What's My Question Wednesday

Over at Beverly's place, How Sweet the Sound, there is another What's My Question Wednesday.  The question for today is:

what is your favorite

Olympic event?

 My favorite by far has to be Men's hockey. It is one of the greatest sports on earth - no matter what others say. And I might be just a little prejudiced since I am married to an avid hockey player and my son was also a great hockey player. We have many miles and many cities in our repertoire of past events. We traveled far and wide for my son to play hockey. Those are some of my fondest memories. And hey, what's not to like about hockey.

Photo from NYDailyNews.com

Photo from tri-cityHerald.com

 

Happy Valentine's Day

We are celebrating love and Valentine's Day on this Pink Saturday. These are some beautiful roses from my dear husband. Beverly over at How Sweet the Sound asked us to have a Valentine theme this week.

 

 

And here is a Valentine I received today. I thought it was really neat.

"For God so loV ed the world,
        That He gA ve
              his onL y
                BegottE n
                    SoN
                   T hat whosoever
         Believeth I n Him
           Should N ot perish,
         But have E verlasting life."


                    John 3:16

And please remember to say a prayer for Beverly as she is having surgery today to have her gall bladder removed. 

And if you have time, go check out For the Love of Junk. It is a blog with wonderful pictures of all sorts of interesting things. I know you will enjoy it.

Cultivating What Gives You Joy

 This is a journaling prompt for today:

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. - Goethe

Cultivating what gives you joy
The easiest way to identify what our heart wants is to examine the feelings that surface when we relate to that subject. Do you find solace when picking up your journal to write a daily reflection? Does time spent with your family thrill you to tears? What feelings arise when you chase down the things that make your heart flutter? True happiness comes when we routinely engage in positive activities that we love. Take a look at your life as a whole. Pursue the things that make you feel alive and fill you with joy and healthy.

This is a very important aspect of life that we should all take the time to monitor, so that we spend quality time doing the things that inspire us and make us smile. Too much of life is made up of "have tos" and "should dos" and "can't dos". Then, at the end of another day, we are feeling like some of the most important things in life were left undone.

For me, spending time with my family is one of the things that brings me great joy. When we get to sit down around the dinner table and share about our lives, it brings just an unbelievable feeling. I am truly blessed right now to have all three of my children close enough that we still eat together several times a week. It is great hearing my two daughters laugh until they cry over some silly movie quote - or laugh at their Dad and his silly antics. Also, I love hearing about my son's day from teaching at his job. He is truly making a difference in those kids, even though he often doesn't feel like it. 

 

Ryan, Grandpa Leng, Ron, Kate, Me, Jess and Grandma Leng

Well, another thing that brings me joy is going into the studio for a few hours and making art or going down to the sewing machine and creating something useful. I love spending time thrift shopping or garage-saling looking for something to incorporate into my next creation. (Now if I could just find a way to neatly store all my "treasures". Ha!)

Spending time with my best girlfriends and talking over the problems of the day/week/year - and talking and crafting, and talking and cooking, and talking and lauging, talking and crying...... You get the idea. Closeness, understanding, trust, laughter,  shared life experiences, empathy - ahhhh - great times together. 

 

Diana, Brenda, Kate and Anastasia

And recently, I have been able to re-unite with some of my bestest old friends from long ago via Facebook.  Whoever invented that was a genius!

 

Mitzi, Me and Susan D.!

Listening to my son play his music! Now that brings me joy. But I don't get to do that nearly often enough! He is one talented guy! 

 

And I can't forget having fun playing in the snow, sailing and hanging out at Long Lake!

 

There are so many other things that bring me joy! I am one blessed woman! Well, for now, I think I'm gonna go and make some art! 


But think about it! What gives you joy? Make time to do whatever it is this week. You will be happier for it. And - No Guilt and No Regrets! 

Pink Saturday Lovelies

I am late getting my Pink Saturday post up today, but I am happy to share with you some of my favorite "pinks" this week. First is a beautiful necklace which was made for me by my dear husband. I am so fortunate to have such creative and talented people in my family that like to make things for me.

Next is my bargain of the week or maybe bargain of the year so far. I purchased a couple of scarves at the yellow dot clearance sale and the one just below rang up at $ 0.99! I was shocked. The sticker price was $40 and I thought I was getting it at a great deal for $10. But it turns out that for some odd reason that particular scarf had been marked down to $ 0.99!

 

Here is the set of scarves that I bought, along with a beautiful scarf given to me by one of my closest friends when she returned from China. It is the very light pink one. I am really into scarves lately. They can really brighten up your outfit - and even your day when you get one for only $0.99!

The rose candle was given to me by my dear friend and my pastor's wife as a thank-you gift for teaching. I have really enjoyed looking at it. It is too pretty to burn!

 

And last but now least is my little Cinderella slipper that stays on my piano. It was a gift for me from my piano teacher when I was a child. My mother kept in on our piano and when she passed away, it came home to stay here on my piano.  I believe she made it herself. 

I hope you had a chance to make it over to visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound and to have time to check out some of the wonderful Pink Saturday posts today.

 

Each week Beverly asks that we visit a new blag and highlight it on our blog. Well, today I would like to highlight Laura over at 52 Flea.  She has a wonderfully charming blog and you will truly enjoy it.  So if you get a chance, pop on over there and tell her I sent you. : )

 

52 Flea

We Are Going to Scotland!

I am finally going to get to fulfill my dream of going to Europe. My dear husband has been invited to speak at a conference in Edinbourgh, Scotland, in May and he is taking me with him! I am so excited. We had planned a trip to Europe last year for our 25th anniversary, but when the stock market and economy took such a downturn, we decided we had better stay home. Now that things are improving and he has been approved to go, we are going to go there to celebrate our 26th! We will be touring England, as well, while we are there. If any of my lovely readers has any recommendations of "must see" activities, or places to stay, please let me know. I am going to have fun planning our vacation. We will be there for two weeks.

Lovely Give-Aways on Diane's and Miss Sandy's Blogs

There is a lovely give-away for Valentine's Day At Diane Knott's Musings. 

You should truly go over and visit her blog; it is really wonderful. 

Another great give-away is over at Quill Cottage .

Miss Sandy has a lovely kit that she is giving away.

 

  

Walking in the House

Today I have a cold and don't feel well and it is cold outside, so I decided to walk around the house and up and down my stairs for 15 min. while I made my hot tea. It worked beautifully. If I do it once more today - for my afternoon tea, I will have gotten in my 30 min. aerobics goal today. Why did I never try this before? Definitely!!!

Link to my Spark People blog entry:
Walking in the House

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Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

Proverbs 4:23