Which would you choose?

Emotions are powerful things! They define us, and its something we are showing every minute of the day. So if you had to choose, which emotion would you give up? Wait! Don’t be too quick to answer, may not be as easy as you think and you may take back the first thing that pops out of your mouth. I did!

I was given this topic for my series of “Anything Goes” posts by my sweet friend, fellow blogger Jodi from LIfeinBetween and it made me think.I had to ponder it awhile but this is how I chose.

Sadness is what was on the tip of my tongue, when I first read Jodi’s question. It seemed like a natural choice, for who likes to be sad?? The problem is that age old statement that rings with truth. You can’t really enjoy the Mountaintops of Happiness as much , without having gone through the deep valleys of sorrow! As much as we wish we could, we can’t. Its so much more heartwarming to be rejoicing and celebrating when you know that you made it through the tough times. Plus how could we be there for a sad friend, if we ourselves couldn’t feel sadness? How could we empathize with them if we never knew how it felt to have our heart break? Yes, as tempting as it sounds I will have to decline on living without sadness.

Next to come to my mind was anger. That was a good one I thought. Not to have my blood pressure rise, not to be telling myself Count to 10, Ok count to 50, Just BREATHE! We have all been there, another emotion that is not exactly fun. Once again tho it does serve a purpose. How would it be if when our children got treated very badly by someone we would just smile and say,That’s Ok? I am talking about true injustice, not just ,”Mommy he pulled my hair”, type of stories. Isn’t there a time when we need to stand up for justice. When we need to let anger push us to resolve a situation? What about all the injustice that goes on in the world? It is  the people that feel really upset by the circumstances that take  what measures they can to help. I am thinking of the people who are dedicated to help stop Human Trafficking, the ones who help to protect women and fight Domestic Violence. The Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the list goes on. There have been many great organizations that got their start by being fueled by someone’s righteous anger. So while I do try my best to not let little things anger me, anger can be a emotion that you need. Anger is not bad in itself, its what we do with our anger that can create big problems!

I finally decided on Jealousy! I could give up jealousy. What purpose does that serve, except to make you feel discontent with your life. Oh that person has a nicer house, a nicer car, they go on fancy vacations,they have such nice clothes, etc. The list can go on and on when we start making comparisons and let the Green Eyed Monster of Jealousy grab hold of us. Sure you will always find people that have it better than you, BUT…what we fail to remember a lot, is that there are a WHOLE LOT of people that have it worse than us! So I embrace contentment and if I had to choose, would gladly give up being tempted at times with the emotion of jealousy.

Thanks Jodi for this challenge and remember let your thoughts below, what would you choose? There is no wrong answer!

Tuesday’s Thoughts

Good Morning! I started collecting C.S. Lewis quotes , but came across some other ones that stood out to me , so its a mixture this morning 🙂 ENJOY and hope they make you think some and help to add some joy into your day!

1. “Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing the Monkey Bars. At some point you have to let go in order to move forward!”  C.S.Lewis ( remember those Monkey bars at school! Always was nerve wracking to let go, but you were all excited when you actually made it across 🙂
2. “We read to know that we are not alone.” C.S.Lewis
3. “Children are not a distraction from more important work, they are the MOST IMPORTANT work!” C.S.Lewis
4. He said, “Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will not find it.” Roald Dahl
5. “A children’s book that is only loved by children, is not that good of a book!” C.S.Lewis ( I will say that there are children’s books that I truly love! Ones that teach such valuable lessons!  The Velveteen Rabbit, The Giving Tree, the list goes on and of course the Narnia series 🙂 )
6. “Happiness is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things; it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.” Fiona Cameron ( I just could not leave this one out. Reminded me of how so many of us get so busy chasing things that we think will make us happy and really its just like chasing the wind! Or as she says a butterfly 🙂 When we finally stop, that is when happiness finds us.)

Monday’s Snapshot Memories!

