The Big Show

Sometimes you just look up
and there it is!
the big show going on around us
everyday beauty that can just
knock your socks off.

surprising source

Sanity and sustaining strength
flowing from grand gifts
and new friends
Family to care for us
at each  bend in the stream
until we arrive to gorgeous dark
and dreamy skies.

Please, be mine.

Oh, dear life,
Please be my valentine.
Let's kiss and make up.
Enough of this sadness and fighting.
Instead we can have big, sweet, sticky
times together again.
(With powdered sugar)

These Things that Hold Me Down

(image by Neil Mulholland)

Things What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life? (Author: Sam Davidson)- #reverb10

This is a big question for me. It seems like my focus has been on wanting to be rid of some big things and little things that impede and slow my soul. But this is also a hard one to write about. Diving right in might be best...

1. Drinking too much Coke. I mean- I don't want to say never, but at least get to rarely.


2. CLUTTER- it is not one thing but many- streamlining my "stuff" and systemizing. But mostly just getting rid of that which I don't need or want or love.

3. Books that I have already read (except the true life changing, keepers) the chances of me re-reading old already read books with my schedule and lifestyle are so remote- and the shelf space so coveted that it is time to box, bag, donate and dust!

4. Procrastination- time to kick the habit, once and for all. I don't really procrastinate too much on work stuff (though sometimes- damn menu covers) but personal stuff. Oh My. Hello- dentist- here I come!

5. Clothes that don't fit. Obvious, I know- but....

6. Multiple calendars- it is time to have my schedule all in one place. Adding to the crazy with a personal calendar, two online calendars and a paper calendar?! it is a wonder I ever know which way is up!

7. Pens, Pens and more pens. Find the ones that work that I like. Donate the rest to a school or something! drawers of pens I don't use- kind of crazy land.

8. Fear of saying No. Very important and so far impossible.

9. Scraps of papers that never find a file. I have the start of a system. Time to use it.

10. Relationships that don't work. For the first time in a long time, I find myself embroiled in a few situations where there is no one really at fault but the relationships are just not working. It is past time to set myself and others free and move on. There is no one in these situations that I wish ill will toward, and hopefully friendships are still possible but partnerships are not. It was a steep learning curve for all of us I think.

11. Distraction. in too many ways to detail here. but worth considering as it's own prompt.

Wow, this list is not too daunting. And it is certainly all worth working on. Reverberations.

stuff I love!

I love cookbooks (well all books really but...) I love all cookbooks- Old ones, new ones, funny small ones, touristy ones... cookbooks are just great. You can get a view of a different culture, feel like you have traveled somewhere new, right from your own kitchen.

You can dream about meals, future, and fantastical.

and-

you can learn about history.

That is where Old CookBooks .com comes in. A great cookbook retailer with an amazing inventory. Great for gifts, and just great to browse around and see a view of meals and food culture from our long ago and recent past.

check out their easy to use site. They are super nice as well. I have gotten a few gifts for special cooking friends in the past. They have repair services too, if your own special old cookbook needs some work.

just a super site to visit and browse.