Celebrate

Today, I will celebrate that this is the last time I will write about the word celebrate.

I will celebrate that there is one week left of Lent. We will celebrate Easter next week.

We had our Palm Sunday Brunch and Youth Auction this morning. People were excited to celebrate winning baked goodies and lots of other fun items.

We are watching Formula 1 racing again, which for us is reason to celebrate. 

MSU is in the Final Four, if you're a fan, that's a good reason to celebrate.

The weather is still cold, so we're having a fire in the fireplace to celebrate.

Wait, that's not right. We're not celebrating the cold weather. We are ready for it to warm back up to average temperatures. Then we can celebrate.

Still

I'm going to have to write about the opposite of still. Because I wasn't still all day.

From the time I woke up this morning, to this moment now, I have not been still.

I went up and down the stairs doing laundry. It's clean sheet day so I undressed and redressed the bed. I baked a cake for Sunday school. I washed dishes. I made a birthday card for my Grandma (she'll be 94) and a thank you card for a friend. I cleaned up my scrapbooking/card making stuff. Bill and I placed the furniture in the guest room (pictures are coming). We also put all the books on the bookshelves. I cleaned the bathroom and ran the vacuum (upstairs, Bill ran it downstairs). We made and ate dinner (burgers and fries). We went to the Adoption Ministry Hoe-Down at church. I danced.

And even now I'm not still as I type.

Did you see the moon tonight? It's not still because it's orbiting around Earth, but it sure looked still when I saw it. It was a giant sliver. That's a good oxymoron.

I would like to be still. I have practiced that off and on in my adult life. I appreciate being still. Maybe that's what I'll do next year for Lent.

Place

I do not look at the words (and remember them) ahead of time. So when I sit down to blog and I see the word I'm going to write about, many things go through my head.

But I have to sort through them and decide what I can make sense out of and what needs to be discarded.

I have gotten back out and have been running/walking this week. The temperatures are warmer and the snow has melted (mostly) off the sidewalks. As Bill starts his new job, and I can convince him to go with me, we'll start walking regularly. I'm not sure what regularly will look like. I would still like to run three times a week. If I can get him to walk three times a week, I would make that work.

I digress, while I've been running I have time to think. I've thought of many things to write about, but so far none of them have had to do with place.

I could talk about where the cats' place in our bed is; right in between us or on top of us.

But alas, I just took a long time checking my email and now it's too late to write any more.

Light

Tomorrow marks the first day of spring. It will occur at 6:45pm (EST). I don't know how the Almanac figures that out, but that's what the website says.

There will be equal parts day to night. Or dark to light.

Days will be longer. The sun will continue to warm us with her light.

We will need to adjust the lights in our home that are on timers.

I hope that through my blog I am sharing a little bit of light. Which I hope is then shared by you, which is then shared by others.

I saw darkness tonight and I object!

Where is the light? Where is the hope? Where is the love?

I know we're all human and some days are just not good days, but we have to try. We have to reach for the light.

When I catch myself driving with a scowl on my face, I start looking at other drivers (which is easy driving in the city, not so easy driving in the suburbs, or the country, or the highway) and I look at their expressions. It often makes me smile, if not laugh a little. I can't help it, I like to smile.

Share the light!

Believe

I believe I can make it through Lent, blogging everyday.

I believe that I will be able to run 2.5 miles again without stopping.

I believe in Hope.

I believe that believe is one of those words that stops looking like the word after you type it a few times.

I believe that Atticus will eventually kill all the mice living in our house. (Seriously, how many can be left?)

I believe in Faith.

I believe that God answers prayers.

I believe that Bill and I will finish the guest room this weekend.

I believe that Love wins.

Near

I have been near my computer all day. Tuesdays are longer days for me in that I work at BPG until lunch and then I head over to the church and work there until 5pm or so. I take my laptop into the building because it has been too cold to leave out in the car. I keep it near me.

I also keep it near me because of the 2013 DC stolen laptop experience. I have panic attacks when I can't find something important. (Things listed under this category are my phone, my wallet, and my glasses. All are thing I have misplaced and then had said panic attack before finding them minutes later.)

At the church I work at my desk and use my laptop. You could say, it's near me there too.

After my day at work, I came home and had to shovel the driveway. It was covered in a nice coat of heavy, wet snow topped by a thin layer of ice.

I have heard more people wish they were on a cruise or in a sunny location today than all the days this winter combined.

Even though we had a lovely, sunny day yesterday.