Happy Monday! Well its Happy now at least! If you were like me it got off to a rough start, which is why this post is a little later than a morning post 🙂 Nothing really bad that happened. Just too much to do and not enough time to do it! I KNOW I am NOT the only one to feel that way 🙂 But hopefully these pics can help you relax for at least a second, enough time to take a breath and sigh and forget your To Do list for a moment. These pics are from the mountains of North Carolina. My husband’s Aunt, Uncle, Grandma and cousins live there. These are the views from around their house! You truly are tucked away from everything. We love them dearly, I am blessed to have inherited them through marriage as my relatives 🙂 Such sweet, loving, true Southern hospitality people. Trust me I don’t care how FULL you are, if Mammaw sees you she will offer you food! The only thing that I dread about visiting them is the mountain roads! The curves get to my stomach about every time. It has gotten better over the years, but as lovely as it is back in the mountains I could not live there. If I did, I would just be staying in my house and not venturing out anywhere on the roads 🙂

The Secret Adventures of Puff and I!

It is time again for a blog post about a topic that a friend chose for me. You all are doing a great job at keeping me thinking with the “Anything Goes” topics.  She wanted me to do a post about my secret adventures. Don’t want to disappoint you all but  this is not a TELL ALL kind of post, for hey some stuff has to remain secret, right 🙂 And this isn’t exactly nail biting edge of your seat adventures, but hope you can enjoy them! Most importantly can you tell the fiction from the truth?? For this post is a mixture as you will see. 🙂 But I assure you that there is truth in each story, its just up to you to decide how much 🙂

1.The Night Ride

It was a relaxing Sunday thus far and was going to get even better. I had my bowl of popcorn and was settled down in my little rocker to watch The Wonderful World of Disney, a show that I loved! The show came on and all was well, but not for long. What was that? Why was I feeling cold water at my feet? I looked around me and the water was growing deep and getting deeper by the minute it seemed. There was only one thing to do in this dire situation and that was to call on Puff. He came as quick as a wink, always was ready at a moments notice, for he was well trained 🙂 We all climbed up on his back, I made sure to keep hold of my popcorn. Hey, I was little and hungry! We flew into the night sky, the stars were twinkling so bright. Would have been a beautiful night for a ride if we weren’t saying good-bye to our house, not knowing when we would return. All was well tho, the waters did not engulf the house and the following Sunday had me sitting in my rocker again waiting for The Wonderful World of Disney and oh yes, the popcorn!

2.The Cupcake Bandit

Puff and I were longing for adventure one day and decided to go cave exploring. It was a beautiful day for it, and oh the fun we had. I felt safe in the cave as long as Puff was by my side. He scared away all the icky creatures that were hiding in the cave. We got so busy going from one cave to another, for when you fly on the back of a dragon you can cover a lot of territory; we lost track of time. Our stomachs reminded us that the hour was getting late and we needed to get some food and head for home. Well I looked in my knapsack and all the food that had been there was gone, consumed by Puff. He is a growing dragon he reminded me! All that was left was the brownies I had made, some things even a dragon will refuse to eat. Apparently he didn’t want to break his teeth on them and if they are too hard for a dragon’s teeth, well…..So what were we to do?

As we headed home I could feel Puff sinking down he was getting tired and needed nourishment right away. We landed on a road we had never been on before and saw a house that looked inviting. I told Puff to hide behind a bush as I went to the door. I didn’t tell him that his tail was sticking out by a mile. It was dark, so we were safe. The door was unlocked so I crept in and saw I was in the kitchen. Now I was a P.K. and my parents had taught me never to steal but you know what they say about P.K’s and hey Puff was hungry! I wasn’t going to take more than what we needed. I spied several boxes of Tasty Cake Cupcakes and grabbed them all and into the night I went.

Puff was delighted, who can resist chocolate cupcakes with icing on them. I had to bribe him to share his bounty. The sweet taste of them chased away any guilt that I had of taking them. We made it home and slept well on our full stomachs! 

The next morning as I came downstairs my Dad was reading the paper and one of the headlines caught my eye.”Cupcake Bandit Strikes” Uh-Oh! I guess they noticed the missing cupcakes!

3.The Wedding Mishap

I woke up feeling terrible! It felt like Puff had been breathing fire on me all night. I was hot and achy. this couldn’t be. This was the day my dear friend was getting married. I was her bridesmaid!! Nothing was going to stop me from going to the wedding tho, so off I went.

