Wonder...ful.

"It's not having what you want

It's wanting what you've got."

 
Now that's a thought.  Maybe if I tell myself this very thing, over and over again, I'll believe it.  Actually, it sounds like it might fall somewhere under the definition of optimism, doesn't it?  Besides, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that pausing long enough to note the wonders around me, even the slightest ones, can truly encourage an elongated smile.  I think today's post will follow this theme.  A wise man once said, "Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."  Seriously, who I am to argue with Abe Lincoln?

Thus, today's little wonders....

10:00 a.m.  Lane drew a snowman.  The fact that his hat featured a smiley face made her laugh.  She decided his scarf looked like a ribbon, and ascertained that he therefore must have won a prize.  What's not to love about the imagination of a four year-old?

11:17 a.m.  My friend, Janel, posted the link to this blog on her Facebook page yesterday.  I had been introduced to it previously but was happily reacquainted.  Check it out!

The Inspired Room

I especially love the reading under the tab "The Best of."  I think you might too.

12:23 p.m.  EmersonMade.  Wow.  These fabric flowers are lovely, I think.  The prices, well, hmmm.  Maybe I'll learn to make my own, or maybe I'll just decide that I'm worth it anyway.  This site is adorable, though, and I hope you'll pay it a visit.  Classic.  Elegant.  This first photo isn't about the flower, however.  I'm in love with the architecture...and the green wellies, too!

Little Dandy
(the flower, of course)

Beautiful Dahlia

1:45 p.m.  I am finally at school to prepare lessons for the week ahead.  My two youngest daughters are with me...which is the precise reason I am NOT surprised about the text I just received:  "Wildcats are loose in the lounge."  So why am I even including this on my list of today's wonders?  Perhaps, simply, because some wonders NEVER cease.  Imagine that.

2:11 p.m.  I'm obviously not focused on the task at hand.  Otherwise I wouldn't be adding to this list.  Or maybe I just need to be genuine about which particular task IS at hand.  I've got Cape Cod on my mind.  Those who know me well have been listening to this sentiment cycled ~ and recycled ~ throughout my conversations for some time.  I cannot help it.  Yesterday I spent a lot of time visiting with my friend Suzy.  We've got some delicious plans awaiting in a mere THIRTY-TWO days.  An ocean breeze is blowing my way.

3:29 p.m.  Lessons are ready ~ for tomorrow, at least.  The girls and I are off to a 70th birthday Open House at my former church.  My dear friend and childhood minister, Gary Baker, is definitely worth celebrating.  He is a mentor, a pillar of faith, and just a salt-of-the-earth type of guy.  Yep, he's made of "good stuff."  Happy, Happy Birthday!

4:15 p.m.  Off to the grocery store we go!  On the menu tonight:  Salisbury Steak with mushroom and onion gravy, garlic smashed potatoes, sweet corn with cracked pepper, oriental coleslaw, and some very sweet watermelon for dessert.  I think tonight there will be a few extra cooks in the kitchen...which reminds me of the closing lines of Carl Sandburg's poem, "Under a Harvest Moon."  It is a love poem but the words, if only for this evening, remind me of my children.

Love, with little hands,

Comes and touches you

With a thousand memories,

And asks you

Beautiful, unanswerable questions.

(Ally is fixing the potatoes using her great great grandmother's pot. 
That makes me smile.)

You will find something more in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters. --Saint Bernard

7:21 p.m.  A blur on a backroad.  It's almost as if I've summoned it from a dream.  I rarely activate my four-wheel drive, but the low water crossings involved something other than low water tonight.  My car now needs a good shower.  Sometimes it's worth it to get a bit dirty.  Uh huh.

8:37 p.m.  A watercolor sky...

I am often asked if I am not lonely on my solitary excursions. It seems so self-evident that one cannot be lonesome where everything is wild and beautiful and busy and steeped with God that the question is hard to answer.--John Muir

  Tomorrow is another day.  Yes:  that, in and of itself, is ANOTHER wonder.  Until then...xoxo ~S

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.  ~e.e. cummings