Back to shoveling snow, or what I do best.

I did not have my laptop near me while I was shoveling.

I will end with this thought; we are one day closer to Spring. It is near. I could feel it in the air outside while I was shoveling.

Celebrate

I will celebrate being home and being able to sleep in my own bed.

I will celebrate that it is March 1st.

I will celebrate the fun I had this weekend.

I will celebrate the new friends I made.

I will celebrate seeing Bill for the first time in six days.

I wanted to celebrate that Jersey Junction officially opened today, but that celebration will have to take place on another day.

2014 Shoveling and 5ks

I forgot, and I threw away my calendar before I tallied how much I shoveled in 2014. But since I kept track in 2013, I can only guess that it was at least the same if not more. I wrote about the snowfall in 2013 here.

If you read that, you'll note that I said I could keep track of it on my Fuel band. Except I wasn't very consistent because the numbers that it recorded made me feel like I wasn't really doing any work. I got a little frustrated so I just kept writing everything down on the calendar. I only kept track of shoveling twelve times on my Fuel band. I know I shoveled a lot more than that. I guess I could go look it up in my journal. I'm sure I kept track of it there.

So while I kept track of it on the calendar, I completely forgot all those numbers when I took down the old calendar and hung up the new. That wouldn't have been such a big deal because I could go fish the calendar out of the recycling. Except by the time I remembered and realized what I had done, we had just taken the recycling to the giant bin. The calendar, and all those numbers, are gone forever.

In that post, I also wrote about how many miles I ran in 2013. Well I did keep track of that on my Fuel band for 2014 and while it doesn't give me distance, it did keep track of time. I can tell you for sure that I ran eighty-three days and walked ninety-four. Which would average out to 360 miles (and that is a complete guesstimate). So that's ten miles further than 2013. At least.

And I didn't shovel (except the porch once) at all this last November because of my broken hand. Then, it didn't hardly snow in December. I have shoveled a couple of times this month, this week in fact.

I'll keep moving this year and we'll see how well I keep track of numbers.

I hope it motivates you to move!

herb abundance

The lilacs are blooming.

When I got out of the car Tuesday night, I could immediately smell them.

When I'm out running/walking I can smell them.

Lilacs mean summer is near.

I bought herbs to plant in pots on our deck again. I'm looking forward to fresh basil, oregano, thyme, parsley, and cilantro.

 Here they are, waiting to be planted.

 This is not an herb (nope, it's not lavender, although I did buy that). I forgot what it's called. I'll let you know...

This one is a heliotrope. 

I also bought woodruff, which is not only a plant but also the last name of my high school drafting teacher. Mr. Woodruff was awesome.

I am thankful for the space on our deck to have potted herbs and I look forward to the abundance of freshness they will bring forth this summer.

totally random Saturday post

Yup, the muffins are better with sugar.

Yesterday, Friday, I had a wedding rehearsal. I know the bride from Needtobreathe concerts.

With the rehearsal being yesterday, that means the wedding was today. It was a chilly May day here in Grand Rapids, and it started off cloudy. However it has changed over to blue skies and sunshine. The wedding ceremony was lovely and the bride was beautiful.

They were efficient with their photos and everything was all wrapped up by 3pm. That gave me time to come home and do some light housework (i.e. clean sheet day).

Then Bill and I headed out for date night at one of the local establishments, The Green Well. It was delicious. It's yet another farm to table dining experience. We have several and this one made the best places to eat in GR list.

The list is correct, the food was superb. I had the Cherry Street Pork Pesole and Bill had the special Spring Carbonara. We also tried their truffle fries. (Honestly, I like the fries at Brewery Vivant better, or the "crack" fries at Hop Cat, but you don't know until you try!)

We are now relaxing and watching the Tigers vs. Red Sox game on the tele. Speaking of tele, did you catch the ultimate match on Jeopardy Thursday night and last night? It was the champions of champions. If you like Jeopardy at all then you know who Ken, Brad and Roger are and they are the three who competed for the ultimate prize (I don't think it was advertised as "ultimate", I think technically they were calling it the Tournament of Decades but it came down to the ultimate show-down, at least in my book).

I'm thankful for all the great restaurants that support local farms, right here in West Michigan.

flowers, the new camera and different lighting

I went outside after I blogged last night and used the last of the evening sun to take some pictures. Then I went out again this morning. I wanted to compare pictures. Here are the photos from last night:

 These tulips are in the front yard.

 This one is also in the front yard and is the only one this color.

