Snowy Sunday

He's been looking at me for over 24 hours...

... flirtatious...

...beckoning....

His eyes are taunting, almost winking at me...

...daring me to give in....

His smile is almost too much for me....

But I must resist.

I must.

And I will.

Even if they are pretty valentiney colors.

I had an unproductive weekend,

which is what I planned since I'm sickly.

But I have managed to get a little homework done,

make a delicious soup,

homemade bread,

and venture out into the snow for a jaunt to the library.

Pics:

My bread.

I have no bread pan, so the bundt will do.

Still rather tasty, if somewhat misshapen. :)

The city in snow.

So lovely.

Snow fell all day, several inches!

I title this: "Welcome back"

My sprouting friends, after my month-long holiday.

(Confession:

I've been back two weeks

and I've only just dealt with these today...

I left them because they made me laugh..

does that make me strange?!)

The Infamous Hat.

I'm becoming known in Balmer 'cause of this thing...

not sure if I'm proud of that yet, but I'm getting used to it.

And mom,

if I'm gonna be outrageous,

I'm gonna go all the way and sport the vintage vest too.

Yes, I did walk all the way to the harbor like this.

Yes, it was lunchtime.

And yes,

I sat with half the city's businessmen in Chipotle

looking like this.

I hope you're proud.

I also hope you're not planning

on my being married anytime soon....

Ok. Ok...

I did take off the hat while inside, but still...

And last, but not least.

The love of my life.

At least for the next monthish.

I miss you, sweet boy!

Cheers, mes amies! :)

Snow Day

It's a grey day.

I awoke after noon,

still ill,

but delighted to see the snow falling, inches on the ground.

Deciding to venture out into the world,

I walked, snow-booted, to the public library

where I planned to rent

BBC television dramas.

The air is cold today

& you walk through the clouds formed by your breathing.

Late lunch of soup.

Surprise package filled with

treats & goodies from sweet grandparents!

My bed calls,

where my cup of tea & little bowl of treats

wait on the bed-side table,

along with my computer-

which will be playing the five movies I rented

as I stay in & get well again.

There's just nothing like being completely cozy warm,

wrapped in shawls & blankets,

watching it snow outside.

Here's to snow days & sick days in, my friends.

Cheers

:)

Makes the heart glad.

I'm not entirely sure why, but I've had a downish sort of day today, although my lesson went spledidly, and I'm singing in my first masterclass this evening. So I came home and am sitting in the TV room to let my brain rest, and lo and behold! An old Esther Williams movie on TCM! I find her movies hilarious and so perfectly old fashioned. I just love 'em. She parades around in her swimsuit and dives and smiles and then she sings, and then every other 5 minutes, someone else sings, too. Makes my heart glad.

Other things that make my heart glad:

Christmas with the family, where Cassie makes deLIcious breakfast rolls:

Kohen loves to read books:

It snowed on Chrismas, so we took Kohen out to play it! He didn't really know what to think, and when we brought him inside, he wouldn't move until we took him out of his snowsuit. Sweet boy :)

Chason on Christmas morning:

Kohen wouldn't let dad leave for work unless they read a book together:

Clouds from an airplane window. They just never get old to look at.

My dream house in South Carolina. The property is simply gorgeous.

Snow on a road trip:

A Day Jaunt to New York City with my friends, where we got:

Tiffany Cookies from the Tiffany store!

Soldiers @ F.A.O.Schwartz:

Times Square:

These things make me very happy today :)

Les Pensées, II.

Obviously, today is a thinking day, since it's my second blog in less than 24 hours.

Maybe Thursday will become "Thursday's Pensées" (said: pawn-say) day. I love a good rhyme. Although I do have thoughts on more days than just Thursdays.

So settle into your easy chair, grab a cup of thé au lait, maybe even grab a blanket, and prepare yourself for "Spiritual Matters with Annie." Because I'm so spiritual.

Today's topic is: Forgiveness.

Now, do let me go ahead and tell you that while the first part of this post is rather facetious, the rest of it will be sort of a walk in the dark, since, while I'm still ever so spiritual, I don't really even know what I'm talking about. So let's see what comes next.

Last Sunday, my parent's preacher presented the entirety of I Peter from memory as the message, which was amazing. But the notes I took from that speech confirmed to me that, yes, God is trying to teach me about forgiveness.

sigh.

This is a hard one for me. Oh, not the simple forgiveness, I'm fine with that... mostly... o.k., so it's all hard. But it's much easier to forgive someone for calling you a dorkwad, than it is for forgiving someone who's hurt you. And that's where I am.

And then I watched "Madea goes to Jail," and there it was again. She's in jail, telling all the gals in there to get over what people did to them, because those people are out living their lives, and the gals are giving them power over their lives if they hold on to what's been done to them. And really, how true is that? If you're holding on to what someone's done to you, they have power over your life.

