The last day of October is here! Where is time going so fast? The clock keeps ticking and the days keep passing. May you make the most of what time gives you. Spread some love, spread some laughter. Touch others with your smiles, thoughts, actions and words. Go make it a wonderful last day of October!
I know this doesn’t quite fit with the other more serious quotes today but when I saw it I had to share it. We always can use some “Awh” moments! ❤
Rise up, my child! Soar with your wings! Don’t slouch in despair, but open your eyes and see the bright light calling you forth.
Rise up, my child! Feel the warmth of the light and let it fill your soul. Let courage and determination give strength to your wings.
Don’t listen to the voices that say you can’t. Listen to the voices that say you can! Let the light that fills you overflow and shine out, as you glide on your wings. Show others what you are capable of, show them what your wings are for.
Rise up, my child! All have wings, but sadly not all know that wings are meant to fly!
Rainy day here….A day to curl up on the couch with a book, a pen and a notebook. A day to close your eyes and just think……A day to sit back and breathe and to bake some Peach Cobbler…….. A day to listen to music……..
A day to go back in time and remember a special Rainy song…..
A day to relax with my dear husband who was the one to suggest that I do a post on Rain and who wanted me to include this next song.
What is your favorite Rain Song? What is your favorite thing to do on a Rainy day? Do you go out and dance in the rain? Yes, I have done that, but today I stayed wrapped in my blanket. 🙂
I will end with a video that I love to play at times. The sound of a gentle thunderstorm can be so relaxing to me. I hope that if it is raining where you are today, that you still have sunshine in your heart!
I was thinking about the Alphabet today and yes, I know, what a thing to think about. It had to do with one of my short stories on Friday. The one about how if Plan A,B,C,D ……don’t work there still are lots of letters until you get to Z. Don’t give up, you have plenty of time!
While thinking, a memory flashed in my mind of when my teenagers were little and we would go on walks. A lot of times I would start our little Alphabet game. The one that I am sure some of you have done before. In the game you pretend that you are going on a trip and you are making your list beginning with the letter “A”. The first person would name something starting with the letter “A”. Then the 2nd person repeats what the first person said and they name something with the letter B; it continues on until you get to Z. This game was always guaranteed to bring laughter! We took all sorts of creative things on those “trips” and it helped us sharpen our memory skills.
Thinking of the Alphabet also made me think of Jinx and Jangle, our favorite wacky elves. What do you think they would take along on a trip with them? They hope to be leaving for a trip to the North Pole pretty soon, for they really want to get their own team of reindeer this year! Do you think it is possible?
It also made me think of when I was a child and we would go on long road trips. My sister and I would try to beat each other in another version of The Alphabet Game. You would read signs to find letters. The first person who got the whole way through the alphabet won! My parents would join in too at times. The letter “Q” and “Z” were always the hardest ones to find. “R” was a pretty easy letter, for there were signs for Rest Stops all the time and “X” was never a problem due to the “Exit” signs.
What wasn’t fair was when there were more signs on the opposite side of the road from where you were sitting. That is when you would stretch over your sister to get a closer look at the signs! Do you have memories of playing the Alphabet Game or other games in your car? When we would drive close to Zoo’s, Z was suddenly easy to find.
Zoo’s make me think of animals of course. What is your favorite animal that begins with the letter “A”? Can you think of one? Of course the letter “Z” is an easy one for the name of an animal. Which makes me think of the movie “Racing Stripes”. That was a family favorite for awhile. It really is a cute movie, how could you not fall in love with the precious Zebra. I also never knew that flies could have so much personality!
Personality makes me think of personality traits. Which ones can you name that begin with A,B or C ? Or you can get extra credit if you can think of ones that start with the letters Q, X or Z!
Before the night gets later and ” ZZZzzz” land draws near I think I will bring this post to an end. Feel free to leave an answer to any of the questions in this post in the comments below. Have a wonderful rest of your day and hoped you enjoyed this little spontaneous Alphabet Game.
Sometimes the destination isn’t known until the end of the journey.
Plan A, B, C …… one of them has to work, before reaching Z!
Precious are the jewels of kindness and understanding that come from one’s heart!
Identity! How do you view yourself? Who are you? I found it interesting that this word came up today as a prompt. My friend Colin is running a little test on his blog right now. Taking you on a little journey of self discovery. Here is a link to Part 1 where he explains it in more detail.
Head on over to his blog and see what its all about. I think you will have fun as your curiosity is sparked and who knows what you may find out.
This would be why I am never bored and why sometimes I may “smack my head” as well. “Smacking my head’ , because of the fact that whatever may be sparking my curiosity at the moment isn’t being solved fast enough. 🙂
I am very happy to report that things are much more peaceful now at the High School that my kids attend. For those of you that have recently started following my blog I will explain. We had a shooting threat made by a group of students. which pretty much shut down school for a day and cancelled the Football game that night. Due to the fact that a shooting threat was made about happening at the football game as well.
