes, and my posterior which fortunately is not fat. Other than the parts that do not function properly (like my presbyopic eyes and my aching back) , overall I like how the old bod is put together. So dear Sayre. I hope that this is not cheating, but the part that I like best is my brain.

What brings me to this conclusion? My brain allows me to compose this post in a variety of ways. Deep in the inner recesses of the gray matter, my brain is producing thoughts, ideas, and words to include in the post. My brain also allows me to formulate the ideas and words into sentences and relatively coherent paragraphs. My brain even lead me to the decision to highlight this body part in today's post.

My brain tells me how to put one foot in front of the other to amble through my home on this fine Monday morning. My brain permits me to glance out the window and enjoy the beauty of my neighborhood. My brain encourages me to enjoy the brisk fall day. However, my brain reminds me that this is actually still summer in northwest Indiana even though the old brain is interpreting the messages from the neurons about the status of the temperature.

My brain allows me to reminisce about my oldest son's toddlerhood comment about his brain. (Our almost two year-old often would come up with quite complex thoughts.) His amazed and adoring parents would ask, "How did you know that?" He would respond, "because I have a big smart." His amused parents then would ask, "Where is your big smart?" Our young genius would regale his parents with this comment, "in my brain."

Thus, my favorite body part is my brain. Strangely, my brain is probably my least favorite part as well. In my brain, I obsess over a variety of fears such as "Did I leave the burners on , "Is the garage door open?", or "Is the Panini  maker plugged in?" I ponder over the possibility of bringing home bedbugs from motels and serving Salmonella or E. coli contaminated food to my loved ones. I agonize over conversations concerned that I may have hurt someone's feelings. Furthermore, my dyslexic brain does not know my right from my left leaving me directionally challenged. Although my deficient thinking has these inadequacies, overall I appreciate the miraculous organ that allows me to love and enjoy my life.

Here is a picture of my brain. Well you know, it is inside the gray head. 
(The brain that allows me to love and adore my grandchildren.)

I am looking forward to reading other Fun Monday posts. Thank you Sayre for keeping the Monday tradition alive.

It is all about the Benjamins - Fun Monday

Fun Monday is here again. This week, our artistic Gattina of Writer's Cramps, is the host. Gattina has asked to see our wallets and our currency. My wallet is a little worn, but I like the whimsical pattern and the utilitarian features. On the inside are several card pockets for my various identification cards, credit cards, and store benefit cards, plus two pockets for paper money. On the opposite outside of the wallet is a zippered coin purse. You may have noticed that $100 bills are missing from the picture. I really do not have any of that denomination, but I would gladly accept any and all Benjamins.

Late in the Day - Fun Monday

At 3:15 PM, I am composing my Fun Monday for June 7, 2010. I meant to post earlier but Blogger was having issues. However, the hour is late, and I should get at the task at hand. For today's assignment, the lovely Sayre of Sayre Smiles is asking about our summer plans.

I plan to have these adventures.

• Visit the nearby park.
• Help close the doors or better yet sell our church building
• Help start a new journey of faith with other good folks of our church family and a new pastor
• Plant seeds harvested in the fall by our oldest granddaughter.
• Visit beaches on the shores of Lake Michigan.
• Wash coats and do other essentials to prepare for the annual Coats for Kids (and families) giveaway.
• Play with the grandkids.
• Learn to play the dulcimer
• Write blog entries more often
• Organize stuff in our new home

.

y.

.That is enough to keep me busy for the next five summers. What are you planning for this summer of 2010? Visit our host, Sayre of Sayre Smiles , to see what other participants have planned for this summer.

On Mondays, We Wash Our Clothes.

Jan of The Prytz Family is the host of this Monday's big event. For our task this week, Jan is asking us about our laundry rooms.

Last July, we moved to a new house. Since July, I have been planning a post to show the Internet all of the lovely facets of our new home. Unfortunately, that entry has not been written, but here are the details about laundry at the new house. First, the dirty clothes go into this convenient seagrass hamper in the bedroom. At the old house, the dirty clothes were collected in a plastic laundry basket at the bottom of the bedroom closet.

 

The laundry area in the new house is on a platform in our attached garage. At the old house, the washer and dryer were in the basement. After removing the clothes from the washer, they go straight into the dryer, and some clothes are taken out of the dryer mid-cycle to air dry on the clothes rack to the left in the picture. (No hanging clothes on the line outside for me. Yes, I know that the air-dried sheets smell wonderful, but I like to avoid bird poop on the laundry.)

In addition to washing clothes for my husband and myself, I wash a few coats for a charity, Coats for Kids (and families), started by our church. Our relatively new Whirlpool Cabrio washer has a big 4.6 cubic foot tub that is useful for washing gently used coats for our yearly giveaways.

(Note: The Fun Monday sticker is part of an embroidered picture that my mother made before I was born.)

Spring Flowers

For our Fun Monday assignment, Janis of Life According to Jan and Jer is asking us to relate what represents spring to us. First, I must confess that I misinterpreted the assignment. I thought that the assignment was to show pictures of spring flowers. Blossoming flowers do represent spring, but the arrival of the first robin, the melting of snow, fluffy white lambs also proclaim the new season.

I enjoy lovely cultivated flowers, but unusual wildflowers tend to be my favorites. Here are two that blossom early here in northwest Indiana. Below nestled in the moss between the bricks is the tiny Whitlow-Grass, Draba verna. You might miss this floral treasure if you are not especially observant.

Another early spring wildflower although not a blossom of beauty is Skunk Cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus. Both the common name and the species name refer to the fetid odor produced by the purplish-brown flower. I like looking for these odd flowers in late winter. To me the this strange smelly flower foretells the coming season.

Check out what represents spring to the other players by visiting Life According to Jan and Jer .