 These are the tulips I was talking about in yesterday's blog.

 This is in the backyard and is the only one like it.

And here are the pictures from this morning (the light was better):

Yellow tulips through the flowering quince.

The yellow, pink, and red tulips in the backyard.

The same tulip in the backyard that I took the photo of last night.

The Bleeding Heart (which is behind the garage and I always forget about it).

The sunlight creeping into the backyard.

spring flowers

I had a picture, on my old mobile phone, of the pink tulips blooming in our backyard. I was going to post it here, and that is when I realized that it wasn't on this computer.

This also made me realize that I haven't taken any pictures of spring flowers with my new camera.

Guess what I'm going to do tomorrow? 

It's supposed to be sunny, which is usually bad for landscape photography, but our backyard is shaded enough that I think I'll manage to get a couple of good photos. I may even have to go out in the morning to use the good light (dawn and dusk are best for outdoor photography). 

I have a pretty long list of things I want to do tomorrow, including cleaning the house, but taking pictures outside just took priority. 

Today I am thankful for the tapestry of blooming tulips in our yard.

summer's here!

Wait, it's only May 8th.

While the rest of the country has been experiencing above-average temperatures, here in the great lakes region it's been chilly. Ten to twenty degrees below average. Until today. It reached 84. Blessed every saint that ever walked the earth; finally. No one complained, but we definitely exclaimed, "it's hot!" Because it was. Our house is not prepared for this. I had to search high and low for our window fans. Thank goodness for window fans. Have I been thankful for that yet?

On a side note, we had dinner with some wonderful friends, Jess and Jake (and their girls, Yael and Avah, I've blogged about that cutie patootie here. It didn't take much arm twisting when venison steaks were mentioned (which were delicious btw). The menu also included pretzels (hey Jess, I need that recipe), an amazing couscous salad (which I know was super easy to throw together, but I'm not that creative), a bowl of juicy, fresh fruit (did I mention today felt like summer, perfect!), and apple crisp with homemade french vanilla ice cream. Would you like to guess which dish(es) I made? It shouldn't be too difficult if you were paying attention.

The apple crisp and vanilla ice cream. It hit the spot. Man oh man. It was so good.

I had given some thought to strawberry shortcake, but had apples that unfortunately aren't fresh enough for regular snacking. I figured baking them would be the best thing for them. And it was.

So maybe I'm thankful for apple crisp too. Served warm with vanilla ice cream.

spring cleaning

Our church started accepting donations for the Second Best Sale. We took a few items in that we had set aside before Labor Day. It feels so good to clear stuff out of the house.

We still have our first tv though.

Have you noticed how much tv's have changed? Okay, overall there's been a drastic change. But just in the last ten years, they've gotten so much lighter. This is why we still have that tv. It's in the basement. It's a good thing we still have it though, there were two others just like at the church sale. Sure, someone will want them. Maybe we'll be strong enough to carry it out next year.

Here's to spring cleaning!

spring on ice

My mom asked about ice cover on the great lakes. We just flew over the lower part of Lake Michigan on our return flight and couldn't see any ice. But that doesn't mean it's not there. In fact, there's still 35% coverage for the lakes (total). You can read more about that here. This is our weatherman's blog. I really like the facts he gives.

That is the direct link to a specific post. If you want to be thankful that it's actually spring, go to the blog main page (here) and see how much snow Minnesota and the upper peninsula got yesterday. You can still go skiing!

I'm thankful that my daffodils are blooming and my tulips have buds on them.

Thursday

After waking up at 6am local time and going for a 30 minute run/walk with Heather, the three of us (Bill, Heather and I) drove out to Red Rock Canyon. We took the trail from the Visitor's Center. It was marked "Easy" and was a two mile hike.

It took us an hour and a half. We stopped to take pictures. We also climbed up another five hundred feet or so in elevation. It's funny how fast it happens here. You know you're going up, but you don't realize how high you went until you turn around and look back down the mountain.

Here are a few pictures.

I'm thankful for the beauty and magnificent change in landscape we have in North America. In case you didn't see it, here's what we woke up to on Tuesday, in Grand Rapids:

dry heat or humid

Bill and I differ on our choice of ideal temperate location.

He loves the desert. He loves visiting his parents in Henderson, Nevada. It's dry. It's usually hot. His sinuses are clearer, his skin is healthier, and his asthma doesn't bother him.

I prefer humidity. My sinuses are clearer, my skin is healthier and I can make my hair pretty wavy. I don't mind the sweat and dripping that comes with it (when it's summer).

