Sunday Snippits:good, bad, & awesome!

GOOD: Time has been filled with so much good stuff lately that it seems to be flying by & it's hard to recap what happened a week ago because often it feels just like yesterday. On the other hand it often feels like it was much longer than a week ago because so much life has been lived since. That's where we are today with Sunday Snippits! A dose of good Spring Cleaning seems to be the medicine for Spring Fever. Piece by piece we've been working on a little cleaning at home, a little cleaning at work, a little cleaning metaphorically & a little cleaning literally. Just after feeling as if we hadn't left town much at all lately for anything, this past week we were both hopping around the state for one work related thing or another. We're moving through life remembering that while it is good to plan ahead & we often do just that, it is also good to sit in the moment at hand. Plus life is often MUCH easier lived day-by-day with a pinch of forward thinking & planning.

BAD: Jumping into one project it is easy to find more project & more project & more project. While we could get grumpy about why people have left so much stuff laying around & made a trail, we all do it. The trick is to take a set amount of time on a set day with company of other people &/or music & work at picking up these trails little-by-little. The bad part is, if we're all leaving our trail then we're constantly not only cleaning up after one another, but expecting others to clean up after us! So maybe this a goofy bad, but that's what you get this week.

AWESOME: I mentioned in Friday Favorites it's the little things. I realized recently my joy for reading for pleasure is returning! I knew it was there, somewhere. For Pete's sake I took part in a reading lock-in & loved it in elementary school. It's a matter of pacing oneself & balancing heavy topic books with light topic books & books that are most obviously continuing education with books that are simple fiction & imagination. It's a piece of me that has been missing & as many friends will be delighted to know - especially after all the books they've gifted me throughout the years - I am a reader. Don't be ambitious in the book giving though, this may only be a phase for now.

WORD: If you haven't guessed by AWESOME that I finished both I am Malala & Stitches this past week. I've now moved on to Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? for a piece of humor & I plan to start Children of Divorce this week. SO much to look to forward to! PLUS my good friend wrote an awesome piece about Grace, not Works.

coming up: More Spring Cleaning! Last Fall we had all of the bushes in the front of our house taken out. They were old & ugly. Now it's figuring out what to put in their place. This is totally not our thang so a little research will be in order... happy days till next time!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Tuesday Tea Time!

We have officially changed our clocks ahead, or simply enjoyed the fact that they're not an hour off any longer & now we wait for the thaw.

Being from the tip of the mitt means waiting for the spring thaw a little longer than other parts of the state or country. Even MN has had considerably more melting snow to the point of seeing earth below than we have. This is the week, the time has shifted & the temps have gotten above freezing (by at least a half of degree) for the last couple of days.

Can you say, Spring Fever?!

Spring Fever brings Spring teas & porch sitting with quilts! Spring Fever brings more hiking & contrary to what many might think more gray days than winter. I wouldn't mind being proven wrong MI! Spring Fever puts a new skip in our step even when we don't ask for it. Spring Fever brings a season of mud & wellies.

What does Spring Fever bring for you? 

Lazy days climbing trees like the cheshire cat perhaps?

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & ugly

Credit given to Ashley Dellagiacoma

GOOD: This past week was a low key week. As usual I had no problem keeping myself busy, but I did have to be creative with what I did to fill my time on certain days. I enjoyed allowing myself time to network & prep for some work related things as well as catch up with a few good friends. Thursday Z & I took Michi to puppy care with CH & headed away for the day. Our big adventure was honestly simply because we had bought an Up North Live coupon & needed to use it before it expired. Check out Friday Favorites to learn about my highlight from that trip. The other silly fun part is we purchased a new vacuum (Shark Rocket). It works wonderfully & is very light weight & versatile. Friday afternoon in the mix of snow, ice, & rain I enjoyed lunch with my friend AVP at Indo China Gardens. The heat of spice was a good warm me up!

BAD: Winter weather is slowly fading away, but that means allergies & sickness are rampant. Yes, there has still been stuff in the JZ Parsonage. Also, there seems to be quite a few people in my life that are at or near the end of life. This reminds me to breath deep & enjoy the air around me.

UGLY: There's a lot that could go here, but it's all in the news.

WORD: Check out Anne Lamott on FB or elsewhere, she's poetic & real which I find refreshing.

coming up: The usual networking, work, cleaning, socializing, & drinking tea while the slushy icy snow stuff reveals the grass underneath.

Friday Favorites!

Happy Friday Favorites!

This week has been busy with a little of this & a little of that. And it's that time of the year where the weather is still playing Winter, but showing small signs of Spring in the future.

You may think "She's Crazy!" The snow & ice keep coming & that does NOT equal Spring. Well last year it did! It would snow about once a week clear into the second week of May in MN, but it would all be melted within a day or two.

My favorites this week are watching people have fun in the snow. AND clinging to the longer bits of daylight & hearing the birds chirp a little more often.

Here's our niece E in the most snow she's ever witnessed in her life. Seriously, I may be biased, but does it get much cuter than that?!

I hope that wherever you are at the end of this week & in whatever weather you're living, that you're enjoying a piece of it & finding a reason to smile.