I had been under the impression that only one student had made the threat, but apparently there was a group of about 10-15 students involved. I had never thought that I would have to worry so at sending my kids to school, but I am not going to expand on the type of world we live in right now.
I am just happy that things appear to be staying peaceful for now. There have been programs started with Peer to Peer counseling during school and ones with parents volunteering to help students that need someone to talk to. The Principal reports that the programs have been met with a good response to them.
As it seems to go sometimes, you get one thing taken care of and then another problem springs up. We were notified last week by the Principal that they have received notice of the intent for the teachers to go on strike next month unless an agreement can be made with their contract. I know Teacher Strikes are nothing new, but in all the years that my children have been in school we thankfully have never had to deal with one. I also know that there are many other types of jobs besides just Teachers that sometimes use Strikes in their negotiating process.
I do hope that an agreement can me made and that we won’t have to deal with this, but it has made me think. Raised some questions in my curious mind. I am sure there aren’t many of you that are surprised by that! What are your thoughts?
What do you think of using Strikes to negotiate? Is that really the only option at times? Were they used more frequently in the past compared to now? Have you ever been involved in a strike yourself? Have you ever crossed the Picket Line to go to work even though your co-workers were striking? Feel free to comment below and I will keep you posted about what happens with our High School.
Good Morning! How is your week going so far? I wasn’t feeling the best yesterday, but glad to say that I am feeling much more like normal today! I have my cup of tea, music is playing and I am ready for the day. I hope that your day is full of pleasant thoughts and may these quotes help with that.
I really, really don’t like spiders, BUT….I have always loved Charlotte and Charlotte’s Web. 🙂
Yes, I know, its an Owl again! But….. its Odessa and she loves to pose and has a mind of her own, so what can I say! 🙂
Well Dewey wasn’t about to let Odessa have the spotlight! Odessa wasn’t upset for she knew what would happen soon, so she just patiently waited.
Someone fell sound asleep like always! Now Odessa could shine once more!
Don’t worry about Jaxon, he is here. Remember he can make himself invisible whenever he wants! So he is here shaking his head at his crazy friends trying to steal the spotlight. He is glad that at least the Man-Servant and him are sane! Than again….about the Man-Servant…… … Hmmm!!
If you don’t know these crazy characters you can read more about them here Sweet Dreams
it was getting awfully dusty on the ground. People kept walking by and kicking up dirt with their shoes on they walked down the long dirt road. Jake was beginning to wonder if he was going to suffocate in the dirt as he laid there waiting for someone to pick him up. Figures that his owner would forget that he had a hole in his jeans pocket just big enough for Jake to slip right through. Now here he was stuck, trying not to choke! Oh sometimes he really wished he was something else!
“Mommy. Mommy, look what I found!” Jake felt himself being grabbed by a small hand. Liam held him up for his Mom to see, as she smiled down at him. Hold it tight so that you don’t drop it. ” Don’t worry, I will”, and he squeezed poor Jake until he got really hot inside Liam’s hand.
“Ahhh!, some fresh air”, thought Jake when Liam opened up his hand and wiped Jake off. He was shiny once again. Liam was proud of his shine. He had seen some friends of his that could definitely use a makeover! They were pretty dull looking, they still were great guys though! Oh they had tales to tell of all the places that they had been. Some had quite the journeys. What they looked like didn’t reveal all the secrets they held inside of them. Sometimes you had to look past the dirt and grime to see that they still sparkled on the inside.
Before he knew it Jake was tightly squeezed again and they turned off the dirt road into a little candy shop. “Mommy, Mommy! Can I have some candy? ” Liam’s Mommy said yes and Liam proudly handed Jake over to the man behind the counter. Jake got dropped into a little box where there were lots of others like him. He was glad to be out of the sweaty hands.
It wasn’t long though before Jake really started not liking the box that he was in. He was thinking that Liam’s sweaty hands may not have been so bad after all. Sometimes we don’t know how good we have it. It was very dark when the box was closed. Plus Jake kept jumping whenever the box would pop out! It also was starting to give him a headache with all the clinking around that he would keep hearing.
At last Jake got rescued, picked up and handed to someone else. The Man took Jake in one hand and took the licorice that he had just bought in the other hand. OH MY! Jake was having trouble not gagging at the strong licorice smell.
They left the Candy Shop and walked out into the sunshine and fresh air again, that helped take the smell away! Jake heard the sound of running water. Oh No! Jake knew what that sound may mean for him. He had heard from many of his friends about being tossed into fountains. About how cold the water was! Jake was not a fan of cold water. There were some friends of his though that said they were glad to be tossed into the fountain. They remembered the little prayers their owners would quietly say before tossing them in. They felt important at those times.
The Man sat down by the fountain for a bit as Jake held his breath. Then the Man got up and walked away and Jake could breathe again, it looked like he had escaped that close call. Perhaps someday he could be tossed into the fountain to give someone hope, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to do that today.
