While making online payments and checking emails in the early, quiet of the morning, before beagles hound (heh, heh, clearly pun intended) me for a toast crust and before I must head out for the daily grind, I peruse things that showed up in my inbox while I was sleeping.
I could be using this time to write. Or marketing Out of the Frying Pan, or even taking an online course on something to make me smarter or at least appear smarter. But instead I open interesting articles like the ones this morning. What to order at every MLB stadium. For starters, on this one, I clicked to see what a freakin MLB is. Major League Baseball. This I had to figure out on my own. It is so apparent to any sport fan that this is what MLB is that they didn't even define it. I had to figure it out via thinking and context! (Aren't there bunches of studies that show it's so good for your brain to do puzzles? Look, I was being productive after all!) Plus this is research for my recipe column. I can justify it doubly. I might just want to recreate a super churro or waffle concoctions. Probably not bacon on a stick, ever. However, carrot bacon is the newest meat free bacon option. (Also discovered in one of the many factoid newsletters I get in my inbox.)
Then my little eyes spied a top 15 locations to visit in Italy. I've never been to Italy in my life. But dog gone it, I want to go. There is a huge part of me that wants to buy an Italian farmhouse and live off the delicious land. I don't speak Italian. I have no Italian roots that I'm aware of. I feel kind of the same about English, French, Irish, Spanish, Scottish, well you get it, any European countryside. Italy just feels like the food would be the best and for some reason they would be warm and friendly. The UK feels like it would be too gloomy and grey, (UK spelling, and if I lived in Italy, I could just hop a train and visit the UK and the corgis. I don't want to see the queen but I do want to peek at her corgis!). Also food. In the UK
they eat things like blood sausage. In Italy there seems to be sunshine and bodacious red tomatoes everywhere. And grapes. If they only had mango trees I might just buy a one way ticket today.
And look at the time! I've managed to use my morning well. Got a blog post done. Check. Did a little marketing. Look at the picture and the hot link to my book! Oh, and maybe I'll tweet a link with hashtags #shinythings #squirrel #whoamIkidding?
Hum Chicago's You're the Inspiration while reading the last part of the post title.
Okay. Now go to Elaine Stock's blog to hear Michelle's take on how she fleshed out her characters. Including Wifi the Wonder Dog.
You don't know Fifi? Well, then you might want to go to the link under the book cover, buy a copy and meet her.
Finally. If you like easy throw together meals, especially Meatless Monday ones, go to Zu-Fer and give Zula's Minestrone a try.
This has been another challenging week. I went in Monday to hear that two of my co-workers had been released from their positions on Friday. Some of their tasks landed squarely on my desk. Jobs
I don't do very often and have only a small amount of practice with, but, I'm grateful to have the added job security. I am very sad for my former co-workers and just shudder at the thought of finding a job in today's climate.
My kids are all immersed in raising their kids with various trials and struggles and their lives are sometimes just hard and stinky. Raising kids is not for those with week spines or stomachs. Can I just say that? Loving sometimes unlikeable, selfish human beings is rough. It takes a toll. I carry some of my kids feelings with me through life. I pray and I help when I can sometimes feeling that any tiny thing I might do is just not enough to give them real help.
Then there is just the reality of the physical realm around me. The house needs to be looked after, the laundry done, the hedgehogs need cleaned cages, the dogs need to go out and have play time. We have an empty apartment that is probably rented, but that means painting needs to be performed, and new windows installed and there are just not the hours in a day to do it. Oh and we are trying to beat the annual call from our tax preparer giving us the date and asking us if we are going to be filing an extension yet again. Just once I'd like to drop our info off before he calls us.
Our church is going through some transitions and changes. And being a leader in a church is taxing. As a leader you get to hear the complaints of the saints and see the inaction of a group of people who should be out there making a difference. And you get to find out the painful things going on in peoples' lives before the poo hits the fan. Loving people and serving them is a burden.
Life get really heavy sometimes. This morning I read this article. By Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist. He is the guy I ran across who inspired me to get rid of 1,000 things. I love to read his thoughts and the articles he shares every Saturday from resources around the world. Sometimes the articles are ones that inspire me to make a different choice, other times they are food for thought. But they are always valuable.
Today he posted about the unsung heroes who aren't in the limelight. But they are putting one foot in front of the other on a hard path full of obstacles. They are the ones who are making the world a little better for their small circle. http://www.becomingminimalist.com/bad-situation/
It reminded me that our attitudes can make or break us. And that we aren't alone when we've attached ourselves to Jesus. It reminded me that little things are valuable and we can keep going and doing life because life is hard but life is glorious, too. So very glorious. Take a look outside on this dreary day and remember that there is a sun up there shining even if you can't see it. Or that God Almighty loves you, even if you can't feel it. Or that life is a gift. Or look inside and do what you need to do today to get back the hope you need to carry on. Take a deep breath in and thank your Creator that you can. Or take a shallow breath and use it to cry out for His mercy yet again. Hang in there, Buddy. The sun is still there, you will see it soon. And God's mercies are new every morning...He doesn't run out of mercy.
For two days. Download Out of the Frying Pan for a buck!
Michelle had to autograph a copy for a woman who had HIGHLIGHTED favorite passages. She then read her favorite line to Michelle and laughed hysterically while doing so. That. Makes. My. Day!
Man. Sometimes I just have to close my eyes and cover my ears. Does what you absorb on social media affect you that way? Of course its not just social media. It is media in general. It is society in general.
Bad news, sad news, defeating news, all massaged to fit into a sound bite or an agenda. Likely both.
People being proud to be "right" while trampling and labeling and crushing those who don't agree. Screaming accusations about the intelligence of lack thereof and even about the commenters mother.
Even simple or sweet stories get the comments.
My daughter belongs to a mom group of Facebook that has to delete posts and or remove members for being divisive and unkind. Folks are offended greatly by breast-feeding and don't hesitate to share their opinions, others are horrified that someone's kid is in public school.
Maybe we've always been like that. After all gossip is as old as time. Maybe the problem is that now those who have made snide comments, or passive aggressive assaults have a bigger platform. And for some reason their opinion must be heard by thousands in order to find validation for the unloving, sniveling thoughts dancing through their heads. Christmas-sugar-plum-dreams morphed into festering rotten produce. The Grinch's huge heart shrinking into smaller and meaner than before. The more they find engagement on social media the more maggotized their thoughts get and the more their thoughts appear to be alive through the movement of the decaying process. UGH!
So on this Tuesday, officially a spring day, here are some uplifting moments. Thanks Bored Panda.
http://www.boredpanda.com/cute-smiling-happy-quokkas/
http://www.boredpanda.com/cute-rabbit-succulents-monilaria-obconica/
http://www.boredpanda.com/sorcery-visual-effects-2venezolanos/
Just don't read the comments.
My big Rafflecopter event is over. The winner now has the e-card in his possession.
If this above description does not fit you, well then, you aren't the winner.
But I think Rafflecopter is fun. So I may just have to do a contest again.
Congrats, Will. And remember you can buy two copies of my book for under $20.00. Just Sayin!
