The Project

Inspired by a friend and intrigued by principals set forth in books such as Ernest Holmes’ Creative Mind, Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life and Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project, I made the decision to adopt prominent themes from these texts (and others, as well as popular, contemporary logic regarding positivity, personal development and happiness)…

The Principles

Modeled after Gretchen Rubin’s personal comandments in The Happiness Project, I decided to create a list of overriding principles—things I wanted to work on and improve during the next year. The following principles (I call them my Sweet 16) consist of simple, ordinary actions I either forget, neglect, or choose to ignore completely. The rest…

Crushes

Even from a young age, it’s hard to control who you fall in love with. Cupid’s arrow can strike like a lightning bolt and when it does, you fall—sometimes head over leprechaun. When I was 4, this little fellow would have scared the bejeebers out of me, but not our daughter. Despite his oddly short…

Back in the Saddle

From quaint towns like Eureka Springs, Arkansas to the bustling tourism of Branson, Missouri, the Ozarks blend cultural history and modern amenities with beautiful vistas and an expansive lake system created by the United States Army Corps of Engineers when they began damming the White River back in 1911.Like water? Go boating on Lake Taneycomo,…

Addictions

Zuma. Have you played it? Introduced to our family at the 810 Zone, Zuma is one of the few booth-side, touch-screen games that can captivate us the kids for hours 😉 We’re not really gaming people, but Zuma is fun. And addictive. Consider yourself forewarned.Taken with my iPhone

All That Jazz

Isn’t that a great picture? It’s actually 1 in a series of 4 oil paintings we found hanging on a wall in a small cafe/bar in Liberty, Missouri (I’ll be sharing the other 3 shots in upcoming posts). This has been one of the BUSIEST weeks of the year, so I haven’t been very good…

The Unseen Power of Words

Right now, I’m suffering one insidious cold: one I firmly believe I (inadvertently) brought on myself thanks to my big proclamation earlier in the week, “Looks like I’m going to skate through winter with nary a sniffle!” I should have known better. This seems to be the status quo for me: I mention something off…

Life Speaks In Whispers

It seems the really important lessons in life, I’ve learned in whispers: quiet moments when realizations hit you more like a falling leaf rather than a ton of bricks. And if you’re still enough, tuned into the moment while relinquishing thoughts, preconceived notions or even control, you’ll hear these whispers just as they were intended: significant…

Disallowing Limitations: iPhoneography

It should be a commandment: Thou shalt not burden thyself with perceived limitations. There are all sorts of limitations we put upon ourselves, whether they’re intentional or not. From statements such as, “I’ll never be able to have the body I really want…” to “If there only were more hours in a day…” to “If…

Challenge: 30 Days of Photo Fun (Day 4, Clouds)

Confession: It took me a while to get an up-to-date photo of day 4’s assignment (clouds), because we haven’t had a cloud in the sky around here for weeks (which is nothing to complain about in June). But today we had  plenty of puffy clouds dotting the sky and fortunately I remembered day 4 of…