I felt a little dizzy as I stood up front. but kept telling myself that I was gonna make it. She had the groomsmen stand with the bridesmaids arm in arm, I hung on to the guy pretty tightly. Made it about half way through til I knew I was in trouble. I tried to tug loose from the groomsman and he pulled me tighter, thinking I was getting dizzy. I had to whisper in his ear that he had to LET GO! He did and I ran across the stage and out the door! NO, it wasn’t the Runaway Bride, it was the Runaway Bridesmaid who didn’t want to make a even bigger scene. Made it to the bathroom just in time! The reception was lovely with plenty of good food all around, and I sat eating crackers and drinking tea. At least Puff was having fun, there was cupcakes for him 🙂 Plus he got to be the star for he was the couple’s getaway “vehicle”. Up, Up and Away he took them into the lovely sky. Giving them a great start to the beginning of their Adventure of Marriage!

4.Stuck in Canada

Our family was  bound for Canada, we  couldn’t wait! Going to go see Niagara Falls! I always loved Waterfalls! Love the sound of running water, whether in a gentle running stream or a raging Waterfall! Puff of course wanted to go to, we weren’t sure how that would go over since we had to go through Customs to be let into Canada, but we couldn’t say no. It  was no problem at all to our relief. They never even noticed his tail sticking out of the blanket. We had a wonderful time, more memories to tuck away into our hearts.

The way back didn’t go quite as smoothly.  As we tried to enter back into the U.S.A there was a guy with a scowl on his face and holding a gun. He asked for I.D. and well Puff had no I.D. I mean really when have you seen a dragon carry around a picture I.D. of themselves?? Obviously this guy had seen Puff’s tail sticking out. We assured the guy that Puff wasn’t driving. The guy had no humor!  We had to pull over into a little parking lot at the Police Headquarters. It wasn’t looking good for Puff, the U.S. didn’t want a dragon in their country. We tried to convince them that Puff was NOT your normal Fire breathing dragon, that he was harmless. We asked if they had ever seen the movie, How to Train your Dragon, they hadn’t. Once again they  really didn’t have much of a sense of humor, they were all business. We knew there was only one thing we could do, with a ROAR that made them all  jump,we climbed on Puff’s back. He  picked up our car with his tail and we soared over the line into the U.S.A.

Weekly Photo Challenge, “Change”

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Change.” 

“Change” can mean so many things and change isn’t always pleasant! BUT glad to say these changes have been! Once again tho I will tell parents not to BLINK! For in the twinkling of an eye, your kids go from toddlers to teens, cherish the moments like my sweet blogger friend Jodi says from her LifeinBetween  blog which I highly recommend! Be careful tho for her pictures of the awesome recipes she makes can make you very hungry!!

Last of all if you are looking for a loyal, faithful dog to won, highly recommend Sheltie’s! They shed too much hair, but they are so sweet and loving and loyal! Hope you enjoyed my thoughts on Change and that if Change is coming your way that it is a GOOD Change!

Friday’s 6 word story!

Current circumstances doesn’t change past facts!  ( yes you could call this another puzzle, and this may speak to everyone a little differently. So take it as you want and have a AWESOME FRIDAY!! The week-end is approaching! 🙂 )

Shag rugs, lava lamps, tie dyed shirts, bell bottoms and can’t forget Richard Nixon

If you ware wondering about the strange title, welcome to another edition of “Anything Goes”, where the readers pick the topic for me to write a story around. These topics helps to clear my brain of writers block and definitely stretch me!  Hope you enjoy and as always, if you have a suggestion, post it below! Remember “Anything Goes”

He still couldn’t believe it, but the celebration party was tonight, so it really was real. Doug still remembers the day so clearly when the letter came that changed his life! After years of trying he finally got his dream job! He was going to work for National Geographic!! He had submitted his photographs and they loved them! All his hard work had paid off! Just thinking of it again made him feel like dancing a jig.

He put on his Aretha Franklin record and finished decorating his house to prepare for a party with his family and friends celebrating the good news! Vaccumed his reddish orange Shag carpet and made sure his bright red Lava Lamp was turned on and that the Disco ball was hanging from his ceiling.