When we've gone to visit his parents, my skin dries out, my sinuses dry out, my hair goes limp.

Bill has more allergies here. He doesn't have to worry about his hair, but his skin varies with the seasons.

All this is leading up to our trip for his birthday. I am amused by how different we are when it comes to ideal locations based on weather.

I can't wait to take pictures (yes, I'll post them). We're going to a buffet, we'll do some hiking, and we're hoping to check out the Bellagio. I'm also hoping to go to this museum. I'm going to make this cake for his birthday.

In the meantime, it's supposed to snow an inch here today/tonight.

I'm ready for 80 degrees and sunshine.

Spring, Sinuses, and Slices

There are daffodils with buds on them. The snow is almost all gone. There are barrels out for road construction. They are replacing pipes (or some kind of duct work) all along our street which means the ground has thawed.

It's mid-April and spring is here.

Which also means my sinuses are full. I went to the doctor on Monday. I don't feel sick, but the constant draining led me to my decision to go in and see the doc. Our regular doctor wasn't there so I saw one of the other physicians. I liked him! He listened to me, he explained how sinuses work in laymen's terms without making me feel like an idiot, and he gave me a choice. He said that [the medical field] likes to let sinuses run their course which can take up to three weeks. Mine have only been irritating me for one week. He sent me home with a prescription for the antibiotic if my sinuses don't improve. I can chose whether or not to fill it. We also talked about a nasal spray and how that might help too. He called that one in because I have never tried it. We shall see if it helps or if I have to resort to the antibiotic.

This last one is not the best story of the day. There's no way I can tell it without you seeing where I'm going with it. I'll just get right to it. One should not sharpen a knife without paying attention to the knife. It's my best advice regarding how to handle kitchen utensils.

With that being said, I have all my fingers and tips. After the initial shock wore off, I managed to get my hands washed, grab a paper towel and press the cut. Then I ran upstairs and got it covered with a bandage. I didn't pass out. I didn't cry. I said several prayers to God as I was running up the stairs. But I'm okay. I don't need stitches. I don't need an ambulance. I thought of several friends I could call if I needed them. But I didn't have to call anyone.

Someone should check on me later. Just in case.

I'm just kidding, I'm fine.

After I triaged myself, I managed to start cooking my dinner; sweet potato hash. I started with a recipe and quickly deviated. It started with one sweet potato, several red potatoes, and an onion in a skillet. That was all in the recipe. Then it called for a turkey leg. I didn't happen to have one of those lying around, but I had a leftover pork loin and a smoked sausage in the fridge. Why not, I figured. It called for a red pepper, which I had half of a roasted one. At the end I threw in some spinach and, while it cooked down, I fried two eggs.

Here's the before, covered with fried eggs,

 and here's where I stopped to take a picture so you could see everything underneath the eggs.

It was hash. It full of everything and it was good. 

I'm thankful that my cut wasn't any worse and that I didn't pass out. And that I was still able to make dinner which was a good way to end the day.

spring green

Despite the snow and cold, I saw signs that nature has not given up on spring. There are crocus ready to bloom, although they do look like they've croaked with their sad blooms hanging their heads low to the ground. There are tulips (they could be hyacinths, it's difficult to tell this early) sprouting. Those leaves are about two inches above the ground.

Even with the snow, things are still growing. Mother Nature can keep throwing snow at us, but spring is here.

I'm thankful for the small, green signs of spring.

back in the groove

I have been anxious to get back outside to walk and then run (okay, jog) after this winter. My goal every year is to walk/jog until the end of November. Then, after the spring break trip the first of March, to get back out.

This has been a very busy month and it's still been snowing. Two weeks ago I was in St. Joseph answering the phones at Bill's office while his office manager was on vacation (no, it wasn't anywhere tropical, although technically it was warmer than Michigan, he went to Alaska). Then last week on Monday and Tuesday, I was back at the office to answer phones again. I spent Wednesday at my job.

I could keep going, but the result is the same. It's the 24th of March and today was the first day since November (I think) that I have been out to walk.

I walked 2.4 miles and it felt wonderful.

I'll tell you how I really feel tomorrow.

Although after the bouncing yesterday on the trampolines I didn't feel too bad this morning.

I'm going to work back up to 3.1 miles. I was starting to cramp a little toward the end of my walk, so instead of trying to push myself after three and a half months, I decided that a 2.4 mile walk was pretty darn good.

I'm so glad (thankful) to be back to my exercise routine.