They made it home, at least Jake assumed it was the Man’s house for he had walked right in the door. Jake got laid down on a little wooden table right inside the door. Again there were some friends there, so Jake started chatting. He wasn’t shy at all, he enjoyed meeting new people. Always something that you could learn from their stories.
Jake enjoyed resting and hanging out for awhile. The moon would shine in the window signalling the end of another day and Jake and his friends would rest. Then they were awake as soon as the sun rose in the sky. New friends would come some days and other days the old friends would leave. Jake was beginning to get restless, he was ready to leave for some type of adventure.
One day it happened. He got picked up by the Man as he headed out the door. He got put into a tiny little pocket. Oh No! A pocket again, would he have better luck this time. The pocket was in a hat that the Man placed on top of his head and then he started walking. Well this was interesting, can’t say he ever had had been so high up before. The pocket wasn’t shut real tight, so he could still see some light coming in. He also had some other friends to get to know. They chatted as the Man kept walking.
Once during their walk the Man stopped and took off the hat and continued on.
“Wow! Now this definitely was an adventure! Jake had fallen out of the pocket once again and he was riding on top of the Man’s bare head! Well there were some little wisps of hair, but really just a wisp. Rubbed up against Jake causing him to let out a little chuckle at the sensation of the wisps of hair against him. He felt the sunlight beaming down on him and he felt so toasty warm. He had trouble seeing though due to the glare coming off the Man’s head.
They entered a coffee shop, Jake smelled the pleasant aroma as soon as they entered the door. Jake began to wonder how long he would stay on the Man’s head, he was getting a little nervous about falling. It would be quite a distance to fall for one so small!
Jake didn’t have to worry too long. He felt the Man’s hand on him pulling him off. He also caught a glimpse of the Man’s red face as he laid him on the table next to his friends once again.
This time a lady with a sweet smile scooped them all up and put them in her pocket as she walked around the shop and kept adding more and more friends to her pocket.
Jake must have dozed off for it felt like he had been in her pocket forever, yet she was still walking around. At last the lady walked outside, now it was dark! They sure had been in that Coffee Shop a long time!
The cool air woke him up even more. The lady walked across the street and entered a building. He heard her on her phone saying something about a grocery store. Yes, Jake thought he had been in them before. She was pretty fast grabbing some things. He heard her keep muttering to herself at how sore her feet were. Jake wondered what it would be like to have feet and not have to be carried everywhere. He thought it would be nice at times, but hey he had a special ride that day. He had a ride on top of a man’s head! He had already told all his friends about it and would repeat the story each time that the lady would drop a new friend into her pocket. Some stories just never grew old!
She was complaining about her feet, but he also heard definite excitement in her voice! ” Yes Lisa, I made it! Tonight was worth it! I finally have enough to go on that week-end getaway! It has been so very long since I have been able to get away as you well know! I have been saving and saving and it finally paid off. Can’t wait until next weekend!”
Jake felt happy that she sounded so happy. Now she was just standing still and waiting. “Lisa, I have to go now, almost ready to check out. We are going to have a blast next week-end!”
What was that? Now it sounded like someone was upset. “Lady, this gift card is no good! There is no more left on it!”
“No, that can’t be! My children need this food. Oh No! What am I going to do! This nightmare just never ends!” Jake didn’t recognize the voices, but could tell that the lady’s voice was very upset. Then he heard the voice of the lady whose pocket he was in. He heard her as he felt himself being picked up along with his friends.
“Here Ma’am, take this please!” All of his friends were picked up as they were handed to the other lady. His shiny friends like him, and some of the not so shiny ones, plus his very large friends. They were large which had been scary at first to him, but he soon found out that they were very soft and friendly. All of them were handed to the other lady that had been so upset.
Jake hadn’t been around for a real long time, but he knew what crying sounded like and he felt a tear drop fall on him as he was laid in the lady’s open hands. “How can I ever thank you!” Jake heard the lady say.
” Your smile is thanks enough! Have a good night and when you have a chance, pass on a smile to someone else!” Jake felt squeezed again very tightly as he heard the other lady say , ” I sure will! I sure will! Bless you my dear!”
Jake wasn’t quite sure, but he felt a warm sensation go through him. Not being hot from being squeezed, but feeling warmth for another reason. He felt that he and his friends may have just played a role in being part of a miracle.
Yes, sometimes he would get all sweaty and dirty and be in the dark, but as of right now Jake was shining inside and thinking that he was very thankful for who he was! There really was nothing else that he would rather be!
When I started writing this, I had no idea where it was going to lead. I wanted to mention that I am grateful to Colin, who gave me some suggestions of things that I could possibly write about, when needing some inspiration. Writing about a coin was one of them. Inspiration can come through so many forms, glad that friends are one very good source! 🙂
Nuggets of Gold 