After a fun night with family and friends Doug was lost in thought as the hour grew late. Not only was he so excited about the new adventure with National Geographic, BUT he had also got invited to the White House!! President Richard Nixon wanted him to to take some photographs of him! Doug’s fame was spreading fast! He felt like he was dreaming! Next month was going to be a unforgettable month! His first assignment with National Geographic was to go photograph different bodies of WATER in remote places. After that he was going to be doing a special feature on the different kind of GATES in farm lands out West.  Last but definitely far from least, was him going to the White House to meet and photograph President Richard Nixon! As he finally started to fall asleep his last thoughts were thinking about what he was going to wear. He decided that he should definitely wear his lucky tie dyed shirt. It is the shirt he was wearing when he got the letter from National Geographic inviting him to be on their team. With that he would wear his favorite bell bottoms, OH next month was going to be full of adventure, and with that thought he fell into a deep sleep; with visions of shag rugs and lava lamps dancing in his head.

My First Crush

As Sunday’s post said I started a series of posts where my readers will give me an idea for a post and I will make a story around what they give me and post it on Wednesday and Thursdays. Sunday’s was around the words Virtual FB pokes, Compost piles and Classical Music. My friend sure didn’t make it easy for me to start off! But I pulled it off, check out Sunday’s story if you haven’t yet. Now today my friend gave me the topic, Your First Crush. My friends are definitely taking my words, “Anything Goes” literally! Enjoy the story and feel free to leave your suggestion for a post after it!

Young Love

OH how long ago it seems, but yet do we ever forget the memories we made of our first crushes. Of when we thought we knew what love was. Remember the notes passed in class, words scrawled on paper, “Do you like me, check yes or no in the boxes below.” Or would we get our friends to go ask for us as we anxiously waited for the answer to make us walk on clouds or to send us plunging into a hole. OH the innocence of young love.

My first crush was when I was very little, and not just in stature. For I am still little, but I am a lot older now than 5 🙂 Yes I got nipped with the love bug at that young age,  and we had a great time together of growing up. We lived close to each other, and he had a sister my sister’s age, so we hung out a lot. Of course they didn’t always want us being with them which was fine. I would go play Matchbox cars with him or legos. Funny, but I don’t remember him ever playing dolls with me! 🙂 We would share secrets and talk about our sisters.  We spent a lot of time playing in his creek, tubing down the creek on a summers day was a delight and jumping from the rope swing once I got brave enough 🙂 I remember making a wedding list with my best friend when I was the ripe age of 10 and of course I put his name down to be my groom, I mean hey he was my best guy friend so why not. I just assumed it would always be me and him. I mean we had shared our first kiss when we were the tender age of 8, so he had to be my groom, right? Well that thing called High school came and all of a sudden we noticed there were a lot more fish in the sea! We still thought of each other as great friends, but….

I am glad to say that to this day some 30 years later we are still great friends. We don’t see each other much, but we have those childhood memories that will never go away. We are both married now and our spouses know about our innocent  shared kiss, for that is how he introduced me!! Yeah, I may have been a little red!

I could also tell about the guy that worked at Mister Donuts, the guy at the mall or the guy at the restaurant, BUT…..this topic was just about my First Crush, so my lips are sealed 🙂

Yes young love can hold great memories that make you smile, laugh and your heart warm, BUT I wouldn’t trade the REAL LOVE I have now for any of that! REAL LOVE that I have shared for almost 20 years now! The love that has stood the test of time and still is ignited, the roots go deep into the soil; tho the branches may sway and sometimes blow really hard, they never break! TRUE LOVE PREVAILS OVER ALL!

Tuesday’s Thoughts!

Happy Tuesday everyone! Today I am focusing on Proverbs, English Proverbs, Chinese ones, etc. Few lines but much wisdom in their lines. ENJOY and as always see if you can pick your favorite. I love hearing which ones touch you the most, or if they all do 🙂 Picking a favorite this time wasn’t hard for me and some of you can probably guess which one, because I have talked about it some in my posts.

1. “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” English Proverb
2. “The eye does not see a flaw, if the heart loves a heart.” English Proverb
3. “Words have no wings, but they can fly many thousands of miles.” Korean Proverb
4. “Man who waits for roast duck to fly into mouth must wait very very very long time.” Chinese Proverb, ( I had to chuckle at this one)
5. “Pay attention to your dreams, for they are letters from God.” Arabic Proverb

Monday’s Snapshot Memories!

Good Morning! Reflecting back on some beautiful hiking spots. Ready to go to them again this Fall! Sometimes there is nothing that compares to being in the beauty of nature! May these shots help get your Monday off to a beautiful start!