Yes, I've been holding on to what a few people have done to me. It's easy to do. And I'd admit it right off, if you asked me. I'm angry. I'm hurt. And if I saw 'em in the store, I'd either walk away from them fast to avoid any interaction, or be forced to punch them in the kidneys.

But what should I do now?!

Forgive them.

But I don't want to. Forget that 70x7 junk. They weren't nice people then, and they aren't nice people now. Why should I forgive them, when THEY should be asking ME for forgiveness?!

Because, let's face it, people: Life doesn't work like that; and if we believe in Jesus, He doesn't always give us the easy way out. He sure didn't take it. He was murdered in front of thousands of people, falsely accused, hated, beaten, naked. And all that to save me, a person who can't even forgive a few people that I don't see anymore. Isn't it sad how easily I forget that?

So here I am. A Christian girl, showing you my struggle with forgiving other people, just in case you have that struggle, too. We're in this together. It's not easy, and demands much from us, which our prideful hearts don't like.

Oh, deceptive little heart. I think you'll be happier once you're loosed from holding onto pain.

Let's let it all go, friends. Jesus forgets our sins as soon as we ask Him to. That doesn't mean it didn't hurt Him before we asked. And it doesn't mean that people won't hurt us still. But it does mean that we can be free from the heavy anchor that weighs our souls down when we hold on. Who wants to be drowned by a heavy anchor, anyways?!

It's a beautiful world out there. Let's be free and go chase it.

Les Pensées.

Thoughts.

Sometimes I try and have a few.

And because I know that you're all extraordinarily interested in the inner workings of my little grey cells, I have decided to share a few of my thoughts from les derniers mois, or past few months.

Upon moving to live on my own in a small apartment hundreds of miles away from my family and friends, and because I am sort of a strong personality, I was aware that this living on my own would present the challenge of learning how to not become completely self-absorbed, when the only person I have to worry about is, in fact, myself. I do a decent job of cleaning up after myself, doing my homework on time, keeping myself healthy, and generally living a neat and orderly life.

So now that I'm home for the holiday break, the temptation is strong for me to just deal with my own self, and not want to think about dealing with everyone else's stuff:

"No, I don't want to clean up that person's junk."

"No, I really, really don't want to wash dishes."

"Please don't make me wipe the counters.... again...."

"No, I'd rather not be helpful. I'm the visitor. Do it for me."

Oh self-betterment, how bad I am at capturing you...

But the other day, I came upon these little beaded bracelets that I made y e a r s ago. The elastic bands are almost to their end, I wore them so much. They've got a few words on them to help me remember traits I struggle to have, and remind me of the gal I'd like to be. And it's funny to me that they act as little reprimands if I'm wearing them. I'm a visual person- If I don't write it down, I'll forget, but if I see it, I'm constantly reminded. So I've been wearing these little bracelets and they talk to me:

"Oh Annie. You shouldn't have said that."

"Oh you... can't you see that that person needs help?!"

"Oh you hopeless mess of a girl, just be a nice person."

"Please, for the love of all things good, be kind."

Oh yes. I'm keenly aware of my flaws when I wear them. But they are helping me. Especially with the males in my family, 'cause sheesh-a-loo, someday I'll probably be married to someone like them, and then I'll be forced into liking him while having to pick up after him, and trying to feel sorry for him when he's sick and blowing his nose in front of me like an old man, and standing in front of the medicine cabinet saying "do we have any mediciiiiiiiine?" when he hasn't even opened the cabinet door yet................................ Be kind. Be kind. Remember the bracelets.

And the moral of this story is:

"A good piece of jewelry goes a loooooooooong way."

;)

(P.S. I hope the tounge-in-cheek quality has come out in the writing of this post. Heaven knows that I'm sure smiling while writing it.)

Quote Day.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

~C.S.Lewis

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.

~C.S.Lewis

Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

~George Eliot

If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give.

~George Macdonald

It's a sort of bloom on a woman. If you have it, you don't need to have anything else; and if you don't have it, it doesn't much matter what else you have.

~J.M.Barrie

Drama if I sing, drama if I don't sing. What do you do?

~Montserrat Caballe

Everybody, even me, sometimes had to compromise on something, doing things we know to be wrong, and this happens doing whatever job in the world. But a singer must have the courage of saying no.

~Jose Carerras

I don't want to be somebody who stands still and sings pretty. Each song is a world. Each song is a story. I don't achieve nearly what I want.

~Renee Fleming

I have a nervous breakdown in the film and in one scene I get to stand at the top of the stairs waving an empty sherry bottle which is, of course, a typical scene from my daily life, so isn't much of a stretch.

~Emma Thompson

I'm an interpreter of stories. When I perform it's like sitting down at my piano and telling fairy stories.

~Nat King Cole

I shouldn't be saying this - high treason, really - but I sometimes wonder if Americans aren't fooled by our accent into detecting brilliance that may not really be there.

~Stephen Fry

I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up.

~Benjamin Franklin

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

~Aristotle

I'm not funny. What I am is brave.

~Lucille Ball

:)